Telkom - sorry we can't give you ADSL...

DJ...

DJ...

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...not until some time next year but they can't tell me when.

Now there was an existing telephone and adsl line here when I moved in a few months ago but I wanted to hold out to weigh up my options. Telkom's free uncapped 3 month offer piqued my interests so I applied and was approved.

I called today to check on the status of the installation only to be told that there is a note on my order stating that I cannot get internet until they perform an infrastructure upgrade in my area, and they haven't indicated when this would happen. Maybe next year some time was the response.

Ffs I've reached a point where I really do require a stable, uncapped internet connection at home but it seems because fixed line telecoms is run by a monopoly, I simply cannot be afforded the "luxury".

I am rather peeved about this all to be honest. I cannot wait until "next year sometime" or even January to be honest. This is absolutely pathetic. What started out as a very simple and efficient application process has turned into a disgusting operational one.

How on earth can a company make an entire suburb wait a year to get adsl? Why on earth was this not sorted out beforehand when the ports filled up? What is the point of my area being 10MB/s enabled if only a select few can even have access to ADSL.

Ah ffs, I give up. I am so disheartened with this now and I have absolutely no option but to wait. Nobody provides an uncapped account without a telkom line as far as I can tell. Anyways. So the long wait begins. In all likelihood I will be in Asia when they decide to do something about this...:(
 
To top it all off, once the line is installed, the free trial will be over and i'll have no way of testing the service without jumping in the deep-end, so to speak.

This is rather piss-poor on Telkom's part as far as I am concerned...
 
They have extended the offer a couple of times now, so who knows...
 
T-Man said:
They have extended the offer a couple of times now, so who knows...
Click to expand...

That's all good and well, but "sometime next year" might require them extending it for 12 months. That's the bit that really gets my heckles up.

Not to sound snooty but I live in a well-off area with no shortage of potential profit-sources for Telkom, yet they are so inefficient that they are admitting that it could take up to a year just to provide me with the ability to have a line activated.

The most ridiculous part of this whole scenario has just occurred to me: if I want to keep the order open to potentially have them upgrade the exchange, I would have to pay for my telephone line for every month it takes them to get their act together. A line that I do not need. So i'll potentially have to pay Telkom R1800.00 to possibly have the privilege of having adsl in a year's time.

This bundling process could surely be successfully argued against with the CPA...
 
If they won't play ball, why not 3G? I had to go that route after T stopped fixing my ADSL line. They offered me Wimax at a hell of a price. So I have a CellC 10gb prepaid and am (fairly) happy
 
Let's take one year's worth of subscriptions: R7900.00. That's just me. My suburb consists of hundreds of houses, I'm sure. If just 1 out of every 10 of those households decides to get adsl in the next year, working on an assumption of 400 houses, that's potential revenue of R416000.00 that Telkom are missing out on with a 1MB line. That's ignoring the lost revenue from future upsell opportunities.

So if NEW revenue of R416000.00 from a single suburb from just 10% penetration is not motivation enough to pull their fingers out of their asses and hire more technicians and invest in their existing infrastructure, I don't know what is. It is just piss-poor business...
 
This is Telkom. I had the same issue - no ports available and they have no idea when any will become available. Took me 6 months from application to receiving my dsl. There are people that have been waiting years however, so I'm a lucky one.
 
chrisc4290 said:
If they won't play ball, why not 3G? I had to go that route after T stopped fixing my ADSL line. They offered me Wimax at a hell of a price. So I have a CellC 10gb prepaid and am (fairly) happy
Click to expand...

For various reasons I need to move my offices home for a few months. I work on a cost of trade basis and using 3G hikes my cost per trade drastically. It completely stuffs with my cost structure. More than just that I simply cannot risk being capped with an open trade on the books so from a risk perspective I have to operate on an uncapped basis. 3G is already unreliable in my area as it is, let alone the ridiculous costs involved...
 
'ello DJ...

- Go to: http://www.telkom.co.za/minisites/utilities/zone.html
- Select: Gauteng Zone
- DL file - GZ.xls
- Scroll down to "area" and see details for "Planning Section" - columns D to G
- Phone relevant person and ask nicely if he can check that your order is correctly parked against a project and whether there are spare ports on the DSLAM for them to release your order immediately.
 
Fiza said:
telkom has no customer service whatsoever
Click to expand...
I disagree. So far their customer service has been top notch. Their delivery on the other hand has let me down, but I will persist...
 
Not to sure of the details but there are a couple of companies that do uncapped Wimax if you search the forums and maybe that will be OK for you till you get ADSL.
 
Unfortunately I've heard horror stories about Wimax. I'm sure there are horror stories relating to all forms of adsl but I've personally had to help out a mate who had wimax and the turnaround time was exceptionally slow. I simply cannot risk it considering my business...
 
i am trying to get the xls file now but get an error message 500 internal server error. is there a reason for that now? have they taken the link down already if not can someone mail it to me if I PM them my email addy please
 
I never once had an issue with wimax and I had used it for 2 years when I was staying in flat. it is only 512 but it is all I could get in the uncapped situation so had to take it and always worked like a charm. there was days it actually ;peaked at 1MB
 
DJ... said:
That's all good and well, but "sometime next year" might require them extending it for 12 months. That's the bit that really gets my heckles up.

Not to sound snooty but I live in a well-off area with no shortage of potential profit-sources for Telkom, yet they are so inefficient that they are admitting that it could take up to a year just to provide me with the ability to have a line activated.

The most ridiculous part of this whole scenario has just occurred to me: if I want to keep the order open to potentially have them upgrade the exchange, I would have to pay for my telephone line for every month it takes them to get their act together. A line that I do not need. So i'll potentially have to pay Telkom R1800.00 to possibly have the privilege of having adsl in a year's time.

This bundling process could surely be successfully argued against with the CPA...
Click to expand...
lol, interesting argument. Anyhow I also waited a year and they upgraded the infrastructure (which cost them 2 Million) so be a bit understanding.
 
To DJ...
I had the exact same problem when I sold my house in Durban in April and moved to here in Hilton.
When I applied for ADSL, they said that there were only a 1000 ports allocated for the Hilton/Cedara area and I would have to wait till June next year or until someone cancelled.
My wife then wrote a very nice charming letter to Telkom management and 4 days later they arrived in force, put in a whole new line, and switched me on.
For my inconvenience caused, they did not charge me for the ADSL installation.
 
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