Telkom fixed line query

[Itsa Trap]

Not sure where else to ask this, my manager just got a phonecall from someone supposedly representing Telkom. They informed him he owes them R4000+ for "breaking contract", however he stopped his fixed line quite a while ago and paid a cancellation fee.

She even told him he qualifies for a discount if he pays within a certain timeframe.

I cannot think this is legit. I cancelled my fixed line some time ago, paid one month after get an invoice informing me this is the last invoice. To my experience that is it, cancelling a landline might come with other crap usually with Telkom, but if the procedure runs smoothly, your final invoice is, well, final.

And he says he went through exactly that process. So what is going on here? Who can he reach out to?

(Just some further info, they (my manager) have very bad and continuous line theft in the area, he used to have the landline and ADSL, and every time the landline would be replaced BUT the last time the cables were stolen, Telkom simply refused to put in new phonelines. This was around the time they were moving away from copper. He never received one of those new fangled LTE phones etc. That is why he cancelled.)

 

[deweyzeph]

Not sure where else to ask this, my manager just got a phonecall from someone supposedly representing Telkom. They informed him he owes them R4000+ for "breaking contract", however he stopped his fixed line quite a while ago and paid a cancellation fee.

She even told him he qualifies for a discount if he pays within a certain timeframe.

I cannot think this is legit. I cancelled my fixed line some time ago, paid one month after get an invoice informing me this is the last invoice. To my experience that is it, cancelling a landline might come with other crap usually with Telkom, but if the procedure runs smoothly, your final invoice is, well, final.

And he says he went through exactly that process. So what is going on here? Who can he reach out to?

(Just some further info, they (my manager) have very bad and continuous line theft in the area, he used to have the landline and ADSL, and every time the landline would be replaced BUT the last time the cables were stolen, Telkom simply refused to put in new phonelines. This was around the time they were moving away from copper. He never received one of those new fangled LTE phones etc. That is why he cancelled.)

I had a fixed line for years with Telkom. Never signed any contract, so not sure what contract they're referring to?

 

[Itsa Trap]

I had a fixed line for years with Telkom. Never signed any contract, so not sure what contract they're referring to?

Yep. Not sure what these debt collectors are on about.

 

[deweyzeph]

Yep. Not sure what these debt collectors are on about.

It's either a scam, or Telkom's accounts department has got something very wrong.

 

[Itsa Trap]

So I asked a bit more, and he showed me SMS messages from Telkom saying that his acc. is good / good standing / Resolved, interspersed with something to the effect of "cancelled because: collection", but he apparently went out of his way to make sure he was paid up in full etc. The only thing is, he made use of his Telkom email for everything, so the moment he had no line to the mail (and the mail had been set up a long time ago) he couldn't see if they sent him any invoices / communication.

(I showed him an invoice I received after cancelling and paying my last month with a FINAL INVOICE totalling R0.00 - which is something he would not have been able to see or download because of the line outage.)

In fact, if anything, they broke their part of the deal as he had paid for a phone line and DSL even while the damned lines were stolen and never replaced.


Anyway, I got a hold of the phone number of the people phoning him, boy do they have some nice reviews on ShouldIAnswer, not sure if I can share it on here, but I had TRUECALLER on my phone a while back and this number is part of a contact list the app made labelling it as spam.

Apparently according to ShouldIAnswer reviews, most label them as Debt Collectors (for Telkom) but there are wildly different stuff as well, like phoning a couple up to ask about the state of their relationship (?) to phoning people at 2 am in the morning...

After reading this I began to suspect more and more this is a scam of some sorts, not as in phishing but as in trying your luck to see if you can get money out of unsuspecting people. You don't phone people at that time of night unless you want them completely disorientated.