WelshPixie
New Member
Apologies if this is in the wrong place. I just feel like venting!
19th July we finally decided we were fed up of wireless and applied for a Telkom landline to be installed and converted to DSL. 'Why, of course!' the salesperson at the Telkom store gleefully informed us. 'One of our engineers will have your line installed within two weeks!'.
Hurrah. No installation fee on the Closer package, no deposit - just a lovely landline and then lovely DSL.
Nearing the end of the allotted two weeks we received a letter from Telkom;
"Our initial investigation reveals there is insufficient infrastructure in the area in which your premises are situated; consequently we can not confirm our ability to provide you with a service immediately. We are, however, investigating the matter further and will inform you of the final outcome in due course."
...Say what, now? Rather cryptic, we called Telkom on the following Monday to find out what exactly that meant. "All of the availble lines were taken up," they informed us; "Give us two weeks and we'll fix it and then continue with the order".
Alrighty then. A few days later we call them to chase, and they inform us that the problem has been fixed and an engineer has been booked to install our line on Thursday. Thursday comes around. The engineer arrives, inspects the property, determines that there's no conduit pipe leading from the tower on the roadside into the house and that we have to install one (or get one installed) before he can lay the line.
The following weekend sees us driving from the hardware store with several 4m lengths of conduit jutting from the back window of our little Taz to be placed in the ~13m trench we dug ourselves across our lawn. That done, we sent a text to the very friendly engineer to inform him that our property was ready for the line, and on the Monday we called the call center and they booked the engineer for the coming Thursday.
Mr. Man booked the day off work in case they needed him to do any more impromptu trench-digging and to generally make himself available for other 'just in case' scenarios. Late Thursday afternoon, the engineer calls us most apologetically saying that the call center had only just told him that he was supposed to be with us and so, of course, he couldn't make it and he'd be with us next week.
Monday comes around, the Engineer turns up bright and early, and they get the line installed from the tower across the road all the way through our pretty trench and to the outside wall of the house. Things are looking up! He informs us that another engineer will be out in the next couple of days to take the line into the house properly. 'We could be on DSL by the weekend', we think to ourselves with hope in our hearts.
The second engineer arrived today. He did some tests on the line, took the tower casing off and did some more tests, and came back to the house to sheepishly tell me that there's a 'problem with the tower - there aren't enough lines there; someone has to come back to fix it, or install a bigger line'.
Suddenly I'm flashing back to standing next to the mailbox with a Telkom letter in hand, heart sinking as I read
'Our initial investigation reveals there is insufficient infrastructure in the area in which your premises are situated...'
Really? Really??
I report back to the man who's on MSN at work eagerly awaiting my happy message of 'Engineer's been - line's installed!'. I hated to break his poor DSL-craving heart. He was straight on the phone to Telkom, who (after confirming his name, address and order number several times, just the same as they do every conversation - because once at the beginning of the call isn't enough, apparently) told him that they'd 'escalated it back to the technical / commercial department' and will call us in 24 - 48 hours.
Now - is it me, or is 45 days (and counting) a really freaking long time to get a landline installed?
19th July we finally decided we were fed up of wireless and applied for a Telkom landline to be installed and converted to DSL. 'Why, of course!' the salesperson at the Telkom store gleefully informed us. 'One of our engineers will have your line installed within two weeks!'.
Hurrah. No installation fee on the Closer package, no deposit - just a lovely landline and then lovely DSL.
Nearing the end of the allotted two weeks we received a letter from Telkom;
"Our initial investigation reveals there is insufficient infrastructure in the area in which your premises are situated; consequently we can not confirm our ability to provide you with a service immediately. We are, however, investigating the matter further and will inform you of the final outcome in due course."
...Say what, now? Rather cryptic, we called Telkom on the following Monday to find out what exactly that meant. "All of the availble lines were taken up," they informed us; "Give us two weeks and we'll fix it and then continue with the order".
Alrighty then. A few days later we call them to chase, and they inform us that the problem has been fixed and an engineer has been booked to install our line on Thursday. Thursday comes around. The engineer arrives, inspects the property, determines that there's no conduit pipe leading from the tower on the roadside into the house and that we have to install one (or get one installed) before he can lay the line.
The following weekend sees us driving from the hardware store with several 4m lengths of conduit jutting from the back window of our little Taz to be placed in the ~13m trench we dug ourselves across our lawn. That done, we sent a text to the very friendly engineer to inform him that our property was ready for the line, and on the Monday we called the call center and they booked the engineer for the coming Thursday.
Mr. Man booked the day off work in case they needed him to do any more impromptu trench-digging and to generally make himself available for other 'just in case' scenarios. Late Thursday afternoon, the engineer calls us most apologetically saying that the call center had only just told him that he was supposed to be with us and so, of course, he couldn't make it and he'd be with us next week.
Monday comes around, the Engineer turns up bright and early, and they get the line installed from the tower across the road all the way through our pretty trench and to the outside wall of the house. Things are looking up! He informs us that another engineer will be out in the next couple of days to take the line into the house properly. 'We could be on DSL by the weekend', we think to ourselves with hope in our hearts.
The second engineer arrived today. He did some tests on the line, took the tower casing off and did some more tests, and came back to the house to sheepishly tell me that there's a 'problem with the tower - there aren't enough lines there; someone has to come back to fix it, or install a bigger line'.
Suddenly I'm flashing back to standing next to the mailbox with a Telkom letter in hand, heart sinking as I read
'Our initial investigation reveals there is insufficient infrastructure in the area in which your premises are situated...'
Really? Really??
I report back to the man who's on MSN at work eagerly awaiting my happy message of 'Engineer's been - line's installed!'. I hated to break his poor DSL-craving heart. He was straight on the phone to Telkom, who (after confirming his name, address and order number several times, just the same as they do every conversation - because once at the beginning of the call isn't enough, apparently) told him that they'd 'escalated it back to the technical / commercial department' and will call us in 24 - 48 hours.
Now - is it me, or is 45 days (and counting) a really freaking long time to get a landline installed?
