TelOne sues defaulters

TELONE, the country's sole fixed telephone service provider, has started instituting legal action against thousands of its defaulting customers, as the company seeks to recover millions of dollars it is owed in unpaid telephone bills.

The parastatal is owed over $150 million by both domestic and corporate customers who have been defaulting paying bills since the adoption of the multi-currency system in 2009.

Government departments owe TelOne the highest amount of about $40 million.

A number of subscribers last week confirmed receiving letters of final demand from TelOne, asking them to settle their bills within seven days or risk legal action.

"I owe them $450 dating back to 2009 and I have since been served with a letter of final demand, giving me seven days to pay up or risk having my property attached.

"I have since made a payment plan with TelOne and I will be paying $100 per month until I clear the debt," said Mr Dan Tshuma of Matsheumhlope suburb in Bulawayo.

Mrs Tekla Shumba of Mkoba 18 high density suburb in Gweru, who owes TelOne $320 also confirmed having received a letter of final demand from the parastatal, instructing her to clear her debt within seven days.

"I have since agreed to a payment plan with TelOne to clear the debt over the next six months. They told me that after clearing the debt I will be reconnected," she said.

Prior to the latest action, TelOne had been inviting debtors to offer payment plans to clear their debts, but the move seems not to have yielded the desired results.

The parastatal has since engaged the services of a private debt collector Flaintop Business Consultancy as it seeks to recover the debt.

Reads a recent TelOne statement: "TelOne wishes to advise its valued clients that we have engaged the services of Flaintop Business Consultancy as our debt collectors and they will be visiting the premises of all clients with outstanding telecommunications services bills.

"Clients are advised to settle all outstanding bills through our Customer Service Centres or our banking partners."

TelOne, in the same statement, however urged members of the public not to make any cash  payments to the Flaintop Business Consultancy  teams.

The company's spokesperson Ms Rosemary Sande said the company still prioritised engagement with clients but would resort to other means of recovering the debt if clients were not forthcoming.

"We are still open to negotiations of payment plans. However, if a client is not forthcoming, we will take other  available measures which may include taking legal action," she said.

However, some of the company's defaulting clients said they were not willing to clear their debts as they believed that their bills were inflated and did not reflect what they owed.

"I'm not going to pay anything until TelOne explains the bill. My bill was $600 at first and since 2009 I have not been using the phone but I'm surprised that it had risen to about $1 000 before they wrote off part of it," said a man who only identified himself as Fred from Msasa suburb in Kwekwe.

Last year TelOne wrote off $80 million after the Government ordered parastatals and local authorities to write off debts accrued by residents and clients from February 2009 to June 2013.