Worst service ever - Upgrade Line / Cancel Line

Hi everyone,

I hope potential customers see this and think twice before doing business with Telkom.

I hope that Telkom sees this and someone competent calls me ASAP. And get all the recordings of the calls that they record for “record and quality purposes” to prove that I’m not lying about any of this.

So here is my story...

I have been with Telkom for Years now, if there was Fiber in my area I would have moved away from Telkom a long time ago as I think they are useless, their service are pathetic and dealing with *********** agents.

I started with trying to do an upgrade on my current line. (“Hi Telkom, I want to give you more money, can you please upgrade my line”)

After days turning into weeks of multiple calls to the call center waiting an average time of 20 min for some call center agent to answer the phone and then just passing the buck, trying to chat on the web chat and using the Telkom app and getting different answers and waiting for some kind of progress - nothing done to progress the upgrade I gave up and decided to cancel my DSL line and asked them to put it in the holding pool, so that a better ISP can take over as I’m not getting any service.

Again trying to cancel the line - Days turned into weeks of multiple calls to the call center waiting an average time of 20 min+ for some call center agent to answer the phone and then just passing the buck as he/she does not know what the status of my order is or tells me that it has not been processed at all. Then they escalate it and that does not make any difference. When they give me some sort of update they tell me to call again after 72 Hours. Trying to chat on the web chat and using the Telkom app and getting different answers and waiting for some kind of progress. - Going through the whole process again.

They eventually put my number in the holding pool, but only after I called the wholesale department directly (Not for normal customers) to confirm that the line is indeed in the holding pool ready to be taken over by a different ISP. They told me that my number is in the holding pool but I should get into contact with my new ISP as it will only be in the holding pool for 24 Hours.

It got so bad interacting with Telkom. I would call the call center waiting 20 min + for an answer then they would tell me their systems are down and that they can’t do anything for me. When I called I was put on hold for long periods of time while they figure out what to tell me next. Then when their system was up again they saw that my request has not been processed at all. Another week would go by, and then I would call again to find out that the system is down, or the request/order has been processed now – another 5 days later no response. No confirmation that anything has happened. Call again and go through the whole process again. This whole process went on for weeks.

When I switched to the new ISP they upgraded my line and the whole process was done within 2 days. There were issues with the line speed and they said they will need to log a call to Telkom to come out and look at the DSLAM/Exchange box and the router settings etc. to check noise and other issues causing slow internet. This took more than a week for them to come out and they called me when they were in front of the gate. What if I was not home, nothing was scheduled with me.

The latest issue I have is canceling my VAS / Value added services on my voice line. I found out that I have been paying for VAS for the last few years without even having a telephone. Now that I’m trying to cancel it... It’s been an uphill battle.

The request was logged on the 25 of July - It is now 20 August and this order has not been processed. I would like to get this sorted before the new billing month or else I will have even more fights with Telkom as they will owe me money then. I hope that I can finally put this whole nightmare behind me once and for all.

Telkom you have failed your customers.