MercuryStorm
11-08-2003, 10:02 AM
Connect to IRC and the line drops @ 12:05 while asleep, wake up and I am disconnected and cant get back online, after resetting the modem, phone Telkom ADSL support desk to find out if there are any problems, I am constantly told there are no problems on there side, and it has to be something on my side, after asking what modem I have, and telling him the Telkom supplied ADSL Modem, he still goes on to remind me “If the fault is found to be with your modem, which is not supplied by Telkom you will be charged for the callout and service fee” This after I tell him I have a Telkom modem. This call was logged at 8:40.
Technician arrives on site at around 10am, (not to bad actually!). At 10:15 he phones the 2nd Technician and he arrives around 11:00, Now I have two technicians to fix 1 problem, modem not connecting with the error in the ADSL Status window of SENT_PADI, After upgrading the software on my modem, the modem refused to boot up again, thus one Marconi modem destroyed, they replaced the modem, upgraded the software, all booted up, and guess what, SENT_PADI in the connection window, now they start phoning for help because they have NO idea what is happening.
Eventually after about 15 phone calls and now approaching 1pm, they finally find that the DSLAM for Rooihuiskraal is down, and they will need to get them to fix it, or swap over the ATM route to another route while they fix this, this Call is only assigned to the person. What happened to this call for 3hours???????? Now that they start working on it, they did not change the exchange to a new ATM Route, but decided to reload the software on the DSLAM, at 22:30 when this is still not working they finally decide to swap over to the New ATM route, what took so long?
The main thing about this post is what took them so long to find out that there DSLAM was down for over 13 hours before somebody finally found out? Does Telkom not monitor their own equipment, yet when you phone the helpdesk they constantly remind you that if it is your own equipment that you will be liable for the costs? Surely, any company providing any type of service’s has a system to monitor their own systems for failures, I work in the call centre support industry, and if we have a failure on one of my switches they phone me and let me know, surely Telkom should do this aswell? Then during the handover from the “On-Site Technicians” to the technician that needs to fix the DSLAM, What Takes 3 hours?? Where was this call hovering for that time?
<b>Call Centre Service:</b>
<b>ADSL Testing Centre:</b>
After logging my call, about 30minutes later I get a call from a Tester, asking me what my problem is. I explain to him and then he tells me he doesn’t understand (he had almost zero knowledge on ADSL lines except how to test them, and his customer relation skills are leave something to be desired) and promptly tells me that there is no problem with my line and that there is an onsite fault, and they will send out a technician, he then asks me what modem I have, I tell him the Telkom Marconi modem, and once again I am reminded that I will be liable for the costs if the fault has been found to be in the modem that is not Telkom supplied? WHY DO THEY EVEN BOTHER ASKING WHAT MODEM YOU HAVE IF THEY GOING TO TELL YOU THIS ANYWAY?
<b>The Telkom Call Centre (0800 651 651):</b>
This call centre was very helpful, except for one agent promising to phone back and not actually phoning back, other then that they all phoned back and gave me feedback, So there is one compliment for Telkom.
<b>Final Ramblings...</b>
So, it takes Telkom 13 hours to find out that there system is actually down, after constantly blaming my system, Maybe Telkom shouldn’t be so quick to point fingers at the user, and make out that ADSL users are stupid, yes maybe there is the exception, but please Telkom, credit most users that have ADSL, with a little more intelligence then you do, most of us do know how to use a computer. What happened to all the equipment that the spent millions on at the Noc to monitor there network, why is a critical part of ADSL in a network not monitored?
The difference here is that by having the DSLAM down Telkom does not loose any money as your ADSL line is a fixed cost from Telkom, if the Voice Exchange was down, Telkom would have been loosing money, thus wouldn’t have taken 13 hours for Telkom to notice that a critical component had failed.
<b>Definition Of a DSLAM</b>
<i>Definition
A digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM) delivers exceptionally high-speed data transmission over existing copper telephone lines. A DSLAM separates the voice-frequency signals from the high-speed data traffic and controls and routes digital subscriber line (xDSL) traffic between the subscriber's end-user equipment (router, modem, or network interface card [NIC]) and the network service provider's network.</i>
Mercury Storm
[:(!][:(!][:(!][:(!][:(!][:(!][:(!][:(!]
<font size="1">
<i><b>Update:</b>
Sent Email to Telkom ADSL Complaints @ 11:15 on the 11/08/03, Wonder if i will actually get a Reply from Telkom.....</i></font id="size1">
Technician arrives on site at around 10am, (not to bad actually!). At 10:15 he phones the 2nd Technician and he arrives around 11:00, Now I have two technicians to fix 1 problem, modem not connecting with the error in the ADSL Status window of SENT_PADI, After upgrading the software on my modem, the modem refused to boot up again, thus one Marconi modem destroyed, they replaced the modem, upgraded the software, all booted up, and guess what, SENT_PADI in the connection window, now they start phoning for help because they have NO idea what is happening.
Eventually after about 15 phone calls and now approaching 1pm, they finally find that the DSLAM for Rooihuiskraal is down, and they will need to get them to fix it, or swap over the ATM route to another route while they fix this, this Call is only assigned to the person. What happened to this call for 3hours???????? Now that they start working on it, they did not change the exchange to a new ATM Route, but decided to reload the software on the DSLAM, at 22:30 when this is still not working they finally decide to swap over to the New ATM route, what took so long?
The main thing about this post is what took them so long to find out that there DSLAM was down for over 13 hours before somebody finally found out? Does Telkom not monitor their own equipment, yet when you phone the helpdesk they constantly remind you that if it is your own equipment that you will be liable for the costs? Surely, any company providing any type of service’s has a system to monitor their own systems for failures, I work in the call centre support industry, and if we have a failure on one of my switches they phone me and let me know, surely Telkom should do this aswell? Then during the handover from the “On-Site Technicians” to the technician that needs to fix the DSLAM, What Takes 3 hours?? Where was this call hovering for that time?
<b>Call Centre Service:</b>
<b>ADSL Testing Centre:</b>
After logging my call, about 30minutes later I get a call from a Tester, asking me what my problem is. I explain to him and then he tells me he doesn’t understand (he had almost zero knowledge on ADSL lines except how to test them, and his customer relation skills are leave something to be desired) and promptly tells me that there is no problem with my line and that there is an onsite fault, and they will send out a technician, he then asks me what modem I have, I tell him the Telkom Marconi modem, and once again I am reminded that I will be liable for the costs if the fault has been found to be in the modem that is not Telkom supplied? WHY DO THEY EVEN BOTHER ASKING WHAT MODEM YOU HAVE IF THEY GOING TO TELL YOU THIS ANYWAY?
<b>The Telkom Call Centre (0800 651 651):</b>
This call centre was very helpful, except for one agent promising to phone back and not actually phoning back, other then that they all phoned back and gave me feedback, So there is one compliment for Telkom.
<b>Final Ramblings...</b>
So, it takes Telkom 13 hours to find out that there system is actually down, after constantly blaming my system, Maybe Telkom shouldn’t be so quick to point fingers at the user, and make out that ADSL users are stupid, yes maybe there is the exception, but please Telkom, credit most users that have ADSL, with a little more intelligence then you do, most of us do know how to use a computer. What happened to all the equipment that the spent millions on at the Noc to monitor there network, why is a critical part of ADSL in a network not monitored?
The difference here is that by having the DSLAM down Telkom does not loose any money as your ADSL line is a fixed cost from Telkom, if the Voice Exchange was down, Telkom would have been loosing money, thus wouldn’t have taken 13 hours for Telkom to notice that a critical component had failed.
<b>Definition Of a DSLAM</b>
<i>Definition
A digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM) delivers exceptionally high-speed data transmission over existing copper telephone lines. A DSLAM separates the voice-frequency signals from the high-speed data traffic and controls and routes digital subscriber line (xDSL) traffic between the subscriber's end-user equipment (router, modem, or network interface card [NIC]) and the network service provider's network.</i>
Mercury Storm
[:(!][:(!][:(!][:(!][:(!][:(!][:(!][:(!]
<font size="1">
<i><b>Update:</b>
Sent Email to Telkom ADSL Complaints @ 11:15 on the 11/08/03, Wonder if i will actually get a Reply from Telkom.....</i></font id="size1">