Telkom Helpdesk... AGAIN

[Kalvaer]

I just want to know if anyone can please explain the following to me when phoning telkoms helpdesk.

1) Why must I confirm my phone number, or type it in? When the "person" answering the phone, cant access this information. (Other than to cost me more money when having to phone on a cell because the line is DEAD)

2) Why do they need to know what modem I am using?
Seriously WTF does it have to do with anything. If it is that important, cant they set up a database where the "person" types it in. It would seem much more professional if the person asks me if I am still using XYZ instead of asking stupid questions that mean nothing.

 

[PsyWulf]

1) oh it's recorded,just not accessible by the helpdesk queue system
2) Standard troubleshooting instructions and diagnostics based on the LEDs that strangely enough differ from modem to modem,who'd have thought...

 

[Kalvaer]

1) oh it's recorded,just not accessible by the helpdesk queue system
2) Standard troubleshooting instructions and diagnostics based on the LEDs that strangely enough differ from modem to modem,who'd have thought...

1) So whats the point other than to waste money.
2) That I would agree with.. if the person on the otherside even knew the difference between a modem and a router, since they dont, Its a waste of time. The very next question on the list is always, "Is the light flashing on the modem"

If it was you say.. then it should be, "please hold while I check up on your modem, Is the second light on the left hand side flashing" The question.. is BS and waste! I told them last night I was using a tiddlewinks 14k modem and was told thank you very much

 

[PsyWulf]

1) Dunno,lots of options there on what can be done with it,it's a new feature,give them time to implement whatever they are planning with it.
I'd rather know the phone system can handle the input succesfully then implement the retrieval,than build the retrieval system and then hope the phone system can handle the input. Limited staff means fully tested single-phase rollouts would be hard and tricky if something goes wrong
2) 95% of adsl problems could be solved by hamsters,95% of call-centre staff are hamsters.

Generally if you can prove very quickly at the start of the call you know what you're doing and what the line problem is they'll put you through to 2nd Line support where the more knowledgeable college-hamsters tread. 1st line is more a filter to get rid of people who have a power outage then wonder why the router isn't turning on

 

[Kalvaer]

1) Granted.. but its been there for what.. 6 months.. Who ever their rollout manager is should be fired!

2) I'm not saying I am an expert, but I have NEVER in 5 years been put through to 2nd line support without having to fight. I am also assuming here that I more than likely know a hell of alot more than the hamsters on the support line.

Another question. If somebody phones you, gives your their number, address and modem before you can even say hello, and then asks you to please attempt to reset the port at the exchange.. doesn't that mean the know a tiny bit. So when I got the "Are your lights flashing".. I lost it!

Phoned in this morning to get told that they are still testing the line. There is nothing to Test, the phone line is dead. Either reset the port, or find out which tech has pulled the plug to test another clients adsl and removed mine for the 5th time in 6 months, and fire him!

PS: The only time I get any joy to be honest.. is if I phone one of the senior techs at PTA who had helped me before with this problem. But I also feel like an idiot having to phone him and ask him to please tell his staff to wake up every time. They know exactly whats wrong with my line, and if they just kept proper database records, they would save themselves thousands a month

 

[Kalvaer]

Oh and if a tech comes to my house again and tells me that my neighbours electric fence (2m below the cable) is causing my line to drop... I am going to kick him in the head when he bends down to grab his tone tester to find my port at the exchange.

 

[PsyWulf]

Another question. If somebody phones you, gives your their number, address and modem before you can even say hello, and then asks you to please attempt to reset the port at the exchange.. doesn't that mean the know a tiny bit. So when I got the "Are your lights flashing".. I lost it!

Could be they heard that from somebody else and are asking for a reset before knowing.

If a problem like this is recorded and they don't follow the specific steps in their guidelines and it is a serious problem in reality,the call would be bumped back because of insufficient troubleshooting being done.
This means you'd wait 2-3 extra days for an issue that could've been resolved with 10minutes of confirming what you know already

They answer,you say the following - i plugged 2 phones into the line,removed the POTS filter and any Surge protectors/UPS',the voice section is giving a dial tone/static/dead,the adsl router is synchronizing/not synchronizing,LCP is up/down,tested a 2nd router with same results.VPI is set to 8,VCI is set to 35. Router is plugged into the line and turned on so you can test the loopback connection.

Usually at this step they put you through

Don't just follow those steps arbitrarily though,actually do it and see and if there is an actual problem then yes

 

[Kalvaer]

Don't just follow those steps arbitrarily though,actually do it and see and if there is an actual problem then yes

I was a PC tech for 10 years... With the **** that telkom gives me. They are the last resort and I will only phone them after at least 2 hours of the line being down. Which is usually after checking the SNR and ATT settings on the router, switching the filters with new ones, switching the phone and ADSL just in case, and actually going outside to see if the cable has pulled out of the box on their pole... AGAIN. (I actually never even had a phone at all until they told me my ADSL wont work without a phone??? Not sure about that, but did it anyway)

This problem I currently have was opened on the 12th of Jan. Closed on the 15th of Jan after never seeing a tech, or getting a single call back. Reopened on the 16th, Closed again on the 25th.

Reopened again on the 2nd of Feb (the line worked inbetween then) Closed on the 9th when a Tech suppossedly came to the house while my wife was there all day???? The line came up again so I ignored it until yesterday when it went completely dead again, phone line and ADSL.

Seriously, if they had a decent database system then would be able to know right away what is going on.

Whats also BS btw, is that somebody can close a fault.. without leaving their name, At least when ever I phone to ask who closed the fault, they can never help me. Second is that somebody can just close a fault, but to reopen it, they cant just copy the data from the previous fault.. they have to reopen a new fault, and I have to explain everything.... BS Only reason I can see for this is that it looks like they are doing their jobs so telkom HO can do a press release saying.. all calls answered in 5 min and fixed in 5 days

 

[Lycanthrope]

Whats also BS btw, is that somebody can close a fault.. without leaving their name, At least when ever I phone to ask who closed the fault, they can never help me. Second is that somebody can just close a fault, but to reopen it, they cant just copy the data from the previous fault.. they have to reopen a new fault, and I have to explain everything.... BS Only reason I can see for this is that it looks like they are doing their jobs so telkom HO can do a press release saying.. all calls answered in 5 min and fixed in 5 days

What grates my tits is that each time they "close a fault" at Telkom it's +1 to the "fault resolution" statistic. Which is bull.

 

[Kalvaer]

What grates my tits is that each time they "close a fault" at Telkom it's +1 to the "fault resolution" statistic. Which is bull.

Correct! and its that BS that they spread with their press releases.

But looks like I'm spending another weekend without ADSL at home, which means I wont see my wife all weekend, as she will have to go into UJ to work

 

[Kalvaer]

Well just an update. Technician arrived this morning to check up on my line. Seems somebody had pulled my line out of the box and put somebody else's in there. The Tech actually took photo's with his Cell and showed me.

He was a really nice guy and really helpful. I explained the situation to him and he gave me his personal number to call him next time it happens as he says its idiot tech's out there that are giving all of them a bad name.

Oh and he also mentioned how he knows that helpdesk staff close faults to push up statistics.

 

[Lycanthrope]

I wonder if it's a technician and not someone "phreaking" the line? If it is a technician then that's just disgusting.

Glad you had such a helpful one - there are so few of them, but when you get them, they're awesome.

Congrats, Kalvaer

 

[PsyWulf]

Have you seen those Racks at the exchanges? Eeeekworthy

 

[Kalvaer]

I wonder if it's a technician and not someone "phreaking" the line? If it is a technician then that's just disgusting.

Glad you had such a helpful one - there are so few of them, but when you get them, they're awesome.

Some times both. He told me how in Germinston they caught a technician helping out a group of nigerians by hooking them up with phones lines to phone nigeria in the evening and showed them all how to do it.

I'll be checking my itemised billing though this month to make sure no phone calls were made while the line was off.

I also asked him what could be done about the cable that is broken.. He laughed and said that unless somebody stole the cable, Telkom wouldn't replace it

 

[Kalvaer]

Have you seen those Racks at the exchanges? Eeeekworthy

This wasn't even at the exchange. He battled quite a bit at first because the data the call centre had given him for the E side and V side was incorrect. My cable had been pulled out at one of the street boxes. You can clearly see how my line was just pulled out and hanging loose.

I was told that he saw other techs do the same thing to other lines on saturday so wasn't surprised to see it happen. Basically he said they pull one guys line to fix another. He said that they are being forced to fix a min of 5 lines a day, regardless of what is wrong. So the guys are just screwing up other customers to get their quota in and keep their jobs

 

[Sackboy]

I just want to know if anyone can please explain the following to me when phoning telkoms helpdesk.

1) Why must I confirm my phone number, or type it in? When the "person" answering the phone, cant access this information. (Other than to cost me more money when having to phone on a cell because the line is DEAD)

2) Why do they need to know what modem I am using?
Seriously WTF does it have to do with anything. If it is that important, cant they set up a database where the "person" types it in. It would seem much more professional if the person asks me if I am still using XYZ instead of asking stupid questions that mean nothing.

Firstly ALL the the networks ask these questions, in case you're calling from a different line.

Telkom provided their own modems and only officially support these. This enables them to read from a short script to identify setup problems. If you mention a Netgear, then they will not continue support for your hardware.

 

[Lycanthrope]

I also asked him what could be done about the cable that is broken.. He laughed and said that unless somebody stole the cable, Telkom wouldn't replace it

Aha! And there's your plan of action to get your cable replaced!

All-in-all, that's pathetic though :/

 

[PsyWulf]

Hectic

 

[Sackboy]

What grates my tits is that each time they "close a fault" at Telkom it's +1 to the "fault resolution" statistic. Which is bull.

This seems to be common practice amongst all the networks. Even a bank did this for one of my complaints, even without coming back to me to check if all was well.

 

[Kalvaer]

Firstly ALL the the networks ask these questions, in case you're calling from a different line.

Telkom provided their own modems and only officially support these. This enables them to read from a short script to identify setup problems. If you mention a Netgear, then they will not continue support for your hardware.

I've told them Marconi, and Billion before and its made no difference to the line of questioning.

Have you actually tried phoning the telkom adsl line? If you phone from a land line, an automated voice asks you to confirm if this is the line with the problem. If not it askes you to key in the correct 10 digit number. Phoning from a Cell phone always asks to key in the 10 digit number. When you are finally connected through to a help desk "consultant" They ask you for the number again. So my problem with the system is that is a waste of time and money.. At least right now it is

Oh and Lycanthrope.. I was seriously thinking of doing that LOL.. But I think if they get a call out tomorrow to say the line has been stolen.. I'd be the first one on their hitlist. I might try putting up a massive metal rod on the pole during the next lightning storm though