How many days has your ADSL been down for?

ic

ic

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My ADSL router has been trying to synch with its local exchange [Olivedale] for the last 4 days [since Sunday 24th], IOW I have been stuck without ADSL for 4 days.

Apparently all the monopolistic beast's [internal] technicians are still suffering from Christmas day hangovers, and the Fault Management department within Telkodemonopolies is still trying to locate their standby sangoma to conjure up an "external technician"...:rolleyes:

A friend of mine in Garsfontein [Pta] recently had to wait 3 weeks for his ADSL line to be fixed - after initially being told that the turnaround time for his area is 2 weeks...

So it got me thinking, if you've had a problem with your ADSL not working, and it was a problem you couldn't fix at your end, how many days did you have to wait before it got fixed?

PS: I do realise that it is the festive season, but we customers also pay Telkodemonopolies one heck of a lot for ADSL, and the result is that Sick Puppy Moletsane pockets the money whilst telling lies about "Customer Centricity" :mad:.
 
If there is a problem between pole and exchange it can easily take 5+ days to fix. Idiots!
I suggest you escalate it to the customer services after 24 hours and demand a credit for the days down.
 
BobJones said:
If there is a problem between pole and exchange it can easily take 5+ days to fix. Idiots!
I suggest you escalate it to the customer services after 24 hours and demand a credit for the days down.
Click to expand...
Already escalated, or so says the person I spoke to at 0800375375, definitely a problem at the exchange [DSLAM port card probably scrambled by lightning, or maybe the place is under water], odd bcos I was under the impression that external entities [technicians] were not allowed into the beast's exchanges...:rolleyes:

Mostly, I was just wondering how many days other forumites have had to wait for their ADSL lines to be resurrected...
 
ic said:
Mostly, I was just wondering how many days other forumites have had to wait for their ADSL lines to be resurrected...
Click to expand...

Problem at the exchange or software = 1 day or better usually a couple of hours

Other problems = 5-13 days
 
Too many days

I went down on the 21st Dec have made several calls and waited many minutes and passed from many pillars to many posts to be told - 3 weeks. i.e. I will have been off line for 4 weeks, (that is if the prediction of 3 more weeks holds.)

The thing that surprises me the most is that in this part of the world that is not considered to be a long time, and it would seem they are surprised that I am not eternally grateful that it will be repaired in 3 weeks time.

Considering what my business turns over a week it could be a very expensive with 4 weeks out of work, as I work on line. But then... and I never thought I would say this, thank god I also have I Burst so I can continue to operate. (although I have had seriously bad issues with them before to)

I guess I will also have to now go get 3G to cover the option of Iburst getting a hick up... what century is this again...?
 
This afternoon I persisted with yet another pointless call to 0800375375, for a non-progress update, and I was told that "the turnaround time for your area is 3 weeks"...

Now if only there was a fixed line alternative to crappy Telkodemonopolies and its excuse for an ADSL disservice - I blame the Grim Poisonous Ivyness Creeper the most for this mess :mad:.
 
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Our service hasnt been so bad here in Brits, North West

As a matter of fact, we dont even have a local ADSL technicians in our town. They have to come from Centurion, PTA

There hasnt been alot of problems here... I had a few clients whose lines where down, but they were fixed within 1-2days. Some other problems i had to fix over the telephone line talking to some techies in CPT.

This may sound floggish, but dont barge down on telkom for not giving you support or fixing your line. Rather to an extend, encourage them, and be friendlier, and supportive towards them.

One thing that telkom really needs, is more adsl technicians ! There is nothing wrong with their service.

I mean, if it weren't for telkom, you wouldnt have posted this topic here.

Cheers
 
Have you ever seen how many "technicians" are sent out to a certain site at the same time? It's not telscum that gives you good service, it's the individuals that work for their money, unlike the CEO of the company.

I agree with being friendly and supportive, that makes the tech want to help you. They don't want to be screamed at with every call, so when they do get a friendly caller they are most likely going to be more helpful towards you.

But this also comes down to the individual and not the whole company or call centre.
 
I'm always friendly when speaking to Telkodemonopolies call centre & technician people: it never helps to throw a hissy fit as one would just get dropped to the infinite end of the maintenance queue, still doesn't mean that a 3 week long turnaround time is acceptable, and I will never thank Telkodemonopolies for being the only fixed line network operator in SA...
 
IC I am in Northriding which is just around the corner from you and I went down on the 20th.
After numerous calls to the 0800375735 number and after being told by every person I spoke to that my query had been escalated I found out on Wednesday that the problem had not been escalated as promised and in fact the problem was "suspended" due to the high amount of faults in the area.

I naturally did my nut for the umpteenth time and was promptly disconnected for my language.
Once I had calmed down I tried again and was lucky enough to get through to the ONLY helpful person at the call centre who made sure that a techie was despatched yesterday.

It turns out that the DSLAM had taken a direct lightning strike and the manhole in which my cable joint was made was about a metre under water.
After a 2 hour struggle we managed to find a pair of cables that had the strongest signal and used them.

The techie also told me that at 13:30 yesterday there were over 450 faults in the Olivedale/Northriding/Northgate/Sharonlea area mostly related to lightning and water damage and the majority of the techies were on leave until January.

Seems your best option is to keep calling until you find that ONE helpful person. (either that or keep playing the lotto as your odds are probably better for getting those 6 numbers :p )
 
SwaziSeedless said:
...
Seems your best option is to keep calling until you find that ONE helpful person. (either that or keep playing the lotto as your odds are probably better for getting those 6 numbers :p )
Click to expand...
LOL, now how did you know that I've been buying lotto tickets? :D

All I can say is that it's damned inconvenient: despite having HSDPA to use, I avoided Skype'ing family & friends on the 25th due to the cost factor [I stupidly thought that a 20MB data bundle would be enough for the end of December, should've opted for a 500MB data bundle], and I haven't been able to use up the rest of my cap on my ADSL ISP account, which I will be cancelling until my ADSL line is working again...

Now if only we had Local Loop Unbundling in SA - that would prevent the most incompetent telecoms company in SA from hogging the local loop and competition on the local loop would force fixing of problems much faster, or Telkodemonopolies would just simply die from the wounds in its feet where it has been repeatedly shooting itself...:rolleyes:

Like I posted before, I blame the Grim Poisonous Ivyness Creeper the most for this mess - she did promise an LLU policy statement and working group, and of course it was nothing more than empty promises yet again...
 
The thing that really irks me the most is the utter lack of concern and commitment shown by the Telkom telephone support staff.

They feed everybody the same crap and cant wait to drop your call and make you somebody else's problem.
Lately I have been making a point of taking down as much of their details as they are prepared to divulge (shoe sizes seem to be where they draw the line)
Good service (even from them) should be praised and bad service should be reported and the bad apples should be fired.

BTW - I was told that a call to the billing dept with details of your fault would result in a credit for the downtime........gonna give that a bash today.
 
SwaziSeedless said:
...
BTW - I was told that a call to the billing dept with details of your fault would result in a credit for the downtime........gonna give that a bash today.
Click to expand...
Yep, just call 10210 and demand an ADSL rental credit for the downtime period...
 
Well it has been 10 days so far without ADSL, and allegedly the ADSL technicians returned to work today [according to 0800375375], but I could have to wait another 3 weeks [probably longer] from today for this exchange fault to be fixed [again what 0800375375 told me]...:rolleyes: :mad: :mad: :mad:
 
ic said:
Yep, just call 10210 and demand an ADSL rental credit for the downtime period...
Click to expand...

When I called 10210 I was told that a credit could be passed only once the ticket was closed...

My DSL has been down for more than three weeks, since 10 December 2006 - came back up last night, but I have zero confidence that it will stay that way. I was able to download holiday greetings from family and friends abroad, but had to use expensive regular phone service (instead of Skype) to call them on Christmas day. Not having DSL is both costly and inconvenient.

I have noted that my DSL was down 5 times in November for periods of anything between a few hours and a day and a half. Telkom is amenable to a pro-rata credit. Questions are:
How much would you pay for a service that is randomly unavailable for days at a time?
Or where the service provider will not commit to a Service Level Agreement?
Or where the service provider cannot provide a backup contingency, e.g wireless (or even dial-up) at no cost to DSL subscriber?
Or where the employees of the service provider actually care about their levels of service?​
 
Potion said:
...
Questions are:
How much would you pay for a service that is randomly unavailable for days at a time?
Or where the service provider will not commit to a Service Level Agreement?
Or where the service provider cannot provide a backup contingency, e.g wireless (or even dial-up) at no cost to DSL subscriber?
Or where the employees of the service provider actually care about their levels of service?​
Click to expand...
Yep, I've also had intermittent ADSL problems since October|November - I put it down to the rainy season in Jhb bcos it usually started working again 2..3 hours after a storm [usually with many yoyoz before & after]. Unfortunately IncompetentCASA isn't interested in enforcing its own ADSL Regulations, which include a provision for an SLA but no fines to keep Telkodemonopolies in line & force compliance...
 
no chance mate

I remember being on a customers roof on Christmas eve at 19:00 fixing an ADSL, so u do get dedicated techs, but the problems are in management and there ever idotic push for new automated job order databases that don't work, you would get multiple dispatches on the same job at times and then other times you would defer a job then it would just disappear, some techs will just defer this for an easier job (not pole feed job) hence your job jumps around the system like a hot potatoe. Before I left, dedicated techs were one by one giving up and just existing and not caring. They want robots. Things could have improved since I left 1 year ago, but I don't think so. Sorry mate, Christmas is a bad time, it depends totally in the area you are in, some areas are more organised then others, some teams are good and others are in-competant. Also copper network, esp pole feeds are bad usually.
 
Mine has been down since the 8th december.....
and it's a business line....
all i hear is blah blah blah from Telkom.
 
ic said:
Yep, I've also had intermittent ADSL problems since October|November - I put it down to the rainy season in Jhb...
Click to expand...
After posting my tale of woe, then calling Telkom accounts (10210) and customer care (0800 600 126), suddenly after almost a month of no action, I overrun by a multitude Telkom techies. It turns out that the Telkom-supplied modem/router had an intermittant problem, probably caused by lightning. I was told to exchange it at the client sevice centre in Randburg. I installed the new one yesterday... I'm back online.
 
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