Openserve Trenching Costs

[TheBaldAndTheBeautiful]

Hi.

On Friday the 25th September the Openserve technicans arrived at my house to run the fiber to my house.

Almost immediately on arrival the technician stated that only the first 2m of trenching is free and that I will have to pay R150 per meter beyond that. Not knowing anything about fiber installation costs, and assuming that maybe they could possibly be contracted by Openserve, I verbally agreed to pay for any additional costs.

On completion of the job the Openserve technician demanded R600 in cash without providing any invoice. Since I didn't have any cash I requested his company bank details. As far as I can tell technician has provided me with his private banking details.

In the meantime I checked the Openserve web site, and I see that they state the following; "Openserve installation includes 8m of trenching or unblocking of pipes."
http://openserve.co.za/open/products/openserve-fibre-broadband-openserve-connect/

I emailed Openserve and Afrihost for further clarification but neither of them have responded yet. I am 99% sure that I am being scammed and I haven't paid anything, but I want Openserve to be aware of this scam, since I am sure that many people will be caught.

Regards
Frank

 

[supersunbird]

Hi.

On Friday the 25th September the Openserve technicans arrived at my house to run the fiber to my house.

Almost immediately on arrival the technician stated that only the first 2m of trenching is free and that I will have to pay R150 per meter beyond that. Not knowing anything about fiber installation costs, and assuming that maybe they could possibly be contracted by Openserve, I verbally agreed to pay for any additional costs.

On completion of the job the Openserve technician demanded R600 in cash without providing any invoice. Since I didn't have any cash I requested his company bank details. As far as I can tell technician has provided me with his private banking details.

In the meantime I checked the Openserve web site, and I see that they state the following; "Openserve installation includes 8m of trenching or unblocking of pipes."
http://openserve.co.za/open/products/openserve-fibre-broadband-openserve-connect/

I emailed Openserve and Afrihost for further clarification but neither of them have responded yet. I am 99% sure that I am being scammed and I haven't paid anything, but I want Openserve to be aware of this scam, since I am sure that many people will be caught.

Regards
Frank

Jeah, sounds like the guy is taking a chance. Wonder how many other people he has scammed?

 

[Bewlen]

Firstly, request an invoice from him. Insist that you will only pay when invoiced. If he does produce one, report him to openserve immediately, and include the invoice. If you don't get one, report him and include the bank details he gave you.

 

[ponder]

You got scammed! I sent you PM with some contact details to address this issue.

 

[MickeyD]

Fraud by a contractor. Report it to Telkom on 0800124124

 

[TheBaldAndTheBeautiful]

Thank you to everyone who took the time to reply.

I will make sure that Openserve/Telkom is made aware of this individuals unethical actions.

Regards
Frank

 

[TheBaldAndTheBeautiful]

UPDATE:

Thanks to the information provided to me by one of the thread commenters I managed to discuss my issue with an Openserve manager. He assured me that he would deal with the technician and give me a status update regarding the outcome. Although I don't expect that I will ever know the full outcome.

 

[teamed209]

Nice to know, should in theory have a Openserve installation happening in the near future and I'm sure there are a lot of chancers. Guys I have run into seem nice enough though.