Incredibly bad Telkom service
We have just completed the 2021 local government elections and Telkom seems to have the same problem as a large number of our local governments, namely terrible service delivery and complete contempt for their customers.
Early in September 2021 I used Telkom's self-service portal to cancel the landline portion of my LTE service. On 5/9/2021 I received an e-mail telling me I would be getting a call from an agent. On 15/9/2021 I rep**** to this e-mail informing Telkom that I had not received that call and the same comment was sent on 19/10/2021. On 22/10/2021 my landline was indeed cancelled, unfortunately so was my LTE internet connection - leaving me completely disconnected from all internet services. I contacted someone on 10210 who promised they would have my connection restored. They didn't!
In the intervening week-and-a-half I have tried to have the service restored to no avail. I tried three numbers (10210, 10213 & 10217), as nobody seemed to know what to do and I was sent from pillar to post. I started to use the app facility to have an agent call me, after a number of dropped calls I had a lady call me who said she would send a "ticket" to the IT department to get the connection re-established and she would call me back the next day - They didn't, and she didn't! On 29/10/2021 I managed to get through to someone who seemed willing and able to help me and escalated the matter, even going so far as to give me his e-mail address. This was necessary as I needed to send him an e-mail on Sunday reminding him that I still wasn't connected. Another e-mail was sent on 1/11/2021, in which I requested further contact details for people who might be able to help me as he was obviously unable to do anything. He also advised me that I couldn't cancel my landline without cancelling my LTE package - something I could have discussed with the agent who was supposed to contact me! The call centre appears to be an impenetrable barrier to any further assistance. The customer is unable to escalate the matter themselves!
I am a pensioner with limited funds, so I am unable to purchase data for my cellphone when it has finished. My data for October ran out before the end of the month and my November data is rapidly being depleted. For logistical reasons I went for this option rather than a fibre connection, and other similar packages are too expensive. I am actually posting this and the next Telkom e-mail using free wifi at my local, friendly Wimpy (luckily I know the owners and management). I am also in the position of being unable to access my online banking except via my cellphone (more data used), so it will be painful to pay my bills, including Telkom.
In the case of the elections I was able to cast my vote to try to get rid of the useless local government, but in the case of Telkom I am between a rock and a hard place!