In August 2011 the shop I ran changed from iBurst to Telkom internet, taking advantage of the 3 month offer. In about January we realised that no debit order was going off our account and queried it. We were assured that it was being paid, but they refused to confirm the bank account, citing confidentiality, even though it was supposed to be our bank account. One of the ladies even went to a Telkom Direct shop and took it up with them, and they confirmed that it was being paid, but the clerk at the counter refused to look at the bank statement showing no debits on the date specified to this account.
Internet at the shop is only used for banking, etc and I figured a 1Gb cap would be more than sufficient given that we used about 400kb a month while we were using iBurst.
On 14th March there was a R 76 320,45 debit attempt from Telkom to the account, which put the account in arrear and the bank called us. I told them to decline. During the next 10 days, a lady at the office spent between 2 and 3 hours every day trying to find out from Telkom what was going on. The most frequent reply was "I do not handle this".
Then on 2nd April we received a letter from Snyman Attorneys in Pretoria advising that we had been using their customer's bank account to pay our Telkom account and demanding R 76 320,45 for use thereof (same amount as the Telkom debit). I called and wrote the attorneys advising what had been going on and pointing out that our Telkom contract was for R 383,00 a month, so the figure of R 76 thousand was impossible.
On 16th April I had a call from said attorney to say that Telkom had muddled 3 ADSL accounts up and had been debiting 2 other customers, one a mining house in Rustenburg and ourselves, to their clients bank. It turned out that all 3 customers had a Nedbank account and even though the names on the forms were different, the same bank account appeared on all 3 debit order instructions
Today, Telkom call us and say we now have to pay the arrears and penalties. The lady who phoned had no idea what had been going on. They want their R 3447 fees plus R 560 interest. I told her that Telkom had already been paid, but they were debiting the incorrect account, but I heard the magic words again... "I do not handle this"
So we start the whole rigmarole again.
Internet at the shop is only used for banking, etc and I figured a 1Gb cap would be more than sufficient given that we used about 400kb a month while we were using iBurst.
On 14th March there was a R 76 320,45 debit attempt from Telkom to the account, which put the account in arrear and the bank called us. I told them to decline. During the next 10 days, a lady at the office spent between 2 and 3 hours every day trying to find out from Telkom what was going on. The most frequent reply was "I do not handle this".
Then on 2nd April we received a letter from Snyman Attorneys in Pretoria advising that we had been using their customer's bank account to pay our Telkom account and demanding R 76 320,45 for use thereof (same amount as the Telkom debit). I called and wrote the attorneys advising what had been going on and pointing out that our Telkom contract was for R 383,00 a month, so the figure of R 76 thousand was impossible.
On 16th April I had a call from said attorney to say that Telkom had muddled 3 ADSL accounts up and had been debiting 2 other customers, one a mining house in Rustenburg and ourselves, to their clients bank. It turned out that all 3 customers had a Nedbank account and even though the names on the forms were different, the same bank account appeared on all 3 debit order instructions
Today, Telkom call us and say we now have to pay the arrears and penalties. The lady who phoned had no idea what had been going on. They want their R 3447 fees plus R 560 interest. I told her that Telkom had already been paid, but they were debiting the incorrect account, but I heard the magic words again... "I do not handle this"
So we start the whole rigmarole again.
