Telkom improves ADSL service support

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Telkom improves ADSL service support

Owing to the success and positive impact of the Broadband Service Assurance Solution (BSAS) Phase 1, Telkom has decided to make it available to all ISPs and VANS providers, regardless of whether they re-sell ADSL or not. This allows any ADSL Customer to phone and report any Internet - ADSL fault to their ISP.
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Improved service or passed the buck??
 
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Monopolies want everything but cannot do it all, they just tick people off and mess things up, the don't work and never will - that is why world trade has rules of practice, like competition commissions - sadly Telkom cannot see the reality of it all
 
Yeah passing the support buck to the ISP's, nice going Helkom
 
boswald said:
Blah Blah Blah, yeah, whatever :rolleyes:
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Haha, well I have no idea what they is meant to mean but this is really great news for anyone who has to phone 0800375375 or order an ADSL line. My ISP answers the phone immediately and now I finally don't have to hold for an hour and a half just to check my ADSL status when something goes wrong.

It may not exactly be Telkom that is improving the service, but that doesn't matter to us.

Is every going to be completely negative about this like with everyting else? I don't get it, we all complained about Telkom's waiting times and now we don't have to use their support line anymore for ADSL line issues. :confused:
 
I smell a rat... Oh, hi Alphonzo!

Samuels: “Telkom’s objective is to empower all our Internet Service Providers to perform some Service Assurance functions, such as testing on Telkom’s ADSL network. BSAS gives them a view into our network to see confirmed network failures.”
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This is convenient for Telkom, isn't it? Now people can complain about the 1-hour queuing times on the ISP's phone service, instead of waiting in vain for the Telkom ADSL helpdesk to answer your call. And if people go back and read the comments on the original anouncement of this strategy last year, these were exactly the kind of things that we predicted back then. Passing the buck in the name of 'empowerment'... It's laughably and pathetically obvious.

He concluded that Telkom will always endeavour to improve customer service so that customers get value for their money.
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Standard Telkom plug... Who still really believes this? I mean, honestly? The only reason they keep plugging this so often is because people don't, actually, believe this is or will ever be true.

I want off this Telkom Titanic. The end of April approaches. Where's my service, Neotel?

Juice
 
Ekhaatvensters said:
Is every going to be completely negative about this like with everyting else? I don't get it, we all complained about Telkom's waiting times and now we don't have to use their support line anymore for ADSL line issues. :confused:
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The problem, as I see it, is that Telkom has probably already down-scaled their support capabilities in anticipation of farming most of the tedious tasks out to the ISP's. Their service didn't suddenly go for a ball of yarn in January for nothing. And while Telkom is down-scaling, and cutting more costs, and increasing profits, they're not dropping prices. They're still putting CPIX-based increases forward to ICASA. The net effect is that ISP's have to fund this additional burden on their call centers because they actually DO care about their service reputations. So their margins get squeezed even more, because as we know there's a lot more active competition in the internet re-seller space. And with the additional margin squeeze, prices will either have to go up, or people will go out of business. And in the end, YOU, the consumer ends up paying constanly more for something that is constantly decreasing in price the world over. All because of Telkom.
 
not sure about all the negative posts here as I think this could be great news. I use WebAfrica and Axxess as my ISPs and both currently have great support lines. The response time will obviously decrease as people figure they can now use their ISPs as a first line of support instead of 0800 375 375. The fact that they can now log faults on behalf of customers is a great improvement, as I have waited hours on the fault report line and sometimes even from a cellphone. I'm sick of waiting 45 mins to an hour to report a fault which takes literally 2 minutes. I just wonder how long Telkom is going to take to roll out or make the system available to all ISPs and VANs. Could some of the ISPs maybe keep us informed of the progress?
 
Sigh, time to add more moola to the internet account budget; ISP's will surely need to hire more people to man their call centres...
Though, knowing a little about IT support, things will probably run a lot more efficiently if the ISP techs have direct contact with the Telkom techs and only phone them when there is a real problem.

Telkom should offer some sort of compensation to the ISP's for offering them this "service".
 
why would Telkom want to give the ISP's compensation? The think they are doing the ISP's a favor in allowing them to log calls for the clients and letting them check all the stuff that they usually did.

Most probably, they want the ISP's to pay them for this "service"
 
The way I see it, is Telkom sells the ADSL line as well as user accounts wholesale to ISP's hence creating jobs out there. I am sure the profit margins are not great and competition is huge so is it worth the effort?? not to sure. That said, if the fire is to hot, get out.

I now pay another ISP for my line because of past service from Telkom. Why then should I still call Telkom for support. I really hope the ISP's can keep up with the support calls, because I am sure a lot of us will gain a few hours back per month instead of listening to that awefull music.....
 
Well here is one bonus that is going to come from this. Once the ISP's call centers become so busy that you have to start holding for 10 or more minutes, you will at least be listening to some new music :P

I have spent so many hours listening to 0800 375 375's music over the last couple of years that it has brought me very close to suicide a few times.

The change in hold music is welcomed

PS. To all the ISP's out there, try to make your hold music the local radio station or something that is never the same.
 
freematrix said:
Question: But who do you speak to at Telkom about this?
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speak to your account manager...
you will have to fill auth form and that..

the systems is ok..
but right now still limited..

you can report faults and that.. if the customer didn't sign up with yoru one price adsl option.
then you cant recreate their adsl port , nor see and adsl service status and so forth

the stabilisation of ADSL services - u can check the scyning, line noise and that
the re-activation of the Self-Install Option (SIO) - You do not have authorisation to perform this function
access to service status information (Active, Suspended, SIO statuses, etc.) You do not have authorisation to perform this function.
complete service re-creation (or reconfiguration of the service on the DSLAM) - Authorization Exception: The circuitID is not linked to your ISP
 
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It certainly is passing the buck, but still good news for joe public. I'll take dealing with my ISP over telkom anyday.
 
He concluded that Telkom will always endeavour to improve customer service so that customers get value for their money.
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Um, sure :rolleyes:.

I can see that this might help customers of other Internet resellers. Wouldn't have been necessary if all roads didn't lead to Telkom though.
Unfortunately TI is my SP, so I'm still stuck with the looooong waiting times on 0800375375 :(.
 
why u call Telkom

quote

I now pay another ISP for my line because of past service from Telkom. Why then should I still call Telkom for support. I really hope the ISP's can keep up with the support calls, because I am sure a lot of us will gain a few hours back per month instead of listening to that awefull music.....[/QUOTE]

U call Telkom for nothing, ur line is from another ISP???, unnecessary calls jam the 0800375375 lines, that fault report number is for Telkom supplied fixed line DSL link only.
 
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