New Telkom Scam

[Peter_J]

AFAIK in certain sections of Telkom performance bonuses are affected by by the percentage of faults cleared within stated standard times. So if a fault is not fixed fairly rapidly, someone along the line is going to lose out on some $$$.

The latest plan therefore, once some action has taken place in respect of a fault, is to clear the fault, fixed or not. They seem obliged to call you, the customer, and this used to be to confirm that the fault had been satisfactorily fixed. Now, no matter if the fault still exists, they insist on closing the fault, and tell you to log it again if you are not happy.

I believe this is fraud, but their fraud line tells me that it isn't.

Thank heavens for some good Telkom techs who actually do their best to help! For the rest, public floggings would be too good.

 

[linkinpark]

I've experienced this a number of times as well...
Always knew it was telkom playing dirty, didnt know there were performance bonuses involved...

 

[Debbie]

AFAIK in certain sections of Telkom performance bonuses are affected by by the percentage of faults cleared within stated standard times. So if a fault is not fixed fairly rapidly, someone along the line is going to lose out on some $$$.

The latest plan therefore, once some action has taken place in respect of a fault, is to clear the fault, fixed or not. They seem obliged to call you, the customer, and this used to be to confirm that the fault had been satisfactorily fixed. Now, no matter if the fault still exists, they insist on closing the fault, and tell you to log it again if you are not happy.

I believe this is fraud, but their fraud line tells me that it isn't.

Thank heavens for some good Telkom techs who actually do their best to help! For the rest, public floggings would be too good.

Correct, Telkom bonus and share-gain system is based on things like faults cleared, number of calls resolved, time taken etc. The incentive scheme does encourage this sort of behaviour. I don't know how wide spread it is though.

 

[Peter_J]

Correct, Telkom bonus and share-gain system is based on things like faults cleared, number of calls resolved, time taken etc. The incentive scheme does encourage this sort of behaviour. I don't know how wide spread it is though.

Thanks for confirming that Debbie2.

I finally managed to find someone on their fraud line who could understand why I think this is fraud, and I have logged a fraud case, with a FCC ( Fraud Control Centre ) reference and all!

I also tried to get some assistance from our corporate account manager at Telkom who told me that my complaint just irritated him and he has no time for my "k@k". So much for service.

Now they'll probably drop my line forever out of spite! One can hope though.

 

[O-D-S Daemon]

Thanks for confirming that Debbie2.



I also tried to get some assistance from our corporate account manager at Telkom who told me that my complaint just irritated him and he has no time for my "k@k". So much for service.

I must say, that type of service is definitely not acceptable, does he know that you pay his salary?

 

[BTTB]

Correct, Telkom bonus and share-gain system is based on things like faults cleared, number of calls resolved, time taken etc. The incentive scheme does encourage this sort of behaviour. I don't know how wide spread it is though.

This is alarming, but coming from the incumbent quite understandable.
I can only imagine these policies were employed by The Management of Telkom, but do they understand how it pans out on the ground.
In other words, management sits higher up the pecking order and may not be aware of these actions/inactions taking place.
Telkom gets so much bad press about unresolved issues from the public one would expect Management to sort out these matters, if not simply doing their jobs they are paid for, but striving to make the Company more customer centric, which is one of their stated objectives.

Not that I can tell Telkom what to do, but perhaps they need to revisit these incentive based schemes and refine them a bit.
At the end of the day it is the customer that should be happy not Telkom's Staff pushing buttons to make it look like they are doing something.

Why not have a policy like the place I have my car serviced?
They phone me about a week after my car is serviced to ask if I am happy. Telkom which is essentially a Telephone Company can make as many calls as it wishes without too much expense, could employ similar tactics and have one dedicated team of staff phoning all their "Resolved Fault Customers" to make sure the fault was indeed resolved. Could even do a bit of a survey at the same time.
Nothing new here. Just good manners really, but could go a long way in routing out staff who repeatedly tweak the system.
Suggestion. Use it, don't use it.

 

[Peter_J]

Why not have a policy like the place I have my car serviced?
They phone me about a week after my car is serviced to ask if I am happy. Telkom which is essentially a Telephone Company can make as many calls as it wishes without too much expense, could employ similar tactics and have one dedicated team of staff phoning all their "Resolved Fault Customers" to make sure the fault was indeed resolved. Could even do a bit of a survey at the same time.
Nothing new here. Just good manners really, but could go a long way in routing out staff who repeatedly tweak the system.
Suggestion. Use it, don't use it.

Out of interest, I was called by some research company as part of a routine follow-up ( I assume they call a sample of fault-reporting users ) about a week afterwards. A long questionnaire, about how the fault was handled by the techs and the call-centre when reported, about Telkom in general. Many "scales of 1 to 5" in which I tried to score them minus-10, much to the amusement of the interviewer. I was quite nice about the techs though. Then some general comments about Telkom to which I replied that we would be better off if they took the whole company and drowned them in the Indian Ocean, which was faithfully recorded! I also told them that Telkom were up to a fraud in all this. I did give authority to tell their client ( Telkom ) my name, so maybe revenge is in the offing and I'll have to "go wireless" .

 

[TelkomUseless]

Out of interest, I was called by some research company as part of a routine follow-up ( I assume they call a sample of fault-reporting users ) about a week afterwards. A long questionnaire, about how the fault was handled by the techs and the call-centre when reported, about Telkom in general. Many "scales of 1 to 5" in which I tried to score them minus-10, much to the amusement of the interviewer. I was quite nice about the techs though. Then some general comments about Telkom to which I replied that we would be better off if they took the whole company and drowned them in the Indian Ocean, which was faithfully recorded! I also told them that Telkom were up to a fraud in all this. I did give authority to tell their client ( Telkom ) my name, so maybe revenge is in the offing and I'll have to "go wireless" .

When I got my ADSL line installed, they (research company) phoned me. She asked lots of questions, but I told her Telkom sucked. I wouldn't use them IF we had another landline operator. She was amazed that I was so negative towards telkom.

 

[CyberStorm]

@ TelkomUseless:

Guess she's probably NOT a South African......: