Telkom ****** Sim card nightmare

<p>I have an ADSL line with Telkom. I only use it for the internet and my monthly payment is R429 p/m according to the contract. With the contract I received 2 cellphone sim cards. I do not use these cards and they have been lying in a drawer n my house for the last 2 years. When I received my Telkom bill this month the bill was already R2900 by the 7th of November. <br />It turned out someone had ****** one of the sim cards from my house and was using it to great effect. I discovered this on Monday 14 November when I received my bill via email.<br />I promptly went to the Telkom store in St Georges, Cape Town. The staff was very friendly and after explaining my problem (of wanting to suspend the sim card) I was told I must fill in a cancellation form. I filled in the form but was then told it will take 30 days for this to into effect. I explained that I could not wait 30 days as the person was busy running up a massive bill on my account and needed to stop it immediately. I was then told that I can do a sim swap as this will have an immediate effect. They tried to to a swap in store, but I was told the system is "offline" I they can't do it. They told me they will try again later and let me know when this has been done. I needed to get back to work and they promised to call me.<br />Nobody called that day. I returned to the store the next day (Tuesday) asking if the card has been swapped. It wasn't. Apparently they couldn't do the swap because I filled in the cancellation form (but nobody told me this). I explained again that I needed to stop this card ASAP. <br />I was then told that I can get the card cancelled, but they couldn't do it in store, I needed to phone some number. I demanded that they make the phone call and sort it out. They made the call and put me on the line with another Telkom person (not sure who or where they phoned). I gave my details, explained teh problem and gave them the number of the sim card that needed cancelling. I was told it will take 24-48 hrs and that they will let me know. Nobody contacted me.<br />On Friday I looked for a number I could call to report the issue with Telkom. I could find no number for reporting theft and the cancellation of cards etc. I tried calling the IT department and was put in an endless loop of people passing me on from the one to the other. I was on the phone for about 30min and spoke to about 10 people. Nobody could tell me what to do, how to get the card cancelled or how to resolve the issue. <br />At this point I walked down to the other Telkom branch (Longmarket). The guy there was very helpfull and couldn't understand why the other branch couldn't help me. It turned that the card was still active at this stage. He also suggested I do a sim swap. It would take about 2-3 hrs forit to go through, and I will receive an sms. I received none. I went back this morning (Sat 19 Nov) and was told the sim swap didn't happen because the systems were down yesterday?? He put the request through again. I have now spent 6 days trying to get a sim card cancelled that has been ****** from my property. I have been unable to do so. I am going to receive a massive bill at the end of this month and Telkom will expect me to pay it. This is utterly unacceptable. <br />If my credit card gets ******, I call the bank ***** department and the card gets stopped immediately. How is it possible that Telkom cannot have a ***** department that deals with issues like this. If there is such a department, nobody told me about it. How is it possible that a sim card cannot be stopped. How is it possible that every time I try and do a sim swap, the systems are "offline" (this is Telkom, they are the system after all). <br />At this point I do not know what to do, I am at the mercy of Telkom. I want this sim card stopped and my bill adjusted.</p> <p>Richard Coetzee</p>