How to (not) deal problems

Below is the email I sent to the debt collection agency after receiving a sms from Telkom stating they had handed me over for debt collection. Only good thing I can say about Telkom is that from the customer service base they have shown me to have, they can only improve or close down!

Good morning, I have just received an sms 6 minutes ago, stating that I have been handed over to yourselves for non-payment of my Telkom account!.

Please note this has been done without: contacting me, providing a statement, communicating in any form or resolution of 3 logged service and billing complaints and over 16 hours of holding on for a consultant.

Please could you escalate to your Telkom contact for resolution in this matter and/or contact me to discuss soonest as I will NOT be paying Telkom any monies until I receive the service that I authorised and expect and the account discrepancies are resolved.

Background 23rd March I received a call from Telkom sales and after some debate, agreed to accept an upgrade from the 4 GB ADSL landline I had, to a 20GB fibre line, note I have not had or made a telephone call on the landline for the previous 20+ months due to that was kept as part of the ADSL requirements, not functioning for calls and the common use of cell phones within the family! Telephonic discussion with the Telkom agent was that the upgrade and required changes would be planned and managed by Telkom. Initially all went swimmingly – sms from Telkom with plan, sms and mail from Vumatel for the fibre installation, email with Telkom equipment delivery courier details, sms for delivery and then delivery was actioned. All above were completed by 3rd April, THEN the fun began.

APRIL - No connectivity 3rd , 8th, ,15th ,18th ,20th ,21st ,23rd Phone Telkom support from my cell phone 17 times – average of 40 minutes waiting prior to calls being answered Excuses provided are Vumatel problems, they will log a call to Vumatel for correction and revert to me when corrected. A further 39 minute call on the 23rd, waiting for someone at Telkom to pick up the call, I request to speak to the same person, not able as this call has been picked up by the call centre in PE. I start explaining the situation and express an opinion of Telkom’s lack of service so the lady cuts me off!!I Also phoned Vumatel (who answer in 5 minutes), who test the line for me and find no fault, and I must please phone Telkom as it is a service provider issue. May – No connectivity and some(150MB speed or in context, 0,0075% of rated service) connectivity. Phone Telkom support from my cell phone 9 times – average of 42 minutes waiting, the call is answered, finally the person evidently checks and after 32 minutes talking to her and waiting for her actions, I am told there is an account setup issue, they will advise the right department, log a complaint and someone will revert to me. The second last call, a further 39 minutes waiting for someone to pick up the call, I request to speak to the same person, not able as this call has been picked up by the call centre in PE. I start explaining the situation and express an opinion of Telkom’s lack of service so the lady cuts me off!! I also pick up a Telkom sales agent alongside the road and he comes to take a look… unsuccessfully, BUT tells me to go to the Telkom shop where the service chap resolves the set up and account and sends me home. A final call to reset the account password and during the last call for May, the lady actually manages to do something and I for the first time in this debacle see the 20MB speed I requested. June – the above happiness lasts for 3 weeks and end June, again: no(slow) service, again phone in, again wait, again service problem logged, again no feedback. But a change! I now go into the Telkom shop on the Saturday morning to express my dissatisfaction at the total shambles that is Telkom and stand in a line for 35 minutes to be served! She explains the account arrears, I explain the situation, she checks on the system and concurs with me, and logs a complaint, reassuring me that “someone” will phone me by the latest LAST WEEK WEDNESDAY and correct the account, leading us to this morning’s sms and your involvement!

I have as of now, given up on Telkom apathy and shocking service.

I have contacted a different service provider for my needs and the above details will be loaded onto bluepeter.

If Telkom would like to resolve the issues, please have them phone or contact me on any of the below contact detail. If they would like to sue me for non-payment of non-services, slandering their reputation or any other ideal they have, please be my guest and share this detail with whomever you are dealing with, because I have not managed to find a way to actually getting a response from Telkom or in fact talk to anybody in the organisation who can actually do something!

As the above “sad” story details, every time I have phoned in, the call centre operators all “log” a complaint BUT nobody reverts with an answer. Also who do I claim/get a refund of the subscriptions charges for non-service provisions from the beginning as well as the R900+ in call charges on my cell phones and indeed, my time spent in trying to speak to someone at Telkom?