Really poor service from an Internet "Service" Provider

To say that I am disappointed in Telkom is to put how I feel mildly.

Let me start by saying that firstly I have half a mind to cancel my agreement with Telkom outright and with finality.

I previously had an uncapped 2mb ADSL line with Telkom for which I was paying an amount of roughly R580 p/m give or take for usage of the telephone. The service was always bad, connectivity was always sloppy and I could hardly use more than two devices at once on the line.

Based on these reasons as well as the fact that I could be saving a little bit of money I decided to switch over to another ISP who could offer me the same line for only R329. So I made the necessary provisions to have my line switched over to the new ISP and after much hassle of getting my line placed into the holding pool I was finally done and I was switched over.

It was at this point in time that I was informed by a telkom consultant that I would only be paying an amount of R199 p/m for my monthly line rental which I agreed to.

So to recap, I would be paying R199 to Telkom and R329 to my new ISP. This gives a total of only R528. This is a saving of only R52 p/m for myself.

Now is where it gets messy. Telkom then deducted the very next month an amount of R304.60 from my account. When I inquired as to what this was for I was then told that they never cancelled my TIN (data). I subsequently cancelled the TIN and loaded a dispute with telkom for the amount of R105.60 which should not have been debited from my account and requested a refund. This dispute (as well as the other) were logged on the 29th of November 2017. I was informed that it would take 10 days to be refunded and as yet I have yet to recieve a cent nor was it credited to my current month billing.

Over and above this, I also received a statement for the month of November amounting to R505,44.

This statement indicated an "Unnecessary Call Out Fee".

This is strange in that the month prior to that there was no internet connectivity due to an underground wire needing to be replaced. Had I not logged this fault with Telkom and had someone not come out to investigate how would they have known the wire needed replacing?

I then logged a dispute for this as well and even received an SMS on the 3rd of December stating that Credit has been arranged to the amount of R266.85 for the unnecessary call out fee.

Now, if my maths are correct, over the past two months Telkom has debited from my account an amount of R810.04 when in fact I was meant to only pay R199 p/m for two months which equates to R398.00.

This means that telkom have incorrectly debited an additional R412.04 from my account.

This is where you as a company need to think about the personal effects your actions can have on an individual. I intended to save a measly R52 p/m by moving to another ISP and yet I have incurred an additional cost of R412.04 due to Telkoms lack of professionalism, proper client services and general lack of interest in the need of their clients. It might not sound like a lot to a million rand company like Telkom, but to the individual it is the difference between being able to feed their child and not.

Being someone who works in the client services industry myself, I know how important it is to keep your clients happy. The happier your clients are, the more money you make. However, cause them distress and then you tend to lose money.

Please see below the reference numbers regarding the disputes that were logged:

REF: ********** 9 REF: ********** 4

I expect a refund of R412.04 to be arranged and feedback to be provided to me within the next 48 hours. If Telkom fails to do so I will be forced to reverse the funds debited from my account and to henceforth cancel any agreement between Telkom and I going forward.

Do the right thing Telkom