Hellish Telkom must get its lines in order

IN response to the report on the agreement between Telkom and Old Mutual to offer products such as funeral cover —“Crossing telecoms lines can pay off” (March 27) — I suggest that Telkom rather improve its customer service to avoid losing business.

Recently, I tried to contact Telkom on the 10210 service number. For two days, no one responded or the line just went dead. Fed up, I decided to discontinue my landline.

A visit to a Telkom customer service centre confirmed that staff are not interested in helping customers. They refused to arrange for a disconnection and just handed me a form to e-mail to cancellations.

I e-mailed the form — on which I had also complained about the 10210 situation — on February 9 and again on February 17, but only one was actually read: on March 8.

On March 24, the line eventually went dead.

But I was astonished when Telkom then SMSed me on my cellphone saying: “We are saddened to see that you are cancelling your service and hope that you will soon activate your line again.”

My cellphone number and e-mail address were quoted, and guess what followed? “If these details are incorrect please phone 10210 to rectify.” What a joke. — Richard Smith, Dullstroom TELKOM has gone from being one of the best service providers in South Africa to absolute rubbish.

Its website and call centres are dysfunctional, and service is bad.

It sends out sim cards for ADSL customers to use when roaming. The part of its website where you activate them does not work. My sympathies with Old Mutual. — John R Murphy, by e-mail