The struggle to cancel a Telkom account
Over the past few months, MyBroadband has received regular complaints from Telkom customers who are having trouble cancelling their services.
These include ADSL and fibre customers who want to cancel their package, and LTE customers who want to deactivate their month-to-month subscriptions.
Many customers have waited longer than six months for their Telkom month-to-month products to be cancelled, despite trying a number of different methods.
Responding to queries surrounding these complaints from MyBroadband, Telkom previously stated that customers should contact the national customer care channels via phone call or email, or use the online service to cancel their product.
Despite this advice, MyBroadband continues to receive regular complaints from frustrated Telkom customers who are unable to cancel their products through these channels.
No way forward
The most recent complaints received by MyBroadband include customers who are having difficulties cancelling ADSL, fibre, and LTE packages, with some battling to cancel their products since the beginning of the year.
One LTE subscriber attempted to cancel his product in-store and via email to no avail, and was billed for the extended period which he said Telkom took to process his cancellation.
Another Telkom customer has attempted to cancel his ADSL line for almost a year now, with no success. He continues to receive invoices for his monthly line payments, despite filing for a cancellation in January 2018.
Some users have also reported problems with Telkom’s systems regarding product installation and migration.
One user complained that he was unable to get Telkom to release his fibre line so that he can move to a different ISP, while another said he has been charged every month for an ADSL line that was never installed to his premises and which he has unsuccessfully attempted to cancel.
In most of these cases, customers have exhausted every option to try and cancel their Telkom product, let alone recoup the costs they incurred since filing for cancellation.
Customers then contact MyBroadband, stating that they have no other avenue to attempt to cancel their product.
Telkom responds
MyBroadband sent the details of two customers who were unable to cancel their services to Telkom for feedback, and asked whether the company was experiencing system issues that prevented product cancellation.
A Telkom spokesperson told MyBroadband that Telkom customers must give the company 30 days notice to process the cancellation.
“For example, if the customer requests a cancellation on 12 October, the order is processed and the line is cancelled on 12 November,” Telkom said. “The final bill is received in December.”
Telkom confirmed that cancellations for all of its products are processed through the same system. This may point to why customers subscribed to a variety of different products are experiencing similar problems.
“Our online cancellation process applies to all services and ensures cases are traceable and we can track end to end,” Telkom said.
“We encourage customers to log a request for cancellation online where possible, rather than using other channels.”
The company confirmed that it was experiencing some “internal system issues”, but described its online process as very robust.
With regard to the two cases sent to Telkom by MyBroadband, the company said neither cancellation was filed using the online channels.
“They are both very old cases when we were still on an email system, which caused us problems in locating requests and/or not receiving them at all,” Telkom said.
The company added that it was now processing the cancellations for both of these cases.
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