How can Neotel improve?

Hi there

This is your chance to tell Neotel how they can improve. Please tell Neotel where they fall short and what they can do to make you a happier customer.

Please try to steer clear of obvious suggestions like “cut prices”, and try to give valuable input about the company’s products and services.

• Which new products would you like to see?
• Are there areas where Neotel can improve its support?
• Can they make it easier for you to buy their products?
• Where do you think the company is losing ground against its competitors?

By giving your input you will stand a chance of winning a Sony 10’’ 32GB Android Tablet PC or branded gear bundles.

Please post all your feedback to Neotel in this thread.

Neotel is an excellent alternative to Telkom, but

The voice quality on many calls is poor. Distortion, faint speech, obtrusive background noise. Calls made to Neotel numbers often just do not ring and they do not know why
Their billing system is poor. They stopped submitting a debit order without advising but did not send invoices, then cut me off without warning
The staff at the retail outlets seem clueless. I showed a clerk a bank statement showing debits from Neotel and she said that I was wrong, these were credit from Neotel since there was a minus (-) in front of the figure!
The internet service is not competitive in terms of value for money
You cannot register faults over the week-end. A voice mail message is played to you but no follow up

No new products. Just that the current products actually work as intended
Improved Customer Service all around including Billing and Support (took someone 8 months to finally not debit an account after cancelling and paying up the cancellation fee as it was under 12 months for their contract)
I don't want their products easier to purchase because their current products suck (see my first point)
They're losing ground to Telkom by not pushing for LLU and not trying to directly compete with them. EVERYONE knows they were chosen as the SNO, but they fully deny they were ever the SNO several years later (we all have seen/followed the story here for years on how Telkom has been pushing this decision from 1999 till when they were given the new license)

MWEB has done more for this country's telecom's space and they're only an ISP. I would expect Neotel to be on the forefront of competing or at least pushing Telkom and the government to respond faster. Our stagnant telecoms and high prices has given India the benefit of outsourced call centers where South Africa is in a perfect location for that. The amount of jobs that could have been created (and upskilling that would have given the general population to have instead of hard labor) would have benefited this country much much more.

And that is where I think Neotel has failed and can improve on

- Products

1) Definitely FTTH. Establishing contracts with infrastructure providers to light up their fibre with world-class fibre services. Neotel are in the unique position of being able to do this, with 5 undersea cables at their disposal. Fibre allows for symmetrical data transfers!

2) Bundling. Broadband with Voice and stacked with cloud services. Extend your enterprise services which are doing so well in the market to your consumer.

3) Superior value added services. Don't just match Telkom and the mobile operators, but offer tailored products for specific segments. With a full IP network, the possibilities are limitless.

4) Bit Stream!

5) No more CDMA - lets talk LTE. CDMA voice is great, but for wireless broadband lets focus on LTE.

- Support

1) More marketing and more training - reuse Mweb's strategy of becoming the household name in consumer broadband. This will build consumer confidence and position Neotel as the premium internet provider - no one else has the capacity on all undersea cables landing here in SA. With this comes staff training - beef up the call centre and 1st line support staff to be able to communicate effectively with your customers. A little training would go a long way.

2) Push the boundaries with customer service - Neotel's brand has taken a hammering for this. South African's have been frustrated for decades with poor presales and after sales service. Focus on what the customer wants - quick turn around times, the best deal for their needs, great support, highly informed staff, no billing issues! By getting these basic things in check, customer interaction with Neotel will be a breeze.

- Customer touch points

1) Stores. Take it to the next level like Cell C did with the revamp of their stores. Have demo's of all your services and hold promotions often.

2) Online. Quick feasibility checks and order processing online. Follow this up with committed and quick turn around times and you'll be able to offer consumers a new house/office phone within a day!

3) Promote your services where you're covered. We know you have the best call rates but coverage is an issue - so target your covered areas and promote the savings and benefits to everyone there. Flyers, Posters, Information kiosk's at malls etc. Let us know whats best for us.

4) 3-month trials - as mentioned, a big issue is consumer confidence. Push the boundaries with contracts and have a 3 month offering.

- Competitive Landscape

LTE and FTTH. Telkom's trialing 40Mbps ADSL (or something this decade) and LTE is already here. Match the mobile operators on the wireless side with LTE and blow Telkom out the water with FTTH. CDMA mobile broadband is not something sustainable and decision needs to be made and announced to the public to show the company's directions and gain consumer confidence.

that's my 2 cents worth

Their products are pretty good for business and their fibre offering is the most affordable I have seen.
They need to improve their call centres and client support, I eventually bought my fibre through Vox as a reseller as we could not even get Neotel to give us a quote on it.
Its hard to buy a product if a company doesnt appear keen to sell it.

rpm said:

Hi there

This is your chance to tell Neotel how they can improve. Please tell Neotel where they fall short and what they can do to make you a happier customer.

Please try to steer clear of obvious suggestions like “cut prices”, and try to give valuable input about the company’s products and services.

• Which new products would you like to see?
• Are there areas where Neotel can improve its support?
• Can they make it easier for you to buy their products?
• Where do you think the company is losing ground against its competitors?

By giving your input you will stand a chance of winning a Sony 10’’ 32GB Android Tablet PC or branded gear bundles.

Please post all your feedback to Neotel in this thread.

Click to expand...

a) Respond to your customers' complaints.
b) Follow through on your promises to resolve queries.
c) Product and technology mean nothing if you have chased away all your clients.
d) That said, 45kB/s (on a good day) does not cut it.

I have been with Neotel for well over two years. In March/April of this year I was told that my contract was due for renewal. Despite my misgivings of signing another two year contract, I decided to give Neotel one last chance to redeem itself.

What followed was a tragedy or a comedy of errors, depending on your mood.

1) The shop in Cedar Square only had one person behind the counter on a Saturday morning.
2) Finaly made it to the front of the line after waiting for an hour.
3) I was told that for the same monthly price I can now get twice as much data if I renewed my contract. I told the lady to go ahead.
4) She then informed me that I would need a new device/modem/phone as the old one is no longer supported, even though it is still working fine. The new device costs R800. I inform her that I will stay with my current device until it packs up, and then buy the new one.
5) It turns out, she can not renew my contract unless I buy the new device/modem/phone for R800, which means that I am stuck paying twice as much for data than I should.
6) I finally concede and decide to pay the R800 for the new device that I do not want or need.
7) She then proceeds to process the renewal and as part of the process, she checks the Neotel coverage map against my address.
8) She then informs me that there is no coverage where I stay, so she can't sell me the device that she has spent 15 minutes convincing me I must buy.
9) I inform her that I have been connected for more than two years and have coverage, not great (45kB/s) but it is there.
10) No she can't sell it to me; So I am stuck paying R200 for "NeoPrime 1G" with 1.5 gig of data ,when I could be paying R285 for 5gig of data.
11) One and a half hours later I leave the shop angry, frustrated and feeling ripped off.

To rub salt into the wound, every month I get a phone call from some considerate call center agent trying to convince me to renew my contract.

No, they still cant offer me the package with the 5G of data at R285 unless I get the new device
No, I can't buy "just data" for R285.
No, they can't sell me the device on the new package if there is "no coverage" on their maps.

So....Neotel, what should you expect me to do?? Sorry I can't beg Neotel any more than I have to remain your customer.

Back to Helkom.

As soon as my ADSL line is installed, the kids and I will be testing the aerodynamic properties of the Neotel device.

I have been using their Wimax service for the last 6 months, and I have been impressed with the service overall. However, what Neotel could really improve is their customer service side. Their billing systems are a joke - no one there seems to have any idea who is responsible for any given account, and trying to do a billing query is an exercise in frustration. My experience while applying for the Wimax line was also like something out of a farce - one definitely received the impression that they were not terribly keen on selling the service!

Where to start....

Since 2008 Neotel has been promising coverage in my area "within 2 months". Eventually gave up. So for Neotel - get your act together and at least be upfront with potential customers. The loss of face and trust can never be recovered.

In the interim I have been saddled with the really pathetic performance and support of MTN. Even their in-store support is really below par, and heaven forbid that you walk in while they are having a cuppa - they'll just ignore you until they are good and ready. For MTN - CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!!!!

A few months ago I signed up with the much maligned Telkom (as a last resort) and have to admit I have never been happier. The customer service, installation and set-up all went smoothly and I had the pleasure of dealing with some of the nicest people. Since then have had great stability and speed. Well done Telkom!!!

Neotel microwave and fibre is excellent value for money. I have only ever experienced excellent voice quality on microwave and fibre.

Cheaper per second call charges, geographic number portability, fast access to their enterprise helpdesk and instant status updates on the progress of rectifying any faults make them leagues better than the incumbent.

It's just a pity that Neotel's excellent enterprise service does not appear to translate over to home consumers, based on all the feedback I see in these forums.

mrvanv said:

Cheaper per second call charges, geographic number portability, fast access to their enterprise helpdesk and instant status updates on the progress of rectifying any faults make them leagues better than the incumbent.

Click to expand...

GNP already supported - takes approx 1 week

Agree excellent quality on SIP Trunks
Billing dept - needs serious attention

I have been using Neotel Prime for the last three years after Telkom has refused to replace stolen telephone lines in our area. I was primarily looking at being able to access the internet, therefore when we signed up, Neotel Prime was the most viable option.

Are there areas where Neotel can improve its support?
In general, my experience has been very positive. I have had very few issues with the connection and have hardly ever needed to deal with the customer support. One thing that is lacking however, is the data usage reporting from Neotel.

To receive an email each day with an indication of your data usage that “may be delayed by up to 48 hours”, is almost as useful as not receiving any data usage notifications whatsoever. Furthermore, these notifications are not sent during billing periods at the beginning of the month. Users should be able to check their usage in real-time at their convenience and not have to rely on receiving emails from Neotel.

Can they make it easier for you to buy their products?
I am exploring the consumer wi-max offering from Neotel. On Sunday my wife and I went to the Cedar Square branch to change from our Prime account and sign up for Wi-Max. However we were unable to do so, as we were told we needed to provide a proof of residence address to apply for Wi-Max , despite the fact that we have been neotel customers for the last 3 years. From a customer service point of view, it would have been much easier for us if Neotel were able to transfer all of our details in-store. Now we need to make a second trip to apply.

Where do you think the company is losing ground against its competitors?
I feel that by not requiring customers to sign extended contracts would make Neotel more competitive. Even reducing the 24-month contract to a 6-month contract would make a difference.
Ultimately cost matters! Make your offerings cheaper than the rest and many will make the switch.

Customer Service:
I just phoned Neotel with a problem I am having with my WiMAX. I was asked to describe the problem, which is slow streaming speeds from sites like YouTube, etc. and I am asked to perform a speedtest, which is running at full speed. After such I am told to hold on, doesn't ask for any of my details or anything. Not what product I am on, my name, the service I have, my customer ID, nothing. Neotel needs to sort out rubbish like this sitting in their call centres wasting customers time.

More Customer Service:
My key account manager doesn't reply to emails, doesn't answer either of the phone numbers that I have been given for him. Would be nice if my account manager managed my account...

Even More Customer Service:
Telling a customer to ping and tracert a website that is having issues is probably not going to fix it.

Competiton closed.