No service. And then no customer service.

I have been without full cellphone service since 15 February 2018. I contacted Telkom Mobile on 21 February and was informed that there had indeed been a service issue in the area 15-16 February but it was resolved. However, they were still receiving calls from clients in the area struggling to get service. The consultant was helpful and we tried numerous times and ways to reset the sim card but had no luck. She issued me with case number ********** 4.

I called Telkom back on 23 February and again chatted to a helpful consultant, who said she would escalate the matter and also load that I am located more than 150kms from the nearest Telkom store, in the event that I would need to do a SIM swop. She told me someone would contact me within 24 hours.

No-one did.

I followed up with Telkom on 26 February. The consultant I spoke to said that my case had been systematically closed! So in other words closed without being resolved! She made me go through the same process as the first consultant and again, it did not work.

She then gave me a new case number, ********** 6, and advised me it would take 72 hours for someone to get back to me and I would probably need to travel the over 300km round trip to do a SIM swop but would try to load it as a request to see if it could be done over the telephone. That's a four hour trip, not to mention standing in queues at Telkom and the cost of fuel!

It also means that by the time the 72 hours are up, I would have been without cellphone reception for 3 weeks.

Telkom, is there no way this could be resolved more speedily and without having to incur the cost and time of travel?