Telkom and their ****s with regards to Disconnecting people who DO NOT WANT fibre!!

My mother in law received a call from Telkom offering her Fibre. She is 80 years old and has no wish to change what she has as it works perfectly. She was told that she had to go for fibre as they were doing away with ADSL and discontinuing ADSL routers.

A few days later, Telkom arrived to install fibre. She let them in as they were there, and upon trying to do whatever it is they do [after understanding that fibre would cost her no more than she was paying on ADSL], they told her that her pipes were blocked and they could not proceed, that in order to proceed she needed to get in an electrician to clear pipes.

The next day when trying to call out, she noticed that her landline, internet and everything associated with her Telkom account was dead. She had no means of getting hold of anyone, and to call Telkom to find out what was going on, had to ask neighbours if she could use their line.

Now nobody can answer her question as to what happened. Although the one technician who arrived at her house for the fibre installation told her that the call centre operators that are calling people offering fibre, are then disconnecting everything, almost to force you to go fibre.

It has now been 2 weeks, and she still has no landline, no internet, and pretty much no TV - she does not have DSTV and relies on Netflix for her entertainment, so no Netflix which is internet-based. She called and was told that somebody would try and fix the problem from the Telkom Depot - nothing. Called in again and was told they are working on it.

I then called in and got through to a very arrogant girl who cut me off everytime I insinuated that this was a ploy by Telkom to move people to fibre, only to be told they would be appointing a technician to go out and fix the problem on site - but this could take up to a month.

My husband has now spoken to a contact who actually installed our fibre earlier this year, and this very kind gentleman has now also confirmed that this is what Telkom are doing - they are calling you, offering you fibre and if you are saying NO you do not want or require fibre, they are just disconnecting you.

How ethical is this? How legal is this? I am sure that if my mother in law chooses to now not pay her account for this past month as she has had NO LANDLINE, NO INTERNET, NO NOTHING ... Telkom would sue. SHE WILL NOT PAY FOR A SERVICE THAT SHE HAS NOT HAD.

Somebody needs to investigate what Telkom is doing as this is just not on!