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Senior Member
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2008
- Messages
- 625
As small business owner, communications is the lifeblood of my company.
I opted to use Telkom for all my communication requirements purely because they are "World Class" (please read that as saying it is all that is available in my area).
Being a business customer, I have been treated to the premium Telkom experience. This experience includes:
- Waiting 8 months for my pbx to be installed, along with the additional lines required. This small waiting period cost us many sales as my industry is extremely competitive and being unable to speak to your clientele is like throwing money down the drain.
- When you finally get your pbx, you are treated to various dropped calls and quite frankly, terrible line quality where you can barely hear anyone speaking on the other end of the line.
- Being unable to reach my business account manager for the last 2 years, despite leaving several messages, e-mails and sms. I can honestly not even remember his name.
- Having 20 meg lines available in my area, but my adsl only syncing at 6 mb/s. When I complained about this the Telkom rep threatened to take this away due to "unacceptable levels of service and customer complaining". I stopped complaining immediately just to keep my internet connection. I am still amazed at how this was supposed to sort out my service issues.
- When I applied for my 20 meg line, it took them 2 months to inform me that my premises, despite what was advertised by the all so helpful sales lady who called (and Telkom's own website), does not qualify. My neighbor does qualify though...
- Fibre installed in my street, but only on the other side while the side with all the small businesses get ignored by Telkom...sorry, Openserve.
- Having Fibre listen at your location as "Coming Soon" for over a year, yet no one is able to tell you what the word "SOON" entails.
- Phone and ADSL service being cut off without them even informing the company that they missed one payment. Not even an e-mail or sms to warn you that you are about to lose all connectivity to your customers.
- When your phone line is disconnected, the message asks you to phone the toll free number on your Telkom bill. When you phone said toll free number, you are treated to the same voice message asking you to phone the toll free number on your telephone bill. Counter productivity is a true motto at Telkom.
- When you make payment, forward proof of payment to their escalation department, you get an SMS stating that your phone lines will not be reconnected. As an added level of stellar service, they do not address you as Mr. or even by your first name, they just call you by your last name and even spell that incorrectly.
- Having a call center filled with staff, yet giving them no tools in order to assist their clients other than "we will escalate the matter" and then receiving no feedback whatsoever.
I have come to the conclusion that the best option, if Telkom is your only option, is to go the "Tin Can And String" method of communicating with your customers and suppliers. Internet speeds will be faster, less dropped calls, service levels will be higher and you will have more hair left on your scalp.
Telkom is truly a "World Class" company in that they try to take as much money from you while keeping you as humanly frustrated as possible, while giving you no other recourse than complain on some forum.
I opted to use Telkom for all my communication requirements purely because they are "World Class" (please read that as saying it is all that is available in my area).
Being a business customer, I have been treated to the premium Telkom experience. This experience includes:
- Waiting 8 months for my pbx to be installed, along with the additional lines required. This small waiting period cost us many sales as my industry is extremely competitive and being unable to speak to your clientele is like throwing money down the drain.
- When you finally get your pbx, you are treated to various dropped calls and quite frankly, terrible line quality where you can barely hear anyone speaking on the other end of the line.
- Being unable to reach my business account manager for the last 2 years, despite leaving several messages, e-mails and sms. I can honestly not even remember his name.
- Having 20 meg lines available in my area, but my adsl only syncing at 6 mb/s. When I complained about this the Telkom rep threatened to take this away due to "unacceptable levels of service and customer complaining". I stopped complaining immediately just to keep my internet connection. I am still amazed at how this was supposed to sort out my service issues.
- When I applied for my 20 meg line, it took them 2 months to inform me that my premises, despite what was advertised by the all so helpful sales lady who called (and Telkom's own website), does not qualify. My neighbor does qualify though...
- Fibre installed in my street, but only on the other side while the side with all the small businesses get ignored by Telkom...sorry, Openserve.
- Having Fibre listen at your location as "Coming Soon" for over a year, yet no one is able to tell you what the word "SOON" entails.
- Phone and ADSL service being cut off without them even informing the company that they missed one payment. Not even an e-mail or sms to warn you that you are about to lose all connectivity to your customers.
- When your phone line is disconnected, the message asks you to phone the toll free number on your Telkom bill. When you phone said toll free number, you are treated to the same voice message asking you to phone the toll free number on your telephone bill. Counter productivity is a true motto at Telkom.
- When you make payment, forward proof of payment to their escalation department, you get an SMS stating that your phone lines will not be reconnected. As an added level of stellar service, they do not address you as Mr. or even by your first name, they just call you by your last name and even spell that incorrectly.
- Having a call center filled with staff, yet giving them no tools in order to assist their clients other than "we will escalate the matter" and then receiving no feedback whatsoever.
I have come to the conclusion that the best option, if Telkom is your only option, is to go the "Tin Can And String" method of communicating with your customers and suppliers. Internet speeds will be faster, less dropped calls, service levels will be higher and you will have more hair left on your scalp.
Telkom is truly a "World Class" company in that they try to take as much money from you while keeping you as humanly frustrated as possible, while giving you no other recourse than complain on some forum.
