Telkom staff cant lookup your details at direct store

[akescpt]

so yesterday i found myself in the mall and remembered i needed to pay telkom. last week in somerset they were able to look up my details so that i could make a payment. she tunes me thats a new telkom directive that they cant look up a customers details instore. i tell her thats nonsense since they did it for me last week. she reckons its been like this for a month already.

now if i had walked in there with a problem without an account how will the sales\service desk help me? how does a company operate like this? you go there to give them money but their app doesnt have a search function? so stay away from n1 telkom direct, useless. i was probbaly disturbing her solitaire time....

[MickZA]

I'm guessing it's to do with not being able to make account payments at the Telkom Direct shops any longer, you should have received an email about this last month. It seems odd that they can't do account recons though, did you have ID with you?

[akescpt]

can you please paste that mail here since i never got it. i get their usage stats but didnt get that email. it didnt get to identification. she just point blankly refused. no line. shop was empty except for a customer being helped at the service counter. all i asked was if they had the ability to do it. if she had told me i need to go to the service desk that would have been fine. she just rebuffed me point blank. so did the people at somerset do the wrong thing by actually helping me the week before?

[evilstebunny]

I'm guessing it's to do with not being able to make account payments at the Telkom Direct shops any longer, you should have received an email about this last month. It seems odd that they can't do account recons though, did you have ID with you?

Also didn't know about this. Doesn't affect me but it certainly seems like Telkom direct isn't exactly direct anymore.

[ITCynic]

In one of my previous post I found out to my annoyance that you cannot cancel a telephone service in a Telkom shop any more.

So,

1.You cannot cancel a telephone service yet you can apply for one.
2. You cannot make account payments any more.
3. You cannot have your customer details looked up any more.

So these shops really do not have any value to the average customer any more, so what's the purpose of their existence, other than being a source of sheltered employment ?

[TJ99]

Telkom is the only company I know of where the physical shops are even more useless than the call centre. The call centre is just easier to work with for pretty much anything, and for payments, just use the website. If you can figure out where the links are hidden that is.

[Curio]

System sucks....system dont work no more

[Curio]

haha

[akescpt]

I can't understand how telkom does business like this! So how I pay my bill? I'm going to a direct shop at lunch. Will report back.

[TJ99]

I can't understand how telkom does business like this! So how I pay my bill? I'm going to a direct shop at lunch. Will report back.

On the website?

Easypay?

[phoneJunky]

Also didn't know about this. Doesn't affect me but it certainly seems like Telkom direct isn't exactly direct anymore.

They only send it to the telkomsa email, not to the one they send the bill to, which is actually very strange.

[akescpt]

On the website?

Easypay?
For telkom I prefer face to face for some reason. What will the people at the stores do all day if they not allowed to provide a 'service' anymore?

[akescpt]

They only send it to the telkomsa email, not to the one they send the bill to, which is actually very strange.
I've never checked that telkom email account.

[MickZA]

can you please paste that mail here since i never got it.

Been digging for it in my email trash but it's gone already :(
It was sent before the 15th Feb because that's when I made of point going into Telkom Direct to see if I could still pay there, was able to pay but told the "no payments" directive would probably come into effect in March.

[TJ99]

For telkom I prefer face to face for some reason. What will the people at the stores do all day if they not allowed to provide a 'service' anymore?

Maybe help the poor idiots standing in line (behind some 98-year old guy taking half an hour to pay his bill which he could have done online in a few seconds) who actually have stuff to do that can't be done online or by the call center? ;)

[Creepster]

System sucks....system dont work no more

The system never worked.....poskantoor worked.
since they became telkom things not so lekke

[Wyzak]

It's probably more a case of won't or don't want to, than can't.

[akescpt]

Maybe help the poor idiots standing in line (behind some 98-year old guy taking half an hour to pay his bill which he could have done online in a few seconds) who actually have stuff to do that can't be done online or by the call center? ;)

paid online to help the poor idiots in the line...:D

[akescpt]

Anybody knows how long a reconnect takes?

[MickeyD]

According to their website http://www.telkom.co.za/general/customercentre/billing/paying_your_bill.html you can still pay your bill at a Telkom Direct Shop, contrary to the email they sent us.

I'll print this and then get my wife to walk into the local Telkom Direct Shop and present our account for payment.... could be fun as she is very hardegat!!!


At any Telkom Direct Shop
Take the whole first page of this invoice together with your cheque or cash to any Telkom Direct shop. Residential customers may also pay by credit card. Where available, you may place your cheque (not cash) together with the mail payment slip in the cheque deposit box.

[Robocop]

I paid my account at a Telkom direct store today without an account. They had no problem looking up my details.

[chrisc4290]

I visited Telkom shop in October to 1) have my home phone account sent to me by email, 2) transfer 3 phones from my name to a new owner and send the accounts to her and 3) move a phone from a house to a shop. Was there over an hour while the clerk typed like mad at his terminal

Turns out that they only got item 3 right.

I have never received a phone account either by email or post since that day and have to call them every month to find the balance to pay

Of the 3 phones that I asked to transfer, they disconnected 2 and did not transfer the third. There was a R 203,00 reconnection fee for each of the phones that were now treated as new installations. When I complained, I was told that I did not verify that the work requested was going to be done, so I took the confirmation printout that I received on the visit in October and showed it to another clerk at the Telkom shop. Am still awaiting a credit after 3 months

When I suggested that a mail delivery trace be sent for the emails they say are being sent containing my personal phone account, I am told that this cannot be done. The actual person to whom I spoke did not know what I meant about a delivery trace and I had to spell it out in simple English

[chrisc4290]

I paid my account at a Telkom direct store today without an account. They had no problem looking up my details.

You got someone who is computer literate

[chrisc4290]

Anybody knows how long a reconnect takes?

If you got cut off due to late payment - 2 days
If its a new connection, a few red banknotes speeds things up noticably, but can be anything from 3 days to 18 months

[akescpt]

Dammit! Paid via internet and now I must wait 3-4 working days for reconnection. Thanx for that advice. Brain fart of note!:(

[akescpt]

I paid my account at a Telkom direct store today without an account. They had no problem looking up my details.
Consider yourself lucky! Which branch?

[PPJ]

I raised this point in a different thread, but I did not communicate my point well and was misunderstood. Now others found the same problem - thanks.

My point still is: How is it possible that you are standing in a Pick-a-Pay (Telkom shop) and you can not pay them Pick-a-Pay (Telkom) in their own shop with their own land post account in my hand.:mad:

I suppose I am just plain stupid, as I thought about it from as many angles as possible, but it just do not make sence:confused:

I do not really care if there are a million other places and ways to pay them, why can I not pay them in their shop??????

I spoke to the Telkom person and asked why, she said they are going to concentrate on "sales". I said and the payment for that? That we will take, she said??????? I did not speak any further!!!!

Here at the Telkom in Long Beach Mall, you must report your own fault over a telephone in the front office (shop) at just the same time lapses as if you tried to do it from home/office. Everyone in the shop must/can listen to you battling to get some service. I am sorry I just do not understand this.

So now I want to pay at Shoprite, but I get my account by email........ now I (all at my time and cost) must print out a electronic account with no barcode on it and try to pay with that piece op paper at the checkout????

They are actively driving their customers to a system that will not cost them any money (debit orders, EFT, etc.) It cost me money to put (cash) money in the bank and it cost me to get it out, so why must I pay double if I can pay them cash.

So what has happened with me sofar, I now get my account by land post and still pay the cash at the Pick-a-Pay with my Telkom barcoded printed account - why because that works for me.

Edit: Is there not something somewhere in the Consumer Protection Act that makes this "illeagal" or something???

Rant over. :o

[MickeyD]

I'm sorry but I cannot for the life of me fathom this stupidity.

Other than to pay my Telkom account, why the moer would I want to visit a Telkom shop? So their "focus on sales" strategy is going to go for a "bol ***". Most of their sales were done due to customers standing in a queue at their shops and looking around to see what was on the shelves. A captive market...

They may as well close all their shops now as they are all going to be non-profitable within a few months.

The people making these decisions should be fired as they do not understand the Saffriken market: customers want the face-to-face contact.

And don't get me started on the "there's a telephone to report your fault" rubbish. What a fail!!!

And then I'd better shut up about the dial one number for everything decision.... 10210 - GET SOME BLOODY INTELLIGENT STAFF!!!!!!!!!

[Mila]

Sjho.

[Stokstert]

I cancelled my ADSL on 27/11/2011 and the line was dead on 28/11/2011. I still get a e-mail every day that I have 10 Gig bandwidth, but don't have a line to use it. They billed me for December and January 2012 for data but no line rental. Now, end of February they billed me for line rental but no data.

I have been to the Woodlands Telkom Direct Shop more than four times already to sort out this problem, but alas the following invoice is still not right.
To cancel a service is above their competency it seems.

[akescpt]

Who does business like this. This is the reason they don't want to unbundle. They know they useless and people will just go somewhere else. How is it possible that a company can do so much to PREVENT you from giving them money? I'm just at a loss. And these clowns earn big bonuses to produce this drivel.

[akescpt]

so my line is active but now i have a fault! oh the irony..

[akescpt]

one of you guys didnt piemp me did you? lol

[ranger]

In one of my previous post I found out to my annoyance that you cannot cancel a telephone service in a Telkom shop any more.

So,

1.You cannot cancel a telephone service yet you can apply for one.

Unfortunately, this is true :-(. I don't understand it ... and I have been discussing internally, but not yet at a level that can get anything done about it.


2. You cannot make account payments any more.

AFAIK you should still be able to.


3. You cannot have your customer details looked up any more.

You should be able to.

Please, take names, salary ref, time, date, PM to me, I will try and escalate if just the threat of them knowing their manager is going to be asked about this isn't enough to get you service.

The whole 3 times I have been to a TDS, I have had pretty good service, last time was end of Jan 2012 though.