A number of Telkom customers, subscribed across various products, have experienced major problems when attempting to cancel their services.

Many of the issues are related to landline and ADSL line cancellations, although certain users have reported issues with switching their fibre line away from the service provider.

MyBroadband has received a large influx of complaints regarding Telkom’s line cancellation process, and websites like Hellopeter are littered with users complaining about being unable to cancel their products.

Telkom customers have sent complaints through to MyBroadband on an almost daily basis regarding this issue in recent weeks, with customers expressing extreme frustration with the service provider – rarely able to exercise restraint in their communications.

“I am going to try to stay unemotional while typing this email, but I can tell you that it is very, very difficult,” one user who has struggled to cancel his cellphone contract for four months told MyBroadband.

The majority of customers complaining to MyBroadband have expressed their despair at being unable to cancel their service for extended periods of time.

The issue seems to relate to the internal processes around cancelling physical lines or releasing fibre lines into a holding pool before changing ISPs.

Cancellation problems

A common theme surrounding these complaints is the inability to move a cancellation order forward through Telkom’s various channels.

The process of cancelling a landline or DSL line, for example, is reportedly extremely difficult – with Telkom staff at physical stores often referring customers to either call centres or an online portal.

In complaints received by MyBroadband, these cancellation orders do not make it through this barrier and are never successfully filed, despite constantly being escalated and bounced around between different staff.

Upon ordering the cancellation of their physical line through one of the avenues mentioned above, customers complained that their orders were not being processed and the operator continued to debit their accounts with monthly subscriptions.

One customer first attempted to cancel their line in April 2018, with Telkom confirming receipt of the cancellation request.

To date, the line is still not cancelled and the customer has attempted to cancel their service through a variety of channels – all to no avail.

Another user who complained to MyBroadband said they attempted to cancel their Telkom services in December 2017 – but are still being billed for their Telkom line.

A number of users on the MyBroadband forums have also reported issues with cancelling Telkom services, with various attempts through different cancellation processes providing no results.

Telkom responds

Telkom told MyBroadband it is aware of the problems customers are experiencing with cancelling their products and said that this was due to an issue with its cancellation system.

“Telkom is aware that some customers have encountered difficulty in cancelling services, due to a system issue earlier this year,” said Telkom.

“In April 2018, we introduced an online process for cancellations which has improved outcomes, although we acknowledge that there can still be hiccups in the process.”

Telkom added that it was working to fix the problems with its cancellation system.

“Customers whose accounts have been suspended due to arrears will not be able to use our online cancellation system,” added Telkom.

“We are working to resolve these issues and apologise to any customers who may have been affected.”

The company said customers could consult its online cancellation guide for a step-by-step walkthrough outlining how to cancel a service.

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