SMME Services

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Glipsie

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Any SMME's out there using Neotel's products? What is on offer?
I tried giving them a call, but got shoved from one person to the next. Gave up after the fourth redirect (not really that impressed with the call center)
 
Glipsie said:
Any SMME's out there using Neotel's products? What is on offer?
I tried giving them a call, but got shoved from one person to the next. Gave up after the fourth redirect (not really that impressed with the call center)
Click to expand...

Had the same response whilst trying to inquire about services for my business. I am in their coverage area, that much i know. But after getting shoved from pillar to post and having being promised repeatedly that someone will call me back, I gave up on NeoTel.
 
They seem to be of the opinion that their current range of products are not suitable for SMMEs. I really think its my call as to what product I wish to purchase for my company and whether it fits my needs. Some of their current products would - for example - be quite suitable for a one-man business but maybe thats too small to be considered SMME :p
 
Well it looks like they are differentiating themselves on service...by having worse service than Telkom! You should be able to buy any of their products and use it in a business.
 
They are not offering products to SMME, despite this from their web page:

Neotel provides a portfolio of services to the wholesale, enterprise and consumer markets.
Click to expand...

Sigh.
 
Glipsie said:
I sent off an email earlier today to [email protected], we'll see if they respond ...
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Day 3, no email reply. I'm wondering if I should stop at head office (just around the corner from my office). Think I'll get some service then? At least Telkom sales department answers the phone ... :rolleyes:

@Moederloos: When I did manage to talk to someone he said something about CBO (consumer business offering???), I was then sent on my phone loop through the company that made me eventually hang up. This of course could be their consumer offerings, however I did mention that I needed a PABX
 
I Think they are slightly worried about SMME Provisioning
Coz there is no CDMA "Switchboard" so to speak, unless you run a Normal PABX on CDMA "Premicells" (Not sure if they exist)

Who in their right mind would run a wireless PABX anyways? I find the idea some what suspect.

With Enterprise its different, they just pull Fibre into your place and give you a SIP Trunk or ISDN PRI.
I consider my Company to be a Medium Enterprise. and I am having a Meeting with the Key Accounts Holder next week.
Perhaps your Account wouldn't warrant them running fibre... they COULD phone and say, sorry there is nothing on offer for you at the moment, but lets face it, you WOULD bitch and moan and demand to speak to a manager. so my guess is they just dnt bother.

And if you phone the right number to BEGIN with, (Consumer, Enterprise, SMME) they don't have to transfer you around.

perhaps i'm lucky... but i was never lucky with Telkom.
 
Jordan_Za said:
I Think they are slightly worried about SMME Provisioning
Coz there is no CDMA "Switchboard" so to speak, unless you run a Normal PABX on CDMA "Premicells" (Not sure if they exist)

Who in their right mind would run a wireless PABX anyways? I find the idea some what suspect.

With Enterprise its different, they just pull Fibre into your place and give you a SIP Trunk or ISDN PRI.
I consider my Company to be a Medium Enterprise. and I am having a Meeting with the Key Accounts Holder next week.
Perhaps your Account wouldn't warrant them running fibre... they COULD phone and say, sorry there is nothing on offer for you at the moment, but lets face it, you WOULD bitch and moan and demand to speak to a manager. so my guess is they just dnt bother.

And if you phone the right number to BEGIN with, (Consumer, Enterprise, SMME) they don't have to transfer you around.

perhaps i'm lucky... but i was never lucky with Telkom.
Click to expand...

On the contrary, I would be quite happy with a "We cannot service you at this time, phone back in x months" answer. As of this moment I have not received even a read receipt from Neotel. Its probably just sitting in an unread maildir.

Can't say I would've been too interested in a wireless PABX option. We run our own Asterisk PABX, so we are quite capable of connecting to a SIP trunk. I doubt they would be interested in running fibre to us, even though we are a stones throw away from Verizon (which I'm sure has fibre running directly to them). Hell, if the cost was under 100k I might've been interested in running the fibre myself (seriously doubt it would be).

My issue currently is that I cannot get any information out of them. They have flat out ignored me, which currently puts them lower than Telkom in my books (telkom seem to respond to me, even fix my lines in a semi timorous manner)

However, let me know what they offer you, I may still be interested.

By the way, which number did you phone? Their contact us lists only the number I phoned (+27 11 585 0000 (apart from the tollfree consumer number))
 
Glipsie said:
On the contrary, I would be quite happy with a "We cannot service you at this time, phone back in x months" answer. As of this moment I have not received even a read receipt from Neotel. Its probably just sitting in an unread maildir.

Can't say I would've been too interested in a wireless PABX option. We run our own Asterisk PABX, so we are quite capable of connecting to a SIP trunk. I doubt they would be interested in running fibre to us, even though we are a stones throw away from Verizon (which I'm sure has fibre running directly to them). Hell, if the cost was under 100k I might've been interested in running the fibre myself (seriously doubt it would be).

My issue currently is that I cannot get any information out of them. They have flat out ignored me, which currently puts them lower than Telkom in my books (telkom seem to respond to me, even fix my lines in a semi timorous manner)

<SNIP>
Click to expand...

cost of them running fibre to you is under 40k but....

they want you do do all kind of really stupid things like make sure the place they house the kit has ceilings more that 2.8 meters high....

they take months without giving you feedback on what the holdup is

they don't return phone calls

even telkom gave more information....

(this was for a point to point fiber link - ymmv on telephony)
 
orange said:
cost of them running fibre to you is under 40k but....

they want you do do all kind of really stupid things like make sure the place they house the kit has ceilings more that 2.8 meters high....

they take months without giving you feedback on what the holdup is

they don't return phone calls

even telkom gave more information....

(this was for a point to point fiber link - ymmv on telephony)
Click to expand...

Maybe someone should start a website and call it Neohell.co.za?

:D

B.
 
I don't really think that Neotel cares about anything but the big enterprise market at the moment...

We are going to have to wait a long time for them to care about our market I think.
 
Ok, so after sending a very sarcastic email to someone important at Neotel (sorry, not going to divulge details), I finally got a call from them. I was rather busy at the time, so was impressed that she offered to phone me back at a later stage (and she actually did phone back!).

Basically they have no SMME offerings at the moment (big surprise) and don't have a timeline for such offerings either. I asked about SIP trunking, but was told about number portability so I said I'd phone at some other stage and enquire from the enterprise sales people.

She did however take my details and said I would be kept informed with the latest happenings so will post if and when I receive something.
 
I realise that there have not been any posting on this site for a fair amount of time! But i would like to assure you all that Neotel is now operating 100% in many of SME sites in johannesburg with excellent! They have appointed the Samsung Pbx group to deploy their SME products! Samsung has a limited exclusivity for the SME products as they are the largest private PBX supplier!

Anyone interested in there products my mail me [email protected] and i will put them in contact will a long standing Authorized Samsung Communications centre that can offer them SME Neotel services as well as home users!
 
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