Telkom is still pathetic

[Milano]

Just an update for anyone who hasn't dealt with them recently.
Telkom is still pathetic.
In a suburban area and I've been waiting 6 days for Telkom to repair a bulk fault on a large percentage of Telkom voice lines in the area.
What is the future of Telkom? Fewer and fewer ppl have fixed lines each year, their response time gets slower each year so more ppl cancel, which leads to even fewer technicians and even slower response times. How long can they keep this up?

 

[Lawnchairman]

Like you I am in a suburban area.I agree I had a fault logged with them for 3 weeks and ADSL went down for a month and spent every day calling 3 to 4 times holding on talking to callcentre agents with no assistance.The techie eventually came out after 2 weeks and said his laptop went if for repairs and being a Friday assured me he would attend to the fault the next day. Not that he needed it my pc would have sufficed.Needless to say it was never done. I used every avenue at my disposal and found the fax and email numbers you have to use to get it escalated to management and it took them another 2 weeks. As technical and patient as I am i figured out it was incompetence on their part and the culture of transferring you to somebody else because they are not adequately trained and just down right lazy. I heard every excuse in the book and used the online site to check fault progress. I used to see the same Telkom van in my neighbourhood in Rivonia at the mall and parked off for long lunch breaks on the road. When the local loop is unbundled is the day people leave Telkom ADSL. Besides pricing lack of service is their forte. I even had to call them to get the fault closed because they could'nt do that. I did not want to get into a billing query which they are also well known for. At the end all they had to do was to reset the line at their end nothing wrong with the ports or d-slam. I had to manage with my 3 G and WiMax which is essential with a Helkom connection. Now I am in another area and it has already taken them a month to transfer the adsl line.

 

[FlatspinZA]

Once my neighbour's phone lines were cut by some building happening down the road. After two days of waiting he got on the phone & demanded to speak to a supervisor. He got a call from some bigwig in CT who gave him two month's free line rental & his line was working the very next day. As consumers we have just come accept the shoddy state of SA customer service - perhaps you need to take a more aggressive stance when dealing with Telskum?

 

[Milano]

Like you I am in a suburban area.I agree I had a fault logged with them for 3 weeks and ADSL went down for a month and spent every day calling 3 to 4 times holding on talking to callcentre agents with no assistance.The techie eventually came out after 2 weeks and said his laptop went if for repairs and being a Friday assured me he would attend to the fault the next day. Not that he needed it my pc would have sufficed.Needless to say it was never done. I used every avenue at my disposal and found the fax and email numbers you have to use to get it escalated to management and it took them another 2 weeks. As technical and patient as I am i figured out it was incompetence on their part and the culture of transferring you to somebody else because they are not adequately trained and just down right lazy. I heard every excuse in the book and used the online site to check fault progress. I used to see the same Telkom van in my neighbourhood in Rivonia at the mall and parked off for long lunch breaks on the road. When the local loop is unbundled is the day people leave Telkom ADSL. Besides pricing lack of service is their forte. I even had to call them to get the fault closed because they could'nt do that. I did not want to get into a billing query which they are also well known for. At the end all they had to do was to reset the line at their end nothing wrong with the ports or d-slam. I had to manage with my 3 G and WiMax which is essential with a Helkom connection. Now I am in another area and it has already taken them a month to transfer the adsl line.

Geez, that is horrific. And on HelloPeter they are listed as a company that "does not respond". I guess that says it all.

Once my neighbour's phone lines were cut by some building happening down the road. After two days of waiting he got on the phone & demanded to speak to a supervisor. He got a call from some bigwig in CT who gave him two month's free line rental & his line was working the very next day. As consumers we have just come accept the shoddy state of SA customer service - perhaps you need to take a more aggressive stance when dealing with Telskum?

Hehe, okay here I go *prepares DarthVader voice*, will report back

 

[jxharding]

i live right next to a mall, very urban area. It took 70 days since application, and 7 visits to Telkom, before i now have a date for installation of a landline. hundreds of excuses; no signal, cable problem, not economically viable...
no wonder the amount of fixed lines are decreasing, because of bad service

 

[jacksback]

Go wireless if you can. I have internet and phone through Amobia and couldn't be happier.

AND a big NO, I don't work for Amobia, just want more people to leave the Telskum Devil!

 

[Milano]

Oh well. The supervisor says the cable was cut +- 4m underground. If it is a 150-to-x cable then repair may take around 3 weeks. If it is a 1500-to-x cable then repair may take around 3 months as they don't carry stock of those cables because 'they get stolen'. Not sure how this became my problem I can port the numbers elsewhere - will take 10 to 15 days to port to Neotel. Aaargh :/

 

[dread]

I got tired of the usual month down time with telkom when there are problems on the lines or cables stolen - having to keep paying full monthly rentals, with no rebates once they do get it working again

Now I am happily using cellc getting 4-5Mbps and paying half of what i was for DO broadband 1 !
The sooner you jump that sinking ship - the sooner you can save your pocket !