RIDICULOUS BRANCH SERVICE

I have been a client with Telkom for many years and recently had a really poor experience that no one I have spoken to has been able to resolve.

I had a mobile contract that was up for renewal. The contract had expired in April 2024. I then went to Blueroute Cape Town Telkom branch on 5 May 2024 to renew my contract.

A consultant by the name of ***x assisted me with my renewal. He said that the system was slow and he kept trying different methods to get it working. I ended up waiting in the branch for possibly a hour before he said that he was going to do a workaround to ensure that I can have my new phone on that day.

At the time, I had not cared about all the technical details as I've done renewals many times with Telkom before.

What he essentially did was take a brand new contract out and intended to cancel my expired contract. Apparently the system was only problematic for renewals. He assured me that I would not be impacted by this, so we proceeded and I left with the phone.

Note, I was not persistent that I needed the contract that day. If I had known that there were problems, I would've came another day. He however assured me that he would get it to work.

On 8 May 2024 we spoke telephonically and he explained that my number would have to be switched off for a day or 2. This was needed to be done so that they could port my original number to the new contract that was taken out - I had not previously been made aware that my phone would be out of use for a few days. I said it's fine and then my original number got deactivated and a new number got given to me.

On 11 May 2024, I called Blueroute branch to find out what was currently occurring as my number is still inactive. I spoke to ***x, who confirmed that Isgak was off for the weekend and he couldn't assist. I explained that this wasn't acceptable as it was not explained to me prior that my phone would be inactive this long. I then asked if he could provide me with Telkoms complaint contact details, to which he switched off the phone and proceeded to block my number. This is not acceptable! I tried calling back on my number but calls weren't going through. I then called from my wife's number and got through, to which I spoke to a new consultant who provided me with ***x name. Once I was done with this call, I proceeded to try and call the branch from my number again, and it still didn't work (I tried multiple times again throughout the day but it doesn't allow my number to call - I am certain I was blocked).

I then called the call center and spoke to ***x. He was helpful but unable to assist with my query.

He confirmed my previous number was ported into Telkom years ago (I don't even recall this as I've been with Telkom for years), but that my original number has been sent back to the original network. He then said that I would need to port this number on my own capacity if I want it back.

This is not satisfactory and I want escalated service where someone is able to understand my issue and not provide me with generic advice.

I was not made aware of anything that is currently occurring and was simply wanting to renew my contract. Nothing more technical.

But what has occurred is, I am without my original cell number for days now, so no one is able to contact me and my cell number is possibly unretrievable now as it has returned to another provider. None of this was ever communicated to me.

Added to this, it is ridiculous that a consultant blocked me for asking for complaint details. If you are able to pull calls, this was at 11:52am on 11 May 2024. I had not said anything out of turn to have a consultant drop my call and block my number.