UNFAIR TREATMENT OF THE AGED

Im writing this review on behalf of my parents , who are both pensioners, and we have had a Telkom line in our home since I was a little girl, the phone was always there, a part of our day to day life and the fact that now they have cancelled their line with Telkom after decades tells us that Telkom is failing and the treatment of their elderly clients is appalling.

My mom has a Telkom subsciption where for R280 you call anytime Telkom - Telkom and dont get charged an additional fee, this was her way of communicating with us on a daily basis , with family in different provinces this still keeps us all together even during pandemics where we haven't seen each other in almost a year.

Being old school she pays all her bills when she does her grocery shopping once a month at Pick and Pay , and even though Telkom has never sent her a bill shes been easy going and just pays this once off amount every month like clock work without any questions. When we had a major thunderstorm in Durban last week her telephone line went down, Naturally she called Telkom maintenance and they advised her that they will not assist and reconnect her line until she pays the arrears on her account which was outstanding of R4100 , baffled she explained that her payments were made on time and to her understanding her bill is 100% settled.

Bottom line is during the last 6 months there were calls made to a voip line(she was told that it was telkom) that wasnt telkom ,Yes she made them, but as she never received a bill, she continued making them, she never received any feedback from Telkom, a bill or notification , not even a call to ask that she settle an outstanding payment for 6 months, but only finds out when her line goes down. Instead of taking at least some responsibility Telkom has been really rude, advising her that it makes no difference that she is a pensioner and will have to settle the amount in full or they wont reconnect her,but they can assist her and pass her onto the debt department who will make a payment plan for them...REALLY CINDY, is this how you would treat your parents? When she called yesterday she receives one story her contact details are incorrect and she updates them and when she calls back in today, her ID number has changed and the story altogether as you cannot speak to the same person as consultants change(so too does the service levels) from Nonhlanha who at least tried to help yesterday , to Cindy (clearly from Eldos) who was incredibly rude and wouldnt even give her the details of the consultant that she spoke to earlier saying it was privelaged information when she asked for details.

Telkom if this is how you treat our pensioners during these times of disaster where we are trying our best to keep them healthy and stress free , then we really dont need you in our lives, you should come to the party and take at least some of the responsibility as all of us have elderly in our families. Learn from our president - Respect is so important.

My parents still have their children and even though you show no respect for the elderly, we have been taught to respect all of the aged from all walks of life irrelevant of race and culture, maybe you should talk to the elderly, you might just learn something...