STAY AWAY FROM TELKOM MOBILE!!! SAVE YOURSELF WHILE YOU CAN!!!!

If you know what's good for you, DO NOT TAKE A CONTRACT WITH TELKOM MOBILE.

Bold statement yes, but even bolder bad experience I've had with telkom mobile.

Earlier this year, I opened up a cell phone contract with Telkom Mobile. Everything went smoothly in the sales department. I got promised my device will be delivered to the store within 7 working days. It arrived slightly late, but I was happy nonetheless. Everything was explained to me (well, what I thought was everything) and I was glad to get an extra 10GB of data each month for a total of 3 months. (30GB total).

To my surprise, I got home and I could not use the phone. I couldn't make or receive calls, sms's, balance enquiries.... NOTHING.

I called in to the call centre and we went through the sim card app where I was told to change certain settings then reboot my phone and everything should be hunky dory again. After the reboot, NOTHING.

I called in again (from a different number of course, using my own airtime from that number) and we went through a number of USSD codes. All of which were unsuccessful. I was told by the consultant that they will log an investigation to see what the problem is. This happened before mid-June 2018. **Until today, I haven't heard any feedback.

I called in again and I was told that I don't have coverage in the area I live in and that I'll have to roam on the MTN network. My exact question was, "AM I GOING TO BE CHARGED FOR THIS?". The answer I received was, "NO SIR. BECAUSE TELKOM DOESN'T HAVE COVERAGE IN SOME AREAS, TELKOM HAS A DEAL WITH MTN THAT THOSE CUSTOMERS WHO DON'T HAVE COVERAGE CAN ROAM ON THE MTN NETWORK FREE OF CHARGE".

I then activated the roaming. Voilà. Everything worked. Calls, USSD codes, sms's. Everything.

Shortly after the smooth sailing of my new phone that actually works, I received a batch of sms's saying that my out of bundle limit is depleted.

I call in to the call centre once again. I explain the situation and guess what? This is what I got told. "OH SIR! I UNDERSTAND. DID NO ONE INFORM YOU THAT YOU CANNOT USE THE 30GB OF TELKOM DATA THAT YOU RECEIVED WILE ROAMING ON THE MTN NETWORK?". I was instantly livid. How can 2 people who work for the call centre of the same company give me 2 sets of different information?! Now I was being charged my monthly subscription and the out of bundle limit that I didn't even know I was using.

I immediately requested to cancel. I was told I can only do this online. I proceeded to cancel the contract on the 16th of June 2018. I was told it will take 21 - 30 days for the cancellation to be processed. I had no problem with that. I waited and waited and I'm still waiting.

I got a call and an email from an agent to say that they're going to send all my account information and complaints to a technical department where they'll be able to diagnose the problem. Again. I'm still waiting for that as well.

I called in about a month ago (26/09/2018) hoping that I could get answers. All I got was that the issue will be "escalated"

Last week Saturday I went back to the store hoping to speak to someone who actually understands my frustrations and will be able to assist me. Guess what? All I got after spending an hour in the store was, "I've sent an email to the agent who assisted you on the 26th of September and I've also forwarded the email to my manager. The matter has been escalated to management so they will be able to assist you".

It's been a whole week later. No email. No call. NOTHING

The worst of it all, I've been charged the full contract subscription during this time. I refuse to pay for a service I have not received at all. I've reversed debit orders and Telkom keeps trying to debit my account. Even if there aren't enough funds to do so. This results in my bank charges and fees to sky rocket. If telkom put in the same, or even slightly less effort that they put in to debiting my account, for trying to resolve the problem I have and to cancel my contract, things wouldn't have gotten this far I've had enough of this.

No one seems to care. I will not do Telkom a favour by paying whatever balance is outstanding and whatever fees need to be paid for the cancellation because Telkom cant do me a favour by simply cancelling my contract

If you had the patience to read through this, congratulations. You have more patience than what I have at the moment. And if I were you, I'd steer clear of the Telkom store and very far away from anyone from Telkom who calls you offering you a deal over the phone.

If I don't get a response from TELKOM on this matter within 24 hours, I will need to deal directly with the CEO. If no one can help me for 5 months, I don't think anyone else but the CEO will be able to do so.