The joys of the Telkom billing department.

So this has been my experience with Telkom so far,

Got a shoddy, intermittent service, LTE package from them in April 2016. Struggled along with low speeds during peak hours and constant interruptions in service until September 2017. Finally, Vumatel started their excavations in hour neighborhood for Fibre.

I immediately contact Telkom to find out how much the premature cancellation will cost me, and get told by two different consultants that my contract is on a month-to-month basis and there will be no cancellation fee/penalty. Only a one month written notice period.

Mid December my Fibre gets installed by Vumatel and I sign a contract with Cybersmart. On 30 December I use the online chat assistance to open a case for cancellation. There i get told to send the cancellation form and necessary documents to both the Mobile and Landline cancellation departments, both inboxes return the email as they are full. After this i go back to the online chat assistance and am told that they will open a case for the cancellation. Head to the branch to try and sort it out there, but am instructed to send the email again as they (Telkom Cape Gate) can't do anything from the store.

While in store I send the email and get the same inbox full error message, which I then show the consultant. She then instructs me to install the Telkom app and stop the service there. Under instruction I install the app, register my account and suspend the service. She then says it will take a few days to reflect but that should be the end of it. Get home to find that the LTE has stopped working and think I'm in the clear...

Only to receive a bill for February (AKA the month after January, which was supposed to be my cancellation month). Head back to Telkom Cape Gate only to find out that not only has my contract not been stopped, but there has never been a single case opened. This after I sent it to 4 different telkom email addresses. (Two being the landline and mobile cancellations and two other consultants that promised me they would open the cancellation case.

I received a call from a manager today (08/02/2018) informing me that my contract is not on a month-to-month basis as I had been told in September, and that if I wanted to cancel it now, I would have to pay February though April as well as a yet to be disclosed "Penalty fee" which said manager estimates to be around R800.

This is utterly ridiculous. I worked out my budget and used most of my December bonus to finally have trouble internet. I based my plans off the information provided by their consultants and have been left with two internet packages that I have to pay for. While they still haven't reactivated the "suspended" LTE that I am now still forced to pay for.