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I have a 100Gb Data contract with Telkom and I am very satisfied with it. However, last month being December we needed more than the usual 100Gb of data so I purchased an additional 40Gb Once-Off data bundle toward the end of the month.

At the begining of January we still have 14Gb of this once-off bundle's data remaining. However, now that the month-to-month data is available again all of our usage is going off of the month-to-month data and the once-off data is not used at all.

The problem is that the once-off data expires on 23 January 2018; and so the only way for me to access the service for which I paid would be to use all 100Gb of month-to-month data and the remaining 14Gb of once-off data before the once-off data expires on the 23rd once again leaving me in the same predicament as at the end of December.

Today I contacted Telkom and chatted to an advisor named Londiwe Sokhela. When I outlined the problem Londiwe was so kind as to suggest that since the Terms and Conditions state that Telkom is not liable for loss of data that this was now my problem. I explained to her that since I have not lost the data, but rather that Telkom is withholding the data for which I have paid from me that this actually amounts to theft. After this Londiwe's responses became less polite until the conversation was terminated from Telkom's side without a resolution. I have a transcript of this conversation.

My complaint is that Telkom's billing system is flawed: the system should be deducting usage from the data that is scheduled to expire first (instead of from the newest data). This would ensure that in cases like this I could use all my remaining once-off data before it expires and still have access to my regular month-to-month data.

I understand that changes to a billing system are not quickly implemented; so the only reasonable outcome to this problem is that Telkom extend the expiry date of my once-off bundle to the end of next month so that I can at least access it again if I manage to use all of my currently month's data before the 31st.