How long does it take to get your line speed upgraded?

D

doc_msk

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I called Telkom on Wednesday 12 April to have my line upgraded to 1024Mb. Today is the 20 April and still no upgrade. Granted there was a long weekend, and some of Telkom are on strike.

Called through today to check status, was on hold (on and off) between 09h20 and 11h40 before finally getting through to someone. Was told that yesterday Telkom had requested a date for the upgrade. The day before was told they were busy doing tests. Initially was told line would be upgraded in 24 hours, 48hrs max.

Would be interesting to hear:

1) What work is involved in upgrading the line; and

2) How long has it taken other people to have their lines upgrade from a lower to a higher speed?

Regards
Doc
 
I ordered the upgrade the day it was announced so I was bound to have problems. A couple weeks after requesting it I was told they would have to come to my house to conduct line tests so I cancelled the order - a week later they went and did the upgrade anyway (without coming to do the line test). I kept the 1024 for a month or so then had them cancel it - wasnt really worth the extra coin.

Fortunately as I has requested that the upgrade be cancelled there wasnt a downgrade fee.
 
I was also told 48 hours by their callcentre okes, then 48 hours became a week, then a week became 2 weeks. Eventually after about 3 weeks they did the upgrade. (512 to 1024).
 
Mine was upgraded in a day... That's the problem with Telkom they are so damn inconsistent! Try doing that to a paying customer in a "normal" environment and see how long you are in business for?

Lucky Telkom's services we pay for, can you imagine how much worse the service would be if it were for free? Mind you sometimes I don't think it can get any worse than it already is...
 
It took me 3 weeks, a missed installation deadline, and finally a call to a product manager to finally get my ADSL upgraded from 512 to 1024. Up until that point they were unable to give me any information as to what was happening with regards to the upgrade, were unable to put me through to any management, and were completely unhelpful in telling me that it was unlikely I would get it installed any time soon.

Oh I would like to point out however that once I did get through to the product manager it took 3 (three) hours for me to get a call from one of the guys at the exchange to inform me that the upgrade was completed - which begs the question - if it's a process that can take at maximum 3 hours to complete (and this product manager was in a meeting at the time, so it's likely even less than 3 hours) - why does it take 3 weeks to complete if going the normal route?

To the best of my knowledge all that is involved is a couple of software-based updates to be put through, that's a process that should take no longer than 15-30 minutes.
 
Last edited:
Update:

Just called Telkom again, only had to hold for 10mins this time. Spoke to a consultant regarding my line upgrade and she said that Telkom were still carrying out conformity testing. So I asked how long would it take for this all to happen, and guess what? I was told to call back on Monday. This is a daily routine now. I call in, and get told to call another day since they have no information on my line upgrade.:mad:

Yesterday when I called the consultant promised to call me back with news, and guess what? He didn't. :mad:

Next year will be back home in the UK, with real broadband, at low prices, no capping, and better customer service (and lots of rain of course).... ;)
 
Mine was done in a day although they told me it would take a week. I applied for the 1024 upgrade the day it became available though.
 
Mine was done in a day as well and that was over 2 months ago and they said within approix 48 hours.

All they really need to do is to reconfigure the port on the DSLAM and only really need to recheck your line if your copper is already close to the limit from the exchange (5 km ???).
 
mine took 48 hours then after a month they called me to ask me if I wanted to upgrade free of charge to 1024.

AFAIK the upgrade is free of charge, but you pay a higher monthly cost.

go figure.
 
It amazes me that Telkom has got nothing web based for you to log in and take complete control over your line features. It should be as simple as selecting what speed you want your DSL to be, etc. would save alot of time calling their useless help desks..... BUT... this is telkom we're talking about - its always impossible to deal with them!
 
I am glad that some of you got your line upgraded so quickly. I am hoping it was just because of the strike and public holidays that mine is taking so long. Will waste another few hours on the phone today to see what is going on. *sigh*

Doc
 
Update: (02/05/06 09h00)

Just managed to get through to Telkom after only 20mins holding. Apparently because of the strike they could not do the upgrade. So, now they say a port has been allocated, conformity testing complete, and I have to wait 24 - 48hrs for feedback. This maybe feedback to Telkom, in which case I need to call them again on Thursday, or they might contact me directly. :mad:

One thing about moving to S Africa from the UK is that I have learned you have to be very patient, or its very easy to blow a blood vessel.

Lets see if the upgrade happens this week....

Doc
 
Update: (04/05/06 09h24)

Just been on the phone to Telcon again, and guess what? It should be upgraded in the next 24-28hrs. I think my perception of time in the real world is different to the parallel Telcon universe, where 24-48hrs actually means anything from 24-28hrs to many many weeks or months or years.

The guy on the phone tells me I need to wait for an installation date for my upgrade. And so I ask the guy do I need to phone in every day to get the installation date? He said no Sir. So I said then Telcon will be phoning me when the work is done? He says maybe, but they may just tell the call centre. So I say then I do need to call you everyday, he says no just after every 48hrs!! Can you believe it? (Well if you are reading this forum then you probably can)

Regards Doc
*sigh*
 
Update: (04/05/06 16h47)

Just spoke to TelCon again. Different story this time. No conformity testing has been done and they are awaiting feed back. A while back I was told that conformity testing had been done and a port allocated. The consultant told me today that thee is no need to allocate a port for upgrades.

All very confusing... smoke and mirrors...

Oh well what can one do. There is no Anne Robinson and Watchdog here in SA on TV to go after these types of organisations and expose them on TV. But I guess in the case of TelCon everyone already knows what a con they are and being a monopoly no one can touch them....

*sigh*

Regards
Doc
 
Update (05/05/06)

Sorry for posting on this topic continuously, must be really boring for you all. But I hope it may help some people with similar frustrations.

Called Telcon (again). This time I got through to someone I had not spoken to.

Me: Can you please update me on the progress of getting my existing ADSL upgraded to 1024 (request from 12 April)

Tecon dude: I see we did a line test on 21 April, and 3 May and it failed, your line cannot handle 1024. They are actually testing the line as we speak.

Me: OK, so can I have it upgraded to 512, whats the process?

Telcon dude: You have to wait two weeks?

Me: For what?

Telcon dude: So they can keep testing your line for 1024.

Me: But if its failed twice whats going to change?

Telcon dude: Hang on (puts me on hold then transfers me to a totally different dept)! [End of call]


Surreal really.

So I call back and get a different guys this time.

He asks me to confirm my address, and its totally wrong on the order, different town! He said that might be the problem. I asked him to check details on the screen about line testing failing etc. H said he could not see any of that! Then he told me to contact customer care regarding the wrong address. Also each agent over the weeks had been sending the request for a line test (which is not needed) to the wrong office so it had been ignored. But this guy was helpful and stayed on the line as long as it took for me to ask questions and sort through this.

Again spoke to a helpful lady that explained that address being wrong should not matter. A line upgrade should only take 1-2 working days. When they first install ADSL they do all sorts of line testing, and a upgrade should only be a software upgrade anyway. She said wait until Tuesday to see if it gets done...

These forums are like a form of therapy. Talking about problems "Hello, my name is doc_msk and I am a Telkom ADSL User" Without these forums I think people would go crazy, because sometimes you wonder is this happening just to me.

Well lets see what happens next week.

Regards
Doc
 
Will let you know how mine goes, ordered today.

Guy told me my line was 1024 ready
All current details were correct
Told me price, what I requested and time twice so that I knew
Told me 72 working hours maximum, so thats monday to friday 8-5, adds up to two weeks.

Hopefully it will be quick, my adsl installation only took 16 days from application, and it seems my line already been tested for 1024.
 
I phoned on Tuesday,2 May,to upgrade from 192 to 384 and was told 4 days max. i phoned on Friday and was told that no testing or anything had happened and that i should maybe try phone on Monday or Tuesday again. Sigh... It did take 5 months for my dsl line to go live so i guess im used to the wait.
 
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