Brilliant Customer Service

[Sliver]

I'm so glad i am a patient and reasonable person otherwise some poor Sentech customer server representative would have had his head chewed off by now. My short experience with Sentech has been disgusting and aggrivating.

First off, may i refer to point # 29 of the FAQ.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">
What is the expected time for delivery of the MyWireless modem after submitting my application?

Within a period of 3 days after your service agreement has been received via
fax , provided that all documentation requested is submitted and error free.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

I apply for a 128k, i phone a day later and try query the status of my application, i am told that the application will take 4-5 days to process and after thats done it will be another 2-3 days for the modem to be delivered, according to the faq i should only wait 3 days after i have faxed the form off, i know they are busy and nobody can expect to have it done that quickly, but don't specify expected times on the website.

So i phone them up again to try and query my application status, after spending 20min on the phone trying to get some info i eventually manage to persuade the guy to phone the accounts department and check it for me.

I get a phone call back reasonably soon afterwards and am informed that my application has been denied. Lovely, i ask why and am informed they are not at liberty to say. I phone back trying to get in contact with either the accounts department or a manager to try and find out why i have been declined, no luck, i am still waiting for a call back.

This is disgusting service, the customer service representatives are allowed to know about my denied application but i am not ? You all may rant and rave how rubbish telkom are, let me tell you about my ISDN application.

I phone through, get a very helpful person, they take all my details on the phone, they then ask if it's ok to run a credit check on my name, obviously i say no problem, within 2 minuetes i have the lady back asking what limit i would like, i said R1000 would be more than sufficient, she checks and tells me that my limit is more than that and asks if i would not like to increase it. After a 15 minuete phone call i have under gone a credit check, applied for a service and recieved my order number. It's a shame theres only going to be infrastructure in my area by april, otherwise i would have stuck with my isdn application and i would have not had to put myself through Sentechs labourous and irritating application process.

I have never recieved such terrible service in my life, people can try and pawn the excuse "their new" "they'll get better", thats not good enough for me, **** service is **** service ! If you can't get it right rather just don't bother and save people like myself and a few others i have spoken to from the stress and frustration !!!

[TrXtR]

Hi, it's very possible that these are different departments, and maybe they dont give them the information of why you have been declined because it's personal information. If you were blacklisted, I doubt they will tell the whole company 'Hey guys, this guys been blacklisted'. But I'm sure if you phone around you'll find out.

I recommend thought to go find out if youre black listed, or listed as a late payer. Some companies might have listed you for the fun of it

[Sliver]

I have spoken to the finnancial director, they didn't even do a credit check. Apparantly they have a gross income threshold which i fall under, i asked why and it was explained that the gross is so high because after tax and all that other lovely stuff the net is quite low, i was given the figure for net which i was substantialy above because of things like car allowance, cell allowance etc.

So just because my gross salary was below and the money that acctually gets put in my bank account was above their limit i must now pay a R3000 deposit. Thanks but no thanks, i didn't have to pay a deposit on my Procall 300 contract, why must i pay a deposit on a service that is R650p/m.

I have never been black listed in my life, my credit rating is good, Sentech have made it next to impossible for a non mega earner to apply for this service.

[TrXtR]

Just out of interist, can you give me an idea of the required gross?

I'm hoping I dont sit with that.
What you could do, I dont know if this will work,
is to get someone to sponsor your sign. Maybe your parents.
You could state yourself as a dependend ( I think )
Dont directly give up, ask them for some other options like this.
Otherwise, you could get your parents to sign the contract as a mutual income. I dont know, sorry to hear though.

If they decline mine ... I'm without internet till something else comes through :(

so ... /me prays

[Sliver]

I was told the required gross was about 10k, the net they said was about 7.5k, i fell under the gross but over the net.

Go figure why i was denied.

[MaD]

Hurray for government for propelling south africa into the future!

If I didn't get promoted today I A) wouldn't be getting pissed tonite, and B) would have gone to the UK in March, it seems that's the only place where you get affordable DSL (and you can actually bring back some beans to plonk down for a juggernaut mod to your cabbie for driving over telkom boxes) [:)] [:(!]

Three cheers to Sentech for overpricing! Thieves, the bunch o' you.

<u>________________________________________________</u>
Just imagine where SA would be now if it weren't for Telkom

[timo]

wow
u dont even need a 10k p/m salary to get finance on a brand new car

[LoneGunman]

One of the things I did notice with Sentech is that here and there it seems to be a case of 'the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing' - Sliver, maybe try approaching their marketing department and doing a face to face with someone, which is the route I went - make contact physically with someone, then very politely, but firmly pester the hell out of them :)
as well as getting whatever other peoples names you can find, and continuing the polite but persistent approach with the new people, and keep a checklist of names and numbers.
I think the company is still finding its way in terms of dealing with NON 'corporate' users, so they're quite weirdly like a big sprawling telkom in some ways.. but the techie support guys are decent, and the individuals (assuming you get their names, and phone them gently day after day) are okay and can be worn down by social engineering, into actually providing the standard service you want (and have come to expect)..
So dont necessarily give up, just understand they're scarily new at dealing with 'the public' - at least thats the overall impression I got. I also went through the wild violent reaction at a company that appeared to not want my money, and not want to make it at all easy for me to get their product - but if you stay friendly and persistent, and understand that they're individually not what their signals are sending, you can come right.

I went through hell myself to get the service, and now I can say its worth it, just to be able to have grabbed the product from them, and run away from forms, problems with applications, problems with credit, problems with their ability to check things with my bank, the previously mentioned ongoing thing of person A not knowing what person B has said, and the general sense of the company not appearing to be that willing to part with its product..

I think talking in abstract about 'teething problems' is one thing, facing it in reality is another - so my advice is be friendly, persistent, charming and ignore the ongoing absence of a consumer-friendly approach, its not meant to be deliberately insulting - it just 'feels like it' - I got that as well during the struggle to get approved and finally tear a module from them.

They're going to improve, lots of teeth gritted, social engineering l33t hackers such as found on this forum, are probably going to help fix the situation. (I recall how global.co.za drove me insane when they first started as an ISP, similar thing of having to almost train them into understanding the conceptual nature of what they're doing - having to do Tarzan-like conveying of concepts like 'you provider of service, me customer with money who if kept friendly, keeps you in business, understand?' Years on they finally understood, but not at first. Same with Sentech..

But damn, the MyWireless product is good enough to grit yer teeth and be firmly friendly and persistent about getting hold of it, and trying every avenue of approach to wheedle, cajole and prise it from them - and making allowances for the massive frustration and irritation in having to do this..

I'm sending you some info privately, to maybe help the process - if you havent given up and torn all your hair out yet :)

[Deckert]

<i>Originally posted by MaD:

...tonite, and B) would have gone to the UK in March, it seems that's the only place where you get affordable DSL (and you can actually bring back some beans to plonk down for a juggernaut mod to your cabbie for driving over telkom boxes)...</i>

Things always look greener on the other side - it's because there is more manure there. :)

See how the guys in the UK are struggling with their xDSL's:
http://www.btsuck.org

--deckert