RE: COMPLAINT / NEOTEL / RUDI HERBST
1. On the 24th November 2010, I visited Neotel Cedar Square to enquire about various business services.
2. I was referred to Rudi Herbst of Treziscope CC, a channel partner of Neotel. I called him and he asked me to email him my requirements, which I duly did on 25th November 2011 (available for perusal). Rudi said he would email me a quote, which, to his credit, he did.
3. I called Rudi again that day and asked him whether we could keep our number, and to please find out if we had coverage at our new premises because I had tried to confirm coverage on Neotel’s website, but couldn’t validate coverage. He assured me that there was adequate coverage and that we could transfer our number.
4. On the 26th November Rudi emailed and informed me that he needed to apply for our lines so we would be ready before we moved (available for perusal). He also asked that we make payment of his quoted price ASAP. He asked me to complete the Neotel paperwork which he had attached to his email (available for perusal).
5. I duly completed the Neotel – Customer Order Form (COF) and attached all the requested accompanying documents. Rudi came to collect these documents and called to say that Neotel had approved our application and I now needed to pay the quoted R7050.00 and faxed proof of payment to Chantelle at Neotel on 086 677 8908. I duly did as he requested (available for perusal).
6. I was very clear about wanting everything installed by mid-January 2011. We made an appointment for installation on 20th January 2011. He cancelled this installation. We re-scheduled on the 27th January 2011 (available for perusal). He also cancelled this installation.
7. We then made an appointment for 1st February 2011. He cancelled this installation because there was a death in the family. We re-scheduled the installation for the 3rd February 2011. He cancelled this appointment as he was still in Bloemfontein. He promised to call and re-schedule but didn’t respond to my emails or sms’s, so I threatened to contact Neotel (available for perusal).
8. Rudi didn’t respond to my “threat” but called that night to say that he took his mother-in-laws cell phone and had to travel back to Bloemfontein to collect it. He promised to call “first thing in the morning”. I sent him an email “INSTALLATION????” which he didn’t respond to and so, absolutely frustrated, extremely angry and very close to going to the press I called Neotel’s customer service department (8th February 2011). After much frustration with junior staff I was eventually put through to Joseph Pitjeng, a supervisor. He promised to escalate the matter to various “powers that be”, and assured me “someone” would get back to me.
9. When I called Neotel on the 8th February 2011, I was shocked to find out that we were not a registered / approved client of Neotel, and that there was no paperwork received from Rudi Herbst.
10. Rudi called (8th February 1.03am), after my call to Joseph at Neotel and scheduled an installation on Thursday, 10th February 2011 at 10am.
11. I waited for Rudi at our offices on the 10th February but he never arrived. I called his cell at 10:30am and asked “Where are you?” He said he had terrible “jippo guts” from a boerewors roll he’d eaten at the rugby the night before.
12. I discussed his unacceptable response and behaviour with NLA’s director, Natalie Lubbe and it was decided that we would no longer tolerate his deplorable, unethical, and unprofessional conduct. I sent Rudi an email on the 11th February 2011 to this effect and gave him until the 15th February 2011 to refund our money.
13. Needless to say Rudi did not refund our monies by said deadline. On the 1st March Rudi emailed me:
“I herewith regret to inform you that things are not going well financially and we are not able to make payment as requested. I know that I committed to do so but business is quiet and I am really under a lot of stress at this moment. The only other alternative is that I pay you off over a couple months. I can give you some post-dated cheques and if I get the money beforehand I will pay it over to you!”
14. I emailed Rudi on the 7th March 2011 with strict terms for monthly repayment of monies he had, by his own admission, fraudulently misappropriated.
15. Rudi agreed to all our terms on the 9th March 2011. We arranged to meet to sign the acknowledgement of debt on the 11 March 2011. AGAIN, Rudi did not arrive.
16. I called Rudi, and re-scheduled the meeting for the 13th March 2011. Rudi arrived, and duly signed the acknowledgement of debt, and also left 6 post-dated cheques.
17. I deposited his 1st post-dated cheque on 4th April 2011, but it was returned “unpaid” because of insufficient funds.
18. Natalie Lubbe called Rudi on 18th April 2011 and informed him of the non-payment of his cheque. He said he couldn’t understand why it had “bounced” and he promised to make payment by electronic transfer within 24 hours (19th April 2011 before 13:30).
19. No monies were received by Rudi Herbst and Natalie Lubbe left a message on his cell phone (21st April 2011) and informed him that legal action will be instituted against him.
20. NOBODY from Neotel has, as of today, had the decency to respond to my complaint! Neotel was notified of this escalating and unacceptable situation on the 9th February 2011, on the 11th February 2011, on the 15th February 2011, on the 1st March 2011, 7th March 2011, 9th March 2011, (all communications are available for perusal!).

I was contacted by neotel within 24 hours and thought my problems were finally over. The main problem lies with administration. I was told that a document is attach to my account which clearly states why I wanted to cancel my connection.

Now all of a sudden I must do it again, for the reason stipulated for cancellation is different from what I said.
My reason stays the same: BAD SERVICE! I am not relocating, I am canceling due to bad service and a faulty network. We were promised by a sales rep that our speed would be 2.4mbs. When I query this they said no it could go up to this. I was very Disappointed for neotel at that stage were even slower than a normal adsl telkom line.

When I phoned today, they told me that I will be credited R1618. I do not approve of this, since R1915.20 was wrongfully deducted from my account on the 30 of Jan 2010. Now it seems that neotel wants to make profit out of their mistake.

Up to now: No one has contacted me personally. I would like to be fully reimbursed: connection fee and monthly fee fee + the R1915.20 cancelation fee.

I canceled my account on the 26 of Nov after joining neotel middle October, and after phoning several times.

In the month of November 2009 I received my statement from Neotel and it showed that my account balance was R0.00 I immediately phoned them to ask what was going on as this seemed very unlikely to me. After conversations with several Neotel agents it was determined that this was correct, so I left it be. In the month of January 2010 I received my statement and the amount reflected was double the usual and it showed that I had been in arrears for the last 3 months so once again I phoned Neotel, after a great degree of effort on my part it was determined that this was the amount that they accidentally did not bill me for in November 2009. They said that it was a mistake on their system. I was not happy but immediately payed the full amount outstanding to them. In April of this year I tried to apply for car finance but was declined due to my ITC listing with Neotel, when I researched this I found that even though they knew the fault occured on their system they went forth and listed my on ITC regardless. I have now made more than 40 calls to Neotel trying to get some sort of letter or even to get them to remove the listing but no matter what I try no one at Neotel will speak to me.

1) I submitted an online request 3 days ago. Have not had a response from them yet.
2) Tried to get an online quote this morning. Firstly when you put the province in it goes away for 30 mins while loading something (nothing!). No cities are loaded so you can't select your city so you can't submit the form.

If this is the kind of service they provide, AND I'M NOT EVEN A CLIENT YET, then quite frankly I don't want their services.

On the 29th of May 2009 I signed up for Neotel and paid a R500 deposit. I collected my hardware and commenced testing. The connection was terrible and I then tried to contact the support line both via phone and via e-mail with no response.

Eventually on day 4 I went to the Neotel head office in Woodmead to cancel my account; this was not a great experience but after a couple of hours I had handed back the hardware and canceled my account.

On the 8th of June I received a statement from Neotel for services rendered which I then forwarded through to the person I had been dealing with along with a print out of my credit card statement to prove that I had paid the R500 deposit. (Go figure they can't check their own records).

12 March 2010 I still had not received my R500 deposit and was now contacted by Macrobert Attorneys who stated that I owed Neotel R676.22 and if I did not pay within 7 days I would be 'blacklisted'.

I recommend to anyone reading this, STAY AWAY FROM NEOTEL...