Telkom account

Telkom is testing their clients' patience! Since November last year it has been a constant battle. Every month the debit order goes off, yet religiously on the 15th of every month my services get suspended due to "credit limit". When I contacted Telkom in April, the agent who assisted increased my limit and assured me that the issue was resolved. Little did I know that this was only the beginning of a bigger problem. At the end of April and into the first few days of May I noticed that my debit order had not gone off yet. I decided to give it a few days (due to public holidays and a weekend) to see if it was just a delay and would eventually go off on the next working day, but on the afternoon of 6 May I came to the conclusion that something was wrong and decided to go in-store the next morning, but before I can even go into the Telkom store I received an sms stating that my account was suspended due to collection. I immediately phoned Telkom Accounts (not easy!!!) - I explained everything to the agent who assisted me on this day, stating that there has been an ongoing problem since November. He told me that he could see that I had called the previous month and that the agent who assisted me had not issued a new debit order mandate which should have been done, but he would do that while I was on the call. I received the new mandate and accepted while still on the call with the agent. He advised me that I can make a payment either online (via Telkom site), go in-store, or do en EFT. I opted to make the payment via their site and after payment was made I immediately received an sms as well as an email stating that my payment was successful. This payment was made on 7 May 2025 at 09h01. I assumed that the problem was now sorted, yet to my utter amazement, I receive an sms on 15 May to state that my account was handed over and I must now pay more than double my debit order amount. I phoned the number in the sms, discovered it is a debt collection agency - when I was informed that my account was handed over to them, I asked if she could tell me when it was handed over... despite paying on the 7th, Telkom decided to hand over my account on the 12th! This makes absolutely no sense! I yet again explained the whole story and sent them my proof of payment. I was told that I will also have to forward them proof of payment once my debit order for the end of May goes off, if it goes off!!! Once they receive that proof of payment, they can close the account on their side. My frustration in all of this is that Telkom seems to be messing up so many peoples accounts and seem to just simply not care! Through their mess-up, I will now be negatively impacted on my credit score and cannot even make use of services that I have paid for for this month!

If I thought this was the end, think again! I received a sms late night on the 15th to say that my services have been interrupted and I should call Telkom. I have been trying the whole morning (of the 16th), with absolutely NO luck at all, to contact Telkom Accounts and you get stuck in a loop in the menu. You never get through to an agent at all! How are we as consumers supposed to trust a service provider if you continuously mess up our accounts???

Absolutely horrible customer service!