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Charles B

1 reviews | Active since Sept 2018

05 Sept 2018, 07:21

Telkom billed me the day before the agreed debit date and refuses to pay back the bank fees

I have been a Telkom client for close to 10 years. Products ranged from ADSL, LTE and mobile. My agreement with Telkom is to debit my account on the 25th of every month. Last month they debited me on Friday, 24 August. This cause FNB to charge me a R100 fee for a missed debit order. Thus, I called Telkom and confidently asked them to kindly refund me my bank charges, because they debited me the day before my salary was paid in. I was promptly advised that my reasonable request will be utterly denied. They will NOT refund my bank charges and that is that. Apparently it states in their terms and conditions, that I was advised of over a year ago, that they will debit you the day before, should it fall on a Saturday. Well… if they at least sent me an sms to advise me of this, I could have made a plan. The call centre agent said that my account is up to date on their system and I firmly explained that the debit order did not go off on my account and will return as unpaid. She confirmed it takes 48hrs to reflect on their system.

Firstly, this logic does not make sense… Why on earth would you debit your clients prior to your agreed date? Surely you will rater choose the next date, because you will NOT get your money before they have been paid!!!

This is not treating a customer fairly! How can you debit me the date before, causing me bank charges and marking a missed debit order on my credit record. And then simply refuse to even refund the bank charges that you caused because of this???

How can I be penalised for the way that Telkom's billing system works? If they debited me the next day, the money would have gone off as usual… just like we agreed.

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Charles B's update05 Sept 2018, 13:30
Reviewer Update
Update: I was debit by Telkom again on the 30th of August, which went through successfully. Matter resolved, right? WRONG!!! I received a threatening SMS on September 3rd that my account is in arrears. My services will be halted and I will be listed on the credit bureau. CAN THIS BE REAL??? I called Telkom to explain that I already advised them on the 27th of August already that the amount did not go off my account, because Telkom's billing system debited me the day before the 25th and my salary was not yet paid into my account. I asked for my bank charges back again and was denied. THE ABSURDITY! I explained that a debit order was already taken on the 30th of the month to settle my account. There should be no outstanding fees. I was assured that the amount displays with the debtors account and will be credited to my account. GOOD! This was when I was advised that there will be an extra charge of R200 levied on my Telkom account, because my debit order was missed, BECAUSE THEY DEBITED ME ON THE DAY BEFORE MY DEBIT ORDER WAS SUPPOSED TO GO OFF!!!! It is like dealing with an Evil Villain! HOW ON EARTH COULD YOU CHARGE ME AN EXTRA FEE BECAUSE YOU DEBITED ME THE DAY BEFORE YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO???? You cannot charge me because of the way that YOUR billing system works!!! Kindly remove this extra charge from my account and refund my bank charges. This would never have happened if you simply debited me on the 25th, like we agreed.