Telkom Opened Two Accounts, Delivered One, and Still Charged Us

If I could give Telkom zero stars, I would. They are nothing short of *******. Their strategy is to duplicate requests, open two accounts for the same service, deliver on only one, and then charge the customer for both – holding the customer responsible for their own errors. To make matters worse, they get attorneys involved to threaten you with blacklisting if you do not pay.

When I noticed what had happened, I called Telkom multiple times to cancel the duplicate account that they never delivered on. Each time, I was told to send an email, which I did, but they never responded. I would follow up again and again, only to be told the same thing repeatedly. I spent hours on the phone with Telkom trying to resolve the issue.

Eventually, when the account was cancelled, they charged me a cancellation fee despite it being their error in the first place. I refused to pay it, but their attorneys continued to harass me with calls and threats of blacklisting. When I explained the situation to the attorneys, I was simply told to call Telkom to resolve it – a futile exercise given that over the past two years, I have made countless calls, spent hours on the phone, and no one at Telkom has ever been able to assist meaningfully. Each time they take down the information, provide a reference number, promise to call back, and then never do.

The worst part is that this was an account for an NPO. We had taken fibre to benefit our psychiatric residents, and despite diligently paying for the account we did use, Telkom charged us for an additional service they never provided. Even when requesting call recordings for proof, no one at Telkom could assist.

It is disheartening to see a company exploit customers in this way, especially knowing that they will continue to get away with it because as consumers, there is little we can do. They will simply blacklist you for refusing to pay for something that was their fault to begin with.

I openly admit that we did take out a fibre line with them – which we continue to pay for – but they made a mistake by opening two accounts, only delivering on one, and charging for both.

They are an absolute disgrace. I hope Telkom reads this and finally resolves their error, refunds what was unfairly charged, and stops exploiting customers who rely on them for essential services.

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