Once a proud Telkom Subscriber, But now an extremely dissatisfied Customer

<p> </p> <p>Good Day<br /> <br /> I really do hope this desperate call for assistance will be answered with a helpful response.</p> <p> </p> <p>I upgraded my Price-Plan 100 Cellphone contract on the 6th August 2016 at the Gateway Store after being extremely proud of the services I've received from Telkom for over 20 months with this specific contract. The entire process seemed to be very quick, seamless and straight forward. I moved from my Huawei P7-L10 cellphone to the Huawei Mate 8 phablet, a phone I’ve been dreaming to get for what seemed like eons. Little did I know that I would be walking into a fully fledged nightmare with the service I received from that point forward.</p> <p> <br />1. I lost the 1Gig Telkom data I received on a monthly basis with my Huawei P7 which now resulted in me having to pay extra money to ensure I stay connected like I was before signing up for another 24 months. Even after I confirmed with the consultant that everything remains the same, I just want to change devices, nothing else.</p> <p>After confirming that the device charge will be the only change to my account, but being informed that all my current data that I have will be lost as well as my monthly recurring data I normally received will also be no more seemed to have slipped the consultants mind when she had to do a SIM swap from a Micro SIM card to a NANO SIM card.</p> <p>I queried this a few times but to my dissatisfaction, nothing was done about this. Being locked in a 24 month contract, I just carried on without it to safe myself the stress I was incurring as well as the fact that I was being hospitalized from August to September, which also made perusing the issue further seem futile.</p> <p> </p> <p><br />2) Then in November I noticed that I paid a full subscription for the month of August, was then double charged in Septembers bill (charges was for both August and September, which I found odd but waited for in-case an auto billing correction is done, which never happened apparently) and then on the 1st October and November the expected amount was deducted form my bank account…</p> <p> <br />Unfortunately when they attempted to deduct the payment due for December, I admit I was under financial strain due to personal reasons, but expected the arrears amount to fall over to January, as I was under the impression I should have a credit, and the fall-over has happened before.</p> <p> </p> <p><br />Then on the 8th of December I received a message informing me I need to make a payment of approximately R1450 to prevent my services from being interrupted.</p> <p>I made attempts to query the deductions from my bank account, informing the consultant on the phone that I feel like I have been debited more than what I was supposed to pay.</p> <p>This was met with a very confused customer on the one phone and a call center rep on the other, tired of trying to explain that everything was in order.</p> <p>I even tried talking to someone using the Web Chat portal, who politely closed the interaction almost immediately after he gave me the response that the billing appears to be correct. I don’t even recall getting a response when I asked to be reconnected as I can only make a payment on the 15th, and for that I need cellphone banking, and in order to query this issue I have no other means.</p> <p>On the 15th December, the day I get paid, I battled to find a phone I could borrow to not only query this amount again and hopefully get a proper explanation, but also to try and make arrangement to activate my services so I can make the payment.</p> <p>Well this last phone call is what made me extremely dissatisfied with Telkom Customer Care and pushed me to writing this review.</p> <p> </p> <p><br />I told the gentleman on the phone that I would like him to look a the billing for the months August, September, October and November. I explained to him I looked at both my Telkom Statements and Bank statements, and noticed I paid for a full Subscription of August even though I upgraded on the 6th August, they didn't even try and charge me pro-rata, if anything, they credited me from the 6th till 31st August with the amount of R83.04 compared to the full R320 I paid. I asked about how I could be charged for a full month, even though I lost all my data I had on my phone, and that I didn't even have access to the services I received on the previous phone that was separate from the upgrade. But this consultant was insistent that he cannot comment on the upgrade process I received, and that this amount is out of my control and his. And practically gave me the impression if not indirectly telling me that he will no longer be discussing this payment which was allocated to the previous contracts subscription.</p> <p>And regarding the re-connection, I explained I have received my salary, and I'm prepared to make an EFT immediately. I just requested to have my services reactivated. I was practically interrupted if not spoken over saying that I cannot do this as my services are suspended that I can go and make a payment at ABSA bank, regardless of the fact that I was on the phone with him at 5pm.</p> <p> </p> <p><br />I have never in my wildest dreams expected to be treated with such unjustly service.</p> <p>Part of Customer Service is to try and accommodate a customer when they try and not only find out what exactly the problem is, but also to find a solution. Meet a person halfway if that makes any sense to someone reading this.</p> <p>After all I had to buy airtime and phone from an MTN phone instead of my sim card which belongs to the Telkom network. Why not leave access to the call center active? Such a huge inconvenience.</p> <p>With regards to talking to a customer to listen, looking at the customers account, considering the situation as well as whether there is a misunderstanding or in-fact a real problem, and then take the appropriate actions from there.</p> <p>As someone who works in the Customer Care Environment, I was not only extremely disappointed in the services I received, I actually consider my interaction with Telkom to have come to nothing, as the consultant couldn’t even think about taking this account, and overlooked it with the insight of his team leader or supervisor.</p> <p> </p> <p><br />Apart from the above stated disappointment, I would like to have the Payment for August to be investigated, and rectified. As I stated to the gentleman this afternoon, it is not only unjust, but incorrect business practice to charge someone for services they did not receive. And the evidence is on your system as I changed my sim to a new one, on the same day and same time as getting the new device. And it was just a matter of moving services from one SIM to another, not signing a new contract.</p> <p> </p> <p><br />I desperately expect to hear from someone soon as I truly have a sour taste in my mouth after remembering what I’ve experienced recently with your people.</p> <p> <br />Regards</p> <p>Ryno De Beer</p> <p> </p>