Telkom! You're at our mercy!

Telkom has got to be worse than dealing with home affairs, they are shocking. Firstly they increase the amount of your contract, half way through the contract which I am sure they have 'fine print' which allows them to do so, but I do think it should be ******** because I can't get out of that contract or change anything half way through but they can. Anyway they increased it from R800 to R806 even though my debit order was for R800 which meant that the R6 went unpaid for months and months and has now, with interest, amounted to about R529. Yesterday I get an sms for an unidentified number that some account of mine has been suspended for non payment. I eventually googled the wording of the sms to try and find out who it is and what it was for and one of the options that came up was TELKOM, even though the account number in the sms doesn't match my account number. So they have chosen to disconnect now when everyone is in lockdown and I am working from home and need the data cause our TV runs solely off data as well. Fair enough then, the ********* R6 needed to be paid each month and I hadn't, so I rush off and I pay R600 which is more than what was owing. I get home and the internet is still working so I think perhaps they sent the sms to the wrong person. No, the didn't. I wake up this morning and sure enough, the internet has been chopped. This is when the ****show begins. So I try to call the 10210 number to get an email address address to send proof of payment through to. They have a message about it being lockdown and that they are on skeleton staff and it may take a while to answer the phone. It's a lie! The fact is that I tried for over 20 minutes and no one answered the phone. It's funny how they have enough staff to chop the connection, but not enough to answer the phone. Next I decide it will be easier to just shoot to the pavilion branch and go show them my proof of payment and it will be much easier that way. After explaining the situation to the bouncer at the door, he eventually lets me in and I get my ticket. When I finally get to see someone I explain the situation again and she starts telling me something about them not sending emails anymore, therefore they cant do anything. I explained to her that I needed it for work and so she picked up one of the mobile phones and started dialing into the call centre that I couldn't get hold of. So I confirmed if that was what she was doing and she said yes. I said to her don't bother then cause I can do that at home and not run the risk of contracting the virus rather. So why didn't the bouncer tell me that they couldn't help me with my problem instead of me having to wait in a queue. I go home and get back on the call centre number which rings and rings and plays lovely voice messages over and over again. One of the voice messages eventually says that if you paid via eft or easipay then you will have to wait for the payment to 'line up with their system'. I'm told this is 48 hours. So let me translate what that message actually means...You are now at Telkoms mercy and even though the ********* payment is now up to date, there is nothing you can do about it and you just have to hope like HELL that someone in this reduced staff compliment, after 48 hours, see's your payment and bothers to do anything about it. Hold thumbs! If that is the case then why don't they give you 48 hours notice of disconnection?

My only consolation is that I am told that the fibre in our area will be connected up in about a month and then I will be straight on the Mweb website for a fibre deal, and I know it's all on telkoms infrastructure, but at least I wont have to put up with **** service anymore!!!! I can't understand how a company operates like that where you can't send someone a proof of payment. Its absolutely shocking!!!!