No Internet Service for a Month

My wife and I raised an fault report with Telkom for our ADSL line Internet down. It was the 5th time from December 2016 that we experienced issues with our Internet line. However the last fault reported happened from 15 August 2017 and till to date, it is not resolved. For a month now we had no Internet access. I have received the Telkom Invoice a few days for the full amount that need to paid for September 2017. When I queried and raised this with Telkom billing , they indicated to me I have to pay the full amount by month end and when the issue has been resolved Telkom will credit my account. That means I need to pay for a service that I am not receiving and only when the fault has been resolved Telkom will provide the Credit... Do I miss something here?... It is like providing a person a phone, take it away from the person and force the person to pay for the phone while the person is not allowed to use it. Firstly - from a Service point of view, why are we paying for a service that we don't receive. Secondly - from a technical point of view, if Telkom cannot fix the line issues, why don't they just offer an alternative solution or terminate the contract. Now Telkom keep us as their customers in mid-air and not delivering on the agreed service that I have signed a contract with . So Telkom breaching contract for not delivering on the agreed service.