Telkom billing under fire

[Debbie]

http://www.theherald.co.za/herald/news/n06_14092006.htm

TELKOM has come under fire from subscribers for apparently charging for calls to engaged numbers.

Numerous complaints have appeared in The Herald letters column in recent months concerning Telkom‘s charging for unanswered or engaged telephone calls.

Callers are at a loss as to why calls which are never connected incur the same charges as a normal phone call.

Cheryl Gow wrote in to The Herald: “This argument has been going on for as long as two years now. We had this argument with Telkom back then already, and it said it was not charging, that it was a mistake.

Telkom spokesman Ajith Bridgraj said: “Customer perception of being charged for unanswered calls and speculation surrounding short calls resulted a few years ago in Telkom engaging independent audit firm PriceWaterhouse Coopers Incorporated to investigate the integrity and accuracy of the network and billing platforms with regard to short and unanswered calls.

“A short call (say less than five seconds) in most cases is assumed by the caller to be an unanswered call.”

A total of 11 175 calls were made from 27 of the audit firm‘s offices over three months in order to maintain a random methodology.

What they don't tell you is that this audit was done about 8 years ago.

So much more to say on this - mostly, that on the MyADSL forums we have been warning about this problem with the answering service activated unknown to people for over a year.

 

[kaspaas]

What about the accuracy of ADSL bit counting?

I once dared to ask the question and was told bluntly it will be a few million for my account if I dare continue with a demand of audited ADSL traffic usage.

 

[bekdik]

Maybe the ICASA regulations should include something like :

Charging period: The amount of per second time to be charged after the first 5 seconds of completing the call setup.

Frankly if Telkom was charging on a per second basis instead of 3 minutes for completing a call, I wouldn't bother about the odd extra 5 seconds they want to steal.

 

[Turtle]

What about the accuracy of ADSL bit counting?

I'd also like to know, as Telkom's measurements have always looked highly suspect to me, appearing to always be inflated by somewhere between 30% and 100% higher when compared my own measurements and even taking into account TCP/IP packet overhead.

 

[Tommygun]

I think that infinite call subscribers should only pay the max R10(or so) fee for connections withing the call more period if no other calls have been made or recieved during that period. Im bored with getting my line dropped and having to pay and extra 20 or 30 rand/ night/weekend for dropped calls. THere is no reason to charge me agaon if no other calls have been made to or from the phone in question. Show some good faith Telkom!

 

[Prometheus]

First they extort money from you and when that is no longer effective they try to steal it from you. I would like to see them try it with someone on adsl that doesn't even have a phone.

I think that infinite call subscribers should only pay the max R10(or so) fee for connections withing the call more period if no other calls have been made or recieved during that period. Im bored with getting my line dropped and having to pay and extra 20 or 30 rand/ night/weekend for dropped calls. THere is no reason to charge me agaon if no other calls have been made to or from the phone in question. Show some good faith Telkom!

They should be taken to court in a mass cosumer action. They have no right to charge again for the connection if they dropped the call.

 

[bekdik]

@Tommy

Well, firstly you are going to have to prove that Telkom caused the call to be dropped. How are you going to do that?

 

[Tommygun]

@Bekdik

There is no way that one can prove whos modem was at fault. My Modem log always says "Remote modem hung up" however, I do understand cheap modems and line noise all contribute to lost calls but Telkom should admit to the "possibility" that their modems/ terminal servers "could" hang up or the problem "could" lie on their side. I just want them to show customers some good faith if I can show no calls have been made in the interbvening period It is no skin off their nose at all, Im still using the same copper circuit and a modem on their side. There is no point to infinite call at all if I have to reconnect all the time.

 

[bekdik]

@Tommy,

Telkom ain't ever going to admit to possibilities. Hell, they don't even admit to definites! In any case I think they are trying to push people to other options such as closer. I do sympathize though

 

[Prometheus]

@Tommy,

Telkom ain't ever going to admit to possibilities. Hell, they don't even admit to definites! In any case I think they are trying to push people to other options such as closer. I do sympathize though

Telkom should not offer such a service if it can not quarantee that the call won't be dropped or at least not charge again if you dialled the same number again. Who would purposely drop a call just to dial the same number again? I can remember that with the R7 call people used to complain that their line was dropped and showed every call to be R6.89. They have a long record for playing dirty. If only this was America where people sue for a fly in the coffee these practices would not be going on.