You know how they say things that are often painful at the time, happen to be funny when you look back at them years down the line?

Well, this has not been my experience in dealing with Telkom, and I still get the cold sweats every time I think about the months of fighting it took to get my old flat sorted with an internet connection.

Thankfully, with fibre rolling into Cape Town, I have been able to kiss my Telkom days goodbye, and I am hopeful that I will never again have to deal with their complete and utter ineptitude.

South Africa’ leading hosting and connectivity providers generally offer free fibre installation, but there are people out there looking to fleece unsuspecting customers out of their hard-earned bucks.

MyBroadband with the story of one of their readers who was recently duped:

Third-party fibre installers arrived at the reader’s home and said they were there to install the reader’s fibre line – which she had ordered through a local ISP.

The reader was told by the installers that they must be paid in cash for the installation, and they quoted her R2,200.

However, the reader argued that the ISP offered free fibre installation for her order. Despite this, the reader paid the fee to the installers – and was not provided with an invoice.

The installers promised to send an invoice either that night or the next day, but the customer is yet to receive any such documentation.

After contacting her ISP, the reader was told that the installation fee should not have been charged and was meant to be free. When she asked the ISP for an installation refund, however, they said they cannot reimburse her cash payment to the installers.

Well, that would really piss me off. No invoice, no reimbursement, and now she’s R2 200 out of pocket for something that shouldn’t have cost a dime.

In order to find out what is the best course of action to take during the process, MyBroadband then reached out to leading provider RSAWEB for comment:

RSAWEB said it does not charge customers any upfront fees, as all signups take place online. It said customers will never be required to pay the installer of their fibre directly in cash.

“It is a safety and security issue for both the (legitimate) installer and the customer,” said RSAWEB.

The ISP recommended swift and significant action on the side of the customer if their installer requests payment directly.

“Immediately call your armed response security provider and get them to escort the individual offsite,” said RSAWEB.

“Ensure you are safe and then call our support centre or the fibre network operator to verify the individual.”

If you go through a company like RSAWEB for home fibre, which offers free installation along with a range of other perks (free router and free on-site support, to name a few), you aren’t paying a cent to the people who arrive for the installation.

The starting packages on Octotel are also pretty kind to the pocket:

To see the full range of fibre options, for home and business, as well as to check availability in your area, head here.

Knowledge is power, so hang onto your cash.

[source:mybroadband]