Unhelpful TELKOM personnel - even the IVR system is unhelpful!

My aunt, recently widowed, requested a Land Line in Heidelberg, Gauteng. She was told to pay a “Deposit” at the Post Office, as TELKOM does NOT have a store in Heidelberg.

On 20 July the Post Office personnel told us that they cannot help us as the INFO in the SMS (sent by TELKOM!) was insufficient.

The Deposit was then paid at Telkom, Benoni on the 23rd of July 2018. (After going to Telkom East Rand Mall who DO NOT answer their phones! – I was told they cannot help me either!)

Here is a Copy of Telkom SMS- “Telkom SA: Dear Customer, to enable us to process with your service installation, a deposit of 700.0 is required to be paid within 7 days on BAN number ***. To make an EFT payment please use the following ref: ****. Thank you for y”

I was under the impression that everything would now be OK… as Telkom now has the R700.00 they need to do the installation of a Land Line.

Unfortunately Telkom keep sending reminder SMS’s to my 69year old aunt, who just lost her husband, at 3H00am in the MORNING! (or middle of the night!) The Reminders are for her to pay her deposit! ??? The latest SMS actually stated that: as she has not paid the deposit that the request for a land line will now be cancelled!?!?!

We tried to phone but to get to speak to a person takes forever… and then when you get to speak to someone, they promise to sort the problem or to send an e-mail with detail & confirmation received payment and with an installation date.

TELKOM is the worst company to get any assistance from by a REAL person! My aunt does not have a land line, if she uses her pay-as-you-go cell, her airtime for the month is used up by holding and waiting BEFORE she can speak to an available person. She needs to beg others to use their phones, and this is becoming a real issue!

I also sent e-mails to various people in Telkom who promised to e-mail us but so fare had NO joy!

I would LOVE to ask the CEO of TELKOM you to try, like us normal people, to contact ANY of the TELKOM shops, offices or Call Centres for ANY issue and see how long he has to wait for someone to talk to, … this is IF he gets past the automated answering system… then once the problem is explained... they say that they cannot help blaming the system as being slow. They promise to get back to you or to send an e-mail, but you will still waiting for weeks, if not months! Then on top of all the hassles TELKOM's automated SMS gets sent every other night @ 3H00 am, harassing you for payment, which was already done weeks before.