Telkom: Our Insouciant Friend

Telkom has repeatedly proven to be one of the most frustrating companies I have ever have had to deal with.

From a young age my phone line often failed and technicians had to come around often, sometimes on a weekly basis, to attempt to fix the lines. If the staff did show up they would sometimes manage to restore the phone to working order temporarily, until some days later, it would fail once again.

When loadshedding first started, it often felt as if we were phone shedded too.

Aside from this friends, family members and work colleagues have never spoken highly about the company. Historically, there was a general attitude that it was the only option as far as telecommunications companies go.

Fast forward into the end of the 2010s period and this is no longer the case. We now have numerous other options for digital communications platforms and Telkom is not exactly the monopoly it once was.

Despite this and my previous experiences growing up surrounded by the notion that Telkom is a defunct company, the deals offered were attractive economically and so I was again lured into signing up with them on a couple of occasions.

This was mainly for Internet, as my wife and I don't normally use a landline and rely on cell phones as an alternative.

Admittedly, the first experience with Telkom was alright. The line was installed fairly painlessly and the the line worked, but then we had to relocate.

A subsequent place that we moved to did not offer any Telkom service, but this may have been a fault with the complex and not necessarily the company.

However, when we finally managed to settle into a home for more than a year, I again opted for Telkom because of the economic viability of their offerings.

At this point I regret this wholeheartedly.

During this time I was increasingly harassed by Telkom telemarketers who bombarded me with advertising about an upgrade to fiber. I explained that I wasn't interested because I was about to move imminently again.

This didn't stop Telkom technicians from showing up and ringing the bell repeatedly like a bunch of naughty children playing tok-tokkie, until I was forced to tell them to go away. They claimed, despite my rejection of the fiber offer that they had been deployed to install it.

Ultimately, I left those premises, as expected and have relocated to an entirely different city.

Yet, despite my best efforts, after cancelling the Telkom line that I had, I continue to receive invoices for that line.

Perhaps not helped by Telkom's convoluted cancellation system, I have corresponded by them via email, phone and their online chat and cancellation systems. They have admitted that it is a fault on their side on several occasions, but yet the billing continues.

This would be stressful anyway (it's been 9 months of battling this now), but the added financial implications of the COVID-19 lockdown, just adds insult to injury at this point.

Does Telkom not care about its customers? As the Internet memes say, does the company really not care how tarnished its reputation gets? I would think so, as every person I tell this story to, has an extremely similar story, filled with a history of problems with Telkom and being unable to cancel their lines.

I think if I had to summarise this company in one word it would be insouciant, which according to Google means: "showing a casual lack of concern."