Telkom service debacle finally resolved
Sick woman battles bureaucracy
TELKOM has apologised to an elderly woman after she battled to sort out issues with her new Telkom cordless phone for the past four months.
Maya Sewpal-Singh, 74, told The Mercury that for the past four months, she has been battling to get Telkom to provide her with better service.
Sewpal-Singh, who is a cancer patient and stroke survivor, said that at the beginning of August last year, Telkom had called to offer her a cordless phone to replace her landline.
She said that before the cordless phone arrived, her landline had been disconnected and her number allocated to another customer.
“I battled to get transport and went to Telkom in Overport with my phone account and my ID to prove the number was mine, and they said all they could do is send an email because a technician needs to change the number back,” she said.
Singh said that more than two months had gone by and they “didn’t convert it back” to her name.
“Eventually I asked a friend of a friend who knew someone at Telkom to help transfer my number back into my name,” she said.
The phone arrived about a month ago, according to Singh
“The cordless phone requires a SIM card, but no SIM card was provided. I tried to charge the phone, but the battery did not work. Telkom advised me to go to the store to sort out the problem,” Singh said.
Meanwhile, another agent called to offer her the same cordless phone and after explaining her issues, the agent promised to send her a new one.
“I’m still waiting,”she said, adding that Telkom had been deducting instalments for the unused cordless phone from the R2000 credit she had with them.
“Over the past four months they have been billing me for a phone I am unable to use. How can they do all this to an elderly person who is sick, has no means of transport and is not savvy with cellphones?” Singh asked.
Telkom spokesperson Nomalungelo Faku said they regretted the inconvenience caused to Sewpal-Singh.
“We are working to resolve issue.”
She said Telkom was in the process of upgrading technologies for fixed voice and DSL services to enable a better customer experience.
“The cordless phone operates using mobile technologies and a SIM card is delivered with the cordless phone,” said Faku. She added that there was no cost for the change in the handset.
“Customers who experience problems with their wireless phones should log a fault online so that we can resolve the issue and process credits accordingly,” she said.
◆ Contact Telkom Customer Care at 10210@telkom.co.za or call 10210.
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