TELKOM AGAIN

We’ve had a recurring billing issue since our contract started in August 2017. In short it is yet to be rectified, but this is definitely not due to a lack of effort on our part. It is more due to the fact that Telkom have no cooking clue what is happening in their billing department nor do they have staff competent enough to deal with even the slightest of queries. • Contract started on 14 Aug 2017 (Uncapped Home 4mb @R599) • We received the incorrect bills for the months of September and October (not our fault) • On 5 December received a message saying that our account is in arrears with R1736.93 and that we need to pay in order to avoid suspension • Of course not everyone can simply factor in an extra R1700 into their budget and our circumstances (having just moved into a new home) simply did not allow • We went into numerous stores, all of which, of course, were of no help (how convenient that they no longer handle any account queries) • We were told to contact the billing department which we did • We were told that we would get a response toward resolution which we did not get • Dispute was logged on the 5th of December • To date we have still not received any response • We received another (even larger) bill indicating that our account is in arrears • We raised another dispute, 20/12/2017 • It is like these people do not care that we are just normal people and that we would like to get our dispute resolved All the while, we’ve had to deal with a horrible, erratic connection, *********** staff who could not relay our query to their superiors, the fact that our incorrect details were taken and no effort was made to get correct details. We actually did not get any bill until the message indicating that our account is in arrears arrived; they had my incorrect email address (WOW). And now with Christmas coming up they expect me to suddenly find over 2500 out of nowhere in order to correct their MESS! I am sure I left out some not insignificant detail but I am just so angry and frustrated that things just cannot be simple and if there is a problem, proper attention given to it until it is rectified. This is obviously not the first complaint Telkom have received regarding billing and customer service issues so the question is when will something be done??!!! Also, I simply CANNOT afford to pay that amount right now, so we need to come to some sort of compromise so that I can at least try to enjoy Christmas and festive with my family. PLEASE TELKOM, PLEASE, HEAR MY CRY!!!!