1 reviews | Active since Mar 2009
Telkom passes the buck... again and again and again... and keeps delivering modems to me
<p>When I took the decision to get fibre installed to the home, I was warned to stay away from Telkom. However, I trusted my instincts and chose them as my service provider. What followed has been the most nightmarish, appalling, horrific experience with customer service that I have experienced in a long time.</p> <p> </p> <p>The disaster started when someone called me from Telkom offering to upgrade me to fibre. I agreed and Vumatel duly came to install my line. A couple of days later, my modem router was delivered by courier. I patted myself on the back for having made the right choice – however, I couldn’t connect that evening because I did not know my username and password. This has not yet been given to me and can apparently only be done by the sales department, who are only open during office hours. I work during the day and am unable to make personal calls, so I decided to wait until today when I would be at home to make the call which, from experience, could take a very long time.</p> <p> </p> <p>Unfortunately a second modem router was delivered to my home yesterday afternoon. I have no idea why this happened as I never requested or ordered a second router. I began to suspect that something was seriously wrong but was unable to investigate until today as I could not call during office hours.</p> <p>Today: my day off! Finally I can investigate. And what was even more promising is that someone from Telkom phoned me this morning to ask why I had cancelled my ADSL with them. I explained that I had upgraded to fibre and that I no longer needed the ADSL but, while I had her on the line, I told her my story about the two modem routers. She said that this sounded strange and suggested that I should go to my nearest store, Cresta, which I did this afternoon at 15:30pm. After waiting in the queue for about 45 minutes, I finally was able to speak to Akhona, who informed me to my horror that my mother (who lives in the same house as me but has her personal landline) had been the recipient of the second, unwanted router! What the hellopeter?! </p> <p> </p> <p>My mother is 82 and never uses the internet. She also did not order the router, did not speak to any consultant, did not request anything, did not agree to contract for anything and should not have received the router. Akhona informed me that someone named Gelda or Anthony at the sales department had processed the order and that he would instruct them to cancel it and collect the modem. He also told me that I should call fibre installations at ***to confirm that they would cancel the order, and in a further typical case of Telkom buck-passing, told me that he could not help me install the router, but that I should “speak to the fibre guys” at the same number. Akhona did, at least, manage to cancel my ADSL service (even though I am being charged for this month while I am unable to use it). So hopefully one battle is now finally won, with several more looming.</p> <p> </p> <p>I raced home so as to call the fibre people before they close at 17h00. Unfortunately, I encountered a horribly unhelpful woman who told me that I must contact sales, who should give me my username and password, before they could install my router. By now my blood was boiling. I contacted sales on 10213 at 16:45 and held on for 22 minutes without being helped or served. Of course, they kept me holding that long because they close at 17:00. Currently, I am still holding and my phone is on speakerphone. My pets are being entertained by Telkom’s great call holding music and voiceovers detailing their wonderful specials while I vent my fury at them on hellopeter.</p> <p> </p> <p>To whomever is reading this, I want you to arrange for a competent person to contact me after 16:00 on Wednesday or at any time on Thursday or Friday this week. I also want you to do three things for me:</p> <p>1. Ensure that someone fetches the second router at once and ensure that my poor mother is not billed for a product she didn’t request, doesn’t need and doesn’t even know how to use.</p> <p>2. Get someone to come here, to my street address, for free, and help me to set up, for once and for all, my router – a service that I am paying you for and currently cannot use.</p> <p>3. Explain to me how on earth Anthony and Gelda botched up my order so dramatically and apologise for causing me to waste a day of my life unsuccessfully trying to sort out this nightmarish mess.</p> <p> </p> <p>Please do NOT contact me and tell me that I must phone another person or visit another branch. If you do the three things above, I will convert this complaint into a compliment. Please help me.</p>
It is now Friday afternoon and nobody has yet contacted me. I received a missed call from someone who could have been Telkom - part of me hopes it was - but I was driving and couldn't take the call. No message was left and nobody called again. All that Yazied of the Social Media Team did was to give me a reference number.
Hooray! Hallelujah! A reference number! How wonderfully helpful! My problem is solved...
...no it's not. I'm still sitting with fibre that isn't working, my mother is still sitting with a router that she doesn't want and the fear of being billed R799 a month (which for a pensioner is horrific) and I am feeling more and more hopeless with every passing moment.
I am so despondent and frustrated that I don't know what to do. It is IMPOSSIBLE to get anyone from Telkom to contact or help me. Call centre agents keep passing the buck, the store doesn't help, the fibre installation people can't help... I feel like I am dealing with the worst company in the world. I have honestly never had such appalling customer service in my life. The worst part is that I app**** for fibre in good faith and have been punished with a customer service nightmare that I never expected - even my poor 83-year-old mother is suffering as a result of Telkom's incompetence as she now has a fibre connection in her name that she cannot afford, never ordered, doesn't want and can't even use. I just don't know what to do. It's terrible to feel so helpless and one cannot even escalate the problem. All one has to do is keep paying and waiting for something to happen.
Telkom. if I could give you a negative rating I would. I am still waiting for someone to contact me in response to this issue and, if this doesn't happen timeously, I will lodge a complaint with the Consumer Complaints Commission of South Africa, find an arbitrator and take every means necessary to have my complaint sorted out. I cannot believe that I have to resort to such lengths to simply get the service that I ordered and paid for, and to cancel a service that I didn't order and didn't pay for.
This issue has taken up so much of my time already that it's ridiculous. It's ******** what Telkom is doing to me.
It is now Friday afternoon and nobody has yet contacted me. I received a missed call from someone who could have been Telkom - part of me hopes it was - but I was driving and couldn't take the call. No message was left and nobody called again. All that Yazied of the Social Media Team did was to give me a reference number.
Hooray! Hallelujah! A reference number! How wonderfully helpful! My problem is solved...
...no it's not. I'm still sitting with fibre that isn't working, my mother is still sitting with a router that she doesn't want and the fear of being billed R799 a month (which for a pensioner is horrific) and I am feeling more and more hopeless with every passing moment.
I am so despondent and frustrated that I don't know what to do. It is IMPOSSIBLE to get anyone from Telkom to contact or help me. Call centre agents keep passing the buck, the store doesn't help, the fibre installation people can't help... I feel like I am dealing with the worst company in the world. I have honestly never had such appalling customer service in my life. The worst part is that I app**** for fibre in good faith and have been punished with a customer service nightmare that I never expected - even my poor 83-year-old mother is suffering as a result of Telkom's incompetence as she now has a fibre connection in her name that she cannot afford, never ordered, doesn't want and can't even use. I just don't know what to do. It's terrible to feel so helpless and one cannot even escalate the problem. All one has to do is keep paying and waiting for something to happen.
Telkom. if I could give you a negative rating I would. I am still waiting for someone to contact me in response to this issue and, if this doesn't happen timeously, I will lodge a complaint with the Consumer Complaints Commission of South Africa, find an arbitrator and take every means necessary to have my complaint sorted out. I cannot believe that I have to resort to such lengths to simply get the service that I ordered and paid for, and to cancel a service that I didn't order and didn't pay for.
This issue has taken up so much of my time already that it's ridiculous. It's ******** what Telkom is doing to me.
At last someone contected me and I am now connected. Thank you so much! I will have to wait and see what happens with the second billing, though...
At last someone contected me and I am now connected. Thank you so much! I will have to wait and see what happens with the second billing, though...
The five stars apply to three wonderful people, Phiwe from Sales, Melvinique from Technical Support and Louise from Head Office, who combined to sort my problem out quickly and efficiently. Thank you for helping me - you don't know how grateful I am.
The five stars apply to three wonderful people, Phiwe from Sales, Melvinique from Technical Support and Louise from Head Office, who combined to sort my problem out quickly and efficiently. Thank you for helping me - you don't know how grateful I am.