Costly and ineffective response to koi problem borders on fishy
I AM not sure if this falls in your remit, but I will ask anyway.
We recently took over a koi pond and had an issue with the koi – we ended up with a company that was very helpful on the phone and came out to the property to check the fish.
At no time did they advise of a callout fee, but they went into overdrive and started pumping our pond with their products – not once advising the cost. They then said all was well and left, but a few hours later three more fish died, so I called and they returned – again, no mention of a cost They again went into overdrive pumping the pond with their products.
In reality, our issue was chlorine poisoning and we needed to neutralise that, but certainly did not need all these products which were also added to another pond that had no fish!
They have proceeded to charge me for two call-outs and for lots of their product. This has come to R7500.
Is it legal?
I was very emotional as my fish were dying, but can they do this and present me such a high bill and despite their actions another three fish died? So seven fish were lost in total but all were due to chlorine poisoning and all that was needed was to neutralise the chlorine.
On a plus, we purchased a water-testing kit and are monitoring the pond ourselves which has stabilised. Our remaining fish look happy.
Georgie: I love my job – there’s always something new! This crowd didn’t quote first, as they are lawfully required to, you never agree to any costs, and they didn’t help the situation – they worsened it. I wouldn’t pay them.
A letter to Telkom’s chief executive
DEAR Mr Maseko, I am trying to change to fibre optic with Vumatel as the host. This has been going on since June. Every time I phone one of your call centre agents, I am given different advice. Here is a small piece of history:
Vumatel installed their fibre optic box in August. A courier company delivered a Telkom router on August 30. Same day, I received an SMS from Telkom that my order number was receiving attention. The next day, I received an SMS that my line was ready for use. This service would be billed, pro rata, from the 31st.
On September 3, I called Telkom. They said they’d mail Vumatel and send a technician to connect the router. On the 14th, Telkom said they still didn’t have an option to send a technician, I must call 10210 for technical support. On the 19th, I received a call from a Telkom technician, who was trying to help me (being technically challenged at 70), but it didn’t work and I was told to get a private technician to assist me.
My neighbour, who is an IT specialist, came to my house today and was on the phone with Telkom trying to get the router up and running and connected to Vumatel. He was told someone at Telkom would phone back. We are still waiting.
This is beyond disgusting. I have been a customer of Telkom for 30 years, and when I applied for fibre optic all my friends warned me to cancel Telkom due to your poor service.