Massive trouble at Telkom

Bradley Prior

Bradley Prior

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Massive trouble at Telkom

Telkom is planning to cut as many as 3,000 jobs across the company to compensate for poor earnings and its dismal share-price performance in recent months.

Telkom’s share price has been hammered over the last six months, declining from R99.50 on 11 June to under R30 per share on 9 January.
 
Telkom has basically been retrenching customers for the last few years. For every landline (and ADSL) customer that they cut off, how many actually go back to Telkom for a replacement product? Based on these results it would appear that very few do.
 
Trying to convert as many people to fibre and mobile. They giving away free SIM cards with 1GB of data if you Port over to them.
 
DarkDragon said:
Trying to convert as many people to fibre and mobile. They giving away free SIM cards with 1GB of data if you Port over to them.
Click to expand...

The problem is people get treated so badly by Telkom when they have their landline cutoff by Telkom that they end up using other fibre and mobile providers just on principle.
 
Their mobile service isn't bad at all, I've got a contract with Vodacom & Telkom, much prefer Telkom and it's a lot cheaper/much more value for money and their service isn't bad either
 
At least one "SOE" is taking action and not sucking tax payers dry to employ masses of unneeded employees. Imagine where this country would be if SAA, Eskom, etc etc were actually lean and fit for purpose. We would all have far more money in our pockets due to lower taxes and economic growth.

Then you have to ask the question - why is Government hell bent on destroying what is left of Telkom and the telecomms industry in general with their myopic data price obsession, their total lack of any action on Spectrum for a decade, and their targeting of mobile as the only industry that needs to be forced to reduce prices. They don't give two hoots about transport, electricity, water or any other "service" that we are forced to pay for. The prices keep rising, but they don't care.
 
deweyzeph said:
Telkom has basically been retrenching customers for the last few years. For every landline (and ADSL) customer that they cut off, how many actually go back to Telkom for a replacement product? Based on these results it would appear that very few do.
Click to expand...
And that is a management blunder for failing to retain customers yet it is the poor workers who pays the price.
 
The latest strategy from Telkom is to call you and tell you that your copper phone lines are due to be cancelled.
So you ask what other offers are available, and they tell you the offers, so you ask them to send you the sign-up forms. But then you receive nothing... Then at the end of the month you get another phone call to tell you that your copper lines are due to be cancelled... repeat Ad Nauseam....
 
deweyzeph said:
The problem is people get treated so badly by Telkom when they have their landline cutoff by Telkom that they end up using other fibre and mobile providers just on principle.
Click to expand...

Before fibre was in our area I had to cancel my ADSL because of Telkom incompetence. I could not get a techie to fix my line. Was without ADSL for months. I kept opening a ticket and Telkom kept closing it without anyone contacting me or anyone coming to fix the problem. I was so angry. So back then I had to make use of 3G instead of ADSL and I vowed to never make use of Telkom again.

Then my parents retired and moved from one town to another. They had so much trouble cancelling their ADSL that even though they have Openserve fibre available in their area my dad refuses to sign up.

I can just imagine how many people there are like us who were mistreated by Telkom who will never make use of Telkom again.

It's their own doing.
 
thechamp said:
And that is a management blunder for failing to retain customers yet it is the poor workers who pays the price.
Click to expand...
My own experience is that it's the "workers" who are as much to blame as "management" (if there be such a thing these days). Rotten service, arrogant couldn't-care-less attitude, lack of follow-up, widespread incompetence, and so on. Staatsdiens mentality infects all levels.

(Of course there still are a few good people at Telkom. They do all the work and carry the rest.)
 
LazyLion said:
The latest strategy from Telkom is to call you and tell you that your copper phone lines are due to be cancelled.
So you ask what other offers are available, and they tell you the offers, so you ask them to send you the sign-up forms. But then you receive nothing... Then at the end of the month you get another phone call to tell you that your copper lines are due to be cancelled... repeat Ad Nauseam....
Click to expand...
It happened to me. Then I was cut off and they delivered a unit in a box. It did not work. I was told to take it in. I did .the staff in the shop could not help. I binned it
 
Arthur said:
My own experience is that it's the "workers" who are as much to blame as "management" (if there be such a thing these days). Rotten service, arrogant couldn't-care-less attitude, lack of follow-up, widespread incompetence, and so on. Staatsdiens mentality infects all levels.

(Of course there still are a few good people at Telkom. They do all the work and carry the rest.)
Click to expand...
Fair point, however it is always the workers who bears the brunt of the actions, it's a win win either way for management.
 
thechamp said:
Fair point, however it is always the workers who bears the brunt of the actions, it's a win win either way for management.
Click to expand...
The "fixed line" legacy workers appear to be most affected. Is it not partly their fault for refusing to upskills or in any way try to prepare themselved for the future? You can't stone wall and insist you are a horse rider when everyone else is driving this new thing called an automobile.
 
DarkDragon said:
Trying to convert as many people to fibre and mobile. They giving away free SIM cards with 1GB of data if you Port over to them.
Click to expand...
I am afraid that their "conversion" has not been very enthusiastically adopted by themselves! I had a visit from a Telkom representative earlier this week and he wanted to discuss fibre connectivity with me. The only problem I had with this was that I am already a fibre user and have been for over a year now. I advised him thast he had completely missed the boat as I had already had fibre installed and it was not with Telkom.
Had Telkom started converting their ADSL clients to fibre at least 18 months ago, they may not have been in the position they are in today!
 
Gaz{M} said:
The "fixed line" legacy workers appear to be most affected. Is it not partly their fault for refusing to upskills or in any way try to prepare themselved for the future? You can't stone wall and insist you are a horse rider when everyone else is driving this new thing called an automobile.
Click to expand...
Not sure if you're blaming the workers or telkom? Can't blame the workers for not upskilling, that's the businesses responsibility imo.
 
theratman said:
Not sure if you're blaming the workers or telkom? Can't blame the workers for not upskilling, that's the businesses responsibility imo.
Click to expand...

It's blame on both sides, but I can tell you from second hand experience that many workers refuse to deviate from their contracts and the unions stone wall when companies try to change worker mandates mid-contract, in order to adapt to changing conditions in the industry.
 
thechamp said:
Fair point, however it is always the workers who bears the brunt of the actions, it's a win win either way for management.
Click to expand...
Even more so when you consider that management in these sorts of situations often protects its own, leading to more
"do-ers" being retrenched.

This is precisely why I take the more cautious approach to Eskom's staff numbers. Everyone seems to be claiming their staff numbers are inflated (which they are of course), but should they commit to reduce by say 10 000...who can guarantee that only the "dead wood" would be affected?
 
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