Wendy
Member
Three months ago I installed ADSL in our personnel offices and I am running 16 networked computers on it. To date we have had no complaints at all but then we dont use it to the extent that many other users do and we have only been capped once with a narrow escape the next month. We have been happy with the speed which is a vast improvement on the previous ISDN connection we had and it is a great deal cheaper.
Now for the complaint. Impressed with the results I obtained at work I decided to install it at my home where I often work and my children could access the internet readily. The following is a copy of my letter to Telkom, now sent to all the addresses I can find for various people at Telkom (thanks to Merlin and RPM) but I am hoping somebody ont his forum can help me further. Sorry it is rather long....
As I spend a great deal of time on the internet, which means I spend a great deal of money on Telkom phone rates, I applied for an ADSL conversion of my existing ISDN line over two months ago. After initial tests the technician came to my house in Benoni and advised me that the signal was not strong enough. After many conversations with the help line at Telkom I decided that the best thing to do was to just reapply and request a new line be put into my house thinking that obviously with the history of the initial line not being good enough the technicians would take care to ensure that a suitable cable was used this time. I was advised all that tests had been done, and staff would visit me on the Monday. I took off that day for the installation. By the end of the week, five days off work and many phone calls with the ADSL help line, I was told that the technician would be able to install the line on the Saturday, five days after the first arrangement. I then welcomed the arrival of a technician, and I stress ‘Technician’ as he was in no way an ADSL expert as I had been told would be the one to install this special and complicated installation. He put in the line and immediately told me that he could not get any signal at all and off he went. Back to the endless rounds of phone calls on the Monday. I have discovered that Telkom has applied an excellent customer care policy – Smile all the time, be very, very nice to the customer but in no way waste your time with helping the customer, just keep telling them you will sort it out and eventually they will give up! Well, this lady aint going to go away without a suitable explanation to her queries! I find the reasons I have been given to be totally unacceptable and in some cases shoddy. My questions are:
1. I live in Farrermere in Benoni. This is not an area confined to the plots and farms, in fact it is one of the first residential areas just outside of the town. Apparently my telephone line comes from Rynfield. This is a further distance from my residence than is Benoni, but no matter. I drove the route from my house to the exchange in Rynfield and the distance measured 4.6 km. As the technician had told me that the distance is 6.8 km I think he might have gone to visit some friends in his travels. The measured distance to the Benoni exchange is 3.5 km. As I am sure that Telkom did not lay their myriad of cables confined to roadways I assume that the underground distance is considerably less. Why was my new line not taken from Benoni if they felt that the distance might be too far from Rynfield?
2. Why was an expert ADSL technician, (and not the normal technician who seemed more interested in getting the job over and done with than actually completing it to the customer satisfaction), not sent to do this installation, or even to investigate the problem after I started my investigations?
3. I was told before the installation would take place that the test department had tested the line from the pole outside. Why is that possible but not when the equipment is connected? Perhaps the old problem of the left hand not knowing what the right is doing?
4. I applied for the ADSL connection thru a home installation. Perhaps I should have applied as a business and then Telkom would have considered my application worth taking a bit of time over. As I am currently spending approximately R2000 per month on my telephone bill, perhaps they don’t want to encourage me to spend less?
5. During my initial enquires I spoke to Barry and Isha in the Cape Town help line offices. They showed a genuine desire to help but their hands were tied by the attitude of the Gauteng staff and they couldn’t help any further. Why has Telkom kept all the really good staff in Cape Town!!
6. When I queried the technician as to the possibility of other residents having an ADSL connection in Farrermere he informed me that they were closed tot eh Great North Road. I find this even harder to understand as that would then mean they are even further away from the Rynfield and Benoni exchanges and therefore should have more problems than I do. Can Telkom tell me categorically, there are NO other ADSL connections in the whole of Farrermere?
7. At no time has anyone offered me an alternative solution. In the event that there really is no solution at all and if this is a cable problem that means new cables have to be laid surely there is another product or even a plan that has been devised that will solve it, why have I not been told about it?
Nobody I have spoken to can give me an explanation to these questions. At the very least I have expected someone to have tried but I have been promised things will be looked into only to find that I have to initiate more calls in a hunt to find someone who actually cares. Which is why I am now resorting to this letter – in the hope that somewhere out there, there is a few members of society who care about keeping a customer. I actually hold some shares in Telkom and wonder if, when the competition that has been promised does arrive in South Africa, I should sell them and rather invest in a new broom that may care.
Now for the complaint. Impressed with the results I obtained at work I decided to install it at my home where I often work and my children could access the internet readily. The following is a copy of my letter to Telkom, now sent to all the addresses I can find for various people at Telkom (thanks to Merlin and RPM) but I am hoping somebody ont his forum can help me further. Sorry it is rather long....
As I spend a great deal of time on the internet, which means I spend a great deal of money on Telkom phone rates, I applied for an ADSL conversion of my existing ISDN line over two months ago. After initial tests the technician came to my house in Benoni and advised me that the signal was not strong enough. After many conversations with the help line at Telkom I decided that the best thing to do was to just reapply and request a new line be put into my house thinking that obviously with the history of the initial line not being good enough the technicians would take care to ensure that a suitable cable was used this time. I was advised all that tests had been done, and staff would visit me on the Monday. I took off that day for the installation. By the end of the week, five days off work and many phone calls with the ADSL help line, I was told that the technician would be able to install the line on the Saturday, five days after the first arrangement. I then welcomed the arrival of a technician, and I stress ‘Technician’ as he was in no way an ADSL expert as I had been told would be the one to install this special and complicated installation. He put in the line and immediately told me that he could not get any signal at all and off he went. Back to the endless rounds of phone calls on the Monday. I have discovered that Telkom has applied an excellent customer care policy – Smile all the time, be very, very nice to the customer but in no way waste your time with helping the customer, just keep telling them you will sort it out and eventually they will give up! Well, this lady aint going to go away without a suitable explanation to her queries! I find the reasons I have been given to be totally unacceptable and in some cases shoddy. My questions are:
1. I live in Farrermere in Benoni. This is not an area confined to the plots and farms, in fact it is one of the first residential areas just outside of the town. Apparently my telephone line comes from Rynfield. This is a further distance from my residence than is Benoni, but no matter. I drove the route from my house to the exchange in Rynfield and the distance measured 4.6 km. As the technician had told me that the distance is 6.8 km I think he might have gone to visit some friends in his travels. The measured distance to the Benoni exchange is 3.5 km. As I am sure that Telkom did not lay their myriad of cables confined to roadways I assume that the underground distance is considerably less. Why was my new line not taken from Benoni if they felt that the distance might be too far from Rynfield?
2. Why was an expert ADSL technician, (and not the normal technician who seemed more interested in getting the job over and done with than actually completing it to the customer satisfaction), not sent to do this installation, or even to investigate the problem after I started my investigations?
3. I was told before the installation would take place that the test department had tested the line from the pole outside. Why is that possible but not when the equipment is connected? Perhaps the old problem of the left hand not knowing what the right is doing?
4. I applied for the ADSL connection thru a home installation. Perhaps I should have applied as a business and then Telkom would have considered my application worth taking a bit of time over. As I am currently spending approximately R2000 per month on my telephone bill, perhaps they don’t want to encourage me to spend less?
5. During my initial enquires I spoke to Barry and Isha in the Cape Town help line offices. They showed a genuine desire to help but their hands were tied by the attitude of the Gauteng staff and they couldn’t help any further. Why has Telkom kept all the really good staff in Cape Town!!
6. When I queried the technician as to the possibility of other residents having an ADSL connection in Farrermere he informed me that they were closed tot eh Great North Road. I find this even harder to understand as that would then mean they are even further away from the Rynfield and Benoni exchanges and therefore should have more problems than I do. Can Telkom tell me categorically, there are NO other ADSL connections in the whole of Farrermere?
7. At no time has anyone offered me an alternative solution. In the event that there really is no solution at all and if this is a cable problem that means new cables have to be laid surely there is another product or even a plan that has been devised that will solve it, why have I not been told about it?
Nobody I have spoken to can give me an explanation to these questions. At the very least I have expected someone to have tried but I have been promised things will be looked into only to find that I have to initiate more calls in a hunt to find someone who actually cares. Which is why I am now resorting to this letter – in the hope that somewhere out there, there is a few members of society who care about keeping a customer. I actually hold some shares in Telkom and wonder if, when the competition that has been promised does arrive in South Africa, I should sell them and rather invest in a new broom that may care.
Perhaps I should have left it in the capable hands of my better half...