Telkom and Sell Direct - BEWARE (******* CONTRACT TERMINATION FEE)

Item: Telkom
Rating: 1
Author: Dick M

Hi All, In May this year (2016), I was contact by Sell Direct regarding the upgrade of my expired Telkom Mobile contract. I agreed to the upgrade, being happy that they are saving me a trip to a Telkom mobile shop to perform an upgrade. The terms and conditions of the contract were explained to me and all sounded well except for some part that as soon as I recieve my new package with a new SIM card I would loose all my existing Telkom mobile data that I have not used up for the month and my bill for the next month would include a pro-rata bill for the data I would be provided from the day of recieving the contract package, which included a new SIM card and router. I was attending an event when I received a call from the guys and didn't really think much of what it meant at the time, so being in a rush to get back to my event I agreed. Upon receipt of the contract. I was luckily smart enough to read through all the contract materials and not jump into opening the package. I noted that one of the terms and conditions was a cooling off period of 5 days, in which I could cancel the agreement without being affected and can return the router without paying anyting as long as I had not opened it. I had a router at the time, so decided to not open the one they had given me, because the one I had still worked, I was lazy to reconfigure a new router, and my existing SIM had stopped working and I was eager to get onto the internet. I put in the new SIM into my router and although the router could connect to the network; I could not access internet services. I thought maybe its something to do with my old router and thought maybe to open the new router and test with it; but recalling that I had a cooling off period and would have to pay for the router if its opened and not seeing the logic in the SIM working on one router and not the other. I decided that I would wait till the following day to go to a Telkom mobile store to attempt to have the issue resolved; and used my vodacome phone for internet. In the morning at work before going to the Telkom shop, I tried to phone the Sell Direct number on the package they sent me and the number and I could not get through and gave up after a good number of attempts. That afternoon at the Telkom mobile store; the SIM was put into a similar make router at the one I had received from Sell Direct and the same issue persisted. The people at the shop did about two SIM swaps thinking maybe its something wrong with the SIM and the same issue with both SIMs. They then resolved to sent one of their experts to my place to have a look at the matter; whom was gonna come the morning of the following day. The following morning, the guy came did some tests with the SIM and even he could not get it to work. He resolved to take it with him to the shop to see what he can do from there. That evening he told me that he also could not get it to work. The following morning I went to the Telkom shop and one of the ladies realised that althought my contract had been upgraded; it seemed to not have been counting the time as if it was waiting for someone to initialise it. At that point, I had been using vodacom for internet access and the costs were pilling up so I told the lady that you know what I have been trying to get hold of Sell Direct without success and you guys obviously cannot seem to help. I would like you to cancel the contract for me and I wanna apply for a new one. I app**** for a new contract. But, that evening it occurred to me that the lady at the Telkom shop was only gonna put in a request to have the contract cancelled it was already 4 days with the contract; so if the request is not responded to timeously I would still be liable to keep it if it wasn't cancelled within 5 days. I therefore, resolved to contact Sell Direct first thing in the morning to inform them of my decision to cancel the contract. The following morning, I tried again without success to get hold of anyone at Sell Direct. After failing I thought back to something that one of the ladies at the Telkom mobile shop had said; that people at Sell Direct do not answer their phones. I wondered if it could be a strategy to tie people into the contract because if you can't reach them within 5 days, you're stuck with the contract. The thought caused me some distress and irritated me because, when they were trying to get me to upgrade my contract, they would call back if I told them to call me tomorrow when they found me busy. Luckliy, I got the thought that I actually do not have to get in touch with them directly; I just need some way of making sure that they were informed of my decision to cancel the contract within 5 days; and what better way than an e-mail since its dated. So, I sent them an e-mail informing them of my intention to cancel the contract. In the same way that they did not respond to calls; my e-mail was not responded right away, but I was not concerned since legally, I was covered. On the Telkom side, the communication the Telkom lady sent to escalate the matter from Telkom's side was not responded to. I therefore had to contract Telkom through their call center to try get them involved in resolving the issue since I was now being billed for the contract, which means it was not cancelled. To my disappointment the only assisstance Telkom could give me was to tell me about how they've sent communication to Sell Direct and even they are not getting a response and when they finally did they told me that they cannot cancel the contract since the router is still in my possession and they've instructed Sell Direct to collect it so they can cancel the contract; something that expectedly did not happen. I then, resolved to take legal action against Sell Direct since even Telkom seemed to not have the power to get them to move. I wrote an e-mail informing them on my intention and I finally got their attention. This was in July and I had been paying for the contract all along. We made arrangements for them to collect their device and have the contract cancelled. Just when I thought the nightmare of a company called Sell Direct was over. I get a debit notification on my account from Telkom of R1479.52 and when I went to investigate why I am now paying this much instead of the normal R500 for the two contracts I have with Telkom. I realise that I have been billed R981.02 for terminating a contract. I then contact Telkom and realise that they're charging me for terminating the contract extention through Sell Direct; even though I was well within my rights to do so as per contract agreements and the 5 day cooling off period. I resolved to contact Telkom and I get informed that a case has been opened and only in 72 hours will an agent be allocated to deal with it. Not only that, but they would need to do an investigation and only after they conclude their investigation would they either return my money, credit my account or explain the bill and some terms and condition that I did not read, in which case the bill sticks. After my communication with Telkom, I am stuck thinking to myself; given the nature of this cost should Telkom have not taken measures to inform me of it and explaining it before just adding it to my bill. Also, is the bill not ******* since I was well within my rights to cancel the contract. Given the resource and time I spent in trying to resolve the initial mess with the contract that Sell Direct had created why would Telkom be pulling a stunt such as this one. Most importantly, this is R981.02 that I had not buggeted for and if Telkom is in the wrong all they will do is apologise while I am negatively affected since I now will not be able to meet my other financial obligations and I can't even charge interest of the money they would have *******ly taken from my account. I asked the Telkom representative during my call with them, if there is not way of expediting the matter as it has huge financial implications for me; because other organisations such a Vodacom do not take 72 hours to assign someone to deal with a case; especially not one as urgent and with such a history where I was severly disadvantaged. Then, I get told that is how Telkom work. So, I am now having to wait for Telkom to go through their inefficient process while I suffer and even hope to get my money back if anything. I think this is not a way customers should be treated; this actually borders on ******* and I am really considering taking legal action on this matter to seak compensation for this entire mess starting all the way from when Sell Direct contacted me. Also, why does Telkom allow Sell Direct to do what they are doing to clients. Sell things to them, but not make themselves available to respond when clients need assistance. I think Telkom really needs to relook at how they treat client queries to avoid loosing current and potential future clients. I have been happy so far with Telkom until this incident with Sell Direct and this non-sense of a cancellation penaly, which I have to wait days to week for someone to explain to me. I currently have two contracts with Telkom one current and the other up for renewal and as a result of this incident and also given that they no longer offer the cheapest data prices; I for the first time looking to move. Cancel my month to month contract with the necessary due notice and to not renew the current contract and then seek services from an organisation that alteast understands that they're dealing with people and try their best to resolve their issues in a manner that does not inconvenience them.

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