Telkom: "You are dropping Telkom calls because of Vodacom"... come again?!

I posted a complaint on Hello Peter regarding my Telkom Mobile calls dropping the entire time on 3 Sept already. I then received a message from a Bronwyn at Telkom to state the usual "were so sorry for the inconvenience caused - we will resolve the problem and get back to you asap" message. Another week or so passed without me hearing back from Bronwyn or anyone else at Telkom again - after which I sent Bronwyn another mail to follow up but no one ever responded to that either - clearly not "really caring/will resolve/will get back to you" as their empty promises stated...

As I can't really hold a call long enough before it drops to pass through the normal Telkom Customer Care Call Centre "we are currently experiencing high call volumes" ordeal I got hold of another email address that is supposed to "go through directly to management" - ********** via another channel to which I then addressed the following long mail just now - only to receive a "mail undelivered due to the receiver's inbox being full" message - go figure - what a joke of a company:

To Whom It May Concern:

I've been experiencing loads of problems the past few months i.t.o. most of my calls dropping, sms's not coming through to my phone or reaching other nrs when send from my phone etc etc etc... for example - my phone has been on the entire day as I've been trying to bring this matter under Telkom's attention (yet again) and my wife Whatsapped me now to say that she's tried calling me 8 times today but couldn't come through once... can you please try to begin to imagine how painstakingly frustrating this is - especially as I've already gone to the extent of publicly complaining about the matter via Hello Peter and even after that still received zero response from Telkom except that "We are so sorry for the inconvenience caused and will attaned to the matter within 72 hours"... please it's probably been 72 days and still nothing has been done! If this doesn't get resolved very soon I'll this gladly spend more time on sharing this ordeal with more of the public via the various social media channels...

The last 2 service request nrs are ********** 6 and ********** .

What frustrates me even more is the fact that I've also been to my local Telkom Direct store (Eikestad Mall in Stellenbosch) 3 times regarding this matter with the floor manager there, Mr Jowan Michaels, simply having blamed the entire the problem on Vodacom even before I even got to explain the entire story to him (he said it happens due to me having ported from Vodacom - even though I probably ported like 9 months ago and the problem only started around 2-3 months ago?! To make things worse he then said that seeing that I've already complained about it via Hello Peter and nothing was done about it all I need to do is to please send him screenshots of the Hello Peter complaint and then he'll "personally" follow up on the matter - along with providing me feedback in regards with my query within 72 hours... nice gesture except that it never happened!!

This was on 21 Sept. I then e-mailed Mr Michaels again 25 Sept (first waiting for the 72 hours to pass) to inform him that I was still experiencing the same problems and that it was in fact only getting worse.

He rep**** saying that "the IT section is busy working on the matter and that he would provide me with feedback that same day still" - which also didn't happen...

I then didn't hear from Mr Michaels or anyone else at Telkom for the following 8 days until I yet again had to contact him from my side (noting that I can't call the Telkom call centres due to the waiting period to get through to an agent being too long - i.e. by that time the call normally already dropped). He rep**** by simply saying "Our IT section already closed your case and that your problem should thus be sorted", and asked whether I still experienced the problem - which of course I did as otherwise I would obviously not have informed him that morning that I still experienced dropped calls the entire time...

He then "re-opened" the case.

I then told him that by simply just going through the same procedure again - which clearly didn't work the first time round (and that it took about 2 weeks instead of the promised 72 hours), you obviously can't expect any different outcome - especially since no one at the IT section ever even phoned or e-mailed me to ask what the exact problem was - or if it was resolved before "closing the case" - and that it was clear that by simply "closing the case" without having done so someone in the IT section is clearly doing an extremely bad job/no job at all - which must be followed up on as I as the customer is now the one still stuck with a serious problem because of it (I run my business from my phone so if my clients can't get hold of me like my wife tried to do today it's not a minor problem! But I did inform Mr Michaels of the urgency of the matter on 21 Sept already!).

I also asked Mr Michaels to please send me the regional manager's contact details - as from his in store colleagues I understood that he himself is the only person in the store with the authority to provide it to me - but as he knew the complaint will include his own job that is not being done efficiently he ***ardly never responded to that mail (yet again)...

I then went to address him again in person in the store earlier today regarding the matter - I wanted to record our conversation in order to have some evidence of the level of service I received from him but he was unwilling to answer any questions whilst being recorded - which again I find extremely ***ardly especially seeing that Telkom's customer care policy is in fact that "all calls are being recorded"??

I told Mr Michaels that I'm not there to fight and that all that I wanted was for the problem to be resolved asap. He then simply logged yet another query - for the 3rd time - after nothing was done to any of the previous queries... with all due respect - how on earth can any "manager" think that that is good enough?? A manager is supposed to manage and resolve problem - not merely convey the same problems over and over and over?! And if he doesn't have any authority to do anything more than simply following the exact useless system as the rest of the staff - why on earth does his job title even state "floor manager" if it doesn't allow him any more authority than the rest of the staff "under" him..?

What frustrated me the most was that when I explained to Mr Michaels that I see it like this and that he is thus not busy doing a good job at all (and that I find his manner extremely hypocritical seeing that the first time I walked into "his" store the message that he made very clear to me is that "Telkom is better than this problem (that he claimed was caused by Vodacom - what a joke - one that I think the media will find extremely funny in case this doesn't get resolved VERY soon!) and seeing that it clearly hasn't been dealt with correctly up to that point "he would personally make sure that it gets sorted out asap" - whilst his actions has been the exact opposite. The cherry on the top was when I asked him to thus please provide me with his superior's contact details (as according to his colleagues in the store he's the only person able to provide me with it) he clearly smirked to the fact that "the Telkom system doesn't allow him to hand out any such contact details" - i.e. according to him there is no-one to whom I can go to to complain about his own personal level of service?! I find this extremely ***ardly and unprofessional and I promised him that I will make sure his superiors does indeed get informed of the service that I've received from him...

I also find it extremely coincidental that the lady to whom Mr Michael was speaking when I walked into the store today was also busy complaining about something that she said was logged months ago but still hasn't been resolved! Please understand that there is competition out there - the days of Telkom's monopoly is over, i.e. if you don't sharpen up on your basic levels of service client's like me and this lady will simply just turn away from Telkom again (cheaper rates doesn't mean anything if it goes along with a bad network and poor levels of service).

It also didn't seem as if Mr Michaels cared about the store or Telkom as a whole too much as I suggested to all the other "clients" in the store at the time that instead of signing any contract with Telkom that they rather walk right next door to any one of the other 3 service providers seeing that they clearly can't expect good service from Telkom - something that he as manager of the store didn't even try and defend in the very least - which just proved the point!

If that is the type of floor manager that Telkom wants running their stores it's not my own worry though - I definitely won't be doing any business there ever again and I'll make sure that now one I know will do either.

What currently still is my problem is the fact that I can't use my phone even though I still need to pay the bill every month - so I will really appreciate it if this can finally be escalated to someone who will actually be able to resolve it... if not, I'll include this mail in my social media posts to demonstrate that lack of service to be expected from Telkom...

Looking forward to hear from you with a solution soon.