SAIX link failure causes ADSL problems

[risingtide]

I had an ADSL failure on Saturday morning, Cape Town, Southern Suburbs. Couldn't get on at about 04:00. Around 10:00 I phoned the DSL support line. It took 18 minutes until I could speak to a consultant who confirmed that there was a failure in the exchange and that a number of areas were affected. He gave me a reference number and took down my cell number, including the times they could contact me (no fun getting a SMS at 02:00 while asleep).
2 minutes later I had a confirmation message about the fault having been logged and it refernce number on my cell.
Around 14:00 a technician phoned to tell me that they have checked my line, that it is OK, and that the fault is definitely in the exchange equipment.
Sunday morning ADSL was working again.
Monday morning, a Telkom employee phoned to check whether the fault had been rectified and that everything was OK.

I think that this was pretty good customer interaction. The only thing I could find fault with was having to wait 18 minutes to have the support line answer.

 

[AirWolf]

I had an ADSL failure on Saturday morning, Cape Town, Southern Suburbs. Couldn't get on at about 04:00. Around 10:00 I phoned the DSL support line. It took 18 minutes until I could speak to a consultant who confirmed that there was a failure in the exchange and that a number of areas were affected. He gave me a reference number and took down my cell number, including the times they could contact me (no fun getting a SMS at 02:00 while asleep).
2 minutes later I had a confirmation message about the fault having been logged and it refernce number on my cell.
Around 14:00 a technician phoned to tell me that they have checked my line, that it is OK, and that the fault is definitely in the exchange equipment.
Sunday morning ADSL was working again.
Monday morning, a Telkom employee phoned to check whether the fault had been rectified and that everything was OK.

I think that this was pretty good customer interaction. The only thing I could find fault with was having to wait 18 minutes to have the support line answer.

You are one of the lucky few. Our ADSL line was down a few weeks ago. We have a fax machine on the line as well. The fax line wasn't giving a dial tone but the ADSL was working. We called the Call Centre. It took about 3 attempts to get through because they cut us off while on hold. By that afternoon, the ADSL was down as well. The next day around lunchtime a techie came and checked our lines then went to the exchange and all was sorted.

Following morning, fax line again gives no signal. We call the call centre again. They tell us that our original complaint hasn't been resolved yet because it hasn't been cleared of the system and they are still working on the problem. ADSL goes on/off intermittently throughout the day.

I phone the local ADSL service centre and insist they attend to the problem again. A different techie comes around, fiddles a bit, goes to the exchange and couldn't fix it. Says he'll come back later. A couple of hours later I call the local ADSL service centre to find out what the hell is going on. The guy on the other end said he'll send the original techie to have a look.

The original techie come back and sorts it out.

Total time from orignal complaint to final resolution: 3 days

 

[emmanuel]

The fact that a single International link failure can cause these kinds of problems is not acceptable. There should be decent redundancy on all the links.

Hear, hear!

 

[Gerald_D]

Hi, I am new here.

Because most of my "clients" are outside of SA, my site is based in Connecticut USA (www.mechmate.com). A South African company wanting foreign business is forced to base their sites outside of SA.

But, after that rant, from the news release it appears that SAIX's american server is managed by www.pccw.com Why a Chinese company to run a server in USA?

 

[emmanuel]

What I like about the statement by Telkom is that at least it was forth coming and transparent--we weren't kept in the dark.

 

[rpm]

Official Telkom message

From Telkom:

The Bellville to Ashburn link that failed at 14:00 yesterday was restored at 19:46 last night.

 

[Gerald_D]

Where do I try and fix the problem that I cannot get . . .
http://www.mechmate.com/forums/search.php?do=getdaily&days=1 (same VBulletin as this myadsl forum)
. . . . to work? (504 gateway timeout) this happens with telkominternet and mweb. Everybody overseas tells me it is lightning fast.

 

[Xarog]

I was about to ask.... what is/are the relevant url(s)?

127.0.0.1 google-analytics.com
127.0.0.1 www.google-analytics.com
127.0.0.1 ad.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 www.ad.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com

I'm sure there's others. Those are the ones I've found though.

 

[Xarog]

I loath nitpicks like u who advocate for an ad free internet.

Lemme guess - you have a website, but it's not doing as well as you like?

And I didn't advocate anything.

ADS are what drive the internet. without ads many of the sites that u enjoy today would either not exist or would charge membership fees.

And which sites would those be, hmmm? You sure seem to think you know ALOT about my surfing habits.

I can bet u my bottom dollar that Xarog is one of those commie free source halfwits that think the world is powered by interlect yet the driving force of human advancement actually is COMMERCE.

Someone who can't be bothered to use the English language properly shouldn't be throwing stones at the glass house that is judgements about who is and is not a halfwit.

Apologies if i sound a bit coarse but Xarog kinda hit a nerve.

Try apologising for the stupidity instead. It's by far the more unpleasant of the two offences in your post.

 

[rwenzori]

I loath nitpicks like u who advocate for an ad free internet.
ADS are what drive the internet. without ads many of the sites that u enjoy today would either not exist or would charge membership fees.

I can bet u my bottom dollar that Xarog is one of those commie free source halfwits that think the world is powered by interlect yet the driving force of human advancement actually is COMMERCE

Apologies if i sound a bit coarse but Xarog kinda hit a nerve.

My my - what a lot of codswallop. "Commie free source halfwit"! "Interlect"! Stuff ads. Stuff bad speling.

Freud would probably disagree, as I do, with your claim about "COMMERCE". You sound all young and hungry - try calming down a bit.

 

[catics]

Where can we complain about the service and ask for refunds... I thought there was new ADSL regulations that forces Telkom to provide some kind for guarantee and some kind of refund for downtime.

 

[Conspirator]

Way2go. Accusing a guy with 2000+ posts of being a "commie free source halfwit" in your 4th post is a sure way to win the goodwill of forumites.

 

[graytg]

Would IS local access also be affected?

 

[kilos]

Antowan: It is good; I wish more (supposedly) ZA sites were locally hosted --- nothing annoys me more than when .za sites bug out while trying to load google/adsense ads.

Consider www.iol.co.za using an adserver in DE ?
tracert adserver.adtech.de

My site is hosted in the USA I know