"An irate customer has taken on telecommunications giant Telkom in a court battle that has exposed the widespread abuse of clip-on fraud.
Callie Geel from the Bluff, and owner of Yellowstone Kitchens, is fighting the fixed line monopoly for R2 000 worth of disputed phone calls made on his home telephone line.
Earlier this year Geel obtained a temporary order in the Durban High Court stopping Telkom from suspending his business line.
It began when Geel queried an unusually large bill and his investigation revealed that a Theuns Pretorius, who helped out a Telkom contractor, had tapped into Geel's home line. Pretorius has since gone missing.
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Because Telkom could not locate Pretorius as an existing employee, it told Geel it would suspend both his business and home line.
Geel in the initial application said the suspension of his business line would be crucial and detrimental to his business. The order was granted and Telkom was prevented from suspending the line.
Telkom has opposed the application and in its court papers Shamaladevi Singh, manager of Telkom's legal services sets out the company's standard Terms of Condition.
"If the customer has by the due date not paid any amounts due to Telkom for the service, in which case Telkom may also suspend any other service provided to the customer.
"It is, with respect, selfevident that if the alleged unauthorised use was carried out by someone other than an employee or Telkom agent, Geel was bound to pay for the calls and seek redress against the perpetrator," she said.
An analysis of the controversial bill showed that including the rental and calls, the final amount came to R3 629.17.
In total 184 calls were made, but Geel is disputing an amount of R2 595,10.
Geel has paid the balance of R564,01, which he says he owed.
Telkom's own investigation revealed that three of the disputed cellphone numbers were calls made by Helen Mass, Pretorius's former girlfriend in Volksrust.
Mass said Pretorius was never an employee of Telkom. However, in Geel's replying papers he says he hired a private investigator who discovered that Pretorius worked for Mass's step-father, Johan Nel, a contractor to Telkom.
Nel in an affidavit said he went to England and left Pretorius in charge of the business. When he returned some of his equipment was missing and so was Pretorius.
Geel, in his replying papers, said Telkom never made him aware nor provided him with a copy of their terms and con-ditions.
"My investigation has shown that widespread abuse occurs through the unlawful use of Telkom's equipment, referred to in the trade as clip-on fraud," he said.
Geel explained that Pretorius used Telkom equipment to clip on to his line.
"Telkom's investigation seems to have been a cover up for the abuse of its unsecured lines and amounts to an unlawful attempt to have a consumer pay for clip-on fraud," said Geel.
"The unacceptable nature of such conduct is further highlighted by the fact that Telkom has huge resources available to properly investigate such complaints, that it is profitable as demonstrated by the fact that its Chief Executive Officer alone last year earned an annual salary and bonus of R11-million," he said.
Telkom has the option of filing further papers before it is set down for argument."
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