Telkom ruined my credit record

Horrible company - they messed up my credit rating by invoicing me the incorrect amount for almost 6 months, and then wouldn't allow me to take out a contract for a new phone (WITH THEM) because my credit rating was bad (the only negative on my credit report is an incorrect Telkom account).

Here is my experience with Telkom:

1. I cancelled my Telkom adsl contract in July 2018. They invoiced me the wrong amount (about 5 times more than I owed them). I disputed the amount on the 20th of July. 2. Telkom ignored various requests for a status update on my dispute, every time saying they would urgently escalate it to the credit team. On the 14th of January 2019 (almost 6 months later) they called me to say my dispute has been resolved and that I would receive an invoice with the correct amount. 3. On the 19th of January, I attempted to take out a Telkom contract for a phone, but was told that I couldn't, as my credit rating was too bad. I explained that it could only be Telkom causing my credit rating to be bad, as I always pay my accounts on time. The clerk at the store logged a dispute for me. 4. On the 20th of January I received an sms that my dispute had been resolved, so I went in to Telkom again. The clerk recommended I pay the final amount on my Telkom adsl contract (which I had not been invoiced for yet). She manually printed an invoice out for me and I paid the account at pick n pay on the same day. The clerk also recommended that I contact Experian to find out why my credit rating was bad. 5. On the 1st of February, I received a mail from Experian saying (incorrectly) that there is no Telkom account reflecting on my credit profile, so I went back to Telkom and told them that the credit rating must be fine now since the account had been paid. The clerk told me their system was still saying that my credit rating was not good enough, and advised that I get a credit report and bring it into the store. She then told me what my credit score would need to be to qualify for the contract I wanted. 6. I app**** for a credit report through clearscore, and got my credit report on the 5th of February. I then found out that my credit score was above the number that the clerk had supp**** to me, and that the only negative on the report was the incorrect amount Telkom had invoiced me for reflecting as unpaid. 7. I went back to Telkom on the 6th of February to show them my credit report, and that the only thing wrong with it was the incorrect Telkom account. The clerk said she will log a dispute and attached some notes detailing how the adsl account dispute had been resolved. 8. Today ****h of February) I received a phone call saying they can offer me the contract only if I pay a massive deposit (30% of the cash price of the phone) that will only be returned after 2 years, even though I was told that if my credit score was above a certain amount (even with the incorrect Telkom account, my credit score was above this amount) I could get the contract.

Terrible company with terrible processes, I have spent hours and hours and hundreds of rands in airtime over the past 6 months trying to accomplish 2 simple things: cancel an old contract and take out a new one.

Do not waste your time with this company.