Never ever Telkom again. Please take the time to read this

Never ever Telkom again

I don't even know where to begin since there will not be enough space or time to write down this experience with Telkom.

Before i start with the review i would like to tell you what type of business we have to understand the type of impact this has on our income. My husband is a sales consultant and uses his phone to liaise with customers and well as closing deals on a daily basis. I have my own business where i constantly have to phone clients and sort out queries on their behalf. Meaning that our lines is our communication and income. Telkom is very much aware of this as we constantly communicate this matter to them.

We started out with Telkom almost two years ago and with two contract for both me and my husband. Set by a debit order to go of on a specific date on a monthly basis. After about 8 month we changes my contract to a different contract with Telkom which is cost effective and my husband was advised by a Telkom employee that there will be no additional cost to the contract if we change the contract. We were also not advised that this contract we are changing will now start again with another two years period. Shortly after this our lines was disconnected due to "unpaid fees" and an extreme high bill which we do not know why as we have set contracts with Telkom. After interrupting our lines we have no access to even contact the Telkom service line (which should be an open line to all customers free of charge) and had to use a different devise to get in contact with Telkom.

Now one would think to get a Telkom pre paid number is a good idea since it still gives us the opportunity to get in contact with Telkom on the customer care without paying to contact a service provider, but we where denied of a prepaid number due to unpaid amounts on our bill. Causing us to get a vodacom pre-paid number to contact Telkom which we pay for to sort out a problem which is really not our fault taking the evidence into consideration. This is out first encounter of many problems with Telkom.

First experience: When we finally got a hold of a manger "always in some kind of meeting and they will get back to you which they never do" promised to help us and sort out our problem so that we do not experience this type of service again. (said after 2 weeks of no lines and constant contact and escalation).

We were told after two weeks that the outstanding amount should be settled in full before our lines will be reinstated. After a breakdown we were told that the R6000 is a device fee for cancelling the contract and starting a new contract. This was new to us since they did not advise what the device amount will now have to be settled after we asked if the contract will just continue with the amount. After a lot of fighting and going to the store where the query was first handled they told us that sorry we only deal with new contract and not problems on the existing contract. Please contact the call center. After explaining that a consultant in store consulted us to change the contract and there is no recording to proove our side they told us that its in the fine print of the contract and we signed for this and therefore does not matter what was said by the consultant.

Once again the only thing to do was to pay the outstanding for the devise fee before the lines can be reconnected. After we paid the full amount it took them almost 9 days to reconnect the lines again. Thinking this was now a lesson learned and we can now move on with out any further problems we continued with our contract. Now i think one would agree that something like this is a loss in court due to us signing the fine print and there is no recorded voice note to confirm what the consultant said.

Estimate time 3 months later Second time: We received another account for amount that Telkom claimed(keep in mind this is still a prepaid contract meaning to pay a fixed amount every month for a certain amount of minutes and data. Once it finished we can inquire to add more data and minutes as needed. This is then added additional to your monthly contract payable at the end of the month. Meaning Telkom stipulates on account which data is purchased and debit order is deducted according to the set account for that month. After receiving an huge account again which we queried for 3 months even after making payment and escalation from side with constant contact i eventually spoke to a consultant who told me that they can pick up a different account we are paying for ( the first account which was cancelled with the two lines we now have. Meaning i am paying my contract fee for the first contract which was cancelled and then my fees for the second contract and my husband) I told her that i was suspecting this and asked what they are going to do with the amounts that i have now paid for the first contract. She told me that she will log a query where they will move the amounts that i have paid for the first contract to the second contract and this line will now be in advance. After no reflection if this on the account and no feedback from the consultant and follow up with this consultant on email, i contacted Telkom again. Guess what they said. We cannot see any movement or escalation of this matter and there was never any amounts charged for the closed contract. This is not true since the previous consultant confirmed a amount of R1800 on that contract which was incorrect due to the contract been cancelled.

I felt like crying at this stage and just left it right there and continue paying our monthly account even though we do not agree with the amounts billed but want to avoid the embarrassment of suspended lines and clients not been able to get a hold of us. Not even talking about the amount of business we have lost due to this loss of interest to assist any matter.

Between me and my husband we have engaged for ours with Telkom to try and sort out billed amounts and unpaid account which was paid and many proof of payment which has never been escalated and not even noted on system for the next consultant to assist.

Constantly after receiving payment they disconnected our lines and again and told us that they have not received payments, This instance recurred almost every three months. Then we will send Telkom the proof of payment and two weeks of they month they will use to escalate and reconnect the lines. This is after getting in contact with them three to four times a day from a different advise. Every time they take 14 days to reconnect the lines even the payment was made and escalated. Take note that the time they disconnected the lines we still billed for the time the lines is disconnected and they had no reason to suspend the lines.

Meaning every three months we use a different devise with additional expenses to contact Telkom, holding on for hours, sometimes 2 hour conversations of back and forth.

Now after two years of struggling constantly this accours again: Two weeks ago they disconnected my line and kept my husband lines active, an hour after my line has been disconnected again we phoned Telkom and logged a query since the lines was paid to date and send them all the proof of payments as they requested. 4 different email address and 4 different consultants in one day all promised to attent to the matter and promised that it will take 3 days to solve the query. (This is a long time since we are loosing business but due to their turn around time we have to now sit and wait again ) This is now twee weeks later with constant contact and emails send to them regarding my line. This morning my husband wakes up and guess what his line is disconnected as well. Our debit order date is set for the 1st of every month and still no debit order was taken with the amount available for the transaction to be successful. Still no debit order taken even we have asked them last week with my query. We phoned them and asked them why the account is not debited yet and their response is they will still debit the account. Wow

This morning as mentioned my husband account is also blocked now and when my husband phoned in from a different devise again he was told that my case has not been logged (two weeks already with 4 emails per day) and therefore his account is also suspended since we owe them R8000? We truly do not know where they get these amount from since we are in prepaid contract as explained earlier. When we ask for a breakdown of how they get the cost, its another escalation to a different department and this department is not available to speak to directly. After two week of my line been suspended and contacting them constantly, no query has been logged and furthermore my husband line is also suspended now.

Telkom has never done any effort to make this experience with them effortless, they have never apologized for the inconvenience and they have never engaged in such a matter to escalate and give feedback as soon as possible. They claim to have a turn around time of 72hours and when we asked them so why we have to wait two weeks we were told that the queries was never logged. Now get this every time for two years has this occurred.

Thinking about legal actions, extra cost, is it worth it?

Please do yourself a favor and never apply for any contract with Telkom, it is not worth the time and effort and additional cost we have spend to keep our part of the contract running. I sincerely hope when you read this complaint that you will rather pay more with a different provider then savings cost and have all this behind the scene cost since Telkom does nothing from their side to assist.

I have only shared a small part of what we have experienced and truly want to save you the effort of what we have experienced. No amount of calls or apology letters from Telkom can explain the torment we have gone through with this company and hope you do not experience the same ever with Telkom.

Let say if there was a problem, its is never solved, never escalated and takes two week with every disconnection and lets forget the extra cost involved to try and solve the matter on our cost.

In my experience Vodacom stays the best.

Regards