Since the shocker on Friday that I would have to pay R4000 to port out from iTalk Cellular, I've been in a very annoyed mood. So I decided to go in person to their head office today to speak to someone face to face, to get them to explain the costs to me. So I went in this morning, before I went to work, hoping to speak to the customer service manager in person. Unfortunately, the customer service manager is on leave, so I spoke to one of the customer service reps instead, and explained what happened, and asked to speak to someone who could give me a complete breakdown of what I'm being charged for. So after a short while, she tracked down David, who happened to be the guy who called me on Friday afternoon. I immediately began to feel somewhat disheartened, as David had reached a point on Friday where he couldn't give me any further answers. But I spoke to him anyways, to try and get any sort of explanation of the charges.
So again, I was told that it is beyond their control, and that it is MTN's fault. The reason being, that MTN pays iTalk a commission when they sign up a new subscriber, as well as pays them for the handset, etc. And if a subscriber terminates their contract early, then MTN reclaims those costs from iTalk, and iTalk reclaims those costs from the subscriber. Or something.
Right. So, with three weeks remaining on my contract, I'm paying back MTN for the full 24 months commission that iTalk received, and the full cost of the handset? Clearly something isn't right here. No, they said... it is calculated somehow. So, lets see. If they are making a calculation based on a pro-rata formula, lets do some rough mathematics here.
I have 3 weeks remaining on a 24 month, or 104 week, contract. So, I have 3/104, or slightly under 3% of my contract period remaining. Lets round that to 3%. So, according to the people I spoke to today, 3% of my contract is worth R4000. Meaning that my contract is apparently worth R135,000 to MTN. That seems somewhat farfetched. David said "what if that really was what it is worth to MTN". Well, I replied, if someone at MTN can show me a breakdown of my account, and show how my 24 month contract can be worth R135,000 to them, then I will be the happiest person on the planet, because it would mean that I am getting R135,000 worth of stuff for just under R4000. Clearly, I am not, and clearly, this is not what MTN does, because if they sunk R131,000 on every contract, they would go out of business quite soon.
So they tried to come up with other explanations - that its not just the monthly subscription that is involved with the contract, there are the subsidised amounts like the handset and whatnot. Which is fine. But it is completely ridiculous to expect me to pay a non-pro-rata amount on any of those things.
It seems to boil down to the fact that MTN pays iTalk a commission per sale, and if the contract gets cancelled early, then iTalk has to pay back the commission. Why I should have to pay this back is beyond me. The whole commission thing is between MTN and iTalk. If iTalk sucks so badly that it makes a customer want to leave, then iTalk rightly deserves to lose that commission, and making an already unhappy customer pay that is a very strange way of trying to resolve the conflict.
It was then put to me that the service providers have to charge these penalty fees to prevent subscribers from porting every 3 months to get a better deal. This is a completely flawed argument, and if anyone in management at iTalk or MTN or anywhere else seems to think that it is a good reason, then they clearly have no clue about anything, and here is why:
If I was to sign up for a new contract and get a new handset, and three months later decide to port somewhere else to get a "better deal", then (in a logical world, without ridiculous penalty fees) I will still have to pay up the remainder of my subscription fees and a pro-rata amount on the cost of my handset. This will most likely completely negate any sort of benefit that I might have derived from some "better deal" at another provider. No-one is going to port out at any time just because they want a better deal. There are remaining contractual obligations that will need to be honoured. And I am more than willing to honour the remainder of my contractual obligation, but nothing more.
What iTalk and MTN management need to realise is that people will most likely port out early because of service. iTalk's service was horrendous enough to make me want to lose some money and port out early to be completely rid of their service. Rather than penalising the unhappy customer with idiotic fees, they should go and figure out why the customer was unhappy in the first place and do something about it.
When I explained my reasons for being unhappy to the two people I spoke to this morning, they seemed quite shocked at how utterly disgusting my treatment by their company had been. He asked what happened when they tried to retain me when I made my first complaint... I had to hold back a laugh, because nobody bothered to make any attempt to retain me when I said I wanted to port, in fact, I was told that that they weren't stopping me at all. The only retention attempt was made when I called to give my one months notice to cancel, not to port.
So David asked me to forward my complaint details to him, so that he can bring it up with his manager. I have no idea what he will be able to achieve by this, but I do hope that it results in iTalk deciding to allow me to port out immediately, and rightfully absorb whatever extortionist fee they expect me to pay for them to MTN.
He said a few times that number portability is new, and so there are still some problems in the system that need to be worked out. I understand this completely. But these problems are between iTalk, MTN and ICASA. They are not my problems. I should not have to pay for those problems. I am just an unhappy customer. iTalk is now making me even more unhappy by making me pay a penalty fee for being unhappy, rather than doing something to make me less unhappy.
Ironically, while sitting there airing my dissatisfaction, I received an sms. When I got to work, I checked my phone: "iTalk offers you the latest in cellular renewal deals...".
Comments
I'll definitely steer clear of iTalk - hope you get rid of them SOON!
Today iTalk responsed on hellopeter.com to my complaint about being charged R4000 with this:
Hello dhiren
Please note that the contract duration is 24 months, and should you wish to port out within this period, it will be regarded as a cancellation within term and attract a cancellation fee which is based on the type of package, balance of months before expiry of contract, cost of handset supplied etc. therefore the cost implications are high.
The alternate is to port out once the contract period has expired which will not include the above costs.
Thanks.
Interesting to note that they just wave their hands and say 'yes, porting out has costs' yet completely fails to justify them charging me R4000 for the "balance of months before expiry of contract, cost of handset supplied etc". They also fail to mention the commission that they lose to MTN, which was revealed to me when I visited iTalk this morning.
iTalk, if you ever read this, please realise that it is this type of 'couldnt-care-less, we are right, you are a stupid idiot who doesn't understant anything' attitude that has cost you my business, as well as danette's (above) and hopefully many more potential and existing subscribers.
You know that the amount that I was being charged is completely repugnant. And I know this, because I sat in front of two of your employees, both of whom said that if they were in my situation, they would feel exactly the same way.
What is sad is that since you will never experience how shockingly pathetic your service is to your paying customers yourselves, you will never realise just how truly terrible it is. Both your employees were shocked at the treatment that I have received, and both said they know that the amount of R4000 is completely unreasonable. This is coming from your own company. Yet you refuse to acknowledge it, because all you're interested in is attracting new business with stupid "free" gifts, and couldn't care less when your existing customers are so completely fed up with your hopeless service that they want to leave.
If you are so confident that the entire R4000 is justified, then I demand a cent-by-cent breakdown of exactly where it goes. I know the bulk goes to MTN, but I want to know exactly what it's going for. And if it goes towards paying for the commission that you rightfully deserve to lose, then I believe that the Consumer Council of SA, ICASA, and every other consumer-related body would be extremely interested to know that you are charging your lost commission due to your own PATHETIC HORRIFIC DISGUSTING service, not due to the customers fault at all, back to the customer, who not only has had to put up with being treated like an idiot, and being told that his business is not appreciated in the least, but now also has to pay for your pathetic service.
I agree, I-talk SUCKS!!! I can't even complain about their bad service because there are NO SERVICE!!! They shouldn't even be allowed to trade!!! It's funny how they always have these amazing specials but I quess that's the only way they can attract new customers. Don't get caught in their vicious trap!!!
They aren't the only ones giving bad service (aka no service), best of luck dhiren, may the source be with you!
ITALK does not have a free customer care number and they call centre only open during office hours.ITALKS STINKS
A friend approached me this morning,telling me how 'Good' italk is,I was tempted to port from my current service provider,but after reading this,I really dont think ill ever will.Thanks for the eye opener!
Had similar experience. iTalk only interested in conning new subscibers with free offers. Have no interest in retaining customers. Been with them 8 years(average spend-R850/month). Waited for renewal phone 6 months. Bunch of obnoxious idiots working there.
Well I was looking at detaols for iTalk to send them mail and came upon this about iTalk Sucks. Just yesterday I sent them an email on their web site where I said to them iTalk service SUCKS. I thought this was my my mail but lo and behold I am not alone. My case was that my credit card decline and the sms said that payment must be made on 07/09/07. Like all normal people we forget and that morning of Friday 07September2007 my line was suspended. Ok that will happen and I paid the account the afternoon of that Friday and faxed the details to iTalk with placing a call as the advertised fax no was not receiving my fax. The personb at iTalk gave me another fax no which I then promptly faxed off.
Suspension normally means make payment and let them have the payment details and we should be back on track. Come Saturday morning 08 September still no reconnection and a call placed to iTlak siad that it can take from two hours upwards and the paym,ents papers received was confirmed. This carries on the Sunday meaning no connection which incidently means no incoming calls as well. Not even emergency calls. Ok so by Monday morning I call them up get passed from one person to the next and eventually hold on for a while and I have to put down as this is a trunk call to Durban.
By Wednesday still no connection so am I being punished for paying late and for how long should my line stay disconnected? Bottom line this is real bad service from iTalk and renewal of contracts? UGHH!
I really know how u feel Italk is the worst company to deal with for phones. Sadly I am a customer but wont be for too long. Something that Italk needs to realise is that customer service means more, this country needs to realise this also, in every avenue of business actually. World class service keeps customers coming back irrespective of how much they spend.
I have had much worse experiences with Cell C. They have a bunch of idiots working there from the top (the directors) down to the customer service representatives. They are all totally ignorent about their own company policies and procedures.
I wished to cancell my contract before expiration due to their pathetic service and unfortunatley it was a case of payup for the balance of the contract or be listed on ITC. I instructed them to sue me because I had proof of all my unanswered queries and gripes. No summons - just a record on itc. The amount that was reflected on ITC was paid. When I called legal department to remove the record they said I had to pay a further substantial amount of R2700.00 (after having paid the R2048 reflected on itc as BDW)!!!
Eventually I spoke to a director at CELL C and his attitude was no better than his staff. His words were "the ball is in our court". It was then I realised I was trying to get water off a stone. I have since given up as I don't wish to spend any more of my company time and phone calls on CELL C!!
I have only just joined ITALK and it seems that I jumped out the frying pan straight into the fire!!
Dhiren - honour the last few weeks of your contract. Its far less painful!!!
Having tried to contact Italk via their web page, I thought you might have lol to know that even their email connection on the web page is reject.I asked for details of my expiry date and the email was sent back as unknown !!!!!!
After reading these 2 pages, I am honestly horrified with iTalk's customer service! I don't know anyone one with them, and, if anyone asks, I'll advise them against!!!
Personally, my 11 years of Cell-Phone usage has been like this.
10->20 -> Vodacom
There rate's are reasonable, and their customer service is (Mostly) good...
20->21 -> Virgin Mobile
Now... All I can say is that Virgin Mobile... Rules!
This is what happened.
I walked into Musica at the Pavilion, and expressed my concerns to Port from Vodacom to Virgin Mobile. It cost me a grand total of R55 (Comes with a weird plastic case, hilarious Guide-Book, rather pointless Card-Dispenser, and R50 Airtime... All in all, A good deal :) )
They took down my details (I just needed my phone... Nothing more) and got told to keep the Vodacom SIM in my phone for the time, as it would let me know when it was complete.
Less than 15 minutes after walking into Musica, I walked out, extremely satisfied!!!
Around 4 hours later (Some time around 8:00pm) my phone beeped a "no-signal" message at me. I swapped SIM card's, and phoned my roommate - And it worked! Same number, different network! All Perfect!
Now, the Customer Service
The thing about Virgin Mobile is that, in every aspect what what they do, they're fun!
The following happened when I called both Vodacom and Virgin Mobile for the Computer Settings for a Wireless Internet Link between my phone and my Bluetooth Device (A rather difficult concept for most to understand ;) )
Vodacom:
Get greeted by several voice prompts, and eventually (After pressing 0 two or three times) get to speak to a consultant, who picks up rather quickly (In all 10 years, I've never been on hold for more than 10 seconds...)
Get redirected to a more technical consultant since my query was far-beyond the understanding of the initial consultant.
After about 10-15 minutes of talking to him, I eventually received all the settings, and had everything in place.
Virgin Mobile:
Get greeted my a rather awesome intro voice, and get instantly directed to a consultant (You're call may be be recorded, as we might want to listen to your sexy voice at a later stage... Or something along those lines... I'm serious!!!)
Since I already know a bit about what I need, I decided to make the query a bit more difficult...
"Hello! I was wondering if you could help me. I need the initialization string for my Bluetooth device required to go onto the internet when linking your phone to your computer."
"Sure! No problem! Do you know where to enter it in?"
o_O OMG!!! Did she understand me????
"Yes, I do."
"It's (And she spelt it out) at+cgdcont=1,"ip","vdata" "
"Thanks alot!!!"
"Sure no problem. Is that all?"
"Yes it is. Thanks alot!!! Cheers!"
"Goodbye."
I tried, and lo and behold, it worked! OH... MY... GOSH!!!!
So there you have it....
I am know an EXTREMELY loyal subscriber to Virgin Mobile, and, when typing out this VERY message, and smiling smugly, as the internet usage is from my cellphone (R0.50 per MB as opposed to Vodacom, MTN, and CellC who charge R2.00 per MB... Unless you use Vodacom's Data Bundles.... But that's besides the point, as it is too binding)
Another great thing about VM (Virgin Mobile) is that, the more airtime you buy, and the more you sms, phone, park on the internet/Mxit, or do anything money-related, you get V-Rewards! These are cash bonuses that are automatically added to your account at the end of the month, and don't expire EVER (Like Vodacom's Rewards do [Yes, after 6 months, POOF! They gone....]) (Well, most of the time they do... I think they forgot to add mine last month... I currently have R26.42)
If anyone has ANY comments, or know of anyone's twin-brother's great aunts cousin's uncle (Or anyone along those lines ;)) whose had a bad experience with VM, please feel free to leave me a comment :)
Well what can i say? I can totally relate to your complaint. Although i am quite ploeased to say that i have no shared in your suffering, i am already a paying contract member of MTN & i seem to pay endless fees, judged solely by their greed.
This is currently my last time with them & i will be porting to Vodacom or Virgin (Still deciding), however i have another Vodacom account & they are far superior to MTN in terms of service & fees including upgrade specials.
The MTN staff in shops such as Eastgate are pathetic, rude & have no new phones available. They just flog you with old stock & screen endless adds over the xmas period for the poor souls who have not yet experienced crap service.
What can i say? i am once bitten twice steered away!
Regards, Al
I am busy porting out from cell c. Actually had a look at the i talk website. Thank God I saw this!!!!
hey guys, here another nice italk fairy tale:
OPERATIONS MANAGER: ZUKI
CORPORATE SALES MANAGER: NISHA
ACCOUNT NUMBER:
ACCOUNT HOLDER:
I originally signed up for the offer at the time, in May 2007, which at that time was advertised as the following:
A monthly subscription fee of R 454.00 per month over 24 month, which entailed 2 x My Choice 150 packages, a laptop, entry level cell phone and the data card.
Each sim was for the purpose of one being for the phone for the value of 150 airtime and the other for the laptop for the value of 75 mb data.
Upon receiving the equipment I was informed that either sim could be used for the data card, as neither were marked to the purpose.
Late October 2007, as per my email sent on the 10th October 2007, which was as follows:
“
Ola,
In this case we must have a tariff change done.
Please complete the attached tariff change form & fax this with a copy of your ID (un-certified).
Please fax to 031-368 7020 attention customer care / activations & the customer care team in Durban shall make the changes.
Catch you later mate.
-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Monday, October 15, 2007 7:33 PM
To:
Subject: RE: Add VAS 2GB bundle - Mr.
Importance: High
Hey boeta,
I just want the package to be 2gig instead of 75meg, if I understand correctly the package must change. I don’t want to pay an additional fee on the package for a bundle I want the package to be increased from a R150, 00 to R389, 00. Please advise if I misunderstood.
I completed the tariff change application form to the R 389.00 for 2 GIG, and return to your offices.
My account for November, reflected that the subscription was added to the incorrect sim card, even after supplying the sim card number on the application form, and additional data fee for the used usage was charged to the correct sim that was supposed to be used, thus resulting in an account total of R 2105.75 as apposed to R 723.00, therefore I was over charged by R 1382.75, due to incompetence by your admin department.
I bought this to the attention of my consultant, Jason Anettes, and wished to have this matter rectified and my account amended accordingly, this was done telephonically then by mail as below
Hi ,
I am currently in a position whereby the same staff member requested to get this done has thrown it back at me by stating it's my fault as I told you which sims to use.
This has affected the turn-around time for the billing query.
I have as a result enlisted the help of both Nisha (Corporate Sales Manager) & Zuki (Operations Manager) to help me help you.
I fully understand that you have been inconvenienced & will do my best to have you reimbursed.
Please note that this is not easily done & cannot be done overnight, all billing queries are only affected the following billing month after their completion as it is inevitably a cost to company which has to be signed off by a member of our executive committee (EXCO).
Yours sincerely,
-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 7:31 AM
To:
Subject: Re: Repayment on debit order
Importance: High
Hi ,
Ek wil asb voor 12h00 vandag hoor wat met die terugbetaling van my geld gebeur, ek wil nie verder hoor dat dit die afdeling of daai afdeling se skuld of probleem is nie ek sien italk cellular as een maadskapy. As dit nie gebeur nie wil graag met n senior bestuurder of kliente diens bestuurder praat. Dit is regtigt onanvaarbaar dat n klient so lank moet wag as gevolg van verskillende tussen n maatskapy se afdelings.
Laat weet my asb!
Dankie
I was assured that the query would be attended to, and I had faith in that, how ever much to my surprise my account for December 2007 stated other wise. The tariff change was never allocated to the correct sim card, I was informed that it was to bad and that I should use the other sim to where the data was added too .By this time I had already used the other sim and accumulated a bill of 517.02 data usage, in addition to the monthly subscription. Over and above this stuff up, my statement reflect an additional fee of R 3334.75 ref OP/I194422 with no explanation of what it was for. The total account came up to R 4574.77 as apposed to R 723.00, thus this month I was over charged by R 3851.77, therefore resulting in a total over charge of R 5234.52.
I consulted ____ with regards to this and agreed to do a return payment of the debit order, forcing the hand of iTalk to contact me with this regard and to hopefully have the matter resolved. I received a phone call from Zuki on the 9th January, after I called ___ as my Sim card didn’t work, she informed me that my account was suspended due to non payment, I then enquired to the specifics as stated as above, she said that she would investigate and get back to me.
I find this level of service and incompetence extremely concerning, by disconnecting a client due to in house issues is no concern of mine and I have on several occasions requested the issue to be rectified, you can not expect any client to pay the extortionate amount with little or no proof of why, also that a client should pay for the faults made by staff members who would rather pass the buck that actually resolving the issue, I have given your company ample opportunities to rectify the issue at hand and have been blatantly ignored, as far as I am concerned my account should have been in credit due to the first months over charge, and now I have been disconnected for a non payment that has no relevance.
This is not what I had signed up for and strongly feel that iTalk is in breach of contract and consider that debit order of an invalid invoice as theft, should this matter not be resolved with in the next 24, I will be forced to hand this over to my attorneys’ for legal action. I would have it in my right mind to send this on to papers across the country as it does make for interesting reading and I am sure that many other italk clients would be more than interested to discover what that have signed themselves up for, your larger competitors would have a field day!!
I am done begging and pleading, I request immediate action.
Still Waiting!!1
all they care about is profit
www.edebtsolutions.org
italk cell thinks its doin its customers a big favour.i agree italk has crap service
I'm very disgusted with the service that italk delivers it's entirely revolting not to mention horrendous. Italk has hired a bunch of inefficient conniving idiots who don't care about their clients. I'm so pissed with them.
with this Italk thing ...they suck big time ...they once charged me R 45>76 for 1 sms...that month i had sms charged at all amount ...R 10 R 34...PLEASE CHECK YOUR BILL ,,,,GOOD LUCK WITH ITALK..
P.S MTN SHOULD KICK THEM OUT ......
Post new comment