Telkom ADSL 'Self Install' now available

ryan411 said:
I have a few questions:
1) What is the charge for converting ISDN2a to analogue/ADSL?
2) Will I be successful in avoiding the R437 ADSL installation charge since I *have* to let the techie in to remove the ISDN box?
3) If they activate the line at the exchange for ADSL before removing the ISDN box will my ISDN and POTS still work as per normal?
Click to expand...

Here's what I would do:

1) Order ADSL and emphatically state SELF-INSTALL.
2) Wait like a dumb ass for a few weeks, if you're lucky someone will phone you saying they have your order in hand and they're on their way. Again, tell the person that phones you it is a self-install.
3) You'll get a call from a technician saying he's hooked you up to a port at the DSLAM and your line is ready. Oh and he will want to come around to your house to test (don't let him). The most you should allow a technician to do is come to your house and let you sign off the order and in the comments section (this is important):

In the comments section write "Self-installation performed, installation costs to be waived".

IF you can somehow confirm the order completion by phone/fax do that.

4) OK so your router's plugged in, it's sync'ing and you're online. Now cancel your ISDN.
5) Technician should come around to fetch the NTU (im assuming there aren't cancellation fees, that would be a bit ludicrous).
6) If you are hooked up to a port at the DSLAM I don't think your ISDN will still work. But I may be wrong, another forum member can advise you on this.

Look, in the end you will still get charged for installation, it seems that Telkom's multi-million rand SAP system cannot compensate for a self-installation, but because you've made that comment on the order form and kept a copy for yourself that is your ammo for having it removed from your bill.

Good luck! :)
 
jacobstone said:
4) OK so your router's plugged in, it's sync'ing and you're online. Now cancel your ISDN.
5) Technician should come around to fetch the NTU (im assuming there aren't cancellation fees, that would be a bit ludicrous).
6) If you are hooked up to a port at the DSLAM I don't think your ISDN will still work. But I may be wrong, another forum member can advise you on this.
Click to expand...

Telkom need to convert your line to an analogue line and connect you to the DSLAM before your modem will synch and you would need to remove the NTU. In Germany when you convert to ISDN they send you the NTU through the post and you plug it it yourself. I am not sure what you do when you cancel I just left it there.

Deutsche Telekom orginally insisted that ADSL only worked with ISDN as it was their intention to convert all lines to ISDN but subsequently offered ADSL on analogue lines. Four years later we still have Telkom saying ADSL only works on analogue lines :confused:
 
i tried to change my order to self install yesterday and the guy said I couldn't get it as a tech needed to come round to install the phone line. What's that all abut? There's already a phone line there. THis is for a house I'm moving to. I had adsl here at my current address so have all the stuff I need. (Te filters, modem etc). Shouldn't I be able to perform a self install?
 
If you choose the self-install option, you save yourself the R404 or R437 ,but dont you have to pay anything to let the techie hook you up a port on the DSLAM or install the line at your exchange ? That SURELY cant be free... ???? :confused:
 
ISDN2a to ADSL conversion continued...

jacobstone said:
Here's what I would do:

1) Order ADSL and emphatically state SELF-INSTALL.
2) Wait like a dumb ass for a few weeks, if you're lucky someone will phone you saying they have your order in hand and they're on their way. Again, tell the person that phones you it is a self-install.
3) You'll get a call from a technician saying he's hooked you up to a port at the DSLAM and your line is ready. Oh and he will want to come around to your house to test (don't let him). The most you should allow a technician to do is come to your house and let you sign off the order and in the comments section (this is important):

In the comments section write "Self-installation performed, installation costs to be waived".

IF you can somehow confirm the order completion by phone/fax do that.

4) OK so your router's plugged in, it's sync'ing and you're online. Now cancel your ISDN.
5) Technician should come around to fetch the NTU (im assuming there aren't cancellation fees, that would be a bit ludicrous).
6) If you are hooked up to a port at the DSLAM I don't think your ISDN will still work. But I may be wrong, another forum member can advise you on this.

Look, in the end you will still get charged for installation, it seems that Telkom's multi-million rand SAP system cannot compensate for a self-installation, but because you've made that comment on the order form and kept a copy for yourself that is your ammo for having it removed from your bill.

Good luck! :)
Click to expand...

Thanks jacobstone, edinetz for the feedback so far.

Re: Points 4+5)
I wonder if I run the risk of being charged for both ISDN and ADSL at the same time? The flipside of this coin is that they disable the ISDN but don’t hook my line up to a DSLAM until much later, hence leaving me with POTS dial-up access only.
I am guessing that when I order ADSL they will tell me that they need to remove the NTU first...

OK, I am probably making things seem more complicated than they are. I will phone them tomorrow afternoon and see what they say. Another thing that causes grief, is that the line is in my father’s name, and every time we want to make a change, they have to get him on the line for his approval! :mad:

AFAIK they will need to send a techie to come into the house and remove the NTU, and charge me R200-300 for that. I know they charged a friend something in that region to remove his NTU, last year sometime :(
 
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jacobstone said:
Edinetz - it's not so much ADSL running over digital or analogue, it's the physical medium. ADSL only runs on copper because it sends voltages down the line. It is a digital signalling system.
Click to expand...

I realised this, my point is Telkom apparently can't get it to work or doesn't want it to work with ISDN. It works fine overseas and they WANT you to self install.
 
ryan411 said:
Hi all,

I currently have ISDN2a. Even if I specify a self-install for my ADSL 384 order, a Telkom techie still has to come out to take away the ISDN box, thereby at least charging me for the call-out as it relates to the ISDN equipment removal. Nevertheless, I will repeatedly specify I want a self-install.
...
I have a few questions:
1) What is the charge for converting ISDN2a to analogue/ADSL?
2) Will I be successful in avoiding the R437 ADSL installation charge since I *have* to let the techie in to remove the ISDN box?
3) If they activate the line at the exchange for ADSL before removing the ISDN box will my ISDN and POTS still work as per normal?
...
Click to expand...
A while back, I had 2 separate ISDN2a lines, 1 Business ISDN2a and 1 Residential ISDN2a, after many struggles I managed to get Telkodemonopolies to downgrade both ISDN2a lines to ordinary analogue, but IIRC I was charged ~R250 for each downgrade.

For the Residential ISDN2a line downgrade, a techie came out to collect the ISDN2a box, and I was charged a downgrade fee equivalent to having a new analogue line installed...:mad:...but the techie did come out to collect the ISDN2a box so I cannot complain too much about that. Incidentally, that line was much later converted to a HomeDSL192kbits/s line, but not at the same time as the ISDN2a downgrade was done.

For the Business ISDN2a line downgrade, I first enabled call forwarding to the Residential [by then] analogue line, and then unplugged the ISDN2a box and took it to a Telkodemonopolies [dis]service centre and got a receipt for it. Anyways I still ended up being charged for the downgrade to analogue, which only happened 2.5 months after requesting the downgrade, and I lodged a billing dispute 11 months ago, which I was eventually assured I would receive a credit for [the downgrade fee since no techie came to collect the ISDN2a box], but I never received the promised credit, and I eventually [for various reasons] cancelled that Business analogue line altogether.

The point I'm trying to make here, is that one way or another, Telkodemonopolies will screw you over and charge you for your ISDN2a downgrade - my experience is that there isn't anything you can do to avoid it.

Another thing I should mention, is that I originally placed my Residential ADSL order in March 2005 [IIRC], and not knowing any better, I stoopidly asked Telkodemonopolies to add IdentiCall onto my [then] analogue line [previously ISDN2a], well imagine my surprise when I discovered that my ADSL order had been cancelled by Telkodemonopolies [person or system - I don't know] - it turns out, that to add any service to a line whilst an order is pending, the pending order has to be cancelled before any other service can be added...:rolleyes: :mad: I had to start all over again with my ADSL order, and eventually I self-installed my ADSL several months later...

My advice, is not to overload Telkodemonopolies with the simple concept of switching the line from ISDN2a to ADSL - it is beyond the mental capacity of the beast and a recipe for disaster. Do the downgrade from ISDN2a to analogue first, and only when that has been completed, place your order for ['up to'] Home|BusinessDSL384kbits/s.

Having said that, would you still prefer to keep your ISDN2a line, if Telkodemonopolies tells you that they are too incompetent to supply you with ADSL in your area...
 
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ISDN to ADSL? - That is the question!

ic said:
My advice, is not to overload Telkodemonopolies with the simple concept of switching the line from ISDN2a to ADSL - it is beyond the mental capacity of the beast and a recipe for disaster. Do the downgrade from ISDN2a to analogue first, and only when that has been completed, place your order for ['up to'] Home|BusinessDSL384kbits/s.

Having said that, would you still prefer to keep your ISDN2a line, if Telkodemonopolies tells you that they are too incompetent to supply you with ADSL in your area...
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice, ic :)
If they can't provide, I'll have to stick to ISDN :(

If I treat them like the imbeciles they are, and wait for them to remove the NTU before ordering my ADSL, I will have to stick it out on dial-up while I wait for ADSL activation. It's not ideal (and something I would like to avoid) with only a single line, but I suppose I can survive if need be. I see R80 for 75 internet hours on the Closer plans is now also an option [150 internet hrs on dialup is a bit useless IMO - it's too much!]

I tried them on 0800375375 just now. I was on hold for a few minutes and not really paying attention to the voice prompts. Eventually I got tired of waiting. I can't really afford to sit around on hold right now... :mad:

Will try again later.
 
Telkom – touch tomorrow – maybe next year! :@

I phoned 0800375375 earlier. Less than a minute after selecting option 1, I was speaking to:

Telkom employee: Eugene
Place: Cape Town, Broadband Center.
Time: 16:25 on 9 Nov 2006 (call lasted until 16:32)

I told him that I would like to order an ADSL self-install, but that we have ISDN currently.

He said that there was a waiting period and the conversion would take 6-8 weeks. [if true, then if I order now the earliest I will get ADSL is 22 December and the latest is 5 January]
Reason he gave: They have to do infrastructure testing, etc…

He said, it’s not guaranteed option for self-install. It depends on the exchange.

They will remove the NTU at the same time as they ‘install’ ADSL.
Installation would be R437.50 total charge (including removal of the NTU).
Then he says that for ISDN to ADSL conversions he is not allowed to specify a self-install [is this an about-face in policy or coming clean as to their intention?]

I asked about Cancelling ADSL
There is no charge for cancelling, but I must give 30 days notice he said.

I asked him to go ahead with the order. I gave him our details, and gave him my dad’s contact details so that he could get him on the line for authorisation.
Eugene put me on hold. After a couple of minutes, the call died.

I will have to call again tomorrow. After speaking to my old man, Eugene did not manage to reach him on his cell.

-------- End of part 1 – to be continued… tomorrow ----------

After hearing how long it could take me to get ADSL (possibly next year after the Dec/Jan holidays), and after Eugene making it sound like I can’t avoid the R437.50 installation charge, I don’t know if I want to continue…

If I do carry on with this order, I may as well give in and pay the R437.50 if it means that they sort things out in one day, on the day that they arrive to remove the NTU and activate ADSL.

I do have friends that have had their lines connected to the DSLAM within 2 to 3 weeks, though that was much earlier this year. They live in Claremont/Rondebosch. I’m in Rondebosch East (a.k.a. Lansdowne :p) not too far away from them. I would say that Eugene telling me 6-8 weeks is to prepare me for the worst case scenario, though I realise that some wait months…
 
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ryan411 said:
...
Telkom employee: Eugene
Place: Cape Town, Broadband Center.
Time: 16:25 on 9 Nov 2006 (call lasted until 16:32)
...
He said, it’s not guaranteed option for self-install. It depends on exchange.
...
Click to expand...
Telkom employee Eugene, is a lier, Eugene is looking for his commission [aka XMas bonus] from that R437.50.
 
so... tell me, is there any reason why I shouldn't be able to ask for a self install? Does teh tech need to come to the premises for anything, or can it be done at the exchange?
 
For the record - I pulled off a successful self-install last month. Basically the technician hooked me up to the DSLAM, phoned me to say I'm hooked up and that he wants to come test the line from my premises, I explained to him that I'm doing a self-install and that I'll hook up my router and filters myself. He was of course clueless about this self-install option existing in this space-time continuum, but eventually accepted and left it at that. Three days later I was at home having lunch and a Telkom technician rocked up at my door saying he was 'here to do the ADSL installation'. It seems that it stil had the status of 'pending' on their system. So again I had to rattle off the whole self-install story to him. This guy seemed a little bit more aware of it. Anyway, ALL I let him do was make a call from my landline to get a reference number from some head office in order for him to close the order as completed. Then I had to sign a white paper and in the comments section, as mentioned earlier, I wrote 'self-installation performed, installation costs to be waived'. He took a copy and I kept a copy.

Needless to say, Telkom still charged me for the installation so I took the white paper to them and they credited the installation costs back to my account.

You dig?
 
Paul C said:
so... tell me, is there any reason why I shouldn't be able to ask for a self install? Does teh tech need to come to the premises for anything, or can it be done at the exchange?
Click to expand...
The only thing that techies have to do, is shove 2 copper wires into a DSLAM port card, and so far these are still at the local loop exchange buildings. All that the customer has to do, is get their previously purchased ADSL modem or router up and running with an ISP account - no Telkodemonopolies sangoma required to perform evil magic """testing""" at a customer's premises for a self-install.
 
Just read a page or two of this thread. :(
I am amazed how complicated Telkom has made it for their customers that they have to resort to all sorts of techniques just get a few wires ported at the Exchange and the billing reflected properly.
One would think that after all these years in business they would be trying to make things easier and not more difficult.
 
Yeah BTTB :( ... and even if or when u just give in to the Telkom agent trying to trick u into giving him commission, they hang up on you so that you have to start the whole process again!

I'll probably phone them tomorrow morning and tell them I want an ADSL self-install or bust! If they can't give me that, then I'll stick with ISDN for now.

ic is right, the simplest is to cancel ISDN first, then after that order ADSL. I just don't wanna risk being left with dialup though, if they tell me that my exchange does not support ADSL!

Btw, is that ever possible that an exchange does not support ADSL?
 
jacobstone said:
ryan411 said:
Btw, is that ever possible that an exchange does not support ADSL?
Click to expand...
An exchange without a DSLAM does not support ADSL.
Click to expand...
Although a common Telkodemonopolies excuse is that ADSL cannot be done in an area bcos there is too much fibre in an exchange...

A pity that the exchanges hog all the fibre bcos the helpdesk people really need a regular supply of laxatives...:rolleyes:
 
the telkom website states that self-install costs about R230 (or something similar)

I'm actually confused how this works. Is it easy to install yourself and thereby save R200 or shoudl i just let them do it.

also can somebody tell me whats the cheapest adsl modem - i dont need a router it's just one computer at home.

so the procedure is i phone and order it asking for self-install and then wait for it to be activated ?? right?
 
abuusamah said:
the telkom website states that self-install costs about R230 (or something similar)

I'm actually confused how this works. Is it easy to install yourself and thereby save R200 or shoudl i just let them do it.

also can somebody tell me whats the cheapest adsl modem - i dont need a router it's just one computer at home.

so the procedure is i phone and order it asking for self-install and then wait for it to be activated ?? right?
Click to expand...
The price difference between ADSL modems and ADSL routers is relatively small [depending on where you buy], I recommend going for an ADSL2+ Router with a decent built-in firewall [SPI].

Call, get the person's name rank & serial number, place the order for ADSL, insisting on a self-install & mention that you are buying your own ADSL router|modem [speak to person's supervisor if they say it's not available in your area or some such XMas-bonus carp - mention that their name will be posted on MyADSL if they refuse to co-operate and Sick Puppy Moletsane will probably be embarrassed by his money-grabbing employee of the month].

PS: if possible, record the call, and inform the call centre agent that he|she is being recorded for quality purposes...
 
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