New Billing System - Incorrect Billing and poor Customer Service

Last month, Telkom sent the first invoice after the switch-over to a new billing system. Upon examination of the invoice, I found that the usual credit for the Discount Plan for Fibre 20Mbps no longer appeared on the invoice. This meant that the usual monthly credit of R138.60 ex VAT was missing from the invoice, thereby increasing the amount that I had to pay by more than R150.

I immediately called the 10210 number and the lady who took my call acknowledged that there was a problem and that the Discount credit should have appeared on the invoice. She said that I would have to call the 10213 number in order to get this corrected, since she was not in a position to do so. Believe it or not, Telkom is a telecommunications company so you would expect that it would be a simple matter of transferring me - no way, she said, I can't transfer you, you have to make another call to 10213!

Shaking my head in disbelief, I tried calling the 10213 number. Well, it's now almost a month later and despite numerous lengthy calls to this number at all times of the day, I have not yet managed to speak a consultant.

I have also tried adding a dispute on the MyTelkom site, but this dispute is still sitting in the "New" status as I write this.

Telkom, you need to do the following: 1. If you implement a new billing system, test it PROPERLY before you go live. 2. You need to vastly improve your Customer Service - keeping your customers on hold indefinitely and not responding to web queries is just not on.

I also trust that you will correct my account and put through the necessary credits now and in the future.