Bribing Telkom Technicians

RandomGRK said:
Well, its been a month and a half and still no Telkom to install a line for ADSL at my new flat. All I have heard is that they will be there in April 2009. :confused:

Anways, on Friday on my way from work I saw a Telkom technician outside my complex. I stopped my car in the middle of the road, put my hazards on and ran over to him to pour my heart out. Next thing I know im offering him money together with my reference number just to sought this out. :D

This is what its come to....lol

Maybe he gets it right.

Anyone else ever done this:o
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Did you at least get the techies number ? To follow up on?
 
lilGr said:
Did you at least get the techies number ? To follow up on?
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I did get his number and I have followed up with him. Just giving him some time.

killadoob said:
Not really sure how bribing a telkom man to do what telkom should be doing is bribery but i can tell you have wasted your money as there is no adsl in your area til april 2009, so unless you gave him enough to put some ports in your area its all just a waste and money.

Next time make sure telkom have adsl in your area before moving
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I dont think its cause I dont have ADSL. I live in Houghton, Johannesburg. I first need a regular Telkom line. Thats whats giving me the problem. I haven't even attempted ADSL yet. lol:D.

I wouldnt say this is as bad bribing a cop but its fact that its necessary is retarded.
 
wHiTe*LiGhTnInG said:
i dont care who i bribe to get something done or something....its kept me out the chookie a few times. i'd rather pay a 500 buck bribe than a 2000 buck speeding ticket.
this country is so corrupt, that you can actually take advantage of it.
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How many children have you run over so far?
 
I had a telkom techie at our head office who always helped me with issues. gave him a little something now and again, just wish i had one in all the towns where i have branches.
 
This is the african way of doing business. Get used to it. You always need to "give something a little extra", because service is BEYOND pathetic.
 
Actually Telkom should just auction their time - then whoever can pay the most gets a priority installation. Let the market set the price :p
 
I will also pay R500 to the techie that can help me get my line activated again and tel me which wire pair to use so that I can wire in my own cable to replace the stolen cable outside my house. PM would be great
 
did that as well. 500 bucks goes a long way. got better cabling installed and the guy worked for about 6 hours. got my ADSL installed within 4 days.

Worth it? Syncing always at 4mb, have SNR 29 (down) / 13 (up) and attenuation (17 down) / 7 (up) - downloads at 450-470KB/sec. The installed line is capable of syncing up to 12mbs (like this will ever happen anytime soon)

Yes, it is sad that this is not part of standard service, but what else is in South Africa?
 
Ok - well heres a trick which works in most cases....

I used to sell support for dealing with Telkoms ADSL service. Phoning them , dealing with their $#@# etc to get the line installed faster. I quit because sales dropped and I thought Telkom had sorted the problem out. Obviously not.

Heres the drill - and it works in most cases. Most of this you have seen much of this before - but not the last step - that is the trick.....

1) You order the standard telkom line per usual. Option 2 ( Time around 7 days - the phone techies are usually pentiful ). Closer 2 gets you free install -so buy that.

2) You order your ADSL over the phone with self install - per usual.

3) Immediately after you have done that ( I mean 5 minutes afterwards ) hook up your equipment ( Modem , usernames and passwords etc ) just like you would if the ADSL line was working.

4) After you have done that , phone telkom ADSL repairs. Tell them the line isn't working - and they will log a fault and dispatch a technician. Hand them the story that your line isn't syncing. After all - it isn't

The repair team are usually fast ( around 4-5 days depending ). They will rock up. Now you lie through your teeth and say "I dunno what happened" - it was working before.

Now they scratch their heads. Of course , they do their diagnostic tests. They dont know whats wrong. They will then either pack their stuff up and go look at whats wrong at the exchange , or they will not pack up and jump in their van and go to the exchange and promise to come back.

5) IF THEY ARE NOT COMING BACK... - then they will go to the exchange , and find that the DSL port is not connected. They will hook you up. Even if there are no "availible" ports in the exchange , they leave a few for repair and maintenance purposes so they will hook you up to one of these. They will then probably phone you to ask if the thing is syncing. It probably will. Say thank you and then hang up - and verify and activate your line as normal.

6) FOR IF THEY ARE COMING BACK : Now you have to move fast. They will do the same as above but you now only have a few minutes to activate the line because they'll be coming back to test it. Have a spare computer connected to edge or 3g or something handy so you can do it right away. If you are not prepared they will know you have Bu#@#sh#@$ed them and they will charge you the callout fee. There are no other consequences though.

This whole process takes about 10 days to completion. No bribes to pay. I have done this successfully many times , but 15% of the time is doesn't work. Worth a shot though.

This process exploits the fact that the sales team and the repair team do not talk to each other - both physically and on the Telkom system.

Have fun with this - but do not repost it or make anyone aware of it. Telkom will probably find this out in time now that its on the forum , but it will take time - and by June probably won't matter.

Cheers
Lloyd
 
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