Telkom Woes

I have been a faithful customer for Telkom ADSL for almost three years now. I had been watching as Fibre was being rolled out in our complex and was considering whether to remain with Telkom or not. When Telkom called me to move to fibre I was ready and made the move. It was the biggest mistake I made. Here are the challenges I faced

1. The device was not delivered within the 5 days reported. I had to call in and first time was advised that device had been sent to courier and was give a tracking number. I called the courier who advised no such tracking number existed. I then called back to Telkom where another consultant advised they currently did not have stock but really could not advise when they would get stock. So began my almost daily calls to Telkom. 2. Finally in one of the calls I made Telkom advised the device was with the courier and that the courier had tried to contact me to no avail. I had received no phone call or sms so I opted to physically go and collect from courier. Although the parcel had my name it had someone else's address and they were calling a different phone number all together. 3. Finally I had fibre but did not have a username password. For almost three weeks Telkom could not provide me with a simple username password for the service. Initially the issue was no TIN was created. Finally the service was linked to my existing ADSL service which had a soft cap which resulted in my fibre being throttled. I called in and was advised this would be resolved. To date this has not been resolved and as I type the throttling has kicked in again even though I am on an uncapped package. 4. To make things worse in March I was one day late in making payment and my service was suspended. Once payment was received however services came back up but 3 days after payment confirmed received by Telkom they sent me to Debt Collectors then began a week of proving that I had paid even though Telkom acknowledged payment. 5. Fair enough I was late in making payment and all was sorted after a week. However just before Heritage Day Holiday my internet service was no longer working and Tech advised that it was suspended and could only be resolved after the holiday when accounts were back. I sent a message to twitter account who escalated the issue and on Heritage day I was back online 6. For April I was charged nearly ZAR 6000 when I was expecting at most 1600, 800 for the ADSL and 800 for the Fibre. In the one month they included fibre installation fee and device fee which I had been advised would not be owing immediately but spread out over a contract period. I did not appreciate the dishonesty, but was willing to pay so as to not be beholden to Telkom. 7. The icing on the cake for me is the recent throttling and being advised by support to call Sales the next day a full two months after the sale and my fibre is not configured correctly

Here are the issues I am not happy with 1. Dishonesty - I was informed the service was for an amount more or less 800 per month. I queried this specifically however was surprised to be charged the full amount up front. - I was informed the device would be dispatched in 5 days and it was not. When calling in I was advised that the device had been sent to courier when it had not and more so there was no stock. So why make the promises without stock 2. Confusion - The device was finally shipped to courier with correct name but wrong address and cellphone number - When calling into IT they validate who you are but still ask for TIN numbers and VT numbers. It would seem like the different departments are different companies altogether because this is information they should have on file. Indeed even the Telkom shop seems at odds to explain which 'Telkom' called me with the offer. There is definite fragmentation and confusion here. In dealing with Debt Collectors it seemed they may as well be on another planet, Telkom would agree I owe nothing but seem at odds how from a system point of view to communicate this to the Debt collectors and vice versa. 3. Lack of communication - I had to literally spend hundreds if not between 1000 and 2000 rand on calls to Telkom where on certain days they do not get picked up and at other times with wait times close to an hour. The chat facility does not seem to work, Indeed the even the call back does not at least for me. - There is no proper customer facing view of tracking of an order once placed

On their end however I have to acknowledge 1. Once a service is properly configured and running they deliver value as I experienced with my ADSL. However once you experience an issue or product is not yet set up you may experience the same hellish experience. 2. The @TelkomZa Social Media Special Forces are a great help and quick to respond. However they seem only able to escalate, tracking after that is a black hole.

It is for the particularly bad customer service that I have decided to leave Telkom. In particular waiting a full day for resolution if issues is a deal breaker for me. I do hope the divorce goes through without any issues.