Telkom, Advice needed

L

Lazy

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Seattle, Washington, United States
I have a problem with Telkom and I'm not getting any joy from them and I'm not sure where to go from here, let me explain.

My folks have an ADSL line and an ISP account with Telkom. So, in order for me not to use up their cap I registered online (with my credit card) on telkom's site and was promptly given an account of my own. (Whoohoo, right?)

So I used the account and eventually forgot that I'm a month-to-month (billed by credit card) customer. So, September 2008 my account stopped working which lead to me re-evaluating my situation and thinking the second account is a waste. So I stopped using it (and it stopped working). Hence, I assumed my account expired or something. From there things went fine, whenever the account reached it's cap I just purchased more data on their site.
January I started receiving bills from telkom for the amounts due for Oct, Nov, Dec & January [for my second account, which I'm not using and which doesn't work either]. So I called them, no luck. Admittedly, whenever I think of calling telkom I'm irritated, so I probably didn't push the issue as hard as I could have and by end of february I was trying at least once a week to speak to someone who actually knew what ADSL was. My most successful attempt was on March 12, when I finally was transferred to someone who sounded helpful, but their systems went down. No luck again.

Eventually, April 16 I was told my account was suspended because my credit card expired. As it turned out, the bank allowed payments to go through for more than a year on the old credit card and end of september stopped.
I was told to send a mail to [email protected] and guess what, no response to date. Now I'm tired of waiting and the bills keep coming.

I have a few questions here really,
1. The service was suspended since september, I can even prove that I havent used them since then by checking their own usage tracker.
2. Telkom has no FICA for me, so how can I be in debt with them?
3. I was a month-by-month subscriber, how can I owe them money if I didn't/couldn't use the service in the first place?

For the record, I don't even have a telephone line at my home. This all happened using my folks' ADSL.

Any advice?
 
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It's not straight forward, that's for sure. TelkomInternet T&C require 1 month cancellation notice from you:

T&C: H.1.

In the case of a month to month agreement the customer shall give Telkom SA 1 (one) calendar month notice of termination.
Click to expand...

FICA has nothing to do with having debt with someone. The moment you subscribed to their service, you agreed to their T&C which also include many references to paying them in full, on time, otherwise there are interest charges added on top.

One of your few options is to ask nicely as you're in the wrong and appeal to someones soft side to waive all the fee's, or just pay what you owe and be more responsible with your account in future.
In the mean time, give them the darn cancellation notice, cancel the other account and go sign up with an ISP that cares a little more.
 
Gamer said:
It's not straight forward, that's for sure. TelkomInternet T&C require 1 month cancellation notice from you:

T&C: H.1.



FICA has nothing to do with having debt with someone. The moment you subscribed to their service, you agreed to their T&C which also include many references to paying them in full, on time, otherwise there are interest charges added on top.

One of your few options is to ask nicely as you're in the wrong and appeal to someones soft side to waive all the fee's, or just pay what you owe and be more responsible with your account in future.
In the mean time, give them the darn cancellation notice, cancel the other account and go sign up with an ISP that cares a little more.
Click to expand...

Explains his nick
 
If I had a dime for every user who just assumed his account would be canceled "by itself" :D
 
Lazy, I have had the complete opposite experience on this issue.

I ordered a 384 line, and Telkom added a 2GB connection to it for me.

When my Telkom account arrived, I called 10210 and told them that I did not order and would not be paying for the 2GB Telkom ISP account.

The folks at 10210 spoke to the folks at TelkomISP while I was on the phone. TelkomISP confirmed that I had not used the account, it's usage was zero, and told me that I would be credited for the cost incurred, but that it would take 4 days.

I said cool, phoned them 4 days later to get the balance, the amount was deducted, I paid it.

You're really having a tough time here. Perhaps it's because you're using a credit card. Try another angle, but leave out the words "credit card" completely. The payment method should not matter, a refund is a refund is a refund ...

I really do get the impression that they are quite reasonable.
 
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I have mailed them to cancel the account. I have no problem paying it, but then I want the data usage. The thing that confused the issue here (for them I think) is the fact that I kept on saying the account doesn't work and they kept on saying it does. I requested quite a few times to just have the account cancelled but it was only in april that I was told that I should send a mail.

Do I feel like a fool for thinking it was cancelled in August, for sure. But, I only started receiving mail regarding it in January...They could have told me on day one to send a mail, but they didn't. They kept passing me from operator to operator. Heck, every time I call them they even call me back a few days later in order to survey my customer service experience and every time I would ask them to please help me sort this out then I'd be happy to complete the survey.

In short, I don't mind paying for every month from then until now, but then I want the 3 gig for those months and a reasonable time to use it..

EDIT: I should add, since the account was already suspended at the end of September, the account was already handed to their legal department and every operator would listen to me up to a point and then transfer me to them or every once in while drop my call completely, or transfer me to someone who doesn't answer or transfer me to the wrong dept altogether...
Legal would simply say that they are not aware of anything and they don't know who I should speak to.
 
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Garyvdh said:
If I had a dime for every user who just assumed his account would be canceled "by itself" :D
Click to expand...

Agreed, but this was a month to month thing, not a termed contract. I stopped using my dial up for a month once and it was cancelled automatically so I don't think it was an unfair assumption. Maybe a little too trusting though...
 
I did a bit of research today and it turns out this is a big gray area in terms of the national credit act. Specifically because the initial intent of the agreement was not that telkom would grant me credit, rather I would be billed a month in advance on my card. Lawyer friends confirmed this, but warned too.
So I called telkom again. Sure it took me 4 phonecalls to get through and 2 transfers to speak to the right person. I told the service agent that I had already spoken to the NCR & ICASA (I called both this morning to determine my position). This time though, my experience was not that different to davemc's. Within about 2 hours the costs were reversed and the matter was sorted.
I must say though, both NCR and ICASA were very helpful.

Big cheers and beers all round! :D
 
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