Demand for payment for no service rendered

I wrote a report on Hello Peter previous and still to get a response.

Good day Mr. Sipho Maseko,

I apologise for emailing you directly, however I have an ongoing issue with Telkom for a month and no one is interested in assisting us resolve the matter.

My mum was requested to upgrade her landline from the old copper wire system to the new SIM phones. A technician came and provided us with the new phone and immediately disconnected the old service. Is this even a well thought out process, why would you disconnect the service before ensuring that the new phone is fully active? He did advise us that the service would take 48 hours to be activated, which we accepted and waited patiently.

After waiting a further 72 hours, we then drove to the RoseBank branch to seek assistance. We were further advised that this activation would take another 7 days, surely there is training required within your organization to ensure all employees are on the same page when it comes to giving feedback to customers. We requested the branch consultant to escalate the complaint as it had already been a week, however we were told that this was not possible, and we should just call the contact centre. On the line with the contact centre we held for almost 20 minutes before being transferred and told we contacted the wrong number. Out of frustration we queried the bill as it was the beginning of the new month and the monthly subscription was due, I advised that I am not going to pay the full subscription as we had no service since the 14th of March, we were advised that we need to call billing and still had to settle the full amount. Please note that my mum lives on a government pension and this is *****ing.

Finally, two weeks later the SIM is now activated, but there is no service and despite the following call references ********** 9, ********** , ********** 4, ********** , ********** 4 and ********** provided for calls to report the fault, we were promised 24-48 hours turnaround time to resolve the issue however, nothing has been done. Please advise if you still expect monthly payment for the inconveniences, non-service and incompetence staff. I have logged a complaint on Hello Peter on the 3rd of April and escalated the matter to an email address provided to me by the RoseBank branch (see attached). I have not yet been contacted by your social media team to acknowledge my complaint.

The issue at hand is that after the SIM activation we are unable to make or receive calls with an error stating that we are “out of the zone”. We have been advised that the phone is zoned to my mum’s previous address, which is in Estcourt KZN, she has relocated to Johannesburg 4 years ago. Please explain why an 011 number would be zoned to KZN.

I spent hours on the phone with your call centre and everyone whom verifies me, either transfers me or cuts the call. I spoke to Bongani on Saturday the 6th of March who was unable to trace any information on the above references, which begs me question if any of our calls are being recorded. When enquiring about references I logged, I was provided with other clients’ complaint feedback. I had requested to speak to his team leader, after being placed on hold for 20 minutes I was advised that Nomvusa will call me back shortly, I am still waiting for this call.

I humbly ask that you please investigate this matter, resolve the zoning and billing issue before COB tomorrow and provide me with regular updates. I am expecting a call from yourself and no one else with regards to this issue as I have lost all hope with anyone else working in your organization. I am currently researching the number of people in my area together with family members to enquire how many have been asked to pay for services that have not been rendered. I intend taking this matter up with Carte Blanche and 702 as I strongly believe that Telkom has no right to threaten and demand payment for no service. This entire service failure is based on Senior management poor planning and Telkom is profiting.