Telkom false advertising

DrJohnZoidberg

DrJohnZoidberg

Honorary Master
Joined
Jul 24, 2006
Messages
28,044
Reaction score
7,514
Location
Table View
I've tried to be patient on this matter but it seems nobody is getting back to me.

I've been mislead with not one, but two ads with incorrect information this month.

1. Telkom Internet Do Elite Plus Bundle

This bundle is advertised on the website for R839, it is a 40Mbit VDSL line plus 100GB softcap account. When calling 10210 I was told the price was R970 (or close to it, cannot remember exact amount). After getting a hold of TelkomZA on the forums here he escalated it for me and a sales lady called me and said it's a mistake but will give me 50% off the first month. I told her no thanks and she assured me that the incorrect information on the website would be removed. It's still there and at the wrong price.

Screenshot%202014-10-29%2009.47.01.png


2. Telkom DoGaming add-on

I signed up for the DoGaming add-on basically only for Battle.net downloads which the ad says will not come off my cap. Due to the fact that I have a 40Mbit line I only realised that this was not working as advertised after about 6GB's of a WOW download. Again, I remained calm and contacted ranger here on the forums. He actually responded very quickly and said he would enable some logging on my account to see what was happening and get back to me. It has now been over a week and still no reply, I have followed up multiple times to our pm but there has been no response since the first reply. Last time I checked all battle.net traffic was still coming off my cap.

I'm now R50 and 6GB poorer and really don't see any luck getting that back knowing Telkom.

Screenshot%202014-11-11%2020.15.27.png


Now my question is, what should my next steps be (besides kicking TI to the curb)? Contacting the call center is a useless proposition and I've already contacted the most reliable people I can think of to address these matters (TelkomZA and ranger).

Do I lodge a complaint with the ASA?

TIA
 
It's frustrating. And of course it should be fixed. No quibble whatsoever.

But I'd give them a chance to do so. Anyone with any experience of large organisations knows that sometimes these disjunctions pop up and cause havoc, much to the dismay of those who actually do the hard work. There are so many capable, dedicated and hard-working people at Telkom that have their efforts schnaaid by the incompetent or by yet another reorg, my sympathy for them leads me to appeal to you for a tiny bit of patience. Give them a few more days to sort out this obvious bolsup.

I don't believe any deceit or dishonesty is meant. The website people and the Line if Business people just haven't quite synced. They will.
 
Last edited:
DrJohnZoidberg said:
This bundle is advertised on the website for R839, it is a 40Mbit VDSL line plus 100GB softcap account. When calling 10210 I was told the price was R970 (or close to it, cannot remember exact amount). After getting a hold of TelkomZA on the forums here he escalated it for me and a sales lady called me and said it's a mistake but will give me 50% off the first month. I told her no thanks and she assured me that the incorrect information on the website would be removed. It's still there and at the wrong price.
Click to expand...

I wonder if there wasn't perhaps a misunderstanding? It's R839 excluding the R166.50 line rental which altogether comes to R1,005.50?

Of course that's not quite in the R900-range, but it would make a sort of sense, I suppose.

All the same, it's pretty idiotic that somehow the pricing on their website isn't verified beforehand and that, somehow, if inaccurate, isn't quickly corrected.

If all else fails and the 50% off offer still stands, that wouldn't be a terrible start to the first month :)

As for services that don't count towards your cap... I recall the mess when WebAfrica gave Steam a free ride and how much effort was necessary to make sure that Steam only used the correct server IP addresses, otherwise goodbye cap. I don't think they've ever been particularly reliable initiatives...
 
MickeyD said:
R839 + VAT = R956,46.

Is their any mention of ex-VAT?
Click to expand...

None, just that "Note: (2) This cost excludes your monthly Telkom line rental fee and all voice and fax calls made on this line."

I did spot a grammatical error though:
(1) The DSL service is a best-attempt service, line speeds cannot be guaranteed due to factors including, but not limited too; distance from exchange and copper wire quality.
Click to expand...

Some companies have terrible proof readers :p
 
Lycanthrope said:
None, just that "Note: (2) This cost excludes your monthly Telkom line rental fee and all voice and fax calls made on this line."

I did spot a grammatical error though:


Some companies have terrible proof readers :p
Click to expand...

Telkom has proof readers? :confused:
 
Lycanthrope said:
None, just that "Note: (2) This cost excludes your monthly Telkom line rental fee and all voice and fax calls made on this line."

I did spot a grammatical error though:


Some companies have terrible proof readers :p
Click to expand...

It's definitely the wrong price. Telkom has admitted this.
 
MickeyD said:
R839 + VAT = R956,46.

Is their any mention of ex-VAT?
Click to expand...

As far as I'm aware they are required to use VAT inclusive prices by law. So even if it was ex-VAT they would be in the wrong there as well.
 
ponder said:
As far as I'm aware they are required to use VAT inclusive prices by law. So even if it was ex-VAT they would be in the wrong there as well.
Click to expand...
Don't think its law to use vat-inclusive prices. Esquire doesn't.
 
ambroseg1 said:
Don't think its law to use vat-inclusive prices. Esquire doesn't.
Click to expand...
It is. Esquire don't because they don't advertise and sell to the public - they sell only to resellers, or so they would argue if SARS came calling. They hole in their boat is that they do in fact sell to the public on MyBB, though they might say it's not the public but a restricted group deemed to be resellers.

But iVAT is required for retail adverts.
 
Last edited:
@DrJohnZoidberg
You are not alone..

I ordered the "do Elite" bundle at the end of September. I ordered it at a Telkom store and I specifically asked for the bundle and made extra sure that the cost would be R 601.00 for the bundle excluding phone line rental. The agent said that was correct and also said I would be charged pro rata for the few days in September.

Imagine my shock when I got a bill for over R 2,000 when my bill is usually around R 200. I was charged for the two products separately and thus got overcharged by at least R 1,000. After many phone calls, multiple visits to the same Telkom store, and various disputes, I was given a refund of R 955.59 for this month. Just shy of the amount they overcharged.

However this month they have charged me R 767.99 (excluding phone line rental) which is still more than the advertised R 601. Also, I see from my bill that I was previously on "Bus prior s/cap prem+" but I'm now on "Home S/cap 50GB prem".

(all amount are including VAT)
 
eegee said:
@DrJohnZoidberg
You are not alone..

I ordered the "do Elite" bundle at the end of September. I ordered it at a Telkom store and I specifically asked for the bundle and made extra sure that the cost would be R 601.00 for the bundle excluding phone line rental. The agent said that was correct and also said I would be charged pro rata for the few days in September.

Imagine my shock when I got a bill for over R 2,000 when my bill is usually around R 200. I was charged for the two products separately and thus got overcharged by at least R 1,000. After many phone calls, multiple visits to the same Telkom store, and various disputes, I was given a refund of R 955.59 for this month. Just shy of the amount they overcharged.

However this month they have charged me R 767.99 (excluding phone line rental) which is still more than the advertised R 601. Also, I see from my bill that I was previously on "Bus prior s/cap prem+" but I'm now on "Home S/cap 50GB prem".

(all amount are including VAT)
Click to expand...

There is so much miscommunication going on at Telkom it's not even funny.
 
It's not just the gaming bundles which aren't managed correctly.
On the 10G softcap, was at 80% usage at 12AM yesterday morning. Downloaded aprox. 5G till 7AM. Downloads on a schedule, plus windows turns off computer at 7:01AM on schedule. When I turn on the computer and check Titracker, only 2G allocated to Nightsurfer and my dsl data over the limit. Now on slow dsl for one third of the month due to their error.
 
On week 3 now. Neither of my issues have been addressed.

I got a call at the beginning of this week from my HelloPeter post saying they would contact me within 3 days. That never happened.

Price is still incorrect on their website even though they have made other changes to it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X