Change is slow at Telkom

My line went down twice in the last 40 days due to the heavy storms. The huge tree's dont help with their branches tugging on the cables.

I called twice a day and on the 5th day a guy came around and climbed up the pole in the corner of the yard and left with it working 100%. Unfortunately about a week later another big storm undid what he had fixed. So again, I called twice a day for a week, and another guy came around. When he left it was fixed.

He pointed out why it was braking and since then we have trimmed the tree's around the cable. Still going strong.
 
24-48 hours is usually their turn-around time when it comes to online line faults being logged. You usually get an SMS straight after when the fault has been logged so you have a reference number to work off of. The article didn't mention any sms or that he got a reference number when logging the fault online, so my assumption is that the fault was never properly logged, hence the delays.

Call-center staff also don't care about giving you good service. They get paid either way EVEN IF you complain, the disciplinary is merely a formality and nothing happens to them either way. The fact the technician didn't pitch for 3 days is probably attributed to his manager's lack of time-management/care to do a job and not the actual technician. They get told what to do and they do it. That's it. Some go out of their way to help, others just do what they get told....well... MOST do what they get told because if they don't they'll get into trouble. I had (for some miraculous reason) a new phone line that was going to be installed at my house (that I didn't even order). Telkom forced the technicians to come out to my house ANYWAY even after I cancelled this blunder over the phone 2 times AND their job card said it was cancelled just because their manager said to come out.

Too many chiefs, no Indians. And with that, no accountability since Telkom management is so "ingat" (if I can use an Afrikaans word) that most of their time is dedicated in finding "dirt" against their fellow managers/employees to hold over their heads so they can toss around on-the-job.
 
Sounds a lot like the time when they would install my phone line. I put in leave so that I could be home when the technician came. I waited until 4pm and then called the local telkom depot, they covered up quite nicely but it was clear they forgot and sent out the technician there and then.

He was not too happy when he arrived at 4:30 and within 10 minutes said the pipe into the house has collapsed and its not their problem. At least he left the cable with me so the Saturday I dug up my driveway, repaired the pipe, pulled through the cable and repaved the driveway. Had to wait a week before they came to wire up my line...
 
Nice, So it wasnt just me that have these problems..
Took 3 months just to get a line installed/moved(not even going to go into how Lazy the Techi's was, and after the 5th guy and not allowing him access out of the complex it was installed), then it was Suspended incorrectly, and from there on it took 3 weeks to have the connection sorted,
but wait there's more...
Now the Line is Completely unstable. I logged a Fault again, After 2 weeks telkom sends sms's to tell me the problem is resolved, and no fault found... Go back home, to only find that the problem still exist. Call the callcentre again, The correct one, to just drop the line speed to something more stable like 2mb. Call Centre agent tells me I am at the wrong department I must call 0800 375 375. So I call them, Only to be told I was at the right department before, and I must call them back. I give 10215/10219 a call again, All of a sudden I can be helped.
But wait There is more.....
I get told Why do you want to decreace your connection from 4mb to 2mb, your exchange is 10mb capable..
Um, because the line is completely unstable... (actual Through put is 19 - 96 kbps) Using game.saix.net and speed test.net tests (speed test does not open on a 20kbps connection at all)
So now it a month later and my problem still has not been fixed. Decrecing the connection sync has helped a little bit.
Telkom Expect full payment for a Unstable and unreliable service.

Problem on line still exist.


This Article,Thread is a nice Complant section and to share some Horrific Telkom story's
 
Had the same here - I had a line that mostly didn't work between Sept 2010 and Jan 2011. I finally got fed up when the Telkom tech phoned me and arranged for me to be home and for the third day in a row just didn't pitch.

Fortunately I get a decent CellC 3G signal in my area so I cancelled my ADSL and got two 5GB modems for the same cost as 10GB with my ISP. I get better speed now than I ever did with my ADSL line.

I pity the folks that have to struggle on with Telkom without a viable alternative...
 
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Yes I have had many problems like this

I am an IT Engineer, and know when it is a telkom problem and my customer or I wont be charged. Because I actually knows more than telkom staff do them selves, common sense. I only telkom had better quality lines that would off been much better.

But maybe it is their secret roll out off fibre lines they don't want any one to know about. They want to be secret as their technicians are not allowed to say they are installing fibre lines.

Hopefully telkom will get better after this when they have better quality lines and less problems.
 
Also had my first taste of dealing with Telkom last year. All in all it took 7 weeks and many phone calls to get something to happen. It does seem that the area in which you live plays a big part in how long you wait.
The other day it looked like my line had gone down again after a storm - I nearly cried... but fortunately the line was okay when I tried later, and much rejoicing was had.
 
The disaster that Neotel has become, has meant that Telkom can sit on their fat... politically correct and connected @sses... and relax...

zero competition = zero change!
 
rpm said:
Change is slow at Telkom

You can probably get satisfaction out of Telkom, but you do need to be really, really unsatisfied before that happens
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Hell SLOW is slow at Telkom.
 
McT said:
I disagree. This can be a great country and we can force business to catch a wake up.
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And Santa and the easter bunny is having a tea party... 0o

Cant even think anyone believes there is any chance in hell that it would ever change for the good. Look at the rest of Southern Africa. Then talk.
 
Telkom is an absolute disgrace to our Country. There is simply no excuse for their dismal performance levels and lack of innovation and progress. Then again, from my experience no government owned department/entity appears to have any inclination to serve; to take yes, but to serve, no.
 
grpc12 said:
I am an IT Engineer, and know when it is a telkom problem and my customer or I wont be charged. Because I actually knows more than telkom staff do them selves, common sense. I only telkom had better quality lines that would off been much better.

But maybe it is their secret roll out off fibre lines they don't want any one to know about. They want to be secret as their technicians are not allowed to say they are installing fibre lines.

Hopefully telkom will get better after this when they have better quality lines and less problems.
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You are obviously a clueless IT ENGINNEER !!!!
 
Perhaps now that I am back online proper an update is in order (thanks to Reelix for the reminder):

I did eventually get my line fixed, on Wednesday, two weeks after I reported it. I'm not entirely sure how I managed it but I eventually got three separate Telkom people contacting me. And eventually two of them actually came to my house.

The crazy part is that despite me continuously telling Telkom that the line was actually broken (as in "in half") it was only after two weeks that someone appeared at my front door and actually looked at the broken cable.

As far as advice goes I don't have the secret. Perhaps one thing is to phone and query the fault every single day. And don't let them tell you it's been escalated as if that is an excuse. If it's been escalated once and you still have no joy ask to be put through to someone senior to deal with the problem. Eventually I got lucky and found a support person who realised that they couldn't just fob me off with an excuse. I was then put through to someone senior with the name Tony, who phoned me at least six times over the final two days to keep me updated and make sure something was done.

My next move is to see if I can get a refund on my account for the two weeks without a service.
 
aott said:
Perhaps now that I am back online proper an update is in order
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Thanks for the update!

aott said:
I was then put through to someone senior with the name Tony, who phoned me at least six times over the final two days to keep me updated and make sure something was done.
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If anyone who works at Telkom is reading this, give "Tony" a raise, and let him get known by the MyBroadband Community (As Jannie is with Vodacom, from what I can gather) as he seems to be the only person at Telkom who can get things done :)

If my data service still hasn't been activated by next Friday (A full 14 days after I requested a simple service activation -_-), I might ask to speak specifically to "Tony" and see what happens :)

aott said:
My next move is to see if I can get a refund on my account for the two weeks without a service.
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April fools was 7 days ago....

But seriously - Good luck with that :) Keep the community informed :)
 
Interesting

gdiza said:
If I can defend Telkom in one sense... it's not really Telkom to blame, it's the staff.

So many times when I do have to deal with Telkom, I get people who are on the ball, make an effort and get the user sorted out.

Then there are times when I do log faults, and I know I just spoke to someone useless, then I have to "call a friend" and he helps get the problem fixed.

It's like every other call centre - it's up to the staff.

If... and I say IF...

Those agents go paid per call they close properly (which means, the user is 100% happy) then we'd see a very different Telkom! :)
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It is Indeed interesting that this comment made was that its not telom but its staff.If(and this this isnt a bashing of you or your comment)you belive that its not telkom but its staff then thats like saying Its not my car its the people who sold me the car.Any decent company that reports to be the main contributor of a great product has rivals and competitors what should seperate them from eachother is the service quality to their customer.

No one on this forum will say to you,Im so happy to have a 10mb line,what a great product and ignore the fact that its not working,its redundant/slow and when you have a complaint you're put into a pigeon hole where unless you vent,escalate a problem 10 times get different reports on the progress of it and then say Im satisfied is a good thing.

telkom as is,are useless.We do business with them not because we can but because we need to.If there was a different electricity company wed go through them.I wish we had a market like cars where they fight to sell you their product and do what they can to satisfy not just your physical needs but your customer satisfactions aswell.

I really empathise with this problem as I too have had it.Its not the fact that were a third world country,its the fact that our customer services and dealings with people are on a 3rd world basis.If you want a service,you better hope the UN or some miracle step in to make it happen.I wish you luck in succeeding with your problem.Let us know how it goes
 
So last week I moved locations, and as such, did not require the ADSL service to be activated (30 days -> No activation), or the line at all (It worked out cheaper to cancel -> re-order than transfer....)

So I walked into the Telkom shop (Just before we moved) and requested the ADSL Activation be cancelled. So *tap* *tap* *tap* - And I was told it would be cancelled.

So, on Tuesday this week I receive an SMS informing me that the service has been activated! :confused:
(35 days after I requested(It will takes 3-5 days at most I was told...), and about 5 days after I requested cancellation...)

I then phone to tell them that I want to cancel the DSL, and the line outright.

They tell me the DSL cancellation is in progress (Since it was ordered last week) and...

Here's the kicker...

I CANNOT DISCONNECT THE PHONE LINE UNTIL THE DSL SERVICE HAS BEEN DEACTIVATED

Bear in mind I DO NOT live in the house (Which thankfully is un-occupied until the owners return from overseas, at which point they will have a phone-line which I'm unhappily paying for, free to make 10 hour international calls as they choose....)

So yea - This is just a quick rant at the annoyance of two things:

1.) If you apply for line activation, you can not cancel the process it until it has been activated :wtf:

2.) If you have anything pending, you CAN NOT cancel your phone line :mad::mad::mad:

ARG!

I HATE TELKOM!!!
 
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