Letter to Telkom

[rpm]

Hi guys

Here is a basic reply to Telkom about questions raised by our members. I will write a more comprehensive letter about our concerns and possible negotiations with Telkom in a day or two. I would just like to give Telkom some feedback and get answers on these questions. Feel free to comment on the letter and suggest changes before I send it.

Regards,

RPM

__________________________________________________ _________________

Mr. White

We would like to thank you for your comprehensive response to MyADSL’s concerns and questions. It is encouraging to see this improved communication from Telkom. Our users welcomed this correspondence and Telkom’s willingness to discuss issues with ADSL users.

We understand that formal communications on the Forum from Telkom can prove to be problematic, but would like to suggest that you post any maintenance on the service in our announcements area. If users are warned about disruption of services in their region it will take some unnecessary strain off the 0800 375 375 service and give users the feeling that Telkom are doing their best to keep them informed.

Here are some questions that were raised by our users over the last two weeks. We look forward to a timely response.

1 There is some uncertainty about the high cost of the line rental. Since this has nothing to do with international bandwidth and is, in many cases, based on existing lines, why are the costs so much higher than international standards? Surely the costs are comparable to other countries? Can you also please highlight why the cost for business users are higher than that for residential users.

2 Is Telkom ever going to supply a SLA with the ADSL product covering uptime, throughput, latency and support?

3 Why is it not possible for Telkom to measure international bandwidth usage of users? Is Telkom considering investing in technology that would make this possible? We feel that this will be a way for Telkom to show that they would like to accommodate users…

4 Is it possible for Tekom to give some stipulation of what we can expect from the service? Here we are interested in speeds after being capped etc.

5 Can Telkom please publish their policy on port priorities. Currently the confusion regarding which ports are capped etc. is a sensitive point for many users.

6 Some unhappiness about the inefficiency when it comes to setting up web hosting accounts has been voiced. Is it possible to streamline this part of the service?

7 Many users, including myself, were ‘billed’ for the previous day’s downloads on the first of the month. This is obviously not fair. Is there some form of bug in the metering system?

__________________________________________________ _______________

RPM
rpm@myadsl.co.za

[martin]

Looks good, the answer to question 2 should be especially interesting.

[Chubs]

I bet the answer to question 3 will be "We can implement new software but that would be at an extra cost to the user".

Other than that, I eagerly await their response.

[ASF]

Good one RPM. Let's see if they are actually prepared to commit anything in writing re the above.

[ASnogarD]

I hope Telkom realises that the SRFDWI(Standard Response For Dealing With Idiots) ,aka Customers will not suffice to statisfy the forum members.

Thanks for your effort RPM.

[kaspaas]

Straight questions deserve straight answers.

Lets see how straight the Telkom PR people can write :-)

Go for it!

[Peapod]

Good one guys.
Lets see what he comes back with.
Just to bear in mind, we do have strong allied forces within Telkom at a very high level with tremendous influence.
Should answers not be forthcoming, or should we be met with a similar level of hostility as is documented in the meeting minutes, there are other people to approach at Telkom who can extract information from within.
I think we need to make it very clear to Mr White that the number and velocity of vociferous outpourings in this Forum are directed at TELKOM, not at him personally. I don't envy his position as I don't think he is the decision maker - I think like most bureaucratically driven Technology programmes, his vision of a gazelle fast became a wildebeest in the hands of the ADSL Steering Committee. I am trying to find out who sits on this steering committee so that those individuals can be lobbied and Steve White does not sit with this issue all on his own. Ultimately accountability should fall on the heads of the decision makers, not the implementation team alone.

RPM, please feel free to use my skills - I was until very recently a complex projects manager (VP nog al) in the architecture department of a very large very global investment bank technology department - my remit? PKI, data warehousing and ecommerce white labelling. While the urge to become a housewife is overwhelming, the burn of the city is still fresh in my nostrils....use it or lose it. [;)]

[Quazzi]

Good response rpm, their reply should be very interesting with these type of questions posed to them - that is, of course, if they don't blurt out the contents of their adsl product page again.

[SK33T]

If hes not the decision maker then who the hell is?
Surely all complaints should be directed at his boss.
Does someone know exacly who Mr White's senior is,then does that mean Mr White is just the spokesperson.

[SK33T]

RPM
One more thing,is this going to be a letter which is going to be emailed to him,or a letter which will be handed to him personaly.
Just thinking that many quotes have appeard on this forum that MR White has said or a telkom employee with authority.
Couldnt a quote be put in the letter and let it go something like this,
"On the 12th of August you quoted BLAH BLAH BLAH,we still havent seen any of this happening,whats your response to this?"
Then move on to the next quote and ask for a responce on that.
Anyone think this is a good idea?Then go down the list one by one.Surely if hes quoted it then he should have a responce to it.
My reason for this is so that he cant turn around and say we did a thumb suck and none of this was actualy said.
The above quotes mentioned on this forum surely have been taken from a press release somewhere.

[kaspaas]

Quiting a person in correspondense is quite aggresive.

Let him first demonstrate his memory loss before reminding him.

Most probably such aggression is not required.


<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by SK33T</i>
<br />RPM
One more thing,is this going to be a letter which is going to be emailed to him,or a letter which will be handed to him personaly.
Just thinking that many quotes have appeard on this forum that MR White has said or a telkom employee with authority.
Couldnt a quote be put in the letter and let it go something like this,
"On the 12th of August you quoted BLAH BLAH BLAH,we still havent seen any of this happening,whats your response to this?"
Then move on to the next quote and ask for a responce on that.
Anyone think this is a good idea?Then go down the list one by one.Surely if hes quoted it then he should have a responce to it.
My reason for this is so that he cant turn around and say we did a thumb suck and none of this was actualy said.
The above quotes mentioned on this forum surely have been taken from a press release somewhere.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

[SK33T]

So what gives him the right to call this a moan and groan site?
Thats not being very polite either is it?
PS the main thing would be that everything will be facts.
Arent you SICK of beating around the bush,Im sure many here are.

[Peapod]

PLEASE I did not say that Steve White was not <b><i>THE </i></b>decision maker as a statement of fact - I said I didn't think the final decisions rested with him on his own - and I do know for fact that there is an ADSL steering committee. Please don't take my comments out of context. I feel with the right degree of pressure, and gentle pursuasion, we could potentially win Mr Whites confidence and become a strong ally to him. Do we know what his personal feelings are regarding the ADSL implementation at all?

There have to be more "higher-ups" at Telkom who sit on that committee - lets find out who they are, and address our concerns to them as a body where, I assume having had experience of this in the past, decisions are put to a vote and the final decisions rest.

However, the more formalised apprach should not stop us from raising awareness as pro-actively as we can as a catalyst to the issues being raised to the committee.

[SK33T]

Ok guys
I hope you didnt take offence to my post but it genraly gets my back up.
Peapod I did take what you said out of context(sorry)but I still feel the same way as when I posted.
Its just that if MR White said that on the 01/01/2003 all telephones will turn green,and they didnt then we have a right to know why they didnt,thats basicly what I mean by refering to quotes.
Its done in the buisness comunity on a daily basis,and Telkom is a buisness that supplies me with a service that isnt what was sold to me.

[Mux]

I would like one more question to be answered, if it's not too late to make the letter please.

7. Why is there only 1 (no-)name brand ADSL modem 'approved', (at rip-off prices I might add)? Why can't some leading brand such as Netgear be added to the list? After all, they seemed to be giving less problems and should bring down the support costs for Telkom.

my 2c

[SK33T]

It probaly involved kickbacks somewhere along the line and netgear didnt pay.btw (approved) means they paid.

[rpm]

Hi guys

Thanks for the responses. The letter has been sent and we eagerly await a response. I will prepare a letter about possible negotiations soon.

I received many emails about proposed forms of actions, and this was echoed in many forum postings. It will be great if you can give your views on the matter. Some action might just be advantageous before we send a letter with some demands to Telkom. We can stop action if they are willing to negotiate, but they must take that step first. I will post a new topic about this issue with the negotiations issue.

Regards,

RPM
rpm@myadsl.co.za