dhiren.za.net

I've had a contract with iTalk for almost 6 years now, since I got my first cellphone. Up until last November, I've had to deal with them a total of three times: two renewals and having the contract transferred from my dad to myself. All were pretty painless experiences. Until this time.

My contract expires on January 27, so I've been eligible for a renewal/handset upgrade since the end of October or something. I had a specific handset in mind, so around early November, I went to the iTalk branch at the La Lucia Mall and asked if they had it. The sales attendant looked at the list of specials, saw it was not there, and said they don't have it. Now, the list of specials is a short list of... specials. It's the list of things like, "get this handset with this reduced subscription" or "get this free gift with this handset". It is not the complete list of all phones that they have available in stock or on order. Not wanting to cause too much of a fuss, I left to do my other shopping, and came back another day, hoping to find another attendant who may know more about the available phones. I was in luck, or so I thought - there was someone else at the counter. Unfortunately, she also just referred to the list of specials, and didn't show any signs of knowing that there are more phones available than just the specials. Clearly, I wasn't going to get very far at the branches.

The attendants only appear to know about the specials on offer, and make no attempt to find out for you if a particular phone that you're interested in is available or not

I tend not to be confrontational or argumentative, so rather than forcing the issue at the branch, I decided to contact the customer services department instead. So I sent them an email from my home account:

Subject: Mycall 100 renewal query

Hi,
I am currently on a Mycall-100 contract. My contract is up for renewal.

I would like to renew my contract with an I-Mate SP5 handset. I know that the SP5 is not on any of the specials for the mycall-100 contract, however I am not interested in getting a special, either in the form of a reduced subscription or a free gift. I just want the SP5 handset free with my contract renewal.

Can you tell me if this is possible please?

Thank you

I thought it was quite straightforward and clear. Over the next few days I kept a lookout in my inbox, and junkmail folder, for a reply. To my great disappointment, I received none. Now, I do host my email from home, although I use either my ISP or gmail for outgoing mail, since the dynamic IP range I'm on is generally blocked by most spam lists, and I sent this message using gmail, so it's extremely unlikely that it would have been rejected. But anyways, just to be certain that there wasn't a problem on my side, I sent the mail again, from my work address. This time, I also turned on read and delivery receipts, and I was thrilled when I received both receipts shortly afterwards - someone had read my query, so I should be getting a reply soon. But no, even though the query was received, it was not responded to. In frustration, I sent what I told myself would be the final query to them - again, the exact same message. If this one was also ignored, I would be pretty upset. But luckily for me, I didn't have to get upset... yet. I received a response to my query!

I don't have any iMate SP5's at the moment out of stock.
I'm not sure if the deal can be done but I will try my best to arrange this deal for you.

What is you cell number?

Too thrilled for words, I replied the moment this message made its way into my inbox.

Hi Evan,

Thank you very much for your response! My number is 083 xxx xxxx.

Thanks
-d

Later that evening, I was thinking about it, and was worried that if he wasn't able to get stock very soon, he might think I wouldn't be interested. But I wasn't in a particular hurry to get the phone, I just wanted to know if I could get it or not. So I sent him another mail.

PS, it doesnt matter if you are out of stock at the moment - I am in no immediate need of this, and if it can be arranged within the next few weeks that will be perfectly fine as well.

Thanks again
-d

I suppose I could have worded it better, but I was half asleep at the time. Anyways, Over the next few days I again eagerly checked my mail and spam filter for a reply from Evan. A week went by, and I'd heard nothing, apart from his original message. By now I was upset.

My query was ignored twice, and when it was finally responded to, was then ignored again for a week.

Being fed up, I sent the customer care email address another message, attaching all my correspondence with them so far, letting them know that I was not impressed.

Subject: Please enable number portability on my contract

Hi,

I have emailed you three times now, requesting a simple yes/no answer regarding renewing my contract. The first two emails received no response whatsoever, even though I know for sure that at least the second one was received and read. The third one received a response, requesting my telephone number, to which I replied almost immediately. This was last Wednesday afternoon. Since then, I have received no further correspondence either by email or by telephone in over a week.

Since it seems you are neither capable of responding to customer queries nor answering a simple yes/no query even if just to let me know that you are still trying to find the answer to the query, rather than renewing my contract, kindly inform me of the steps I need to take in order to make use of the number portability facility so that when my contract expires in January I can switch to a provider that has somewhat better customer service than you do.

Thank you

Well, unsurprisingly, that got me a response, although not quite the response I was expecting.

Nobody is stopping you from porting out. The only reason I haven't got back to you is that I need the cost of the iMate SP5 before I can tell you anything. As the stock we receive the prices fluctuate. So only when I have the stock could I give you the price. If I worked off the old price the would be a payment of R1000 on the MyCall 100 package.

Thanks

Yes, that's right. iTalk customer service's response to a complaint was "Nobody is stopping you from porting out".

To be quite honest, up until I received that reply, I hadn't really been planning to port to another provider - I was hoping to just get an answer out of them. But that response convinced me that I would definitely be porting out as soon as I could.

Hi,

I would have appreciated a response saying that you are waiting for new prices. I did not hear from you in over a week, not even to acknowledge receipt of my details and that you will contact me once you have the required information.

However, since your response doesn’t show even the slightest hint of an apology, and since you seem to be encouraging me to port out, I shall be doing so as soon as my contract term is up. Kindly inform me of the necessary steps that need to be taken.

Thanks

Instead of just sending that one to him, I also cc'd the general customer service address, in the hope that at least someone in some position of seniority was monitoring that, so that they could see what stellar agents they have on staff. Unsurprisingly, this time an apology and the information I wanted was at hand.

Dhiren to port out all you need to do is go to another service provider and tell them that you would like to port in. It will be the same as you taking out a new line so they will or might require the following documents:
- ID
- Proof of address
- Payslip
- 3 Months bank statements
- Latest bill from iTalk.

Don't get me wrong I do apologise, my problem is I'm still awaiting the new price, sorry.

Unfortunately for him, the apology was too late.

Around this time, a good friend of mine, after being told of my woes, told me that her boyfriend had the latest price list from MTN-SP, and that they had the phone I wanted listed, and best of all, it was free - none of this R1000 that iTalk was estimating. Excitedly, I went to the MTN-SP at Gateway to ask about porting to them. However, the attendant there said that I should rather wait until my contract was up, because I'd still have to pay iTalk the remainder of my subscriptions anyways, so I should just wait it out rather than waste the money. So that's what I decided to do.

Then, a few weeks later, I was telling my cousin about the awesome response I received from iTalk. She suggested I post a comment about it on www.hellopeter.com - which I did. Briefly, I outlined the hassles I'd had:

• store attendants don't know about anything other than the specials
• my query was ignored twice, before being responded to and then being ignored again
• when I complained about the lack of service, I was told "nobody is stopping you from porting out" rather than receiving an apology
• the estimate for the phone I wanted was R1000 when it was free at another service provider

The customer services manager at iTalk responded with an apology and to say that I will be contacted to resolve the issue. By this time, I had already decided to port, but decided to give them one last chance to redeem themselves, partly out of misguided optimism, partly out of an underlying nervousness about the whole procedure, and partly out of pure laziness. So the next morning, I received a phone call from a customer service rep, asking for more details as to what happened. I told him, and then forwarded him all the emails I had sent and received, for him to follow up on.

The next morning, the customer services manager called me to again apologise, and asked me what phone I had been looking for. I told him, and he said that he will try his best to find one for me, because they were out of stock. Later that afternoon, I received a call from customer services again... they could get me my phone! But it would cost me R1083 as a cash payment.

Wait, what? I definitely did mention in my complaint that it was offered free at MTN-SP, didn't I? Why would I want to pay iTalk for the same thing that I'd get free elsewhere, especially after the shoddy treatment that they acknowledge I received? I told the guy who called me that there was no way I was paying for it, because I could get it free elsewhere. He seemed surprised, and said he'd check up on it and get back to me. Yep, you guessed it, he never got back to me.

Despite knowing that I was able to get the handset free on the same contract elsewhere, iTalk said I'd have to pay them R1083 to get it. And when I queried it, I never got a response.

So, a few days later, on December 27, I called iTalk's hotline, and asked for their cancellations department. I told the nice man I spoke to that I wished to give my one months notice to terminate my contract. Without any fuss, he told me that I needed to fax a letter stating I wished to end my contract, along with a copy of my ID. Then, after having answered my question, he asked why I wanted to cancel my contract. I gave him a brief rundown of what happened, and he asked if I would mind if he tried to get the phone for free, to retain me as a customer. I told him I couldn't promise anything, because I was already very unimpressed with their service, but that he could go ahead and see what he could do. Later that afternoon, he called me back to say, very apologetically, that iTalk was unable to offer me the phone for free on my contract. No problem, I told him... I'll be cancelling my contract and porting out to another provider, and I'll fax through the required paperwork shortly. You don't need to do that, he told me. The letter is only required if you cancel, not if you port out. There's no paperwork if you port out - you don't need to do anything.

Awesome! So, a few days later, I went back to MTN-SP to sign up. But, my balloon was unceremoniously burst - MTN-SP's price list was revised that day, and according to the new price list, I'd have to pay R1699. That threw a spanner in the works. While I wanted this phone, I wasn't prepared to pay very much on top of my contract for it, not R1000 to iTalk, and definitely not R1699 to MTN-SP. So, sadly, I thought I'd have to choose another phone. Luckily, I decided to look around at a few other outlets first, and came across Autopage Cellular's website, where they had it listed as an upgrade special... not only was it free, but it was also at a reduced subscription!

I called Autopage the next day, and received another blow - the deal was only available for existing Autopage subscribers who were renewing their contracts, not for new subscribers. But, as a new subscriber, I'd pay the normal contract price, and the incredible sum of R57 for the phone. Yes... R57 instead of R1083 and R1699.

I decided I wasn't waiting for Autopage to also review their price lists, I was taking this deal immediately. Besides, I only had just over 3 weeks left with iTalk, and I didn't mind losing the remaining subscription period just to be rid of them. So, there and then, over the phone, I signed up with Autopage, and requested them to port my number over. Being able to live with wasting 3 weeks worth of subscription costs, I said they could proceed with the port immediately, rather than waiting. Boy, was I in for a big surprise.

Autopage put the port request through, and iTalk received it today. Early this afternoon, I received a phone call from someone at the porting department, asking me if I was sure I wanted to port out. Definitely, I replied. Then he asked me if I was aware that I would have to pay a R4000+ fee for porting out before my contract period was up.

iTalk wants me to pay over R4000 because I want to end my contract three weeks before it is due to lapse.

Yes, that's right. Somehow, someone at iTalk feels that the 3 weeks I have remaining on my contract is worth R4000 to them. I asked the man how he managed to arrive at such a ridiculous figure. He said he calculated it. I asked him how he calculated it. He said MTN requires that amount to be paid. I asked him how MTN arrives at that amount. He said that they look at the specific contract, the period remaining, and other various bits of nonsense like what your bill averages to and other fantasy figures. I told him he was talking rubbish. There is no such calculation, because I had read another complaint where someone else also complained of having to pay R4000 to port out. Isn't it amazing that two completely unrelated contracts magically arrived at the same port-out penalty fee? Then, I told him that I had been complaining to iTalk for weeks and weeks, telling them that I was going to port out because of their poor service, and asking for all the procedures necessary to do so, and not once did anyone ever mention any sort of fee like this. I fully expected to pay the remainder of my subscriptions to them, but R4000 is complete and utter insanity. He replied by saying that the other departments would not have known what the fee would be, because the fee was calculated by the porting department, and I hadn't spoken to the porting department. He also said that the porting department could only calculate the fee once the port request had been made.

It is not possible to know what your porting fee will be, until you actually initiate a port. Once you do, iTalk can attempt to rip you off to their hearts content.

While it is understandable that the fee is calculated from the time the port is initiated, the porting department should be able to calculate the fee at any given time, to be able to give an indication of what the fee would be if you were to port out immediately. Obviously, the actual fee would be less than this. So I asked, even if it was not possible to even give me an estimate (which is utter rubbish anyways), why wasn't I informed about this fee any of the times I expressed my desire to port. The response was that the other departments don't know about it. I was amazed. Are you telling me, I asked him, that in the whole of iTalk Cellular, your department is the only one that knows of this disgustingly outrageous port-out fee? His reply was yes.

According to the man I spoke to at around 2.45pm today, nobody at iTalk Cellular, apart from the porting department, is aware that there is a fee that basically amounts to daylight robbery that will be charged if you try to port out before your contract expires.

Curious, I divided 4000 by 24, and received the strangely familiar figure of 166.66. My monthly subscription charges are R135 + R8 + R21.50... totalling R164.50.

iTalk Cellular wants to charge me more than 24 months worth of subscription fees as a penalty for terminating my contract 3 weeks early.

So, frantically, I had to call Autopage, and ask that they put my port request on hold until the 28th (iTalk's porting department couldn't tell me if I could port on the 27th or the 28th and not incur their shocking ripoff fee - at first he told me to call Autopage on the 27th, and when I asked him if he was sure, because I did not want to be ripped off for R4000 for porting out one day too soon, he said "to be safe, port on the 28th").

I would love to know how iTalk arrives at this fantastical figure of R4000. And I intend going to their head office on Monday to speak to someone in person, and demand to know exactly how they calculate it, and how they are able to justify charging a penalty of 24 months of fees for leaving 3 weeks early. I figure I'll have to go there in person because there's no way I'll receive much of a response via the phone or email, judging by their past record. In the six years that I've had an account with them, the highest my phone bill has ever been has been around R1200-R1300, and that was once. There is no way possible that iTalk could have extrapolated R4000 from my usage, unless they are taking very strong recreational drugs.

So basically, the moral of the story is that iTalk sucks

I guess all that's left to do is urge everyone I can to stay as far away from iTalk Cellular as possible.

edit: Don't forget to read the follow up after I visited iTalk Cellular in person