Worst customer service in South Africa

<p>For 9 days now we have had no ADSL connection. Fault was logged the same day that there was an issue. We were first told that scheduled maintenance was being done in the area. Then later that day we called and were told that the scheduled maintenance was finished. We went through all the troubleshooting over the phone and still no joy. I even connected a different router to make sure that it was definitely the line. At that point the fault was logged. It was a Thursday. Everyday till this week Monday I called and was told that the fault is still at the testing station. Eventually it was "escalated". Tuesday I called again and still the same response, nobody can give you any feedback as to how long it will take to be sorted out. On Wednesday I called again and was told that the technician was given the fault at noon and he would sort out the problem the next day. Thursday late afternoon I called again to find out what is happening. They try to call the technician and cannot get hold of him. I try again later same thing. At about 16h30 (I would assume about knock-off time) the technician eventually answers his phone and the call centre agent tells me that he he has 2 business lines to attend in the morning and then he will sort out our line. Friday comes and I still receive no call from the technician in the afternoon to say he is coming. I call the call centre again, agent says he cannot call the technician, I tell the call centre agent that all the other agents were calling him. Agent says I should be patient and wait for the technician! 9 DAYS AND I SHOULD BE PATIENT! I tell agent I will not get off the line until somebody tells me what is going on. Technician gets called again (after I was told by agent that he cannot contact technician) still not answering. I decide to wait and see what happens. At 16h00 still no technician, call again. Technician apparently still not answering phone, but I get told that he has already been on site and tested the line and that the voice line is ok, but the ADSL line is not balanced, whatever that means. He says that he only deals with voice lines and not internet, so the fault must be allocated to a technician that does internet. This really angered me because from day one I have said that voice works and the problem is internet, so why would a voice technician be sent. Once again agent says that I cannot get a date for when my issue will be resolved. We have fulltime students in the house also I do freelance web design work, so this is a great inconvenience financially as well as a huge hinderance to studies, assignments etc. I asked to speak to a superior, but I am told he is on lunch. Also Telkom call centre cannot contact operations manager by phone, only by internal email. What kind of telecommunications company cannot even communicate between departments. Also there is no way as a customer to contact any department except for the call centre. Eventually I get to speak to a call centre supervisor who assures me that he will do his best to get a technician out over the weekend. He gives me his email address and tells me I can correspond with him directly. I find out that he is leaving at 17h30 and will not even be working the weekend! I give him the benefit of the doubt and hang up. When I then try to email him, the email he gave me bounces!</p> <p>I can never recommend Telkom to anybody, I am seriously considering changing to a wireless service provider. I cannot complain about Telkom's service as there is no service to complain about.</p>