Horrible Customer Service from Telkom

To whom It may concern

The reason for my complaint is due to me not being happy regarding the whole scenario of how my cancellation of my contract has been dealt with and how ineffective and unhelpful the staff has been in this entire process, how much effort I had to put in and the issue has still not been resolved.

The whole incident has started after I have received numerous calls from Telkom which I currently has three contracts with and one of them was due for renewal/contract was expiring. I then decided that I was going to go into the store as I don’t like doing this stuff over the phone and would prefer speaking to someone in person. Went to Somerset Mall TELKOM 24 May 2020 around 11am got to the store and all is aware due to Covid 19 you have to wait outside and that took about 38 minutes to get into the store which is completely understandable I which I cannot even remember her name as she did not introduce herself. Then told her and I quote these were my direct words “I would like to cancel my contract as It is due for renewal and I do not wish to upgrade or renew the contract” She then told me it is fine she will submit the cancellation and it takes 30 days and it will only be cancelled at the end of June 2020 and then asked her again so this means I will still be charged at the end of June to which she has rep**** YES I will be charged then there as a mix up. We were going back and forth and then got to a consensus to which she said she has submitted the cancellation and she won’t be able to send me anything in writing as per my request and then left the store very unease and uncertain.

Then went home thinking about this the entire time, called the Call Centre which is a mission on its own and eventually got through to someone and asked her if there has been a cancellation submitted for myself to which she has responded and told me sorry Mr. Jeftha according to the records the contract has been terminated and there is a cancellation Fee of R800 told her No sorry you must be mistaken why is there a cancellation fee and she told me because you have terminated your contract and I told her well that is not true and she told me no Mr. Jeftha its on our system you have requested that. Then everything made sense when I got home the wireless router was not working and could not connect to the internet and the light was Red because they have terminated the contract effective immediately. As then advised by the agent told me to go back the following day and get it fixed by the store they will have to re submit a new order and cancel the termination. All made sense to me why it why I was so uncertain in the first place because the same company TELKOM but you are getting conflicting information.

Then waited for the 25 May 2020 @ 9am went back to the TELKOM store at Somerset West Mall spoke to another Operative as the lady of the previous day was not in. Spoke to Nandi and had to explain to her what happened she told me they cannot reverse it as it has been cancelled and that sim card won’t work and asked her what about the remaining Data and she said they will put data on a prepaid Sim with 5Gig on it then told me there will be no. this whole process took me about 2 hours to get to that point leaving out the nitty gritty. (remember I still have to go work) asked her about the cancelation fee and she then told me no sir there is no cancellation fee and asked her if I can have that in writing and she said No I can’t don’t know why you can’t have anything in black and white as confirmation which is always needed with TELKOM. Then after the lady re assured me and told me there is no fee I have to pay I must just take the data and everything is sorted asked to speak to manager and she ignored my question. The manager I could see but clearly he heard me speaking loud and asking for him but he blatantly ignored me.

Got home called the call Centre again was on the phone with them for two hours and they either transfer you to the incorrect team or the line gets cuts till I eventually got through to a lady called Pholoso and she told me what is going on that they have terminated the contract as I was advised the previous day and there is an exit fee of R800 and there was still time the reason is that there is still time left for the contract to be finish asked her for confirmation of what we have spoken about and she sent me an email to confirm that they was supposed to do a cancellation Request and they did not then told me to go back to the store and tell them to fix it because I am going to be charged the exit fee.

Then went back to the store after already being there the morning of the 25 May 2020 and then bear in mind I had to take a day’s leave as I did not know this was going to take a whole day got back to the store the manager was outside and obviously he must know my face by now asked him if he could help and told him what happened in short, sarcastically He answered and said what must he do and then told him I was her this morning as I am aware Covid 19 is here asked him if I can then speak to the lady of this morning he told me bluntly no go stand in the line and wait your chance. Then went back into the line and waited my chance and it was about 4:45pm already and they closing at 5pm and then got in and spoke to the lady named Nandi and then told her what I have been informed and she then went at me and told me why did you call the call Centre I told you not to do that and why did I just not take the information she gave me also she told me she will ask the lady who helped me at first to email me back because she don’t know what the lady did. But she told me what has happened and there is no cancellation fee and banged her hands on the desk barely gave me a chance to speak. We then spoke and she then told me I must just listen to her and they are closing soon and the manager came to stand there and just said is everything fine to which she said no it is but clearly it was not as we did not get to a resolution and she told me to wait the lady who helped me will call me back and send me an email to say there was no Exit fee. Left the store unhappy once again and uncertain and not sure what is going on and still the issue has still not been resolved I am unhappy and definitely taking it further it has taken my time, petrol a full day’s salary.

Know this is a very long read hope someone will take time out to read it and if I don’t get a response will be escalated as far as it needs to go.

Yours Most unsatisfied customer. Malik Jeftha.