{"id":78102,"date":"2013-05-20T15:32:33","date_gmt":"2013-05-20T13:32:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=78102"},"modified":"2013-05-30T11:18:37","modified_gmt":"2013-05-30T09:18:37","slug":"telkom-direct-stores-epicfail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/78102-telkom-direct-stores-epicfail.html","title":{"rendered":"Telkom Direct stores #EpicFail"},"content":{"rendered":"

MyBroadband recently tried to get more information about Telkom Mobile<\/a>\u2019s LTE service after the company\u2019s website announced that \u201cLTE is here\u201d. What followed revealed shortcomings in Telkom\u2019s retail channel.<\/p>\n

To describe the challenges faced when trying to order a Telkom Mobile product, a blow-by-blow account of what transpired is provided below.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. A banner on the Telkom Mobile website promoted the company\u2019s new LTE service, stating: \u201cLTE is here. Move into the fast lane with Telkom Mobile\u201d.<\/li>\n
  2. The website did not have full product pricing available, and the next logical step was to contact Telkom Mobile\u2019s help-desk for more information.<\/li>\n
  3. The help-desk agent could not provide any details about the \u201cLTE at home\u201d service listed on the Telkom Mobile website. She said that the best option would be to visit or contact a Telkom Direct store.<\/li>\n
  4. The closest Telkom Mobile store was situated in Centurion, but the Telkom Mobile agent could not find a number for this store. She suggested contacting the Clearwater store, and provided a number for this store.<\/li>\n
  5. The number supplied for the Clearwater Telkom Direct store was not answered. The mailbox was also full, which meant that it was not possible to leave a message.<\/li>\n
  6. In an attempt to find more information about Telkom Mobile\u2019s LTE service, we visited the Telkom Mobile website again to find a Telkom Direct Store which answered their phone. We listed all Telkom Direct stores in Gauteng alphabetically, and started to call them one after the other \u2013 all unsuccessfully.<\/li>\n
  7. We gave up after number twenty (20). It was not possible to successfully contact a single Telkom Direct store, using the official information from the Telkom Mobile website.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Telkom Mobile (aka 8ta) has numerous attractive mobile products, an excellent network, and great marketing campaigns.<\/p>\n

    However, all of these positives are quickly ruined when a potential customer finds it challenging to deal with the company to buy one of the products.<\/p>\n

    Vodacom<\/a>, MTN<\/a>, and Cell C<\/a> have made it very easy for South Africans to buy cellular products.<\/p>\n

    Unless Telkom Mobile can improve its retail channels, it may lose many potential customers \u2013 not because they do not offer competitive services, but because it is too challenging to deal with the retail channels.<\/p>\n

    Telkom Mobile MD Attila Vitai<\/a> told MyBroadband that it is good that this problem was brought to his attention.<\/p>\n

    \n

    A list of Telkom Direct stores which we tried to contact<\/h3>\n
      \n
    1. Alberton City \u2013 No answer, with a full mailbox which cannot accept any messages.<\/li>\n
    2. Benoni \u2013 No answer, with a full mailbox which cannot accept any messages.<\/li>\n
    3. Brooklyn \u2013 No answer.<\/li>\n
    4. Bryanston Shopping Centre \u2013 The wrong number listed on Telkom Mobile website.<\/li>\n
    5. Carletonville \u2013 The number listed on the Telkom Mobile website does not work.<\/li>\n
    6. Centurion \u2013 No telephone number listed on the Telkom Mobile website.<\/li>\n
    7. Clearwater – No answer, with a full mailbox which cannot accept any messages.<\/li>\n
    8. Cresta \u2013 No answer.<\/li>\n
    9. East Gate \u2013 No telephone number listed on the Telkom Mobile website.<\/li>\n
    10. East Rand Mall \u2013 Wrong number listed on the Telkom Mobile website.<\/li>\n
    11. Festival \u2013 The number remained engaged, despite multiple attempts to call the store.<\/li>\n
    12. Fourways \u2013 No telephone number listed on the Telkom Mobile website.<\/li>\n
    13. Fourways Mall \u2013 The Cell C number supplied on the Telkom Mobile website was not answered.<\/li>\n
    14. Greenstone \u2013 The number remained engaged, despite multiple attempts to call the store.<\/li>\n
    15. Hatfield \u2013 No answer..<\/li>\n
    16. Heidelberg \u2013 The number listed on the Telkom Mobile website does not exist<\/li>\n
    17. Irene \u2013 No telephone number listed on the Telkom Mobile website.<\/li>\n
    18. JHB City \u2013 No telephone number listed on the Telkom Mobile website.<\/li>\n
    19. Key West \u2013 No telephone number listed on the Telkom Mobile website.<\/li>\n
    20. Kolonnade – No telephone number listed on the Telkom Mobile website.<\/li>\n
    21. Lenasia \u2013 No telephone number listed on the Telkom Mobile website.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n

      More on Telkom Mobile<\/h3>\n

      New Telkom Mobile broadband deals<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

      New Telkom Mobile data prices, LTE launched<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

      Free \u201cunlimited\u201d WiFi from Telkom Mobile<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Trying to find information about a Telkom Mobile product proved to be a near insurmountable task, especially when it involves contacting a Telkom Direct store<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":78228,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[473,35,109,11611,689],"class_list":["post-78102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","tag-8ta","tag-headline","tag-telkom","tag-telkom-direct","tag-telkom-mobile"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78102"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78102"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78134,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78102\/revisions\/78134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}