5 big blunders from Telkom

[Kevin Lancaster]

5 big blunders from Telkom

Telkom remains the dominant player in South Africa’s fixed-line market, but along the way the company made some serious blunders.

 

[MickeyD]

There are more....


Will post some later!

#6 ---- Thintana

#7 ---- Telcordia

 

[TPM]

they are missing out by not providing NAKED ADSL and cheap data with line speed of 1Mbps to students and the aged.

I just bought a Telkom 5Gb mobile data for R99pm, which is less than ADSL rental.
Although the speed is pathetic (8ta), it is a good deal.

 

[werfie]

You could have easily made a top 10 list...

 

[atomcrusher]

Those blunders will be magically converted into success stories by the spin-doctor bosses of Telkom

 

[crackersa]

next weeks article will be "the Things Telkom did right...."

 

[MrR]

next weeks article will be "the Things Telkom did right...."

I'm sure there's a minimum length an article should be and don't think their success stories will meet the criteria.

 

[einad5]

There are more....


Will post some later!

#6 ---- Thintana

#7 ---- Telcordia

That is some interesting reading.

I think Telkom was also way too slow with FTTH allowing other players to quickly close in on the most profitable share of the market.

 

[Pythonista]

Not sure that MTN have a much better story either ...

 

[supersunbird]

#8
Lack of customer service

 

[MickeyD]

That is some interesting reading.

I think Telkom was also way too slow with FTTH allowing other players to quickly close in on the most profitable share of the market.

Roll it back one step....

Before you can offer FTTH you require decent backhaul links and capacity. For this you will require fibre.

Telkom's planners still insisted on building copper-based ATM backhaul links until recently. WHY ?????????????

 

[einad5]

Roll it back one step....

Before you can offer FTTH you require decent backhaul links and capacity. For this you will require fibre.

Telkom's planners still insisted on building copper-based ATM backhaul links until recently. WHY ?????????????

I do not have nearly enough info to speculate, but I can put on my tinfoil hat and say its because they fear LLU and do not want to invest in backhaul.

 

[Azg]

#8
Lack of customer service

It appears the sole purpose of that customer service department is to put Telkom out of business.

 

[MickeyD]

It appears the sole purpose of that customer service department is to put Telkom out of business.

When they started out with "call centres" all the useless workers were dumped there. Some are still there....

 

[MickeyD]

#9 ---- shutting down their massive network of Customer Service Branches (CSBs) and replacing them with a few Telkom Direct Shops (TDSs).

The CSB was a one stop service - from payments to reporting faults, to sorting out your account to actually processing new orders or cancellations.

The TDS is a "sales channel"... want to log a fault? "See that phone on that table in the corner? Please call 10210 from there." :wtf: Want to make an account payment? "Please go around the corner and pay at the Post Office or Edgars, etc. as we don't accept payments here." :wtf: Want to cancel a service? "Please email [email protected]" :wtf:

 

[Recruitsmiths]

#9 ---- shutting down their massive network of Customer Service Branches (CSBs) and replacing them with a few Telkom Direct Shops (TDSs).

The CSB was a one stop service - from payments to reporting faults, to sorting out your account to actually processing new orders or cancellations.

The TDS is a "sales channel"... want to log a fault? "See that phone on that table in the corner? Please call 10210 from there."

Haha...true..I did experience this with The Boulders (Midrand) TDS
No Customer Service!

 

[ebis]

#9 ---- shutting down their massive network of Customer Service Branches (CSBs) and replacing them with a few Telkom Direct Shops (TDSs).

The CSB was a one stop service - from payments to reporting faults, to sorting out your account to actually processing new orders or cancellations.

The TDS is a "sales channel"... want to log a fault? "See that phone on that table in the corner? Please call 10210 from there." :wtf: Want to make an account payment? "Please go around the corner and pay at the Post Office or Edgars, etc. as we don't accept payments here." :wtf: Want to cancel a service? "Please email [email protected]" :wtf:

Dont get me started on that cancellation mailbox. A relative of mine fought tooth and nail for months trying to cancel a contract. She tried to escalate the issue and each time told she is not allowed to call any of the cancellation agents. All she cud do was email them but no one freaking returned her cancellation "requests."

A threat to get an ombudsman involved finally did the trick.

 

[ponder]

Telkom's planners still insisted on building copper-based ATM backhaul links until recently. WHY ?????????????

Telkoms ATM network never really saw any real uptake as it was simply too expensive, they forced some internal departments onto it instead of using naked SDH circuits. They did the same with external clients when they still had a monopoly so a client would end up with a solution (very expensive) that looked like this, Cisco router->ATM switch->ATM cloud-<ATM switch<-Cisco router, their rational was that they wanted to 'manage' the network at the time.

They wanted to make it look good at all expense and throw common sense out the window, one of those internal power struggle things.