Chris Nelson, Milnerton Ridge
Well to Mr Jeffries I can fully commiserate with your situation.
I have, for the last seven months, had issues with Telkom not sending statements to me via email as well (“Poor call from Telkom,” Tabletalk letters, August 31).
My situation has required me to phone Telkom every month in regard to non-receipt and to request a statement, which is then sent. On each and every occasion, the call-centre employee has confirmed Telkom will fix the billing system. But to no avail.
Approximately three months ago, I managed to get hold of an employee who did give a hoot, and she explained that at the beginning of the year Telkom’s IT department had sent out a letter to all clients receiving statements by email to ask whether they still wanted them, and should the client not respond, the email statement service would be discontinued. I was gobsmacked.
1) I did not and have never received such a mail and, 2) Where does Telkom get off sending ultimatums to clients? Hello, they are a communications company, why didn’t they call and speak to me? It’s not as though they don’t know me. On this occasion, I was assured all would be sorted with the IT department. As you can read from the tone of my letter, this fix still hasn’t happened. I have made many calls to the call centre, insisted on discussing the matter with various supervisors and have escalated my complaints on more than two occasions to the Telkom escalation centre.
I received automated responses indicating I would get a response, but, in line with the rest of the non-service from Telkom, I have been ignored. Left messages to supervisors go unanswered.
I have tried to take the matter up with Telkom at the Century City and Bayside offices. However, they do not and will not deal with my complaint issues. I have kept some records of times and emails of my complaint if anyone would be interested, but I am sure they won’t.
Things seem to be going so badly at Telkom that the Bayside shop assistant even informed me they were out of stock of telephones for the landlines and had been for weeks, but the warehouse just doesn’t send any. Telkom appears to be reduced to selling mobile phones and airtime only. I am so disgusted with Telkom I have decided to switch to fibre optics and will, in future, make calls everywhere on VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) equipment at reduced call costs and no Telkom account issues. So, Telkom, you lose yet another long-term customer.
* Tabletalk sent Mr Nelson’s letter to Telkom on Monday September 5 for comment. At the time of going to print, they had not responded. The response will be published when we receive it.
