DEAR CUSTOMER - YOUR HAPPINESS IS NONE OF MY CONCERN, I SIMPLY DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS

<p>Almost 1 month ago we requested for Telkom to move our landline from one premises to another, which is less than 1 minute apart. Telkom created the request in its system, confirmed the date on which we have to be present, but refused to give an exact time. Ok, that’s Telkom, they are bullies, have no idea about customer service, and have no desire to make a customer’s experience any more pleasant that absolutely horrifying, and don’t care about any implications on my life whatsoever.</p> <p> </p> <p>We took leave on the day that Telkom told us to be available, eagerly anticipating the call from the technician, which surprisingly did not come. Upon calling Telkom for an explanation, and as always being kept on the phone for an extended period of time, only to find out that the order was never actually released and that it will take at least 30 working days from the date for that to take place. Very politely we attempt to negotiate with the person on the other side of the phone, and the only thing this person is able to do is to escalate it. From my experience so far, this simply means to pass the buck from one apathetic Telkom employee to another apathetic Telkom employee.</p> <p> </p> <p>A week later and still no feedback from Telkom, only to receive the exact same response – “I’ll escalate it for you” when I called in, but this time followed by an empty promise – “you will receive a phone call no later than 3/06/2017 with a solution”. Now, at this point I didn’t care much for names, but unfortunately, I actually became hopeful that Telkom will maybe sort this problem out. I was very naive to think this way.</p> <p> </p> <p>On Monday (05/06/2017) morning, I called Telkom yet again, this time speaking to Delon Fortuin, requesting an explanation on the issue. Delon advises me that there is an error with my request, and this error is resulting in the request being “stuck” in the system and no one can do anything with it. This is why the “order was never released” and this is why I spent a day’s leave waiting for Telkom. I asked Delon who is manager is, as Delon is clearly not in a decision-making position, and I wanted someone to take action on the matter. Delon proceeds to put me on hold for an extended period of time, yet again, and finally returning with “I have spoken to my manager”, who he earlier identified as Thando Mikwele, “and we will personally ensure that this issue is resolved today, and I will personally give you a call before the end of the day with an update”. Wow I think, if only all Telkom employees were like Delon, this whole process will be a lot easier to deal with. I thank delon, and proceed to spending the rest if the day waiting for his call. At 16:30 on the same day, I call Telkom and ask to speak with Delon. The person feeds back to me that Delon said he will call me before he leaves the office with an update. The next day comes and still no call from Telkom… unfortunately.</p> <p> </p> <p>I proceed to call Delon again, refusing to speak with me, refusing to deliver on his and Thando Mikwele’s promises to resolve my very painful experience, but he does yet again promise to call me back, which unfortunately never happened. The interesting thing is at this point that the last person I spoke to, also does not seem to be able to see whats going on the system – “this line has been deleted”, “oh wait, there it is”, struggling to make sense of it all.</p> <p> </p> <p>I call Telkome again on 06/06/2017, first thing in the morning, requesting the same, Delon’s response being that he will call me during the course of the day. Delon still hasn’t called me. I am simply being blocked from any form of assistance. When I called Telkom again, the person who speaks to me has no idea whats going on the system – “the line doesn’t exist anymore, it’s been cancelled”, “oh wait, there is something”.</p> <p> </p> <p>In a nutshell – Telkom clearly does not care at all about any form of service delivery, good or bad, hence does not deliver any form of service at all. This may be due to the fact that the company is so big and that the vast quantities of customers it has make it know that it doesn’t really care about the guy with the R1000 per month phone bill. Your day will come to an end Telkom, fiber will sort this problem out very quickly.</p>