Shocking service from Telkom - a substandard phone but worse is the service received

I’ve been having a horrible time with Telkom and a Hauwei I got on contract with them. I stupidly thought trying a Hauwei was a good idea and it's been a disaster from the start. My countless attempts to get anyone to assist have been ignored so in desperation I am writing this review.

I received an upgrade on my contract 2 months ago - the nightmare then started, I wasn’t able to move the info over and ended up going in to Telkom Melrose Arch almost daily trying to sort it out as the info just wouldn’t copy over – after over a week of this I begged the manager to please let me go back a Samsung again instead as he could see how I and his Telkom had been struggling. He said it was too late as it was now after a week. I said yes but as he well knew I hadn’t used it yet .He also knew that I hadn’t put the sim in it yet as I couldn’t start using the phone until my info was moved over, plus I as he knew and had commented on I had been in almost daily - he himself knew what a nightmare it had been.

Eventually we got most of the info over after days of this – it took over a week and was the biggest waste of time and energy, I am so busy to have had to keep going into the store plus having to go into Huawei 3 times too to get help to get it to a point where I was able to use it.

However the phone does not work for me – it loses signal all the time, when I try to do meetings on it e.g. zoom, teams or google meet there is an echo and I can only listen in on mute or have to make sure I join meetings on my computer instead which is tricky if I am out and have never had this problem in the past. The emails are set to update immediately but take hours to come in – have been in twice to Huawei about this and they are at a loss at why this happens. Certain apps I need are incompatible according to Hauwei e.g. the Discovery Insure app for my car sensor which I need for safety.

If I try to use GPS half the time there is no signal yet my whatsapp works so that signal is fine and on my hubby’s Samsung (also a Telkom contract so should be no difference with the network) GPS works fine. I can’t open pdfs easily, they take about 30 seconds to open (can you believe it) and then have to click on 3 different steps to get to the actual pdf). Huawei put outlook as well as another email app on my phone so I have two email options now and I have to try to open both to get my mails and still I can wait up to 2 hours for them to come in. The browser sometimes works and sometimes has no signal and doesn’t, over all it is crazy that I have to go through this.

I have screenshots of comparisons of how my old Samsung will download email or gps immediately on wifi and how the new phone says connected on both mobile data and wifi yet I cannot do anything with it so often it just has no signal. I was told the first day I managed to get my info moved over to book it in as its obviously faulty and I said its brand new why should I have to check it in, it should be replaced but again received zero assistance.

Then as for Telkom, I have been back and forth in the Melrose store, even been in tears with the manager and the his superior too over this – the manager has apparently tried and tried to contact head office and keeps getting told nothing he can do. I have been hearing back usually once a week over this time but now nothing. 10 days ago he said he would try again and now am unable to get any feedback – I try phone the store to follow up and the store phone just rings and rings – in all this time since I have only ever had someone answer the phone in the store 3 times so its impossible to get through – the only way to get anyone to speak to me is to physically go in. I am really at my wits end here. Its one thing to supply me with a substandard phone which has been such a frustration and its another to receive such shocking service.