Telkom Shmelkom. ****************!

I am never one to complain, moan or whine about services, because I always try to understand both sides & always give benefit of the doubt. It is actually out of pure desperation, exasperation and sheer frustration that I am taking this to Hello Peter.

I have never in my life experienced such ********* service - Literally to the point of ***** & *****th!

I started my contract with Telkom just over 2 years ago & had wonderful service at the Garden Route branch (D'Angelo was his name - Extremely helpful and amazing). Unfortunately, this is where the customer satisfaction ended entirely. Everything went smoothly for about a year - I paid my phone bill every month, including insurance (in fact, I always paid over and above, just because I like being in the green). Then I went to Swaziland for 6 months, and I did not make use of my Telkom sim card AT ALL & continued to pay, understanding that I would lose out on the package because I was not in the country. Then I came back to South Africa & discovered that Telkom was charging me bizarre "out of data bundle rates" & my account was billed with the excess of R1000. I took it up with them, & for months I struggled with them because they insisted that the problem was on my side. They subsequently hard locked my number & I have not used it since. It was eventually out of pure frustration that they were taking debit orders out of my account (Which I never even authorized in the first place!) - That I eventually paid in full the lump amount that they claimed I spent. Even though my sim card was not even in my phone!

Because they had hard locked my sim throughout our debacle, I had since bought a pre-paid sim from another provider & was using that as my main line. I continued to pay my monthly premium, waiting it out until I could exit my bind with Telkom, despite me not even being able to use the service.

Then it came time for me to cancel my account. My account is up for renewal & following Telkom's cancellation conditions, I cancelled my account with them online, within the stipulated time frame & I received a confirmation of my cancellation. I breathed a sigh of relief, now not having to deal with them ever again. But, suprise suprise - I get a notification this month that Telkom AGAIN has taken money out of my account and gone ahead on ANOTHER unauthorized debit order!!!! I am sick and tired of them *****ing my money, I am sick and tired of waiting on the line for hours for customer service to help me (and they NEVER do), I am sick and tired of dealing with the same attitude, the same stock-standard responses, and I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Honestly, this is ridiculous. I never in my life have experienced anything like this. I never complain, but I am at the end of my means. Something needs to be done about this!!

Something's gotta give??! I'm just disappointed. South African's time and money is worth more than this.