Telkom - Everyone should read this, because you won't use them ever if you do

On the 7 July someones from Openserv (Telkom's newish hardware outsourcing wing - wish they told us they dont handle their hardware and infrastructure anymore) came to change from copper to fibre in our complex - they'd been working on the complex for 5 months and finally installing the last mile into home.

After the guys came (for 2 days also), they activate my internet - I assumed I was going from copper to fibre on same 10mb uncapped package...NOPE. They activated a 20mb, softcap (100gb limit) - which doesnt make sense as I run my business off this line - 24 MONTH CONTRACT when I was on month to month.

That Monday (10 July) I tried to dispute this (as Telkom dont help customers on the weekend) and long story short, proceeded to talk to 3 different sales agent over the next 7 - 10 days, all who could not give me a reference number. They said I'd requested this package Feb 2016 and was apparently 18 months into my fibre contract - remember, I only got fibre in July 2017, so this was an impossibility. No documentation could be provided by them or any proof that I did this, the only thing I could do in order to get a reference number was if the sales agent who activated my package acknowledged their wrongdoing - how they did this..email him; what are the chances that he/she was going to acknowledge this.

I eventually received a way to reduce my package and was told, once you remove the package I can then dispute it as you cannot dispute until you've been billed - the way they told me to do this...EMAIL (I kid you not they told me to use my data to dispute my data). I emailed them at once, and got an automated reply that it could take up to 21 working days to see to this complaint (by the way the email was a generic one (to Openserv no less) - I could not interact with a human, apparently they don't do this).

Now, in the meantime I'd been billed for the service and had to top up internet twice - thus making this package not only less than the value of the previous, but now more expensive to boot. I'd also tried to use their new fancy APP to assist, but it literally bombed out around the 10 times in 10 days and always failed.

They eventually got back to me in mid August - yup, this was over a month, still no reference number, still no contact from managers or Telkom, all me bouncing from sales teams, to product teams, to billing teams, to email ether (I learned that their business units have no centralised infrastructure, so you speaking to sales agent X and expecting product person Y to know this is just as good as betting on Conor McGregor to beat Mayweather today for last weekend's fight).

I told them to remove Telkom from my life, but then realised I needed to keep my line otherwise more chaos would ensure - as you need an Openserv/Telkom line for fibre otherwise the ISPs cant get to you. I asked that a manger contact me (after I was promised they would three times (even by email - I eventually pinned one of the suckers to give me a HUMAN BEING's email) but were sick so would take a few days, but would DEFINITELY get back to you - guess what? No one did. Not a single person, email, SMS...NADA.

30 August: Product downgrade - check, dispute raised - check, still no contact from Telkom about a fibre package that I was apparently going into month 19 with even though I only had fibre for month 2 - check. But I still havent heard anything about this dispute and my now inflated and overpriced and unaffordable Telkom bill needed paying, prompted by multiple SMSes otherwise they would disconnect me and guess what , it costs R450+ to reconnect - I couldn't risk that for me or my business. So I phoned to check on the dispute resolution.

You wouldn't believe it, the dispute had been rejected because I'd used "data" from the package (remember I had no choice, the Telkom (*cough* Openserv (no longer Telkom) guy came in and switched me without prompt), and the billings *customer service* person proceeded to tell me instructively that I should've raised it with the SALES TEAM WHEN I GOT IT! Never mind that I actually did that, and went through all the steps, and tried to document all my calls and get reference numbers (what thorough investigation must have taken place at that consumer friendly establishment), but the fact that billings have no record from sales, and sales from billings or disputes etc, means there is 0 communication between them. This is not a customer friendly business - never mind the fact that having them as a fibre ISP, you'd have better consistency with a 33.6K modem (but that story is for another day).

They are quite happy to change your package and force you to pay more money under duress, but have no ability to resolve your queries, reach a human being that can help, and even when you tow their line, you get pushed between departments, all of which can do nothing.

This is the worst example of customer first I have ever experienced. Suffice it to say I had to pay for that service, and am possibly expecting a bill for a contract payout for a Softcap service 24 month contract I didn't subscribe to because, according to their records, I exited early (still no record of me agreeing to this has been provided).

Never, ever, even think about using Telkom. This is probably the third major issue I have had in as many years. Listen to me, it's not worth it.