OK get this....I moved back to SA (to Natal North Coast) from the UK in April and made application for ADSL. Got this message on Telkoms website that ADSL would only be available to the 032 dialing code in May 2005. I was stunned. That would make us the last country on the planet to roll out a first generation broadband service! Contacted Keith Brink (Telkom's Head of Customer Service) and was told "you people sitting on farms are stuffed anyway because you are more than 5 clicks way from the exchange". When I explained I was in a town so Urbanised we even have a Mugg & Bean, he then said there wasn't enough demand for ADSL in our area. As ADSL is geared to SOHO (Small Office Home Office) users in SA, I found this hard to swallow, but not as hard as his next statement - "anyway, ADSL has a bad reputation because of bandwidth being swallowed by unusual protocols like coza". I nearly fell off my chair (a real one, amazingly we do have real furniture in KwaDukuza and we descended from the trees quite some time ago)
So this got the wind up me and I put on my war paint. I asked how demand was being tracked and the answer was "in a database somewhere". Just not good enough Telkom!
I went straight to the top - Dr Sharon Horton in the Telkom dept of Government and Regulatory Affairs. She was stunned at the lack of Cutomer Service and investigated. Despite repeated assurances that demand is being tracked, and that service to 032 would be investigated, i heard little more. So I wrote to our local rag and in under 2 weeks had a list of 80 businesses and individuals in Ballito alone all desperate for ADSL. So the Campaign began.
4 months on and all we have had back from Telkom is an official reply that the "actual" rolout date for Ballito is February 2004.
Not one person on the list I have sent Telkom has been contacted to say they are on the case. I had an email back from Hans vd Groenendal saying telkom find our request for service "unpractical" to meet at this time.[?]
It begs the question; Why tell us it is demand driven when clearly it isn't a priority for Telkom to either track demand nor meet it?
It is just appaling appaling and more appaling.[
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So I contacted East Coast Radio Newswatch and was interviewed by them on air today. Recapped the above in one sentence (amazing hey?) and Andrew Weldrick (Telkom Media spokesman) responded saying that a feasibility study was being conducted in our area and that there were more factors than just demand to consider - like expenditure and revenue considerations. I translate that as - we make more money out of the suckers by keeping them on diginet and isdn lines - . ECR have their hooks in, and access to all my correspondence and responses from Telkom. Mr Weldrick is going to end up with a great deal of egg on his face.[
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Go figure, the local telkom Customer Service office is unaware of any feasibility study and in an ironic twist, they refer all ADSL enquiries directly to me. The local manager asked for my research and order list to take to a Telkom management meeting to try and put pressure on the powers that be from within to no avail. So even telkom staff are thwarted by the brick wall surrounding ADSL service delivery.
Get this - where is this so called database that tracks demand? You cannot register interest on telkoms website - it boots you out if your number isn't on the rollout plan, customer service refer you to the website, and the local office refer everyone to me.
I smell a whole bucket load of horse crud here.
In a nutshell, we don't know when and if we are getting ADSL but WHOO HOO! Humansdorp just enetered the 21st century and if you don't know where Humansdorp is, its about 15 minutes inland of Jeffreys Bay and is a farming town of about 4 shops and a prefab hospital. Why did they get ADSL? Well.........a bona fide real life member of parliament lives there. NOW THATS REAL DEMAND!!!!
Any and all help in getting Telkom to show us research demographics for KwaDukuza (read 032 dialling code) would be greatly appreciated. We all reckon some dude in Pretoria decided Stanger were a bunch of cane cutters and Ballito was a holiday dorpie that didn't warrant much attention. What a silly silly thing to do.
Any and all help in getting ADSL here pronto would be rewarded with our everlasting gratitude.
On behalf of 80 very very confused and absolutely furious would be ADSL paying customers, thanks for listening.
So this got the wind up me and I put on my war paint. I asked how demand was being tracked and the answer was "in a database somewhere". Just not good enough Telkom!
I went straight to the top - Dr Sharon Horton in the Telkom dept of Government and Regulatory Affairs. She was stunned at the lack of Cutomer Service and investigated. Despite repeated assurances that demand is being tracked, and that service to 032 would be investigated, i heard little more. So I wrote to our local rag and in under 2 weeks had a list of 80 businesses and individuals in Ballito alone all desperate for ADSL. So the Campaign began.
4 months on and all we have had back from Telkom is an official reply that the "actual" rolout date for Ballito is February 2004.
Not one person on the list I have sent Telkom has been contacted to say they are on the case. I had an email back from Hans vd Groenendal saying telkom find our request for service "unpractical" to meet at this time.[?]
It begs the question; Why tell us it is demand driven when clearly it isn't a priority for Telkom to either track demand nor meet it?
It is just appaling appaling and more appaling.[
!]So I contacted East Coast Radio Newswatch and was interviewed by them on air today. Recapped the above in one sentence (amazing hey?) and Andrew Weldrick (Telkom Media spokesman) responded saying that a feasibility study was being conducted in our area and that there were more factors than just demand to consider - like expenditure and revenue considerations. I translate that as - we make more money out of the suckers by keeping them on diginet and isdn lines - . ECR have their hooks in, and access to all my correspondence and responses from Telkom. Mr Weldrick is going to end up with a great deal of egg on his face.[
]Go figure, the local telkom Customer Service office is unaware of any feasibility study and in an ironic twist, they refer all ADSL enquiries directly to me. The local manager asked for my research and order list to take to a Telkom management meeting to try and put pressure on the powers that be from within to no avail. So even telkom staff are thwarted by the brick wall surrounding ADSL service delivery.
Get this - where is this so called database that tracks demand? You cannot register interest on telkoms website - it boots you out if your number isn't on the rollout plan, customer service refer you to the website, and the local office refer everyone to me.
I smell a whole bucket load of horse crud here.
In a nutshell, we don't know when and if we are getting ADSL but WHOO HOO! Humansdorp just enetered the 21st century and if you don't know where Humansdorp is, its about 15 minutes inland of Jeffreys Bay and is a farming town of about 4 shops and a prefab hospital. Why did they get ADSL? Well.........a bona fide real life member of parliament lives there. NOW THATS REAL DEMAND!!!!
Any and all help in getting Telkom to show us research demographics for KwaDukuza (read 032 dialling code) would be greatly appreciated. We all reckon some dude in Pretoria decided Stanger were a bunch of cane cutters and Ballito was a holiday dorpie that didn't warrant much attention. What a silly silly thing to do.
Any and all help in getting ADSL here pronto would be rewarded with our everlasting gratitude.
On behalf of 80 very very confused and absolutely furious would be ADSL paying customers, thanks for listening.
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