Dysfunctional call centre and Telkom store

chrisc

Honorary Master
Joined
Aug 14, 2008
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Cape Town
My 85 year old good friend had a tenant with a fibre service. The tenant left, so no internet

She decided on the Telkom uncapped LTE for R449/month

Attempt 1 to 10213
The call agent said there was no R449 LTE offer

Attempt 2
The call agent simply could not speak English, could not copy ID numbers, etc correctly

Attempt 3
Quite a friendly Telkom lady, we spent 65 mins on the phone answering all the detailed questions. She eventually said the application could not proceed as the (85 year old) did not have sufficient credit history, despite receiving a R35k a month pension and living in a R30m house. Lady pays her bills with her bank cards and does not need credit as she is extremely well off

Attempt 4
At Telkom’s Blue Route store. Got to the shop at 8.30. Staff turned up at 8.50. Once inside we found they were off-line and could not do anything. They said we could not call them to see if they had come back on line as they do not answer the phone to the public.

Attempt 5
Back to same shop. Got all details complete in 45 mins. Said SIM would be delivered in 2 weeks

4 weeks later, follow up. No trace at all of order, said nothing on record from Telkom store. When I started to complain, the agent cut the call. This enquiry took over an hour as the call agent’s English was poor

Lady was prepared to have another go, but I refused to drive her and speak to surly and rude staff

Instead, compled an on-line application with Supersonic. All done in 15 mins and follow up emails received

Older people used to have trust in Telkom, this lady’s late husband was a director of Cable & Wireless who were taken over by the Post Office, then Telkom and distrusted private comms companies

Her trust has completely disappeared, her experience was abysmal. Not the slightest interest in customer relations.
 
Not Chris again.
the tenant did not take the actual fibre with him, just get a new isp for the fibre. Well too late but it’s what you should have done.
 
This lady might be well off and have plenty of money, but she 1) distrusted Mweb who managed the fibre service and 2) would not pay the R689,00 that Mweb asked, plus a re-installation fee which they demanded

Apparently she called Mweb when the tenant vacated the flat in Feb and was given the run-around which developed into an argument, probably over some misunderstanding and thereafter refused to deal with them

The wi-fi signal from the flat was quite good in the house (measured -55 dbm), as I put the router on a shelf near the ceiling and it was about 12m distance and only 2 walls. Mweb told her that the fibre cable itself would have to be re-routed and since its a 140m run from the box in the street and this would cost several thousand Rand

When I went in the flat, there was a coil of fibre in a wall-box which measured an extra 12m when laid out, which would have easily reached an internal house wall. But the Mweb guy was having none of it, he told her it could not be done

I am dealing with an elderly female person who has a mind of her own but is entirely ignorant about anything more technical than putting on the kettle and does not want to be lectured. As regards Pak Fa Fui's comment in reply # 2, one day you may get involved in helping people who need assistance in technical matters, so don't be so quick to judge
 
RedViking was comment #2...
Its just that you have a series of complaints from the past 3 topics, from cell c, MTN and now Telkom
you seem impulsive when making decisions. Just tone it down when dealing with customer services, they will help if you want them to

did you go with supersonic new uncapped offer? 4G or 5G?
 
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