Its a shame that when tibby.dude is quoted it is not hidden for me.
Regarding Telkom's illegal activities:
1) Telkom was found guilty (in February 2004) by the Competition Commission of abusing their monopoly position. The Competition Commission was so disturbed by Telkom's blatant flouting of the law that they recommended the maximum penalty be imposed on Telkom - Telkom was fined 10% of turnover, or about 3 BILLLION Rand. Telkom continues to refuse to pay up, they continue to deny these charges, and have labelled the Competition Commission's findings "just an opinion". Where is the respect for the law, I ask you?
2) I can mention a number of personal experiences with Telkom where they have behaved illegally. For example, my repeated requests for a copy of the STD Terms and Conditions were met with blatant lies. Babsie Vermaak of Telkom continued to tell me that "no such contract exists", despite me making myself VERY clear on what is was that I wanted. Telkom behaved illegally not only in denying the existence of a contract to which I am legally entitled, but also in refusing to furbish me with one for 6 months.
3) I have personally witnessed an application for a telephone lines rejected by Telkom because the applicant, on the abridged Terms and Conditions, included the following words: "I accept these T&C subject to my rights as contained in the Bill of Rights of the South African Constitution". This is illegal behaviour on Telkom's part. Telkom's contract should automatically not conflict with the constitution. In fact, it is illegal to for any contract to contain provisions which require one to sign away any rights contained within the Bill of Rights. This does not mean that Telkom's Std Terms and Conditions require one to sign away fundamental rights. But I question why Telkom would reject any agreement that reemphasised one's personal constitutional rights. Additionally, since the applicant was simply reemphasising that the contract was subject to the highest law in the land (i.e. the Constitution), Telkom had NO legal grounds on which to refuse service provsision to this applicant. Again, this is an example of illegal behavoir on Telkom's part.
4) The powers that be at Telkom continue to tell me that my phone line is in perfect working order. Not so long ago, I came home to find a Telkom technician working on the phone lines box that serves my complex exclusively. I asked him about his opinion of the state of the telephone lines. He told me that they were in a very poor state, and there was so much dirt on the lines that it is affecting line quality. Why, I ask, are the powers that be at Telkom lying to me? The pattern of illegal bahaviour is again emphasised.
5) Why will Telkom not allow me to accompany a techinician to officially inspect the lines? Why do I have to ask for "off-the-record" reports from Telkom technicians, whose opinions cannot be used in a court of law since I have undertaken to keep these techinicians anonymous?
I could go on and on about the various ways in which Telkom behave illegally. In fact, when I went to see the local branch supervisor on Wednesday this week, he admitted to me that Telkom representatives often deliberately mislead consumers and give out blatantly incoorect information. He further admitted that there were, indeed, a lot of illegal activities going on within Telkom. I have two other witnesses to this admission.
If a mid-level manager at Telkom is admitting to illegal practices by Telkom, then you can bet your life that the extent of Telkom's illegal practices extends far beyond what we know to be true.
Debbie2
Edit: The watchdogs of the industry fail to reply to my complaints about Telkom. I have lodged several complaints with ICASA about Telkom, to no reply or even acknowledgement that my complainst have been received.
I also filled out an official form lodging a complaint with the Competition Commission regarding Telkom's violations of the Competition Act. This was several weeks ago. I still have had no response from the Competition Commission.
The so-called "watchdogs" to which we are entitled, by law, to lodge complaints with and who are required, by law, to investigate our complaints do not even respond to complaints. What are we to do? Must we take ICASA and the Comp Comm to court to force them to force Telkom to behave legally????
