8 'wrong' technicians, 4 months later and 1 broken Telkom landline

[jinxed1git]

The title may sound like a bad poem, however it's an ongoing every day struggle with Telkom. Today marks the day where Telkom messed up for eight consecutive times in a row. Your eighth technician is currently at my premises telling me that he cannot fix the line because, and I quote, "He only fixes dead lines". This is the 8th technician who had told me that "it's not his job."

I then instructed him to kill my line - tear it from the pole if he must, but just ensure it's reconnected correctly because I'm *fairly* sure that the connection is to blame. The very first technician to visit me put the liine back up and told me himself that "It is a temporary solution and Telkom needs to send someone to replace the entire line. It will be done within the next 2 weeks." That was 4 months ago. I asked the current technician for the phone number of his supervisor or an individual with enough logic to understand my predicament and send the correct person to fix it. The number he provided me was incorrect.

The error, in the best possible way in which my ISP and myself can describe, is as follows:
The connection drops at least 10 times daily or when put under "stress". The drops are caused by the noise on the line. The SNRM is currently 5dB (should be AT LEAST 6dB and ideally 10dB). The original speed was 10Mbps down. The line is currently running at 2Mbps down at best.

My ISP has escalated this at least twice a week for the past 4 months with you people. I am waiting until the end of this month for you to repair my line before I do it myself and take action for the losses incurred by myself and my business.

This is now my second complaint to your company on HelloPeter and nothing has happened. I have emailed your help desk with my reference number (AI2559361) however am not expecting any feedback as the last time I simply got CC'd in a mail between several staff members telling each other that it's not their job.

Regards
Chris

 

[GoB]

Try to get them to check all connections on both sides. In your wall and at the street. Let them disconnect any other lines in your house, then plug the router in directly with no phone or filter.

Anyway that helped enough for me to remain on 2mbps (was on 4mbps before).
Either that or Telkom hid some facts of what configuration was changed / some unrelated issue at the exchange was resolved at the same time.

 

[krustyrsa]

The title may sound like a bad poem, however it's an ongoing every day struggle with Telkom. Today marks the day where Telkom messed up for eight consecutive times in a row. Your eighth technician is currently at my premises telling me that he cannot fix the line because, and I quote, "He only fixes dead lines". This is the 8th technician who had told me that "it's not his job."

I then instructed him to kill my line - tear it from the pole if he must, but just ensure it's reconnected correctly because I'm *fairly* sure that the connection is to blame. The very first technician to visit me put the liine back up and told me himself that "It is a temporary solution and Telkom needs to send someone to replace the entire line. It will be done within the next 2 weeks." That was 4 months ago. I asked the current technician for the phone number of his supervisor or an individual with enough logic to understand my predicament and send the correct person to fix it. The number he provided me was incorrect.

The error, in the best possible way in which my ISP and myself can describe, is as follows:
The connection drops at least 10 times daily or when put under "stress". The drops are caused by the noise on the line. The SNRM is currently 5dB (should be AT LEAST 6dB and ideally 10dB). The original speed was 10Mbps down. The line is currently running at 2Mbps down at best.

My ISP has escalated this at least twice a week for the past 4 months with you people. I am waiting until the end of this month for you to repair my line before I do it myself and take action for the losses incurred by myself and my business.

This is now my second complaint to your company on HelloPeter and nothing has happened. I have emailed your help desk with my reference number (AI2559361) however am not expecting any feedback as the last time I simply got CC'd in a mail between several staff members telling each other that it's not their job.

Regards
Chris

Send TelkomZA a PM, they don't respond to threads..Sounds like something I had a little while back. TelkomZA helped me with that.
Maybe ask TelkomZA to remove ASSIA DSM from your line as well, just to test and see. I had a similar issue where I struggled for nearly 3 months. They ended up replacing a 2km backbone copper cable which got stolen twice and damage 3 three times by construction workers. Even after that they replaced a 20m cable from the pole to my house and that didn't fix the issue either. So a month later they decided to replace a 10m segment from my router to the first wall box running to the pole, as this was causing crosstalk and ASSIA DSM kept dropping my line speed every 5 min. 3 months later and I'm still going strong, with no issues and I'm ASSIA free.
Good Luck!

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/member.php/258937-TelkomZA

 

[jinxed1git]

Send TelkomZA a PM, they don't respond to threads..Sounds like something I had a little while back. TelkomZA helped me with that.
Maybe ask TelkomZA to remove ASSIA DSM from your line as well, just to test and see. I had a similar issue where I struggled for nearly 3 months. They ended up replacing a 2km backbone copper cable which got stolen twice and damage 3 three times by construction workers. Even after that they replaced a 20m cable from the pole to my house and that didn't fix the issue either. So a month later they decided to replace a 10m segment from my router to the first wall box running to the pole, as this was causing crosstalk and ASSIA DSM kept dropping my line speed every 5 min. 3 months later and I'm still going strong, with no issues and I'm ASSIA free.
Good Luck!

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/member.php/258937-TelkomZA

Much appreciated. I'll try this. So far every other avenue I've tried has been met with failure. Possibly the worst customer service and lack of internal communication I've ever come across. My ISP is just as fed up with them.

 

[jinxed1git]

Apologies for the bump.

Does anyone know of a third party company who would be willing to remove/replace/install a physical telephone line?

 

[TheChamp]

Apologies for the bump.

Does anyone know of a third party company who would be willing to remove/replace/install a physical telephone line?

Telkom is the only company which offers fixed line services(and Neotel I suppose), if that's what you asking.

 

[MickeyD]

Where are you located? (town/city)

 

[jinxed1git]

Where are you located? (town/city)

I'm in the Edenvale area, Johannesburg.

 

[Anthro]

Order a new line, when Techie arrives to come install - start playing "Let's get physical" as loud as you can.
Remember your hammer, good luck - have fun.


*I actually suggest to cancel first before killing someone, I had to do this*