Phone fiasco

Clive Rosenberg,
Sea Point

To Off My Trolley column: You did warn me about going wireless with Telkom.

After numerous calls from them telling me that the copper line would soon be disconnected and if I did not voluntarily switch over I would be charged for the new phone and connection.

As the quality of my existing line was so poor I finally relented.

What a disaster. I received the phone at 5pm on Friday and waited a few days to install it. The instructions are not clear and confusing as to when you should insert the SIM: wait for the copper to be cut, don’t wait or wait for the SIM to be activated. It was a total mishmash.

I phoned 10210 as advised for assistance but they were totally useless.

Dial other numbers – the same story. Finally, I got the phone working after a fashion in that it only worked in the hands-free mode.

I went to the Sea Point Telkom store who said the handset was faulty but they did not have stock to replace it.

I then went to Adderley Street and waited an hour for the technician to return.

No manager or deputy was available.

The technician eventually arrived and said that it was faulty but wanted the delivery bill to show when I received it and that it had to be returned within seven days under the CPA.

I asked if they would phone the courier company to fax them a copy but he refused.

There is no effort whatsoever to be of assistance and the attitude seems to be one of resentment. I returned home, phoned the courier service myself and received an email copy five minutes later.

That’s service.

I will now go back but as it is now more than their seven days, I can anticipate a fight to get them to replace the device.

I see the CPA gives one six months to return a faulty device so I will bring this to their attention.

To sum up, the most aggravating and frustrating tear-your- hair out experience.

However, in all fairness to Telkom, I went back to their Sea Point store and Lifa Nkomo helped me.

Mr Nkomo could not have been more supportive.

He was really customer-oriented and a pleasure to work with.

If only Telkom had more like him.

He sorted out the problem with the phone so that it is operative, but the sound quality I am afraid is still a disaster.