Telkom ROBBERY: Device fees not pro-rated

Foxhound5366

Foxhound5366

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If you're planning on taking out a Telkom contract on an expensive device, here's a word of caution: do it at the start of the month, not at the end.

Here's how I discovered this the hard way:
On Saturday, 29 June, I apply for and get approved for a contract on an iPad Pro
On Thursday, 4 July, I receive my first invoice detailing a double bill that will be payable at the end of July.

I phone Telkom's accounts department to query this, noting that I only had the device for less than two days in June, so why am I being charged the full device fee (R500) for both June AND July? The answer: data is pro-rated, device fees are NOT pro-rated.

Of course I tried to reason with the poor call center person, asking why I should pay this R500 for June now, if I'd just waited two days I would not have had to. I asked her what value I'd received for my R500. Of course she had no answers, and when she put me through to her manager, that call never got answered (no surprises there).

I swear to God nobody at the Telkom store warned me of that either, although I do recall they said my data would be pro-rated (which it was).

Now am I being unreasonable here, or is this just outright robbery on Telkom's part? How on earth can they charge their clients a full month's device fee for only two days of use? *sighs* Welcome to South Africa.
 
In May I had the exact same problem. Took out a contract for the Huawei P30 for my wife at the Telkom shop. The 3 sales consultants there promised me that I will be billed pro rata for the first month (no mention of only the data portion). When I received my first bill it also had the full device fee for the few days she had the phone.

I went to the shop and they and they just said they told me the device will be billed in full. Spoke to the manager as well and she just said I must just pay it or contact head office and leave her shop.

I contacted head office and they just said sorry but that is how it is.

The other thing which pissed me off was the fact that they promised me a 100 all network minutes each month for the duration of the contract. I asked all of the consultants if this was true and they said yes its a great deal. First month I received nothing and they then just said they made a mistake. I told them that the minutes was 90% the reason I took out the contract.
 
MightyQuin said:
What is a "device fee" ?
Click to expand...

They split their data and device fee when you take out a contract. For example if you take out the Huawei P30 Lite on Freeme 1GB which is advertised as R299 per month, the R100 is for the add ons (the 1Gb data and minutes you get) and the R 199 is for the phone (device)
 
Moral of the story, don't take out contracts. There are easier ways to finance that phone you can't really afford.
 
This sounds like a friend of mine who got a 100/100 fibre line and someone on the internet department put his internet access at 4mbps for a month. He had to pay as if he had a 4mb and 100mb line. They just kept saying its not their fault but it was.
 
There's a total fee payable for the device which get's split over the duration of the contract.
So for arguments sake you're paying 12k for the device they'll charge you R500 x 24 payments.
For the device part the full payment goes off from the start regardless of when the contract started.
Minutes, data etc are allocated and charged pro-rata according to what's left of the month, the logic being the subscriber would use his allocation throughout the month.
This is pretty standard procedure from my experience with contracts across multiple networks.
 
IssiAmd said:
There's a total fee payable for the device which get's split over the duration of the contract.
So for arguments sake you're paying 12k for the device they'll charge you R500 x 24 payments.
For the device part the full payment goes off from the start regardless of when the contract started.
Minutes, data etc are allocated and charged pro-rata according to what's left of the month, the logic being the subscriber would use his allocation throughout the month.
This is pretty standard procedure from my experience with contracts across multiple networks.
Click to expand...
Yeah this makes sense. Except it's a bitter pill to swallow when you have to pay a double premium because of two days
 
You should make a spreadsheet to help you understand. If you got a prorata device charge when will you pay the balance, your contract will extend then for one month with no data and only the balance of the first month. You didn't lose anything.
 
I can't believe that people are still using Telkom for anything! I make a point of not even looking at Telkom offers, they are a bunch of sharks.
 
deweyzeph said:
Moral of the story, don't take out contracts. There are easier ways to finance that phone you can't really afford.
Click to expand...
You're like a Linux troll in a Windows thread, an Android troll in an IOS thread or a Telegram troll in a Whatsapp thread. :D

A prepaid troll in a contract thread..........
 
lkswan747 said:
I can't believe that people are still using Telkom for anything! I make a point of not even looking at Telkom offers, they are a bunch of sharks.
Click to expand...
It's like that old flame you promise never to go back to
 
lkswan747 said:
I can't believe that people are still using Telkom for anything! I make a point of not even looking at Telkom offers, they are a bunch of sharks.
Click to expand...

For some that’s all that’s available. So now what?
 
You lost nothing. You are paying R500x24 only not X25

This is the exact reason that the contracts split the device and airtime/data for transparency
 
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