Double Billing, and Beyond Pathetic Service

<p>My telkom mixed deal had reached the end of its 24 month period a while ago, the deal where it included a Samsung S5 and a landline. In the final month of my contract, after visiting my local Telkom Store in Musgrave, Durban, I was assisted by a very knowledgeable consultant, Ryan, (whom I had dealt with before). He had informed me that telkom no longer offered the mixed deal, but in order to both satisfy my needs as well as not lose a customer, Ryan helped by adding a new device onto my existing plan. He said that at the end of the month, when my contract did come to an end, I will no longer be billed for the monthly device cost of the Samsung S5 but would rather be billed monthly for the new device added onto my package. I agreed and took on the new device.</p> <p> </p> <p>Considering that I am a public prosecutor who works an 8-5 job with after hours duties on most weekends, I had given authority to my brother to handle all telkom related queries as well as my contract, as is known by both the Manager Ivan Naidoo and the consultant, Ryan.</p> <p> </p> <p>My brother had called the branch and asked Ivan to email a copy of the latest bill to myself, upon which I saw my bill escalate rather highly. I asked my brother to go to the telkom store to find out what was going on with my bill. On the same day, 17th August 2016, my brother drove to the store a few minutes after I asked him to, at about 16:15pm. Once there, my brother then spoke to Ivan Naidoo and Ivan printed out a copy of the bill, and went through it with my brother. The bill stated that although the new device was added to my telkom account, I was still being billed for the old device even though the contract had come to an end. Ivan then took the first page of the printed copy of the bill and said that he would log a dispute to rectify this.</p> <p> </p> <p>My brother called him a week later, only for Ivan to tell him that he logged the dispute but was not sure about what was going on as there was a strike at telkom around the country. Patiently both I and my brother waited until I myself had called Ivan to find out what was going on. He then told me that he cannot find the dispute on the system as it seemed to have disappeared. He also told me that there are certain screens that they are not allowed to see and that it can only be seen by head office. He also assured me that he would sit down with the consultant who assisted me with adding on the new device to find out what was in fact going on, and that he would call me and let me know. I have sent Ivan various sms's and tried to call him but he has still no feedback for me as he did not reply to my sms's nor answer my call or even bother to return my call.</p> <p> </p> <p>This has now become a point of extreme anger to the point where my service has now been suspended due to the incompetance of the store manager, Ivan. The consultant Ryan, has been nothing but helpful and I commend him for his good service and help, however it was Ivan who was supposed to log the dispute, and had not done so.</p> <p> </p> <p>I am highly angry with the disgusting service from Telkom and now I am supposed to pay reconnection fees for suspending my service due to the store manager not assisting me? Reconnection fees are one thing, but do you plan on reimbursing me for my time, inconvenience, airtime, minutes, and petrol in trying to sort this out????</p> <p> </p> <p>Firstly, if the dispute was logged as it should have been, it would have been sorted out by now and the correct amount of my bill would have been sent to me for me to make payment, which I would have had no issue with.</p> <p> </p> <p>Secondly, I refuse to make any such payment on my account until the dispute is resolved. I called the telkom call center billing department today and the lady on the phone who assisted me, said that no dispute had been logged whatsoever.</p> <p> </p> <p>Thirdly, I do not ask, but I insist that the reconnection fees are waived by telkom, as this suspension of my account is due to your staff members and not by me not wanting to make payment.</p> <p> </p> <p>This has been a huge inconvenience to me and should this not be sorted at the earliest, I will have no choice but to get in touch with someone of the highest authority at telkom.</p> <p> </p> <p>This is not the first time that telkom has messed up with one of my contracts. Upon cancellation of an older data contract, I had asked that the number be migrated to prepaid, and it was not done, inconveniencing me yet again. Let alone the huge mess that was made by your Pavilion store manager just over 2 years ago upon the initiation of the mixed deal contract that wound up being a 28 month contract rather than a 24 month contract as they had to restart the contract in its 4th month.</p> <p> </p> <p>I am so fed up with the horrible service and it is clear that your managers at Telkom stores need more training and should not just rely on consultants to assist them.</p> <p> </p> <p>Kindly call me as soon as possible as I am not willing to pay the full amount expected of me until this dispute is resolved and my bill is recalculated, nor am I willing to pay for the reconnection fees. I require this dispute to be resolved before tomorrow afternoon as I am not willing to wait 48 hours for reconnection once I make the recalculated payment. It has been over a month since Ivan was supposed to have logged this dispute I am now beyond the point of being merely angry.</p> <p> </p> <p>As I am not always able to answer my phone during working hours, I have given authority to my brother to handle this for me, as he is aware of all the details. I had asked the call center agent who assisted me earlier on today (27/09/2016) to make a note of this on the system, as well. Kindly contact me on ********** or should you not be able to, kindly contact my brother on ********** .</p> <p> </p> <p>Thanks and Best Regards,</p> <p> </p> <p>- Mrs. A. C. Clive</p>