Telkom Nightmare!

<p>Our nightmare began in January 2017 when our landline became faulty. We found that we could not receive any calls and we could not make any calls either --- our line was dead. We logged a fault with the Telkom call centre, but the fault was never properly fixed and there were constant intermittent faults spanning several months. It was a hideous experience trying to get this resolved and the technicians suspected that it was an underground cable problem. However, we had also been told by the technical department that it was a problem at the "exchange" or "surge in DC". Our neighbour, two houses up from us, had also been experiencing faults on her landline at the same time as us. Endless calls were made through to Telkom and they always regurgitated the same response that they "will endeavour to resolve this problem within 5 days" --- what a blatant lie! We also sent detailed complaint letters to the email address that Telkom call centre agents provided us with ********** and ********** We never received any response to these complaints. We would often get transferred from one call centre agent to the next and we felt like a Ping-Pong ball bouncing back and forth between *********** agents. We were often told that it would be "escalated". Telkom then suggested that we try migrating to a "Fixed-line Lookalike" phone/device (type of instrument: ********** ) that apparently didn't require any cables and they sent this to our address via courier. We were delighted to get this device, but our joy soon turned to sorrow once again. Telkom had not sent a SIM card with this device and trying to get one was an enormous mission. We were told by Telkom to get the SIM card from any Telkom branch, but when we went to the Rosebank branch with the device, the SIM cards they tested all displayed an error message on the device. We seemed to be back to square one and so decided to get a 'Goods Return Note' from the manager at this branch. She also sent emails and messages to Telkom to get our "Fixedline Lookalike" cancelled and our line returned to a normal line with no internet connection. This incident was logged on the 5th of May and Telkom is still sending us bills to pay for internet (SoftCap 20GB) that we do not have and have never had. We have made numerous calls to Telkom Billing and the same situation occurs where we are a transferred from one agent to the next. They tell us that the bill will be rectified, but this doesn't happen. The bill was incorrect in May and is now incorrect for June. The Dispute number is ********** 5 and reference ********** 2. Due to the grotesque levels of inefficency from Telkom, we had to choose another internet service provider. We still have our landline with them, but their customer service levels are atrociously bad. Almost six months of hell with this dreadful company. I honestly do not know how any person can remain calm and sane whilst having to deal with this company from hell. Even a saint would become incensed with rage! </p>