Neotel
reviews and complaints

Jan '10... After a month with Neotel's Premium package of wireless internet @ R600pm, which disconnected at regular intervals, when it was connected eventually (after 2 weeks of trouble, since Windows 7 was a bit too advanced for the product..), I got fed-up after receiving their 1st bill... When signing up at a shopping centre I specifically asked about 'Joining Fees' or 'Connection Fees'- to which their sales advisor replied: 'NONE' I asked about a cool-off period if I'm not happy- he said I can cancel if I want to: 'NO hassles, NO cancellation fee'... I got the 1st bill of R1068 instead of R600... NO joining fee, right?

I phoned to cancel, after paying this amount, I even asked for a revised bill so I pay everything and end the relationship, and to come collect their phone...- they wanted to charge me the full remainder of the contract... NO cancellation fee, right? After speaking my mind, they agreed to NOT charge the remainder, but REFUND me an amount of R640, for my trouble and the fact that I was mislead at sales stage. A few days later I got another invoice, not a refund, but an invoice of R78 for the phone. REALLY!?

I decided to get rid of my cumbersome Telkom line (closer 2 package) and Mweb's 5gig Adsl package. Shopping around I found Neotel.

I decided on the NeoConnect Prime 1G as this is just a home solution (and cheaper than Telkom and Mweb together I was paying about R700-00 for both).

I phoned sales, and to my surprise I only qualified for a NeoConnect Lite 99! This is laughable as I was going to cancel a R700-00 package for a R 279-00 package. What a joke! I can pass Telkom's and Mweb's credit checks but not Neotel's?

I am deciding to most likely keep the current companies involved (Telkom and Mweb) as I have had no problems from them. I will just downgrade my cap to make it more affordable.

The sad part in this is everyone in my family was willing to switch to Neotel so that we could phone Neotel to Neotel, and well, they won't now...

As competition to Telkom...you ****!

After reporting our problem on april 3 they finally sent a technician out on april 8. Alfred who has been here many times beore. He left haviong not fixed the problem...the ongoing calls and return visits have left us worse off than before. Finally tody after being romissed yesturday that a antenna was due to be ereectedand an new device installed Blah blah blah nothing happend by 11am. I called the cal ceter, and spoke with Keven who promised to call me bac with an answer within a 'short time' I called back finally at 3 and he can on the line after some time with others dealing with the issu and said hat he would have someone call me before 4PM at 4 15 pm I called and ask for kevein and was kept holding or 8 mins.I called again and again sking for kevin and was agian kept waiting, theis went on... I have now been on the phone with several people who keep saying they will call him then leave me hanging, one guy even says 'Yes he is on the other side of the room let me go and talk to him'... The last one Oyama after 6 mins tells me that kevin is in a meeting when 5 mins ago he was on the other side of the room!

It's three weeks later since i was promised that a technician was on his way and he is still not here... I can't even log on to log a complaint cause my connection is soooooo slow! This is useless! You guys can cancel my contract and come and get your useless devise! I'm sick and tired of empty promises!

On 27th August 2009 Neotel had a Promotional stand outside a local supermarket. I was very interrested in changing from Telkom and asked many questions, the main one being if I would recieve 1000 free minutes per month on all calls to any landline number dialled as I am currently getting with Telkom's Closer Bundle. I was categorically given the answer as YES. I repeatedly asked this question. This was the deciding factor in signing up there and then for two Neotel products.

I subsequently found out that this was not the case and sent an email via the Neotel website asking for clarification on this point. Up until now I have recieved no feedback on my application or question. On 10th Sept I sent an email to the Neotel Compliants department stating my concern. I gave the name and cell number of the representitive with whom I signed up. Again no feedback at all. If this is how they respond to an application and a query, I have no faith in changing from badly run company (Telkom) to another.

We have been without internet since the weekend of the 24th of October 2009. Although we cannot afford to be without such a vital line of communication we understand that technical issues can happen. Our Problem is with the lack of response and overall incompetence of the Neotel staff. After countless attempts to get information as to what the problem was and when it will be resolved we got absolutely no where. Infact the second day of attempting to get information on the Neotel system fault, I was told that they are not at all aware of any faults. This comes after we spent most of the previous day with them over the phone notifying them of the fault and trying to get feedback. They made numerous empty promises to us, to call us back with info. To no avail! Still now we are waiting... Without Internet... Staff droning around, frustrated. This all leaves an important question. CAN NEOTEL HANDLE WHAT THEY HAVE TRIED TO TAKE ON? or is it bigger than they can chew.. HELP! And now I am Calling them live... They have to say:' Sorry sir, the last note we have on the system was for monday, problem with you email..' We dont have NEOTEL e-mail and it is now Wednesday!

I got a neotel phn (worst mistake ever) last year as we moved into a house without a land line, we checked if neotel would work in the area where we were staying, Neotel said the signal would be good to excellent so we decided to try it out. we had hassels as soon as we got it. (firstly there was no cdsoftware in the box). once set up there was never signal = we could never phn any1 or go on the net...so we phoned the 'wonderful' call centre as well as sent plenty of emails.i asked if anyone can come out and sort it out ...nothing... so close to the middle of last year i cancelled my contract not making more than 4 calls from that phn...after canceling and never recieving any invoice or any form of letter or anything they said i owe them in the 2000 rands...i contacted them again asking how is that possible, why must i pay for a service i didnt even used, i asked them to send the details so that we can make an arrangement to pay this 'bill'...that was last year august ...now the [protected]...i recieve a letter from MACROBERT ATTORNEYS saying they taking legal action if not payed etc...i ended up paying or els im blacklisted...all i have to say it is a disgrace. sick.

A gentle man called me on 1 Dec and we repeated the same conversation I had with two ladies below.

I asked him to ask his manager to compensate me about the termination fee for not providing service properly and get the manger to call me.

He said Yes

customers pay the monthly fee and you provide the service in return, which I received exceptionaly poorly. I have experienced inadequate service with other communication companies, airlines in the country but never like this one. Hence I have terminated my account with Neotel.
please call me

Regards
koji

On 30 November 2010 09:57wrote:

Dear Karen and Besani

You two called me separately last Tuesday on 23 Nov and I had the same conversation.
You offered me one month's free which I said I was not interested and I confirmed my request of termination.

I asked you to get your manager to call me and you said yes.

The service I had received which had become unberable led me to the conclusion that there was no other option than taking bussiness elsewhere.

Complaining is not good for anyone's emotional well being I would justl like to put it behind me and forget about time wasted dealing with this asap.

Please keep your words for the last time and call me.

Regards
Koji

I have received nothing but bad service from Neotel, the latest being a billing query that has taken three months to resolve. I cancelled my service with Neotel in December 2009 and was told that I will not be charged for the device as the area I was moving to was not covered by the network. My joy was shorted lived for I received a call from the terminations department informing me that I will be charged R1400 for the device. I explained to her that I was told that this was not the case and I wanted to speak to her superior. According to her, she did not have a superior. I terminated her call and called the call centre myself and asked to speak to the Team Leader or Manager of the Terminations Department. After several periods of long silence and pleading to the manager to pull the call recordings to verify my claims. I was told that I will be exempt from these charges. On the [protected] I received an invoice containing the device fee! After spend more time with another agent, a note was forwarded to the accounts team. Today I queried the issue and I was told the debit order is still going off. Now they said I may have to visit my bank to reverse the debit order! Pathetic service!

A Mr. Masedi contacted me on the [protected] to tell me I owe R980. I do not deny the fact that I owe money but I haven't received a single statement as to how much I owe, to whom I owe or where I should deposit the money. I made many attempts to find out what my outstanding balance was over the internet.

I told Mr. Masedi I did not receive any statements and he replied by saying 'what effort did you make to get the statements'

I then reminded him that I logged a call 3 months ago to get a tech to install an antenna to boost my signal strength. Mr. Masedi then told me 'that is irrelevant'

He then hung up the phone and suspended my phone until it was fully paid out.

He was rude and did not know how to address a customer correctly.

Hey Buddy..
Please disconnect your services ASAP. I took connenction from Neotel and it took them almost a year to resolve an issue that was created by their incompetent staff. To top their loathsome services they started sending me lawyers letter. it only stopped when i threatened them with a lawsuit for intimidation and blackmail. finally Consumer protector helped resolve half of the matter and half is still pending after a year.

Glad I dropped them.
I tried out their 1Gig package in December 09, but the internet speeds were so slow that pages timed-out, and the phone line was terrible. 4 Days later I emailed Neotel to cancel the subscription as I was still within the cooling-off period, and specified clearly that they should arrange with me regarding getting their equipment back. No response. Then a month later i received invoices and statements showing monthly subscription charges etc. for the month BEFORE my contract started (November) as well as December. I then sent them a stern email advising that I have no relationship with them, I don't owe them anything, and demanding from them written confirmation of this. A few days later I received an email stating that the account is cancelled. Sadly, that's not where this story ends.
A few weeks ago, ie. mid September 2010, I received a statement again from Neotel showing the same balance from the previously received statements. After sending them a threatening email, I then receive a reply implying that the outstanding balance is for their equipment that is still in my possession. Goodness gracious!

Anyway, it seems they've stopped hassling me (for now) because I've since replied to them (by email, as well as crapping on some lady in accounts who called me). I've simply put it to them that since they've neglected to make any arrangements to get their device returned, and I've been forced to look after it for 9 months, I'm holding them liable for storage charges at a monthly rate. So, what they owe me so far is more than what they claim I owe them. Also, they can only get their device back once they've settled the storage charges.

I / we have tried to have our business contact number ported from neotel to Mweb and there has been no response from neotel when requested from Vodacom or Mweb.
Neotel does not respond and it is impossible to get staff at neotel to answer the phones.
No hope for neotel it seems