Telkom recently sneaked in astronomical tariff increases for international landline calls, writes Derryck Bellis.
Their spokesperson’s lame excuse was that, for some time, they had been greatly undercharging on inter-connectivity, which is the price charged by overseas countries on their incoming international calls. What poppycock.
If that is right, the management responsible for such a gross, lengthy pricing error, should be summarily fired for incompetence.
An example of the magnitude of the tariff hikes is that landline calls to Australia have rocketed from 72c a minute to R20.11 a minute (R22.73 including VAT).
That equates to an astounding well over 2 000 percent increase. New tariffs to the UK are even worse. Charges have increased from 53c a minute to R27.73 minute (R31.35 including VAT).
Such crazy increases will have a massive detrimental effect on our shaky economy by substantially increasing company costs.
It is also a blow to hard-pressed consumers, such as pensioners, who have children living overseas.
To add insult to injury, Telkom seems to be so ashamed of the price hikes they have tried to sneak them in.
If they have the audacity to exploit their customers to such an outrageous extent, at least they should have had the decency to warn them by including a list of the new tariffs with the monthly client statements.
Their call centre agents have been left exposed and unable to deal with queries from the public or to email them increased tariff lists. Many do not know there has been an increase.
If South Africa’s docile consumers tolerate such a Telkom outrage, they deserve to be perpetually exploited by greedy conglomerates.
Derryck Bellis
Bryanston, Sandton
Telkom responds:
In the past, Telkom used to group multiple operators in a single country together .
The reason for single rates was to simplify rates to international destinations.
While each of these operators charged different wholesale rates, Telkom effectively absorbed the risk (swings and roundabouts, especially since these premium rate destinations involved low volumes) by charging a single rate to its own customers.
This worked effectively in the past but international call volumes are in significant decline - customers are using alternative applications like Skype calling and social media to stay in touch - and this model is no longer effective or profitable for Telkom.
Further, under-recovery of costs exposes Telkom to anticompetitive behaviour and pricing scrutiny.
Premium rate services have long been a lucrative revenue-making opportunity, and attract higher-than-normal charges. Under-recovery on these services encourages fraudulent behaviour.
Below is an example of different wholesale rates to Australia.
Telkom has decided to increase its international call rates now as a result of declining volumes, increasing pressure on profitability and closing revenue leakage gaps.
We have implemented various programmes to communicate the rate changes with our customers. This includes a recorded message for customers dialling the affected international destinations, thus giving them the option to continue with the call or to make alternative arrangements. Customers are also referred to the new tariff list on our website through this recorded announcement. The list can be downloaded from the following link: http://www.telkom.co.za/about_us/regulatory/tariffs.shtml.
Shortly after the announcements were activated, we became aware that some customers may not have received the recorded announcement when dialling the affected international code.
This was owing to a technical issue on our integrated voice-recording platform.
This shortcoming - no announcement for a few international destinations - was discovered and resolved within a month from the initial February 15 announcement implementation.
We therefore granted manual credits on certain calls made during this period, from February 15 until March 16.
We have since verified that the announcement is loaded on all affected destinations and is working perfectly.
Notices of rate changes were also placed on monthly invoices.
Telkom has a call rate calculator on our website.
Customers can access this tool to secure an approximate quote for the correct current applicable rate from a Telkom number to an international destination.
They can access the call rate calculator at the following link: http://www.telkom.co.za/about_us/regulatory/tariffs.shtml.
With regards to call centre agents, it is important to note that all the call centre operators undergo continuous training to respond to customers on various queries that they may have.
Where they cannot assist, the queries are referred to the relevant department within Telkom to help resolve the matter.
Jacqui O’Sullivan
Telkom group executive: communication