Neotel is digging up my driveway!!!

Sorry about your driveway man..

But this is some good news if these guys are actually laying a cable somewhere. This would mean that SAT3 exclusivity byTelkom might really be something that is dissapearing?

Or do you guys think Neotel is just putting in some redundancy for Telkom :D
 
The life of one for the life on millions!
 
IdlePhaedrus said:
I live in Melkbosstrand, just around the corner from the SAT3/SAFE landing station, and today Neotel is digging up my driveway! :eek:
...
If the driveway isn't put back exactly the way it was there are going to be some serious issues :mad:
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At least they're doing something!

Which would you prefer :
1. Your driveway to be left in pristine condition and let the rest of South African be raped by Telkom for the next 50 years or
2. have a second operator who might actually provide a better and cheaper telecoms service?
 
Paul_S said:
At least they're doing something!

Which would you prefer :
1. Your driveway to be left in pristine condition and let the rest of South African be raped by Telkom for the next 50 years or
2. have a second operator who might actually provide a better and cheaper telecoms service?
Click to expand...
I think he'd prefer that his driveway was returned to its original condition. That's not hoping for too much is it? :confused:

I dont see why they cant just lay something over the trench when they're not working on it then he could still have access to his driveway.
 
Paul_S said:
At least they're doing something!

Which would you prefer :
1. Your driveway to be left in pristine condition and let the rest of South African be raped by Telkom for the next 50 years or
2. have a second operator who might actually provide a better and cheaper telecoms service?
Click to expand...

I want all of those things and am looking forward to them and one day I hope they will happen, but a bit of consideration would not have gone amiss on their part, and that is the entirety of my issue. I would expect Telkom to be this in-considerate, was hoping the new National Operator would be a bit different. But there you go....
 
I know this doesn't help, but your driveway and side verge is property of the municipality, so it's all very nice you making it look good, but if the municipality gave NeoTel permission to dig up what is essentially their property, then it's just tuff tackies. I know, it's harsh and it sucks.
 
To re-iterate the point, I have no problem with the the municipality (or whoever) rooting up my driveway, so long as they give me due notice and put it back the way it was. I would have thought that was fair.
 
gregmcc said:
I'd sacrifice my driveway, my neighbours driverway and my wife for that!! :D
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My driveway, neighbours driveway and my left testicle :D

Not sure who posted originally...
I highly doubt it's actually Neotel doing the digging but their contractors. Get their details and make sure they return your driveway to a reasonable condition. It's never going to be in the original condition.
 
The municipality is not obligated under any circumstances to repair or fix your driveway. They will only repair or relay bricks if they are the standard bricks that the municipalities use ie for pedestrian paths.

They dug up the entire verge of our house. They took out rose bushes, our sprinkler system, the driveway, the stepping stones we used as a foot path... All of it gone. The response I got from the municipality and the parks department? Sorry for you, it's our property, we can do what we want with it.
 
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Shall we measure the potential service levels of Neotel against the professionalism they display in establishing infrastrucure?

I reckon it would be fair.

There contractors made a real mess of the sidewalks in Lyttelton Centurion, and it took them weeks to finish the job.

This killed all high hopes for Neotel as a perfection service orientated business. Service levels will be on par with Telkom, if not worse.
 
kaspaas said:
Shall we measure the potential service levels of Neotel against the professionalism they display in establishing infrastrucure?

I reckon it would be fair.
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I reckon it wouldn't be fair.
The guys doing the digging are probably just contractors and Neotel are probably scrambling to get the job done as quickly as possible.
Telkom had all the time in the world and tax payer's money to build their network while Neotel have to do everything out of their own pocket in a fraction of the time.

If Neotel's rollout was funded with tax payer's money I'd say we have room to complain but they probably have a tight budget and paying contractors to make everything nice and pretty again isn't likely to be a priority or financially feasible option at the moment.
 
Alchemist said:
They took out rose bushes, our sprinkler system, the driveway, the stepping stones we used as a foot path... All of it gone
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Ouch. We just put in a 15k sprinkler system, so that kinda scary.
 
IdlePhaedrus said:
I live in Melkbosstrand, just around the corner from the SAT3/SAFE landing station, and today Neotel is digging up my driveway! :eek:

A week or so ago I got a letter in my box which read 'Due to the demand for a second telephone operator, we will be excavating in your area. We apologise for the inconvenience during the execution of work.'

That is all very well and fine, but they didn't say they were going to dig up my driveway, not even so much as a 'by your leave'.

As much as I wish them all the luck in the world, this whole thing was very poorly handled, and has left a very bad taste in my mouth :sick:

If the driveway isn't put back exactly the way it was there are going to be some serious issues :mad:
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Stop Whining and tell them you'll pay for repairing the driveway if they run the fiber directly into your home and give you super fast uncapped free internet!
 
Alchemist said:
The municipality is not obligated under any circumstances to repair or fix your driveway.
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I am sure that is the case, but remember that it would seem that this isn't actually the municipality that have contracted for the work to be done, but Neotel (with the municipality's permission).

And while the municipality wouldn't give 2 sh!ts about you complaining, hopefully if a decent job wasn't done returning pavements to their original condition and enough people complained, Noetel would be a little more embarrassed and do something about it... Or not....!?
 
Neotel use sub-contractors, so they can easily turn around and say it's not our fault your driveways is a meter deeper than it used to be.
 
As far as I know they are legally obliged to make it possible for you to access your premises, meaning if they dig up your driveway they have to lay down something for you to drive over so you can get into your own home.

Same thing happened to us, about 3 years back, the municipality dug up everyone in our streets driveways to lay new water pipes for the rapidly expanding area, which meant 5 meter deep by 3 meter wide holes where your driveway used to be, still they placed these metal type things so you can drive over the hole with your car.
 
do you have linkage of what they did? you will at least need that (or at least the photos) for any complaint?
 
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