Dealing with Telkom is a never-ending battle

I am a recent Telkom client. I am writing this both as a record and as a form of protection against Telkom taking any action against me for non-payment in the future.

This is the only recourse I believe I have as all other reasonable avenues have failed and I am left vulnerable to Telkom doing with me as they wish.

I have discovered that I am only one of many of Telkom’s clients experiencing the same problems as I am, from which I can only conclude that this is Telkom’s standard operating procedure and I, therefore, have no alternative than to literally protect myself against their business strategies and processes.

I have diligently pursued every option available to resolve my situation and nothing has worked.

A gazillion reference numbers have proved useless and, in my particular circumstances, have only confused the issue.

I installed a telephone on February 24, 2018, and signed a two-year contract with Telkom for the R799 per month uncapped wi-fi and landline option.

It took about a month from the technician’s first attempt to get my connectivity operational. In addition, the technician did not have a router for me as no stock was available for him. I, therefore, had to travel to the Telkom branch in Cresta to collect a router and he had to make the waste of an unnecessary visit to install the router.

I have a company which provides recruitment services to the engineering, manufacturing, IT, and renewable energy sectors.

My business had to be virtually started from scratch in 2018 as the challenges of the past six years have included a battle with cancer and Crohn’s disease which, to a large extent, incapacitated me. In other words, I am right now in a season of rebuilding my life.

I have included this information in this e-mail to indicate my personal additional urgency, other than the obvious urgency for a business to have reliable connectivity.

I needed to relocate at the end of May 2018, which meant that I needed to transfer my Telkom services to a new address.

I contacted Telkom to find out how to efficiently arrange the transfer of my service. To my massive surprise, my Telkom service was cancelled/cut off on May 19, 2018.

On May 21 I visited Telkom Cresta to enquire about having the connection reinstated.

I was informed by the manager that this was not possible and he really tried very hard to assist me. However, the service was reconnected the same day, but only for about 12 hours.

That day, an area technician called me to arrange the installation of my service. He said he was going to go to the site and then contact me to arrange a date and time for the installation. He did not call me back.

On May 23, 2018 I called the technician to make arrangements and he told me he was unable to install the service as the cables were stolen in December already and there was no connectivity at all.

I cannot understate the massive negative results in terms of financial loss, stress and powerlessness that this has all meant for me.

How is it possible that a new telephone number could have been allocated to an area where no telephone service exists?

How is it possible that Telkom’s system did not have this information available for its employees? How is it possible that this information was not available on Telkom’s website connectivity map?

I did everything in my power to ensure that all was in place for a smooth service transfer.

On June 3, I spent about two hours at the Greenstone branch, trying to sort my situation out. A significant part of this time was spent on the telephone with the call centre. Between the manager and the call centre agent the decision was made the only way forward for me would be to cancel my Telkom account. The call centre lady “actioned” the cancellation.

On June 25 I again met with Wilson, as I had received an invoice, and we discovered that the cancellation was not even on the Telkom system and that, therefore, nothing had been actioned.

He started the cancellation process again and he and I have been in e-mail contact since then.

My only solution to sort out the mess is to find other service providers and to close my bank account so that Telkom cannot debit my account. If this was not happening to me I would not believe it is actually even possible.

The days I have lost, the money spent on parking, travelling, telephone calls, writing this letter, unbelievable stress, business opportunities lost, is huge for me. It is criminal that it should be so.

It is unconscionable, unethical and detrimental to a South Africa which is trying so hard to recover from a recession that I and other Telkom users should be experiencing this abuse.

All the Telkom personnel I have dealt with have been extremely helpful and tried very hard to assist me. I’ve come to recognise a look and demeanour of defeat and powerlessness against a system which disempowers them to do their jobs and forces them to have to deal with frustrated and angry clients on a daily basis. I have come to pity them and wonder about the stress the managers and their staff take home with them at the end of their workdays.