Complaint: Account no: ***

Item: Telkom
Rating: 1

To whom this may concern I trust that you find the following as concerning and appalling as I have due to the service I received. On the 21 April 2017 I received an sms notification regarding the overdue payment. This basically stated to kindly make a payment within 48hours to prevent interruption of service and to please call the call centre. On 26 April I called Telkom Customer Services to inform them regarding my financial predicament and to make an arrangement. I requested for a double debit for end April payment in order to balance the overdue amount. I was informed about my services that will be barred and until full payment is made then my network services will be available to use again. I received the exact same sms notification again on the 30 April 2017. This time I understood that this is just standard notification automatically done by your systems. When I received my invoice for May on 03 May 2017 and I was SHOCKED. My monthly payments are usually between R299.00 or at most R360.00 if I add the usual additional data bundle. This month my invoice is a R930.00!! Previous month balance is R330.00 and the month of May is R299.00. That should be about R629.00. I thought perhaps this was just a billing error and I decided to call your call centre again on 1st May, to query this but could not even get through the lines as I was holding on for 15 minutes long, finally I got through on the 4th May and request the removal of that additional charge as it does not state on my invoice where the additional charges came from. I spoke to Hlengiwe Khamalo at 13h42 and explained this issue. Who then told me that she will get her supervisor due to me being upset for this invoice and then dropped the call on me. At this point I was fuming as all I wanted was for this additional R300 to be corrected. I called again and spoke to Diya at 00h36 who then told me im liable for the charges as this is the penalty fee for the late payment. This is where I was beyond livid. As where in your terms and conditions is there anything stating about a penalty fee? I requested to speak to a supervisor -Charmain Ma***o then assisted. Nice lady but could not explain the reason for a penalty fee that, firstly was never in any notification I received; Secondly, I double checked- no where in your terms and conditions does it state/ any indication whatsoever, that you will charge a penalty fee for a late payment! Seems like your staff cannot say anything but me having to pay this amount as its a late payment. The worst of this entire issue is that I had the courtesy of calling up and notifying regarding my one time payment issue. I have been a very loyal customer for over 4 years and I am a good payer. And the thank you for loyalty I get is a R300.00 penalty fee that no one can give me solid proof where agreed to pay a penalty for a late payment. In conclusion, I suggest you have a real good look at your T's & C's and please teach your staff empathy as clearly they never once acknowledged or understood that this was something out of my control. The call centre had numerous opportunities to indicate a late payment penalty and failed to do so. Being charged R300.00 is the most ridiculous thing I've ever come across. I am NOT going pay a penalty fee if I was not made aware or even agreed to. Please fix this. Mr N Werth

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