Exceedingly bad service from Telkom

I took up a cellphone contract in 2019 with Telkom - the contract premium was R599.00 per month, however it was an open line which I was not aware of when initially taking up the contract, only realized after a month or two into the contract that they are charging me way more than the R599.00. I then made contact with them a numerous times and requested them to cap the premium to R599.00 and make it a top-up line cause that is what I agreed on and what I could afford at the time, and they advised me that it was not possible.

Last year with the epidemic and the lock-down we experienced salary cuts at my workplace and I evaluated my debts and decided to try and close some of them, and the Telkom cellphone contract was one of the debts I decided to settle, using my savings.

I called them regarding a cancellation and was quoted an amount of R5988.00 as settlement of the contract, however I was advised that I needed to submit a cancellation request online, which I subsequently did. I then received a call from a consultant from Telkom by the name of Precious subsequent to submitting to the cancellation request I submitted online, and she gave the below options – I opted for the highlighted option as I could not afford to pay the extra R807.00((early termination fee), which I was not advised when I originally given the quotation for the cancellation.

The options offered to me was to leave the contract on FreeMe 1GB TopUp Deal whereby I would will pay R599 per month or Settle the device at a cost of R5 988.00 and leave the sim card on a FreeMe 1GB TopUp Deal

Below are the banking details Absa Bank : *** • Branch Code : 632005 • Reference Number: ***. If you cancel everything they will be a fee of R807 for an early Termination + the device fee of R5988

I went and paid the R5988.00(this was in May last year), and to-date the cancellation/amendment of the contract has not been processed – Instead they used the amount I paid as if I paid in advance and they now want to charge me another cancellation fee, and claim that my account is in arrears. This is after I called them a couple of times and sent them a few e-mail requesting them to give me an update and to ensure that the cancellation/amendment is processed. So I obviously need legal assistance with regards to this as I am not getting any joy from Telkom.