No landline, therefore I’m not paying Telkom a cent

I’VE HAD an issue with Telkom since December 18. I have logged numerous calls and spoken to numerous Telkom employees without any joy.

Telkom even billed me for a month when my telephone was not working. It is still out of order, but they expect me to settle an account for the period.

I’ve never seen such an organisation like Telkom that totally disrespect its clients. I can now see why people don’t want to do business with Telkom, because of its inefficiency in resolving customers’ service problems.

I logged a call on December 18 and received call reference number 26165605. I waited until December 24 and did a follow-up call and received call reference number 1138155.

There was still no response from Telkom, so I sent an email and was promised that a technician would visit my premises to resolve my query. I’m still waiting.

They inform me every time that they will trouble-shoot their system but I’ve told them on many occasions that a technician will need to visit my premises, because the line is totally dead.

I called Telkom again on December 28 as we had a holiday booked and my house alarm is connected to my house landline, meaning that with the telephone line not working we had a major security risk if my home was left unattended. I received a new call reference number 26248696.

I needed to inform ADT to place a guard at our home for the duration of our holiday, at an additional cost from ADT, just to secure our assets because we know that with the high crime rate in South Africa you can’t leave your premises without any security.

Still no service, and Telkom will expect me to pay at the end of the month for a telephone line that isn’t working, but they are in for a surprise: I’m not paying them a cent, because they have not delivered any service for a payment to be rendered.

They have proved to me that they have no sense of understanding customer service and have no problem in delivering no service to their customers.

They do all these promotions and promises, but it’s all empty.

Telkom, you don’t understand what service quality is and how to deliver quality.

As South Africans, we must be careful as they don’t deliver on their promises.

They will sell you a product, and with service, and then we, as the customer, are left to struggle.

The Telkom call centre is only good at giving you a service request number, which means nothing.

As a result of this behaviour, I’m forced to take alternative measures because Telkom’s service is nonexistent.