Telkom wireless lines - forcing pensioners to "upgrade"

My father, a man of 88, was told that he had to upgrade to the new wireless Telkom landline. No choice - he was told he had to upgrade. Telkom delivered the new phone giving him no help to install it and he had no idea how to do this. At 88 trying to fiddle with sim cards etc. is impossible to do. What he didn't know was they also disconnected his current landline and this left him no way to contact anyone for help with the phone or in the case of an emergency. When we couldn't get hold of him we rushed round to make sure he was OK and thankfully he was.

I have spoken to the Telkom "Helpline" with no success on re-installing the old line, so we were left with no choice, but to set up the new line. Writing an email to the escalation department, as suggested by the Helpline, has given no help as they still haven't rep**** nearly a week later.

The bill for the new line is now R299 before making any calls - he only calls non-Telkom cellphones and these calls are not included in this package. His old bill was less than R150 so he will end up paying twice as much. And before anyone tells me that there is 2 gigs of data included in this package I repeat - the man is 88 he does not and will not use this.

Telkom - you not only put the life of my father in danger, but have punished a loyal customer of 30+ years by doubling his bill, which at his age he can not afford. If you still have any common decency then have the guts to get in touch with me to sort this disgusting and if not ******* then highly disreputable ploy.