Telkom Reply: Your feedback needed

lucifir said:
I understand what u r saying rpm, but a meeting can't really hurt?
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But going ahead with the meeting would mean having to accept Telkom's attitude in this latest reply.

I think the way to handle the situation is to reply telling them that you think the way they have replied is not the way to start a good relationship. Explain to them the reasons you are bringing up the past and why you think that a meeting would be a waste of time if they were not to stipulate whether or not they are commited to making changes.

And then hopefully they will respond in a fairer manner.

Maybe even consider sending your reply to Papi and not directly to this guy who sent the reply. Then let Papi show him your reply. Remember, Papi seems to be your best link to Telkom, maybe he'll be able to deliver the message to this guy better.

EDIT: Remember that they could be reading these comments, so they know your approach.
 
@rpm,

Dont get angry or annoyed, I think they want you to get pissed off and abort the whole argument. My suggestion is to use Child Psycology and swap the argument around. Use other angles to get the message across.
e.g. "Why ADSL is overpriced?" can be changed to "Why are you penalising the SA public with these high charges" and "Dont you trust the Netizens of South Africa to be resopnsible enough to limit their own downloading?" also "Please can I have a meeting to discuss the issues" can be re-phrased as "Please help me sort out the issues" and if they still say NO, then add a "Am I not a good loyal customer of Telkom? Dont you want to help?"

Maybe?
Richard
 
Propose a date-time and an agenda.

/me wonders where the win/win is.
We can help teklom improve their image.
Teklom can produce products that their customers need.
Na - that's way too shallow - there has to be a real win/win somewhere.
 
I'd say that approaching the media at this point would be counter-productive. At the moment we have VERY strong feelings that Telkom are going to end up speaking buckets of hot air to rpm and wasting his day. But we have no proof.

EchoDown is right that the response seems specifically created to elicit an angry response from rpm/MyADSL. Telkom might interpret a media scandal before a meeting as a "deal-breaker" and use this as an excuse to shut off relationships with MyADSL.

I'd say reply like so:

Clearly a misunderstanding has been reached somewhere along the line here. We are also very keen to see the MyADSL relationship with Telkom prosper. Would a meeting date of [insert date here] and time [insert time here] be to your liking?

Please find attached an agenda detailing aspects of the ADSL billing structure which I think it would be beneficial to discuss. Please make amendments as you see fit and communicate them to me.

Yours faithfully,

This leaves them very little wriggle room as they have a proposed date (which they asked for) and an agenda (copied to Papi&Lulu).

If the meeting is bloody useless (which it probably would be), inform them that you intend to approach the press.
Etc etc etc
 
And one more thing - I think you should be reply to them as soon as possible. The quicker you act the more you appear dedicated to getting the mess sorted out.
 
As far as I am concerned, that should close the loop for discussions with Telkom. I would forward the letter to Papi and there after your well-worded letter and the wonderful response you got to every newspaper in the country and also see whether you can publish it on the various stock exchanges where Telkom is listed. I would further send it to Ivy and her deputy. Then we should investigate what the next step should be. I have started a campaign of writing letters to newspapers(One of which was published in Nova yesterday) and I believe that the ground swell of anti Telkom support is now taking off. I firmly believe that in the not too long future they will be reduced to the imbecils which they really are. France, a very modern Western European country is at this moment feeling the tension caused by ignoring the wishes of common people too much. I believe that the next campaign should be for the distribution of exesive profits to the SNO. That would be a very viable way to ensure that the SNO can in fact compete with Telkom.
 
Iam not aware of any promises made to you on this matter that have not been delivered by Telkom. We have in fact done all we can to accommodate you in good faith.
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I think these lines are the reason for their current response. They will never commit to anything other than ripping the public off. With these kinds of vage (spelling?) responses and clear unwillingness to commit to anything they can go to the media, anouncing that they are indeed engaging in talks and discussions with the consumers/groups. This kind of tactic can go on endlessly without any results. It would appear that this would be the reason why this guy was employed, to keep the weel turning and hopefull;y nobody notices that it is flat.

Telkom is a waste of time!
 
rpm said:
Hi folks

My concern with a meeting without any commitment from their side is that I will hear the same old dribble all over again.

Why don’t they want to commit? Do they have any plans to change their product? And if they don’t want to change their product to suit customers, why are we meeting with them?
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Frankly I do not think they have any plan to do anything which will benefit the customer at their expense.

If they wanted to do something they could easily have done so, but have you seen ANYTHING in their actions, at ANY time, which proactively puts the customer first?
 
RPM, here's a thought: why not schedule the same meeting with "The SNO" - or as close as we can get. Let's try engage them and set expectations before they even launch.

With that in hand you can go back to Telkom and hopefully scare them a bit.
 
please remember to not use big words in your emails, i think that is what got to them in the first place. we need to talk to them like we do to children so they can understand. Words like "ascertain" and "commitment" and "beneficial relationship" is probably what got Wally to forward this email to someone who has less of an understanding of the language and then replied based on the poor grasp they had of what you were saying in the first place.
 
doobiwan said:
RPM, here's a thought: why not schedule the same meeting with "The SNO" - or as close as we can get. Let's try engage them and set expectations before they even launch.

With that in hand you can go back to Telkom and hopefully scare them a bit.
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Great idea, and we should then make it public that the SNO truely has a committed team of experts and has set the standard high etc (if thats the case)
 
Some folks comments here have a very valid point, if you dont setup a date they will use it against you forever, double paged ads in the newspapers, lol.

Best goto a meeting with them, but with the clear intent of getting straight answers. If the meeting is fruitless then thats where it should end, I still believe the DoC is the only place to go, and take a reporter with you.
 
Am I reading this email story wrong ?

/story time begin

I am a large wealthy window cleaning company.

I send you an email indicating my willingness to get together to discuss aspects of my business.

You send me an email requesting that I decide how I am going to make cleaning windows cheaper, because, the last time we spoke, I would not tell you how I am going to make cleaning windows cheaper. Now you want assurances from me that we will in fact make cleaning windows cheaper before we get together to discuss the details.

I send you a letter back indicating that [in between the lines] I am a professional and am hurt by your underhanded accusation concerning my intentions with said potential meeting. But - I will not even begin to entertain the question of making cleaning windows cheaper, but, I request that you schedule the meeting and - by the way - i'm really busy next week.

/story time end

Am I off the mark ?
 
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I think it is a PR scam as in future in all papers and communications they will refer that they are in full engagement with ADSL and they understand the TELKOM situation. Leave it open for any impreassion. Like Lulu said the changes is what the market wanted.
I suggest, have a meeting, only if papi will be present, and then we can see from this outcome what they waffle about. My hopes are dimm as can be seen from this exitement filled comments from R dahl about the developments Telkom have in store for us the next few years. He made me believe drastic things is to happen soon.
Well the usage option has just kicked in and most [no I fib, all ISP] are blaming Telkom for the hard cap and then we [TI] went and did a shared option based on average so hence the late reply as I have been fielding mails about how we cant do it with a almost no cap service due to mom's a pops not using their full allocation etc etc, so it's been fun while I justify how we will do it until the average gets above 3 Gig that is and then we are just another hard capping ISP.

What a joke so usage billing is here to stay and cap will ramain 3 gig

Also got the update on SHDSL and the new xDSL technologies and what we can do over the true broadband services, so things are very very busy here, did the trail things with MS and their IPTV model and xBox, just so much happening.

So here they admit this is not broadband they have, yet that is what they advertise
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Sorry to get personal, but whoever wrote that reply is an idiot. They very clearly did not bother to read your email - or possibly don't understand english.

I too believe this is yet another stall tactic from Telkom. They have absolutely no interest in doing anything to benefit the customer. Empty promises, over and over.

RPM, make the appointment with them, but I believe you should only deal with Papi, as his henchmen are completely useless. I will stay optimistic that he does want to make positive changes - until he proves me wrong, that is.

I personally think we should declare war on Telkom. Remember David and Goliath? It's not such an impossible task. I believe it was LoneGunman who said that enough "small punches" will start making dents. We need to unite and come up with enough clever stratergies to do some damage.

I am sick and tired of waiting. We've tried the official channels, now lets start hitting below the belt!!
 
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If we pull out now, the story will be "Telkom CEO offers to meet with MyADSL, MyADSL refuses". No-one will care about the reasons and Telkom will bring it up every time MyADSL is mentioned (guaranteed).

If the CEO of a major company asks for a meeting and someone turns him down, that *will* be the focus of any story. You should keep going, if only because you'll eventually reach the point where you can issue a statement saying "We've now met the CEO 20 times and he has given us nothing. So much for consumer centric".
 
hope you've all seen the article on news24.

Looks like things are starting to get interesting...
 
rpm said:
Wally indicated that we want to engage with you specifically on the ADSL billing structure.
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It sounds to me like they already have an idea of what they want to talk to you about. Knowing Telkom it'll more likely be a case of them telling you how it is, not leaving any room open for real discussion.

I'd suggest dangling the carrot (of a meeting) in front of them by re-iterrating the whole "We are committed to building a working, mutually beneficialy, relationship" thing. Give them a time and date, but make it conditional on them providing you with a synopsis of what they want to tell you/discuss, promising that you will do the same.

If they are not willing to provide that, then you can back out of the meeting as it would seem obvious (to me) that they are just planning on performing the usual sing and dance.

If they do provide it, it will hopefully be possible to determine whether there is actually anything potentially of value that you could expect to hear from them. If it looks like it is the same old drivel, you can suggest cancelling the meeting as there is nothing new in what you're seeing from them and don't want to waste either parties' time. If it looks like there may be something interesting, it can help you prepare better for the meeting.

The reason I'm not totally in favour of suggesting the agenda yourself is that there is nothing stopping them from basically doing their own thing once you are there. Also, it gives up your hand (what you want to discuss), without seeing theirs (what they seem to already have in mind), making it more difficult for you to prepare.

Parties in a relationship need to listen to each other and hear each other out. It is not one sided.
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Yes, indeed there are... but we haven't seen anything like that from Telkom yet. There have been meetings and press interviews in the past, but it has usually been a very one sided "feed".
 
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