Planet Talk Africa phone cards

14 November 2006

Dear Sir/Madam,

I've decided to write to you after experiencing a poor product and even

worse customer service. Please post this complaint as a warning to other

potential users.

The Planet Talk Africa phone cards have been around for a few years and I

have not had problems with them in the past aside from the fact that they

deduct your credit from a card that has been activated whether you use the

card or not.

Recently however I have had all sorts of problems with their service, and as

a result have decided to avoid them in the future.

The problems stretch back to the last 2 cards I have purchased from them.

In the first instance, the 3 access phone numbers they provided (the phone

number you call to activate your card) were engaged for 3 hours after which

I gave up.

The following day I tried to return the card to the shop where I purchased

it, where the owner informed me that the company changed their access phone

numbers and gave me the new ones.

I tried the new number on the same day and got through to my destination.

Fine.

It would have helped had Planet Talk left a recorded message on the old

number informing its customers of the change so that I did not have to waste

my time finding this information from the shop keeper; also, I could have

made that birthday phone call on my friend's birthday and not the following

day.

3 weeks later, I tried to use another card and this time when I dialled the

access number (the one that worked 3 weeks ago), I get the message that

"THIS NUMBER IS NO LONGER VALID".

I searched online and found another access number to use, but when I entered

my pin number, I was informed that "THE PIN NUMBER IS NO LONGER VALID".

When I tried to get in touch with their customer service (I had to find

their number online as the one that is supplied on the card is, you guessed

it, "NO LONGER VALID"), I came across a recorder message that offered no

help for my problem, did not offer to connect me to a human operator, and

disconnected me without solving my problem.

So that's