The Song Remains The Same

[Strobemeister]

I moved house yesterday. Had it all planned down to a tee. Called telkom a full month and a half to transfer my lines: 1 normal business line, 1 private isdn line. Got great service, everything sorted, was told no spare lines on the box in my new street, but since i called them so far in advance, there would b no prob. Perfect. Alarm bells should have started ringing when i was told that 2 techies would have to come out to install the new lines as 1 was private and 1 was business, lol.
So yesterday 1 tech arrives at my new address, and 1 tech arrives at the misspelt address on the other side of town. It didnt' even matter, as spare lines had not been added to the box down the street. When will this be sorted out? "We don't know" came the inevitable reply.
The techie explained to me that this sort of issue would normally be sorted out in the space of a day or 2, but the situation in his dept has been rapidly changing lately, as many of his collegues have taken telkom's retrenchment package, so they're all spread a bit thin at the moment, with no improvement in sight. In fact, he mentioned to me that they'd all received an email that very morning from head office, stating that retrenchment targets have not been met, and that they were therefore all shortly going to be placed on flexitime rosters. So he's got a wife and 2 kids, and now he might be on the 4pm til midnight shift, just so Sizwe can keep the shareholders in caviar.
I don't blame the techie, a good man working under trying conditions.
I spend the next 30min franticly trying to get an answer on 10219. Eventually i get through, tell the operator to cancel my disconnections at my previous address, as i'll need to move back til they sort out my new lines. He tells me that unfortunately their network is down and would i mind calling back in half an hour ?
Eish!

 

[antowan]

Eina! Telkom sucks maggot poo!

 

[arf9999]

Somewhere in the forum Debbie2 posted Sizwe's email address. I think your situation warrants a personal mail.

 

[brooko]

and then they call themselves prouldy southafrican, providing employment and all 'o that kuk, if techies are dissapearing so rappidly, how's telkom EVER going to sort out their excessive installation waiting times...and they want to retrench more

 

[rpm]

Hi Strobemeister

After I have experienced something similar this week I understand your predicament. In my quest I have accumulated various key phone numbers which I will post on the web for any future ADSL applicants. The sad truth is that the poor techies are working harder than ever, with very little scope of promotion and/or bonuses. I have heard that many of them wanted to take packages (requested them in fact), but they were rejected. Now the 6 month and 3 month offers are coming along, but obviously these guys are losing thousands due to their rejection this time around. It must be a somewhat disheartening environment to work in…

Regards,

RPM

 

[quik]

The question is, how long does Telkom think they can continue deteriorating service levels in this manner. At some point the lack of technicians and resources are going to culminate in massive outages and even greater response times. At some or other point I imagine their network would fail.

But as long as their pockets get lined I guess they don't care

 

[Strobemeister]

Their communication between different depts is definitely failing. I mentioned that 1 of the techies went to an incorrect address, probably due to a spelling error on the order. This was actually picked up a week before the installation date. Someone from telkom called me to tell me that all was set for the installations for this week. We picked up the error and she corrected it, but it somehow wasn't communicated to the next level, similar to the lack of spare lines on the street box.
I'm actually lucky, things could be much worse. I was able to temporarily move back to my old place in Somerset West as my sister is living there. If i was doing a normal move i'd be screwed. Its still inconvenient as hell, half my stuff in Gordon's Bay, half in Somerset West, lol.
As a side note to this, i was able to stop the cancellation of my ISDN line. However, the same operator wouldn't stop the cancellation of my business line, different dept etc. which is irritating to say the least.
I've noticed that the business line is still active, which would allow any new tenant with a phone to just plug in and use it had my circumstances been different, scary to say the least.
rpm, i'll be looking forward to those numbers, thanks.

 

[bekdik]

how's telkom EVER going to sort out their excessive installation waiting times

And do you REALLY think that they care a tinkers fart about service? They are THE MONOPOLY. They can scew everyone anyway it pleases them. You'll have tolive with it until you have a choice. Not even their largest shareholder has service as a deliverable.

 

[Strobemeister]

I feel the need to update this thread, as i'm about ready to explode.
After all the hassle i went through to get these 2 lines installed, i double and triple-checked to ensure that my old lines were discontinued, Telkom are still charging me line rental on both the discontinued lines. Its just so difficult to explain how frustrating this is. I've given up calling 10219 as i don't have the spare time to wait the required half-hour and then its a toss-up, either you get a competent worker, or someone who doesn't have a clue. I am now a regular visitor to the local telkom shop. I get sms's from Telkom telling me to pay the money i don't owe them or i'll get disconnected.
You gotta love these guys.

 

[warichard]

I had a similar thing happen to myself when we moved down to Cape Town a couple of years ago. We requested an ADSL installation about 2 or so years after we moved down and Telkom informed us that they would not perform the installation until we settled an outstanding rental charge on our previous account. Naturally we were confused as we had requested that Telkom cancel the old phones when we moved, but apparently they had not done this and the rental had continued to pile up until 2 years later they decided to inform us (they had never even notified us before this).

Even though we told them that we had cancelled the phone lines, they refused to acknowledge this and demanded we pay the outstanding amount before we could order any services from them. There was no way to get around their refusal to even look back in their own records to see if any request had been made and we ended up paying them just so we could sign up for the new service.

 

[mbs]

Strobe and warichard, you are definitely not alone - have exactly the same problem. Repeated rental charges on a cancelled service, with repeated promises that the account will be fixed, to no avail. Previous instance of this with my move from Durban to Johannesburg resulted in refusal to install, until outstandings had been paid - subsequently did pay, but received credit in full after I proved that cancellation had been requested (thank g0d I'd kept copies of the cancellation request). Still battling with the current instance (Johannesburg north to Johannesburg west move), and finally sent an email to Sharon Horton, which elicited some action from their accounts department in Pretoria - just waiting for an account reflecting reversal of all incorrect debits and a zero balance. If this does not happen, a lawyer's letter is next. You're quite correct about inter-departmental communications failing and service standards being well below par (probably due to staff attrition and retrenchments) - I pointed this out quite vigorously in my correspondence to them. I'm now at that point where I view anybody from Telkrap with open hostility, doesn't matter whether it's a low- or high-level employee...