Communications giant Telkom has come under fire for their apparently poor customer care service.
Several consumers have complained about Telkom's failure to promptly address their contract cancellations.
Some clients claim Telkom has continued to bill them, despite terminating their phone or ADSL line.
Others claim that the service provider takes too long to attend to faulty connections or deliver on cellphone deals.
Read: Is your business listed in the white pages? Beware of scammers posing as Telkom
Consumer journo Wendy Knowler says although network providers generate loads of complaints in general, Telkom has been cropping up more than usual.
Knowler says that social media is awash with complaints about spurious billing and cancelled Telkom contracts.
@TelkomZA I’m not happy with the process of Telkom when I need to cancel my service with them; I get signed up for service over the phone but have to jump through hoops to get my service cancelled.
— Henry Goliath (@fl3ght) April 11, 2018
Telkom is slowly but surely becoming a terrible network provider
— Shonny Jnr (@shonie_SA) April 10, 2018
The service at Telkom is bad. Logged a call to have my wifi and landline fixed its been 3 weeks and nothing. Telkom should do better. Seriously thinking of changing service providers. @TelkomZA
— Nosipho Makhakhe (@NosiphoMakhakhe) April 11, 2018
Spent 30mins of my life on hold trying to reach @TelkomZA to get my money back they stole from me. Still unable to reach them and @ICASA_org rejected my claim. Help Anyone? #telkom #LTE #thirdworldproblems
— Eric Uys (@ericuys) April 11, 2018
Stellenbosch resident Joubert van Eeden says his credit record was affected by Telkom's incorrect billing, months after he cancelled his contract.
Van Eeden terminated his contract on 15 September 2017 and Telkom only closed the line on 20 January 2018.
Also read: 5 things you need to know about ending your gym or cellphone contract
He was billed over R1 800 for four months of service he was not using.
In March, external debt collectors began harassing him to pay for the money.
That very same month, his credit card application was rejected because of negative information on his credit record.
According to Van Eeden, both the Telkom customer service on social media and the helpline 10210 have not been helpful.
Many frustrated Telkom clients have shared similar stories about their contracts.
I filled out the service cancellation from in September and sent it in. I phoned Telkom and supplied the form. The next month I got bill.
— Joubert van Eeden, Telkom client and industrial engineer
I kept on getting these bills. I phone them and it continued. Everytime I spoke to their call centre agents they told me that they would escalate it, and nothing happened.
— Joubert van Eeden, Telkom client and industrial engineer
They said that they'd look into it and get back to me. I'm still waiting until today. It's been quite a long and lengthy exercise.
— Joubert van Eeden, Telkom client and industrial engineer
It took eight months to get everything sorted out. It had to be escalated right to the top.
— Claire, Telkom client
It took me 18 months to affect my Telkom cancellation. I escalated it week after week. I even got calls from an attorney.
— Telkom client via WhatsApp
The telecoms giant claims that their new online cancellation service is having "teething problems".
Telkom declined an invitation to respond to consumer complaints on the Pippa Hudson Show.
Listen to Wendy Knowler share her advice and consumers relay their experiences on ConsumerTalk:
I honestly have never encountered such horrible service like Telkom. Ever
— Reabetswe Khiba (@Rea_ManUtd) April 11, 2018
I deliberately created an ad on behalf of Telkom to express my frustration as they were refusing to cancel my contract. #ThePowerOfBranding A day later and my case has been resolved! pic.twitter.com/a6irWnYyOR
— sibeezy (@sibeezy) April 11, 2018
Telkom’s network is so sad 😪
— Sethu (@xo_sethu) April 9, 2018
No network provider is worse than Telkom
— jeauxminatrix✨ (@Mijeaux) April 8, 2018
Telkom though ngeke @TelkomZA . a whole week my number has been invalid. A whole week, business yam suffered due to this.
— NdineFiancè❤ (@cboneloo) April 8, 2018
