ADSL problem resolved with a side cutter

[MKFrost]

Dear Telkom,

I've been one of your most loyal supporters for the past 20 odd years. Hell, I even worked for you for around 5 years way back in the day. I've had a dial-up followed by an ISDN, those were the days. I then switched to ADSL ever since it was first available. In 20 years I've never missed a single payment on my phone account and I can honestly say that I was in a credit for about 19 of those as I always rounded up my payments to the nearest R100 or there abouts.

In the past I've been patient and have always remained loyal with and to Telkom, even when M-Web went uncapped first and you just kept on milking me. I also remained with you even when all others were upgrading their clients thus giving them better value for money. I stuck with you, even though it meant I had to pay more for longer until you eventually decided to do the same.

Today, I have however reached a turning point. I am a semi-retired trader and am thus dependent on my internet connection for my pocket money. I no longer trade as big as I used to but for some my daily positions would still easily equal a month or two's salary so my connection is important to say the least, this is not monopoly.

The chances of me losing quadruples when my connection drops so I have always had a mobile connection as a backup and where possible a wireless as well. My average spend on mobile data has always been around R500 odd a month for the odd times I took my trading mobile or when it was used as a backup. During the past 4 months it has increased to well over a R1,000 resulting in me having to take up one of the larger data offerings as it was just no longer viable to do this with out of bundle rates.

This increase in mobile data usage is a direct result of my ADSL being so to say non-existent. My line runs between 10 to 20% of its capacity, if at all, and this has been ongoing now for around 3 months. I've logged fault after fault, I've emailed, I've complained, I've Hello Peter'ed, I've waited, I've trusted, I've believed............

Well Telkom, today I lost another +-10 odd thousand due to your line that just went dead. Not 20%, not 10%, not even 5%..... dead like in DEAD. You know the joke about the lights being on but nobody being home... well that is what my router looked like. All lights blazing but zip coming down the line. Guess it was partly my fault as I was not standing ready with the mobile connection as I just trusted my ADSL so so much. Should have known better.

Luckily I've been at this a long time and I know the risks and have thus saved, like a good boy, for these rainy days. I can however not wait until my losses reach the 6 figure mark so I've decided to give this problem a go and see whether I could maybe resolve it. I at first thought that it would be difficult and take lots of effort but it was actually quite easy and took far less time than I initially anticipated it would.

So this is just to inform you that I've managed to fix the problem. You will thus no longer get any complaints from me. I guess that makes you glad but I can assure you that I am just as elated as I no longer have to deal with your incompetent and rude staff. A registered letter will be on its way tomorrow morning to let your admin people know that they can take me off your books after 20 years.

Thanks for a good 16 years and all the best for your dark and bleak future.

PS: I can do math, the last 4 years is not worth a thank you.

PPS: I thought your technical staff may want to know how I managed to resolve the problem. It seems like the problem was the cable running from the telephone pole to my house. Since I've cut that off with my side cutter things are just better. I am no longer stressed, I no longer kick the dog and beat the wife, or is that now the other way round.... in any case, as said, everything is just much better now.

So it seems that the main problem and the main reason for all the stress and problems was the fact that my house was connected to your network.

 

[VontD]

Did you just do this now? It was a SAIX problem, seems to be clearing up now.

Edit: When I first saw "side cutter" I actually thought it was some new type of router... had to LOL when I found out it was a real side cutter.

 

[MKFrost]

Had enough, my problems has been ongoing for the past 3 months. I'm now 'wireless'

 

[Pada]

Did you replace the cable that ran from the telephone pole? From your description it seems like you simply cut the cable completely and that you're now without a telephone/ADSL connection...

 

[kooldude]

Had a good laugh.

 

[Chevron]

Reporting the ADSL fault as noise on your voice helps sometimes.

 

[graviti]

Sheesh Pada's a sharp one tonight

 

[MKFrost]

...you're now without a telephone/ADSL connection...

Yes I'm now wireless, completely disconnected from Telkom. I know, a bit over the top but now there is no temptation to connect again to see whether it works now... I cannot.... its done.

Nobody ever used to phone me on the landline in any case, about two calls a week and then usually marketing related. Outgoing calls numbered about 10 to 15 a month if that much. ADSL was more off than on, or running at snails pace so all in all not much to be missed.

Feels just as it normally does now but with less stress as I no longer have to worry whether the ADSL is working or not. Now just running on my Cell C with a Vodacom link as a backup.

A couple of months back I would not have considered this due to the 'high' costs (of mobile data) but with the offers of late it is almost a no brainer, especially considering what downtime means to me. Just cannot afford it anymore and honestly sick and tired of having to pay and ending up getting only 10 or 20% for what I pay for, if that much.

 

[MKFrost]

Reporting the ADSL fault as noise on your voice helps sometimes.

I have in total logged 24 faults over three months. Technical guys have been out here around 5 times. All will run well for three or 4 days then drop to rock bottom for days on end with here and there a spike or two of speed but overall as close to dead as it can come.

When I phone they test the line and say nothing is wrong. The last time they did extensive tests and the outcome was that it was most probably the exchange, the DSLAM or something that must be upgraded as it could possibly be congestion. Exchange is only 1.6km from here, measured along the road.

As mentioned. Just not worth it anymore to spend and hour or four per week going through this. If mobile data was still priced where it was months back then maybe yes... but as things are now there is very little reason why I should keep the ADSL.

 

[willemvdm]

Sound similar to the problem I had the beginning of this year for about 4 months. Speed, spiking at times, but often dead. Router did sync, just no or little throughput. Reported it several times. Fault report got escalated again and again. Once a lady called and said that they are going to put some testing equipment on my line for a week to see if my line can in fact handle ADSL. I've had ADSL for 5 years if not more. OK, yes, I am far from the exchange. Got the feeling they were about to dump me as a client. Then shortly after that call, next day I think, a techy came out again, he disappeared again and phoned me an hour later telling me that he placed my ADSL on another unused line and my ADSL was back to normal.

 

[MDE]

I understand you have found a happy place but possibly even look at Amobia. They are a WISP and are very reliable. Just a suggestion.

 

[wily me]

Spite your face by cutting off your nose?????????????????????

 

[Roadrunner]

Letter from Telkom soon in the mail:

Dear Customer,

WE DON'T GIVE A DAMN.

Have a nice day.

 

[VontD]

Doesn't Telkom actually own any cables they install? So...

Letter from Telkom soon in the mail:

TELKOM - LEGAL DEPARTMENT...

 

[Rizzler]

I find this post a bit disengenuous. There is nothing that says just because your line goes dead the markets will turn and you will lose money ! Any trader worth his salt will in any case have a stop loss in place. Any trader worth his salt will have a brokerage that has a 24hr trade desk that can manage the trade for you... after all it runs on their server and not on your local PC.

I too trade electronically (Index Futures and crude oil futures) via an electronic broker in Chicago. I too am with Telkom. I have lost my connection several times during a live trade. All I need to do is call their 24hr trade desk and ask them to manage the trade. Either I ask them to close or move my stop loss to break even. In fact on a few occasions it worked to my advantage because I made a bigger profit and would have closed earlier if my connection was up.

So my take on this ... rubbish. The markets don't just change direction because your line went dead.

 

[bradza]

I know what you were going through. I'm a trader too and these ridiculous ping rates and unreliable connections in SA are pathetic. I hate getting re-quoted every time I click a damn mouse button. Really enjoyed reading your post hahaha well done
I'm with another provider right now though, so far so good.

Regarding the trading when connection goes down. It all depends what timeframe you on. Yes, always have a stoploss but it can still be frustrating when you end up getting a requote BEFORE the stoploss when you wanting to exit and the net goes down. Calling is all great but it takes time and time is money if you doing really time intensive trades.

 

[Khanridhwaan]

lol - I really do wish that Anyone From Telkom cared as much as the MyBB Community Cares...

 

[MKFrost]

There is nothing that says just because your line goes dead the markets will turn and you will lose money

Could not agree more

Any trader worth his salt will in any case have a stop loss in place

It seems like you just assume that I did not have a stop in place and because of this am not worth 'my salt'. If you gave this matter any more thought you might have considered that I DID actually have a stop in place and that the stop being triggered has resulted in the loss. If I did not have a stop in place I would have had a floating loss and thus no actual loss until I close out the positions.

Any trader worth his salt will have a brokerage that has a 24hr trade desk that can manage the trade for you

Once again you just assume that this is not the case. My broker does have a 24 hour desk. A dealing desk can however only do so much as you should be well aware if you are a trader worth your salt. You can phone up the dealing desk and provide an instruction which will be executed. You can however not keep the dealing desk on the line and request price updates and then fire off instructions as and when the markets move. They are not there to trade for you over the phone. Not to sure whether I am expressing myself correctly, just trying to say it is almost like a once off service, you phone, give instruction which is executed and end of call.

I trade using a semi-automated strategy i.e. I select my entries and from there the trades get managed by my platform. The strategy requires ongoing adjustments, something which cannot be done over a phone. It is for that reason why there is always a stop based on 1% of capital which in this case was hit.

If you are a trader worth your salt you would be aware of the fact that not all strategies are viable to be traded via a dealing desk.

In fact on a few occasions it worked to my advantage

Agree, sometimes closing out later results in a better trade. In regards to the loss I mentioned, my trade went into a considerable profit and would have been closed out by the application I use to manage my trades. Due to there not being a connection this did not happen resulting in prices falling back and hitting my stop.

So my take on this ... rubbish

The way you express yourself you claim to be a trader worth your salt which may be the case. I do however think that you did not give your reply any thought as it is clear from your comments and your quick assumptions that you either did not consider all aspects of trading and or that you are completely inexperienced in as far trading is concerned.

The markets don't just change direction because your line went dead.

I never claimed this to be the case. As mentioned above, if it was not for the connection that dropped I would have made a nice profit as the prices went well past the point where the trades would have been closed out. Due to the disconnection they were not closed out resulting in prices dropping again and eventually taking out the stop loss.

This is something that has been happening more and more due to the unreliability of my connection and thus my frustration.

I'm not sure how many trades you do but from the markets you trade I assume that you are a low frequency trader. Just for interest, I average around 200 to 400 trades per day thus the reason for being semi-automated. Have you ever tried to contact a dealing desk asking them to move the stoploss on 100 odd open trades? By the time you are done it will be next week.

 

[Rizzler]

I think you should spend more time analyzing the markets and less time analyzing my post. 200-400 traders per day ? No wonder you'e losing. You're making your broker rich.

Try increasing your position size rather than the number of trades. The more trades you make the more likely you are to get it wrong. That's a fact. And your stop should only really get hit if you made a fundamental error in the direction of the market. Sounds like your stops get hit on normal Fibonacci pullbacks.

Good luck anyway. Your platform sounds rather antiquated.

 

[MKFrost]

I think you should spend more time analyzing the markets and less time analyzing my post. 200-400 traders per day ? No wonder you'e losing. You're making your broker rich.

Try increasing your position size rather than the number of trades. The more trades you make the more likely you are to get it wrong. That's a fact. And your stop should only really get hit if you made a fundamental error in the direction of the market. Sounds like your stops get hit on normal Fibonacci pullbacks.

Good luck anyway. Your platform sounds rather antiquated.

Actually have an excellent platform thank you and the reason for the large number of trades are because the trades are spread over various accounts (10 to be exact) as well as markets. The trades are in batches of 10 to 20 trades making one larger trade and the reason for so many is because they are scaled in over various price levels but I guess as a trader you knew about a scaling in or price averaging strategies....

So a large number of trades are not necessarily a given that you will get it wrong but rather a way of covering more price levels, getting a better average entry point and by doing so to indirectly decrease risk.

In regards to making my broker rich... this so antiquated. If you could make say 100 trades a day and bank say R10 on each but had to pay R2 commission does that mean that you must only do 10 and not a 100 trades because doing a 100 would mean that you make your broker rich???? Its like saying to a business that they must cut their sales or keep the number of sales they are doing down because they are making the taxman rich. Commissions just like taxes are part of the business and will always be there.

Yes I agree that your risk does increase with the more trades you do but it depends how this is executed.

A trader may do say 10 trades a day and essentially I do the exact same. My single trade is just broken into smaller pieces. You might enter a trade of xxx size and do one trade a day. I enter the same size trade but over a period of say an hour thus spreading my risk and getting a better average entry ensuring a better success rate and a higher overall profitability due to the better average entry point. My overall risk is also substantially reduced.

If you are up to speed on the changes in the trading environment you would be well aware of the fact that more and more trades are being done by automated processes i.e. systems trading on algorithms thus refereed to as algo trading. It is estimated that these systems are responsible for up to 70% of the current trading volume we see on a daily basis. These systems as you might be aware can do up to a thousand trades per minute. So its all about strategy.

So if we can conclude this thread, my aim was not to turn this into a trading discussion. I understand where you come from with your arguments, I had the same ones way back when I started out. Some of the arguments you make are true but also pretty old school in many ways. I'm by no means saying that you don't know your trading but rather that you should consider that there are almost as many strategies as there are traders and just because somebody else trades differently does not mean that they do not know better or that you might be able to learn something from them.