Telkom meeting feedback

rpm

rpm

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Hi guys

I have just returned from my meeting with Telkom (Hans van de Groenendaal and Steven White, later joined by Steven Lewis). We must congratulate Telkom for taking this time to meet with us and hear what we have to say. The tone of the meeting was professional.

I am sad to inform you that all I could achieve was a promise from Telkom to try to improve communication. A fair amount of issues were discussed and I tried to raise all of the issues mentioned by you guys. Telkom is unhappy about what they call misinformation on this site and in media reports and they have promised to supply us with factual information about ADSL. I will post this as soon as I receive it.

It was made clear by Telkom that most users are satisfied with ADSL and that we are a small minority of disgruntled users. They are therefore not willing to change anything about the current service, but there might be a new package catering for other needs in future. I challenged Telkom to objectively investigate the overall satisfaction of its users, but they said this is not possible. They are also not willing to make any statistical or technical information available to substantiate their arguments regarding satisfaction, contention ratios and other matters.

The welcomed the idea to give Telkom the opportunity to respond to these issues and use the site to improve communication. I think this will give us an opportunity to tackle some of these issues again and gain clarity on some uncertainty.

I will post a more comprehensive posting about the meeting soon. I just thought some people might want some quick feedback. I truly tried my best to negotiate refunds, improved international bandwidth, bandwidth after capping and even a free upgrade if the new package arrives, but it seemed like this was not even truly considered.

Regards,

RPM
[email protected]
 
RPM Thankx you are doing a splended job.
All they got to do is send a voluntary questionaire to their clients. Whats is so difficult about??

Its unfortunate Telkom is being pig headed!
 
Hi Dojob

I suggested it, where we will both receive an answer from the user to validate results. This was not an option according to them because of various reasons.

Regards,

RPM
[email protected]
 
Thanks for trying RPM

To be honest I feel a bit disheartened ... I feel that meeting wasn't really a discussion it was a statement from Telkom, nevermind what the customer says this is how it is...period. Probably so Telkom can now release to the media that they (Telkom) tried to communicate with those <i>minority</i> amount of users but the users were not willing to be reasonable.
 
Telkom stated in the meeting that this forum only represents a small group of unsated ADSL users. I urge all inactive forum users to register. I know all of you feel in despair but we must not give up.
 
RPM,

you have achieved something:

Telkom admitted to bad communication by saying they will try to communicate better.

They also promised to correct what they call misleading information on the site - at least influence of this site is strong enough that they had to meet with you today and promise to give the facts.

I have confidence that there is enough combined knowlegde on this site to highlight any inaccuracies in Telkoms communications.

The meeting might seem a failure - the fact is they conceded on two points: Bad communication and the need to what they claim are misleading and factual errors (Actually - bad communication again - if one of them spent a little time on this forum, such "lies" could have been nipped in the bud. Ok accepted, Telkom is not interested in keeping clients informed and happy - even if they can't satisfy them).
 
Thanks RPM....I'm sorry to say but my ADSL WILL be cancelled first thing tomorrow morning! I hate Telkom
 
I also felt a bit disheartened when I first read the post, but now that I've thought about it, I do believe that something positive will come out of the meeting.

I look forward to this board growing to such a degree that we will no longer be classed as the minority.

If we stand together, and not give up, we can make a difference.

Thanks rpm, your time is greatly appreciated.
 
RPM
I think you did a fantastic job,I will carry on supporting you and our cause.Its typical of Telkom to respond that way.
It is a company that truly does not value its clients comments,and why should they,they are the monopoly,I wonder what their share holders overseas would think about this,and as suggested already a questionaire going to each ADSL client is really not a big thing,its only 10000 pieces of paper.I just think that there whole attitude is very selfish and childish due to the fact that they are not willing to really find out there clients thoughts on the services that they are paying for.
This will not stop here Im sure next time it will be even better for us all we must not stop using the site and continue voicing our greivences to other channels as well,eg,SUMMIT TV,then after that somwhere else.This is another good oppertunity to voice ourselves and should not be taken lightly.Thanks again RPM and WELL DONE[:)]
 
The fact of the matter is, Telkom is well aware of how unsatisfied its users are. This is the only posible reason for not publishing stats. They have the stats already, one simply has to look at the call centers. Happy ppl don't complain.
 
Hi rpm,

Great job and thank you.

The mission does not end here.

Those that have written have contributed with passion
and honesty in reaction to an approach by Telkom that
only provokes more resolve to see a fair solution to a
very unjust attitude.

I for one would like to see a much greater exposure of
this site. Strangely it was the Telkom help desk that
referred me to myadsl some days ago.


Let's make myadsl world famous.


Let's take our plight to :

CNN, BBC, SKY NEWS, YAHOO! The United Nations,
World Bank, IMF, 40000+ newsgroups, IRC.

and locally - 702, 94.7 and so on


We would get the support of millions of people
from all over the world ....

Will they then say that we are just a small disgruntled
minority ??



Let's expose the Telkom ADSL model to the world.

Let's say to the world:


Did you know that ??.... In South Africa an ADSL
connection is cut off after.....


Did you know that ?? ... In South Africa an ADSL
connection costs .....


Did you know that ?? ... In South Africa an ADSL
connection cripples your ability to ......


Did you know that ?? .........


Let's get the world to want to ask the Telkom monopoly
why it acts with such arrogance. Let's get the whole
world to send its opinion directly to Telkom

Let's muster the support of the entire spectrum
of our country and write to leading politicians gaining
their support.

Mostly, let us show Telkom that we mean business and we
will achieve a fair deal. Let's make them take notice.
 
Hi guys

Thanks for the vote of confidence. I agree that one way to make everybody see that we are not a small minority of users is by increasing membership. It is sad that the stats will not be released. They informed me that they received feedback from helpdesk, and that is what they base their assumption on. I informed them that helpdesk on most occasions told me that they are inundated with negative feedback, on which they replied that they had some problems in the past. I think this honest feedback from helpdesk will stop…expect a much more ‘pro Telkom’ reply in future. Let us spare a thought for those poor guys having to deal with user’s frustration!

This site will continue to serve the needs of ADSL users, and continue to look at ways to voice their opinions and try to solve their problem! We simply discovered it will not be an easy task.

Regards,

RPM
[email protected]
 
Hi All,

firstly thanks to RPM for representing us at the meeting, well done.
If Telkom think that most of their users are happy with the service lets prove them wrong, when we post a gripe about ADSL we must also call their help desk to report the problem, perhaps then they will take notice then.

You never know.

Xerafin
 
Thanks for the effort. I'm not supprised with the result - if you're a monopoly, you do not need to cater for your clients. I for one, will still look at the Sentek Wireless option when it becomes availale - even if I have to fork out another 3k for a radio lan card.

Keep up the work !! [8D]
 
A great THANK YOU to RPM and everyone involved in this meeting with Telkom.

Although not much have been achieved, i think we should resolve by taking this whole matter as openly national as possible. Even international if need be. I agree wholeheartedly with Microfast.

<b>We should however follow this up with a plan of action as soon as possible. We must not slow down now and keep up the pressure.</b>
 
Even when people deny everything they still will have heard. They just don't want to appear to have acted under pressure.

Rpm, please revive the front page poll, I think it is the most powerful answer to Telkom's denials.

Your letter to the Herald was rather effective. I wonder if it is not time for members in each urban center to write letters to their local newspaper. If we coordinated this we could kick up a storm. We could draw attention to Telkom's intransigent attitude and recruit many more members.

We have tried dialogue, now I think it is time to mobilise our members in a series of coordinated actions. Through this forum we can work out the details.
 
Thank you RPM for putting up this forum. We are behind you every step of the way and we're willing to do our part in 'the struggle'. [:D]
 
Good on you RPM.

What did you expect though - they really don't give a sh*t about their clients - in the land of the blind the one eyed man is king!

This reminds me of an Afrikaans expression - daar is 'n drol in die drinkwater - well in our case Telkom is the you know what...

We are going to have disgruntled telecommunications users across the spectrum of products offered by Telkom until such time as the industry is deregulated and free market / competative pressures are brought to bear on Telkom.

What really gets my goat is the total failure of govt to deliver on the deregulation process. Do they really think we are idiots? How the hell can you appoint a self-confessed technophobe to the post of Minister of Communications?

There is no way on earth Telkom would attempt to poll their clients - they already know the answer! I bet if you asked 10 people if given a choice between Telkom and another provider &gt; 50 % would consider switching purely because NO OTHER COMPANY COULD BE AS BAD AS TELKOM.
 
Hi all

Thank you and well done to <font color="blue"><b>rpm</b></font id="blue">for representing ADSL users. You are becoming the voice of ADSL in South Africa, and I hope we can all strive to create more activity to turn this so called "minority" to a something greater than that.

Catch you later.
 
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