Telkom explains ADSL problems

Liers, Oh let me read the linked page first!
Though so!
 
Quick accurate reliable information about the state of the network would indeed be greatly appreciated.
At least I won't waste time checking my network for problems.
 
Telkom might of fixed one line on friday.. howmany more broke? I also got a phone call from them on friday asking if my problem reported last week Sat had been fixed. Told them it seemed so as the line was up and working again.

I put the phone down.. and my ADSL lost conn.. Its almost as if while they are testing your line, nothing goes wrong, but when they dont its off, Now to open a log again and try not to ever shut it down
 
Kalvaer said:
Telkom might of fixed one line on friday.. howmany more broke? I also got a phone call from them on friday asking if my problem reported last week Sat had been fixed. Told them it seemed so as the line was up and working again.

I put the phone down.. and my ADSL lost conn.. Its almost as if while they are testing your line, nothing goes wrong, but when they dont its off, Now to open a log again and try not to ever shut it down
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i sometimes wonder if i have "contacts" at telkom that i dont know about cause i can truly say i have never had a problem with telkom. all 6 lines i have works 100% pretty much all the time and when they dont telkom fix them very quickly. maby i'm the one.... haha
 
Telkom usually fix mine pretty quickly as well.. (usually 2-4 days) or at least they do now.

But give it a week or so, and its back. Then you have to go through that whole process of reporting it again :(
 
They need to get to a point where the help desk phone is answered quickly. I usually hold on for many minutes, never timed the calls but it could be as much as 10 minutes or more.
 
Why don't they explain the other problems like.. cost/capping/latency/shaping etc.
 
emmanuel said:
They need to get to a point where the help desk phone is answered quickly. I usually hold on for many minutes, never timed the calls but it could be as much as 10 minutes or more.
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10 minutes isn't too bad. I and others, have waited much longer, often to the point where you cannot wait anymore as you are: a.) either at work b.) need to eat c.) have a life and cannot waste it holding on for Telkom all day d.) have just died of a heart attack.
 
Conspiracy

Remeber a while ago when we were complaining about line rental and how it should go. Telkom said it was for mantainance of te line...but back then there werent so many line problems.....
So we kinda stated that to telkom saying "hey, the lines are fine! What needs to be maintained?"
Well now all of a sudden lines and exchanges are breaking every week....ummm due to "sabatage"
Are they really broken?
Could be just a front to shut us up about dropping the line rental or een worse...ask for more "maintainance" fees!:eek:

But then again I could be thinking too much :p
 
I live in Centurion and my ADSL connection is down since then. And though it seems that a lot of people are okay with the service being restored in 3 or 4 days, it really is not good enough for me. It is a tool which both my wife and I are using to make a living, if it is not functioning I lose income, which is quite serious in my opinion.
What really irks me is the fact that I have never ever had my call answered in less than 15 minutes. That being the fastest but 40 minutes is quite normal. That in my opinion is not a service, that is a bloody insult. It just iterates what Telkom thinks about me.
The next thing that really p!sses me of is the attitude that I receive from the individuals receiving my call. The last response, that was 24 hours ago, is that we will send out a technician once we've got one available. Basically, f%&£ you mister customer, Telkom being the only supplier have got you by the short and curlys and we don'r care about your problem.
My call number is 18ATK060506 and has still not been repaired.
I really thought that it was up to ICASA to protect us from issues like these where a monopoly abuses their power and we just have to accept it just because there is no other alternative. ICASA, thanks for nothing!
As.soon as I am able to source a "service"*from another supplier even if I have to pay triple what I am paying now, I will go for it, just as long as it is not Telkom.
By the way those daily 20 minute in the que calls has to be made from my cell as the land line is not working either.
 
hard to say, usually i'd say the cost is justified incl higher speed = higher cost due to you using a greater potion of the link from the exchange(the internet does not exist there ;) )

BUT they shape like hell, cost per gig is high and isp's pay fees for connection etc, ie they getting paid in alot of ways and rental is like a big cherry(which is as big as the cake it appears) on the cake. Besides the fact that dslam is a once off cost and there after only main cost is sabotage etc I mean when was the last time your wires in your house broke just by lying stuck on the ground along the wall ?

Of cause there is cable thieves, lighting etc but this is like banks charging alot at ATM's cause their transit is getting hijacked. Unless they have a guy with a duster dusting teh lines between my house and the exchange.

Guess they will say its to pay for support services like call centre, but only time i've actually used it i put down when hearing the msg that the entire area is died and then why do the fees not go down as fast if since copper line between house and exchange is basically covered in pots rental. Thus the 'maintenance rental' for adsl would be from exchange to network and this would be more a function of how many users are connected at your exchange rather than a fixed amount + cost for speed giving speed.
 
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Seems that Teklom policy is to have the drones lie at the call centre. In the last 2 weeks I have logged 6 faults (would have been 7 but ADSL came up while I was waiting to log it). The drones standard response is ADSL is fine, I can see your link, let me transfer you to the ISP.

Tip from someone at Teklom - keep logging the faults because they will get escalated.

Hav any of you tried calling the accounts department to try and get money back? I waited for over 45 minutes the other day and then logged my claim with their web service - not that anyone ever gets back to you. But I will persist in pursuing my claim.
 
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The truth is that there are dedicated, service-minded individuals working at Telkom. This is the Good.

The problem is that there are too few of them to go around. The rest are fed up working for a lousy company and being paid peanuts while the company rakes in platinum-lined gold nuggets (ie. read fees / charges / line rental -> revenue) from the South African consumer. This is the Bad.

Telkom's attitude towards the consumer (Business / Wholesale / Residential) is one of 'my way OR the highway'. Overall, as an organisation, they simply do not care. Since ordering a new ADSL line on the 20th Feb 2006, I have kept detailed records of all my 18 telephonic correspondances with Telkom (from the 10219 New Services line, to the Non-Voice National Provisioning Helpdesk, to Customer Care line in Pretoria). 2 operators out of the 15 that I've spoken with have given what I consider to be good, decent service. The rest are merely coggs in the big machine called Telkom - belating this excuse, lamenting that reason why-for-not, or even flatly 'nothing can be done, you'll just have to wait' and not even caring about the semblance of providing service. Yes, there have been difficult times for the company and the employees (go-slows, strike action etc), but that doesn't pardon the fact that the one and only time Telkom called me back (despite being told numerous times that Telkom will call me back regarding my query) is when they called to advise that the 'Industrial Action' due to take place will delay my (already) delayed installation another whole month. This is the Ugly.

I'm still waiting for a 'Supervisor' to get back to me from Friday - I'm not holding breath. I won't give names, but this is the true level of service commitment Telkom gives. Some forumites might be lucky to live / work in an area where the 'good' operate. The rest of us have to suffer.

LoL. I just realised that perhaps, the reason for all the delays and problems I'm getting is because I'm clue-up on what service should be and don't play along like a good sheep - so I've been relegated to the bottom of the list in Telkom's books. Without any evidence to the contrary, my personal experience says this may very well be the case.

As for the government / ICASA / Competition Commission / whoever else has the power to protect public interest ... what have they done to resolve issues like these that have plagued us for years?

EDIT : Just for interest, the 10219 number is normally quite quick. Averag time on hold = 5 minutes. The Non-Voice National Provisioning line average waiting time for me is 15 minutes. The Customer Care line used to be 2 minutes, then the strike ended and it shot up to 25 minutes.

Another note about the Customer Care Centre. You call, wait on hold and get through to an operator. You raise a log, get a reference number and call it '24 to 48 hours'. You don't hear from Telkom, so you call back, wait on hold, get through to another operator and are told "Sorry, I can't assist with this reference - your agent is XXXXXX and only he/she can follow-up on the issue". You get transferred, re-enter the waiting queue. This happens each time your call is answered, but is NOT 'your' agent. Last Friday I waited 45 minutes in total from my first call until I finally spoke with 'my' agent. This is Papi's idea of a Customer Service Pillar? I think not :p
 
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Ever tried to call their ADSL helpdesk over weekends? If i had to wait 20 minutes + for any other company I would cancel my business with them immediately. Thanks to DOC, ICASA, etc. I have no choice.
 
VJB 449 said:
Ever tried to call their ADSL helpdesk over weekends? If i had to wait 20 minutes + for any other company I would cancel my business with them immediately. Thanks to DOC, ICASA, etc. I have no choice.
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I've phone at 2:00 am on a saterday Morning, Call got answered at about 3:00 am. I was told they are sorry, but they only had a few people at the call centre that night. Was promised a call back in 10 min.

4:00 am I phoned back, 4:30 got through.. and guess what.. nobody could tell me who logged my call out of the few of them sitting there... Want a job at Telkom.. you need to know how to lie
 
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