What is going on with Telkom billing?

[deweyzeph]

So I've got a landline and ADSL with Telkom. For years my Telkom account number was the same, then out of the blue in March of this year I get my monthly emailed invoice from Telkom and my account number has changed, and the EFT reference number has changed too. The format of the Telkom invoice changed too, and it looked like I had been moved over to a new billing system. Every month since March I have received these new invoices with the new account number and successfully paid them without issue. Now all of a sudden I've just received my monthly Telkom invoice for December, and I see my account number has changed back to what it was before March 2018, and the formattting of my emailed invoices are back to the old Telkom format, and the EFT reference number has also changed back to what it used to be before March 2018. Basically it looks like I've been moved back to their old billing system. Has this happened to anyone else? What the hell is going on?

 

[chrisc]

Easy answer: The left hand does not know what the right is doing.

You will see dozens, if not hundreds of posts on this forum giving details of the slipshod and inept way Telkom manage their accounts, often hounding people for years after they cancelled their service.

You can only communicate with them via phone. They ignore emails and the Telkom stores specifically do not handle account queries. No-one ever calls you back

I had a fraudalent service taken out in my name in 2003. Telkom still won't let go and periodically I get calls from someone who says he or she is a lawyer and is enquiring about this debt, which is now over R100k, what with interest and fees. I always say I am the housekeeper and the person they are seeking is overseas in the Bahamas, or Uzbekistan, somewhere I think up on the spot. It always works

 

[deweyzeph]

From what I can see on Hellopeter I was not the only person who had their Telkom account number changed without being notified at the beginning of 2018. Seems a lot of people were moved over to Telkom's new billing system, had their account number and EFT reference number changed without being informed, carried on paying into their old account and subsequently had their services disconnected for non-payment. Now it looks like they have moved me back to their old billing system. Just wondering how many other people out there have been moved from their old billing system to the new one, and now back again to the old one.

 

[deweyzeph]

So I've just got off the phone with the Telkom billing department. My suspicions were correct, I have been migrated back to Telkom's old billing system. The call centre agent couldn't confirm why, but she did confirm that a whole bunch of customers have been rollbacked to the old billing system, and their old account numbers and EFT reference numbers have been reverted to. So something for others to watch out for. If you have been rollbacked to the old billing system you need to change the EFT reference that you use to pay your account back to whatever shows on your invoice. If you don't you will be paying into an account that no longer exists, your payment will not be allocated correctly to your account and your account will eventually be suspended for non-payment.