Ok, what I can see is the user is having the following problems
1.) Sporadic connection, sometimes on while on the phone but off shortly after hanging up
2.) Having to actually talk to a person at Telkom's customer support line, which they'd never had to do before, since the connection magically came on just as they dialed through to the helpline
3.) The small caps
4.) The fact their accounts aren't automatically switched for them, they have to do it themselves
5.) The supposed 'sales pitch' offering 'Always-On internet'
6.) The apparent disposition that their service provider should 'provide' them with whatever their needs may be without asking them for permission first
Right, now onto my take of this situation, regarding each problem.
1.) This sounds like a terminator issue - not a telkom issue.
2.) The fact they'd never taken the time to actually talk to the technicall support staff, and go through the possible causes of their disconnections, and find a solution to it (and possibly even get a free call-out to have the problem inspected and fixed [assuming the problem existed on site due to a fault with telkom]), is plainly dim in my opinion.
The best way to get a solution to an unknown problem is to actually ask someone who may know what's wrong, about the possibilities that could give rise to said unknown problems, based on the symptoms.
3.) The caps, the way I see it, actually aren't all that small right now. Given the new group bandwidth policy, virtually anyone can easily achieve 5gb per 3gb account by the end of a month, before getting capped. The sooner into the month you're fully utilizing your connection, the larger that buffer will be, but obviously, the sooner you may get cut off. Based on this, starting with a 1gb account for the beginning of the month (which to my knowledge still uses the shared bandwidth pool), then a 2gb and THEN a 3gb for the last week of the month, should work out better than 3x 3gb accounts. This is not a fault on Telkom's part, it is a fault on the part of the user's ignorance.
4.) Automatic account switching, to my knowledge, is possible on some routers, but not on a usage basis, only on an ability to get authorization basis. Given telkom accounts currently will still log in, even when capped, allowing users access to their email and internet banking, this wouldn't help the user anyway.
5.) The not-at-all fine print when signing up for a Telkom Internet ADSL connection/cap package, states fairly clearly, that it is a 'best effort' service, and that it will experience periodic outages due to hardware issues, software/server issues, or any number of other issues. We live in a country where cables can be dug up from the ground, interrupting a user's connection. Technically this isn't telkom's fault, but the fault of the people digging up the cables.
6.) Honestly, I wouldn't be at all impressed if I had to receive a telkom bill with several dsl packages, that I didn't ask for, like my mom's friend had recieved shortly after they got ADSL, thanks to her son deciding it would be cool to watch youtube videos all of his summer holiday. (I'll not disclose what service provider this was with, but I'm sure you can imagine who it might've been)
Seriously, telkom clearly state in their fine print, which any self-respecting person that runs a SOHO outfit should actually read, and understand, before signing any kind of contract, that there may be problems with their connection, and that it's provided on a best effort service. Best effort in this case may not be particularly good, but it's still stated quite clearly.
Rants like this user's shouldn't be on the mybroadband front page, it only serves to demonstrate general user ignorance, and is one of the challenges I face as an IT products consultant (altho not qualified in any manner), when users plainly don't WANT to understand anything about what they're trying to purchase.
193 IF 'rant3094' FINISH THEN END 'rant3094' THEN GOTO 194
194 PRINT 'Hello world!'
195 END
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