Telkom abuses old age pensioner

<p>I cannot begin to describe how frustrating and infuriating my past two weeks of having to deal with Telkom have been. Nobody seems to be willing or able to understand or sort out my problem, so I'm resorting to yet another complaint about the same issue, which seems to be impossible to resolve.</p> <p> </p> <p>What happened was very simple, but was a blatant mix-up caused by Telkom Sales. Now nobody wants to take responsibility for what happened and it is proving unveliebably difficult to rectify. In brief:</p> <p> </p> <p>1. My mother and I live in the same house. My mother is 83 years old and has her own landline, in her own name and linked to her ID number, and pays her telephone bill herself in her own name.</p> <p> </p> <p>2. I had an ADSL line, in my name, linked to my personal ID number, for quite some time. I paid this account myself from my bank account.</p> <p> </p> <p>3. Some *********** person from Telkom Sales called me on my landline (the ADSL one that is in my name) and asked me whether I wanted to install fibre to my home. I said yes please and asked what would happen to the ADSL line. The consultant informed me that the ADSL line would be cancelled completely on 1 March (today) and arranged for an installation of my fibre.</p> <p> </p> <p>4. Vumatel came to install the fibre and a modem router was delivered to me. I was unable to install the router or test the line that night as I was at a conference.</p> <p> </p> <p>5. Five days later, a second modem router was delivered to my mother. This set alarm bells ringing because she did not order a modem router. She also does not own a computer. She is 83. She does not use the internet. She has never sent an e-mail in her life. And, even if she did do all those things, she would not need a modem router as she lives in my house and could use the fibre that I had just had installed for the home that we share. </p> <p> </p> <p>6. Because I realised that something had gone horribly wrong somewhere, I immediately went to the Telkom store at Cresta. There, I encountered probably the worst customer service representative I have ever met in my whole life - a rude and incredibly unhelpful person named Akhona. He pretended to care about the situation and checked that, to my absolute shock and dismay, a second order had also been placed for fibre, to the same home, to my mother's number and in her name. This apparently is why the second router had been delivered to the address. MY MOTHER HAS NEVER SPOKEN TO ANYONE AT TELKOM TO ORDER FIBRE. SHE DOES NOT NEED FIBRE. SHE CANNOT USE FIBRE. SHE DOES NOT KNOW WHAT FIBRE IS. SHE ALSO CANNOT AFFORD FIBRE ON HER PENSION . Yet some despicable individual at Telkom has burdened her with an order that she did not place and sent her a modem that she does not want, and is now refusing to take it back. Akhona could not sort out this problem, but he misled us into believing that he was typing an e-mail to rectify the situation. This man should not be working with customers.</p> <p> </p> <p>7. Another week has passed and nobody has yet come to fetch the router. I am terrified that my mother is going to receive a bill for this. It is causing her extreme stress and anxiety as nobody at Telkom seems to be able to help us. I have written four messages on Hellopeter, spoken to at least 8 people at Telkom and sent numerous e-mails to the hopelessly useless complaints department. NOBODY CARES ABOUT MY MOITHER AND ABOUT THIS MESS THAT HAS BEEN CAUSED. Nobody seems to want to solve my problem.</p> <p> </p> <p>8. Today came the worst possible news: my mother's landline number appears to have been cancelled! Someone at Telkom has mixed up the numbers again and has cut off my mother's phone as of today, 1 March, while my ADSL landline, which should have been cancelled as per my numerous instructions, still has a dialling tone. It seems as though someone has mixed up my number with hers and has cancelled her number instead of mine, just like when they ordered an extra modem router for my mother instead of me.</p> <p> </p> <p>I feel like I am a star in some terrible, terrible horror movie from which I cannot escape.</p> <p> </p> <p>For my mother this has been awful. She is alone at home during the day and her only contact with the outside world is a telephone. This has been taken away from her because some people at Telkom cannot distinguish between two different ID numbers.</p> <p> </p> <p>I really don't know what to do. I just hope someone from Telkom sees this and responds. If I do not get a favourable response to this disastrous situation by the end of the week, I am truly going to take drastic action as my patience is at an end, especially now that my poor mother's phone has been cut off. I am going to spare no expense to rectify this matter, even if it means publishing this matter in the newspaper, referring it for arbitration, seeking relief from the National Consumer Complaints Commission or contacting the Telecommunications Ombudsman. Telkom, you are a disgrace as a business as 90% of your workers are ***********, rude and arrogant people. If one is lucky enough to get through to one of the other 10%, things get done quickly.</p> <p> </p> <p>Please, whoever is reading this, be a 10% person and help me.</p> <p> </p>