Sign up with GoogleAnyone else being over charged by Telkom for ADSL? 
I got Telkom's uncapped ADSL bundle in mid May. At the time, the service was phenomenal, the technician arrived within a week and everything was set up in a day. I was really genuinely surprised at the speed and quality of the service, this was not the Telkom I had had come to know and hate over the years. I genuinely believed they had changed. Of course I was just mistaken.
When it came time to actually set up the account I asked for 4mbps uncapped. The technician explained that they had installed a 2Mbps line by default, but it would all be upgraded to 4mbps the next day. The upgrade never happened and I'm still on a 2Mbps line.
At the end of June I received the first invoice, clearly showing "DO Advanced Uncapped", but with costs adding up to about R364 ex vat (R414 incl. vat) per month. Looking at telkom.co.za, the amount is clearly for "DO Basic Uncapped" which is advertised at R364. So I was only getting 2mbps but at least the amount was right.
Yesterday I got the next invoice, again showing "DO Advanced Uncapped", but this time for for R544 ex vat (R620 incl. vat). Again looking at telkom.co.za, this is clearly the amount for the "DO Advanced Uncapped" service for 4mbps. My line is definitely still only 2mbps. I know it is because the system info on the modem shows that the connection is 2048 kbps, and MyTelkomService shows that my line is 2mbps. So someone at Telkom got the message that I wanted 4mbps ADSL, and they went ahead and updated the invoicing for it, but "forgot" to actually upgrade the service. Sadly I do actually want DO Advanced 4mbps, and I wanted to upgrade my line but there doesn't seem to be any way to do it. The call centre is out to tea indefinitely, and there's no info online that I could see. I would have also been content to only have 2mbps ADSL, if only I was billed the right amount.
Of course I filled in the complaints forms on telkom.co.za, and got zero response. Not so much as a ticket number. Nothing. The call centre was again just a wait fest. I created a dispute online, and it says it's accepted, but when I go look at my disputes list it says there's nothing there. It's like everything just goes into a black hole, never to be seen again. Ironically there's a form on telkom.co.za to escalate a complaint, but it requires a reference number to escalate, but they never give you a reference number, so there's no way to escalate a complaint. No surprises there really, but it is annoying.
Telkom is notorious for their blatant disdain for their customers, but I'm just taken aback that they would even try something as stupid as this. Who on earth would put up with this? Besides there is no reason for it. Both services use the exact same infrastructure, it doesn't actually cost them any extra to provide the service, so why cheat? It makes no sense.
Obviously if I don't pay then I'll be black-listed and have my credit rating ruined and so on, but if continue to pay then I'm willingly admitting to being screwed out of R200 odd a month. If they're doing this to me, they're doing it to others, I can only wonder at how much they're making from invoicing errors. I'll bet that the errors are always in their favour, 100% of the time.
What to do? Just stop paying? Somehow try and cancel the service? If they ignore me while I'm paying, surely they'll ignore me just as much if I want to cancel and continue to expect payment every month. I haven't signed anything but I'm sure that means nothing.
I got Telkom's uncapped ADSL bundle in mid May. At the time, the service was phenomenal, the technician arrived within a week and everything was set up in a day. I was really genuinely surprised at the speed and quality of the service, this was not the Telkom I had had come to know and hate over the years. I genuinely believed they had changed. Of course I was just mistaken.
When it came time to actually set up the account I asked for 4mbps uncapped. The technician explained that they had installed a 2Mbps line by default, but it would all be upgraded to 4mbps the next day. The upgrade never happened and I'm still on a 2Mbps line.
At the end of June I received the first invoice, clearly showing "DO Advanced Uncapped", but with costs adding up to about R364 ex vat (R414 incl. vat) per month. Looking at telkom.co.za, the amount is clearly for "DO Basic Uncapped" which is advertised at R364. So I was only getting 2mbps but at least the amount was right.
Yesterday I got the next invoice, again showing "DO Advanced Uncapped", but this time for for R544 ex vat (R620 incl. vat). Again looking at telkom.co.za, this is clearly the amount for the "DO Advanced Uncapped" service for 4mbps. My line is definitely still only 2mbps. I know it is because the system info on the modem shows that the connection is 2048 kbps, and MyTelkomService shows that my line is 2mbps. So someone at Telkom got the message that I wanted 4mbps ADSL, and they went ahead and updated the invoicing for it, but "forgot" to actually upgrade the service. Sadly I do actually want DO Advanced 4mbps, and I wanted to upgrade my line but there doesn't seem to be any way to do it. The call centre is out to tea indefinitely, and there's no info online that I could see. I would have also been content to only have 2mbps ADSL, if only I was billed the right amount.
Of course I filled in the complaints forms on telkom.co.za, and got zero response. Not so much as a ticket number. Nothing. The call centre was again just a wait fest. I created a dispute online, and it says it's accepted, but when I go look at my disputes list it says there's nothing there. It's like everything just goes into a black hole, never to be seen again. Ironically there's a form on telkom.co.za to escalate a complaint, but it requires a reference number to escalate, but they never give you a reference number, so there's no way to escalate a complaint. No surprises there really, but it is annoying.
Telkom is notorious for their blatant disdain for their customers, but I'm just taken aback that they would even try something as stupid as this. Who on earth would put up with this? Besides there is no reason for it. Both services use the exact same infrastructure, it doesn't actually cost them any extra to provide the service, so why cheat? It makes no sense.
Obviously if I don't pay then I'll be black-listed and have my credit rating ruined and so on, but if continue to pay then I'm willingly admitting to being screwed out of R200 odd a month. If they're doing this to me, they're doing it to others, I can only wonder at how much they're making from invoicing errors. I'll bet that the errors are always in their favour, 100% of the time.
What to do? Just stop paying? Somehow try and cancel the service? If they ignore me while I'm paying, surely they'll ignore me just as much if I want to cancel and continue to expect payment every month. I haven't signed anything but I'm sure that means nothing.
Last edited:
