*********** telkom extremely bad service

During July 2020 I visited the Telkom store in Somerset mall to upgrade the contract that I have for my wife, I was informed by the consultant that my daughters contract was also due for upgrade and I also upgraded same. My daughter was not happy with the handset and I returned the unopened handset to the store and exchanged that contract for a different one, same was thankfully at the time allowed by the store manager and the handset was booked into the stock register of the store.

I received my bill on 01 August and a fee of R5699.00 as well as subscription for the device was levied against my account. The charges on the number *** on page 3 of the statement being the tax invoice could not even be explained. I went back to the store where they promised to escalate the matter and sort out the error. On 16/08/2020 the amount of R8029.84 was deducted from my account which includes the amount of R5699.00 as well as all the extra fees charged which until today no one could explain to me. Proof of invoice is attached herewith. I went back to the store and again the matter was escalated again,with no joy.

When I received my September invoice the matter was still not sorted despite smsses that I received from Telkom stating that my matter has been resolved. I again returned to the store and also contacted the customer care numerous times to have the issue sorted with absolutely no joy. I received another sms from Telkom that they will credit my bank account within 7 days for the amount of R5000.00- until this day this has not materialised. Again I went back to the shop to enquire that if they would refund my monies, why only refund R5000.00 when they deducted R5699.00. This also was escalated although it could not be answered and I either way received no monies from Telkom.

The next thing that happened is that Telkom credited my Telkom account being *** with the amount of R300.00 and reversed the very same credit the very same day and billed me R300.00 for their trouble. On 09/10/2020 I received an sms from Telkom that my account is now in arrears with the very same R300.00 which they credited and reversed. Again I contacted customer care as well as went back to the shop. I then received a sms that my account has been blocked due to non-payment and all my accounts has since been blocked. I again reverted back to the shop and customer care- again no joy.

I received a call back from someone working at accounts now tasking me with going to the store and getting the proof that the returned handset has been booked back into their stock. I told her that the admin of Telkom was not my concern and that I have an obligation to pay Telkom and that they must render the service that I pay for. My point was and still is that I am not employed by Telkom and do not understand why I should do their admin. I was told that the proof of transfer is not on the system so it’s either I collect the prove or do not get refunded and that I must forget about the R699.00 as should I get refunded it will only be R5000.00 as to why she could not explain, apparently the system decides that . I had no words to that response. I asked her email address and she wanted to know why, I rep**** that I have to email het the proof. She gave me the following email address: ***, which I found to be non-existent when I tried to email her the proof. Arriving at the store I found that all the proof that she requested was attached to my case on their system and they had no reason for putting me through this ordeal. When I threaten to end my contracts with them I was told about all the fees and penalties that I would have to pay resulting out of breach of contract, the same contracts they are in breach of for not providing the services that I so diligently pay for, and now even have the fear of being listed as n poor payer all because of Telkom’s incompetence.

It is my submission that it is unfair that a service provider can get away with not only withholding monies not due and owed to them but also withholding a service that I am paying them for. I had no choice to pay the amount of R1359.00 out of desperation to get my services re connected same that would only be due end Oct as well as the claimed R300.00 arrears that is not due to them. Until this moment I am yet to be connected and yet to receive my monies