In contrast, in the past three weeks I've had to phone for several reasons.
1. Our Router/modem of 6 years finally broke, with the modem component becoming defunct (synced but couldn't engage LCP)
For this I had to phone Telkom to find out if there were any issues with the DSLAM that could be causing this. They could confirm that I was syncing, and tried 'resetting my port' several times to no avail. The lady then said she'd assign a technician to the call and have them investigate the exchange.
I logged that call on the Friday. On Monday morning when I phoned to find out if there was any progress update I was told that a fault was logged but no technician was assigned yet. I told them to hold off on it since I was going to test the router on a different line - found out the router was busted so replaced it.
2. Phoned to find out if there were any known issues with the exchange anyway, as the new modem was consistently suffering severe enough packet loss on the first hop to cause some connections to drop.
I was told there was no issue that they could see - I opted for the "I'm not going to bother" stance and simply said 'okay, thanks, good-bye', then tried leaving it for a few days to see what would happen. It took almost a week, but the connection finally stabilized, only for that first hop to have terrible daytime speed and latencies for a week and a half - that seems to have been resolved as of today.
3. Phoned to find out if our exchange supports 10mbit. Twice.
The first time I phoned, the guy that answered was very snappy, short-tempered. To transcribe the call...
me> Hi, this is X, I'm phoning regarding 10mbps ADSL - is this the right department?
him> *low sigh* Yes, hi, how can I help you?
me> I tried using the availability checker online, but it said I had to phone this number since there wasn't data available for my exchange - would you be able to help me with that?
him> Well yes if you have the 4mbps service already and your exchange supports it you'll automatically get upgraded, so if you're not syncing at 10mbps then the exchange doesn't support it.
me> Okay... and you're 100% certain that it's fully automated? I've read numerous reports on forums and from other people I've spoken to that now have 10mbps that some of them had to phone in to *interruption* get their line speed upgraded.
him> *interrupting me* Yes, it's fully automated now since that's part of the pilot program that's being run by Telkom at the moment.
me> Would you be able to check the exchange for me anyway? I've been having some issues with the speeds we've been getting out of it for the past week or so - it syncs at *interruption* 4mbps but the speeds are really poor even at night for all protocols I try.
him> *interrupting me* For that you'll have to phone the other number, 0800 375 375, they'll be able to help you with that.
me> Okay, thanks. Good-bye.
him> Thank you for phoning Telkom. *click*
I phoned again an hour later and got through to an English lady that was far more helpful. She had no issue with checking the exchange for me and explained that the online database used by the site is actually delayed since it doesn't properly update in real-time vs the one they get from their technicians concerning exchange statuses. She checked the exchange and explained to me that it's currently only able to support up to 4mbps services and that there's no planned upgrade of the exchange right now either, but that the backhaul running through the area should be able to support it fine (I'm assuming this would be the Metro Ethernet component), so the moment they upgrade the exchange it should be possible.
When we first moved here in September last year, the following happened.
Arrive here Sep 2, pre-arranged with a Telkom tech to come activate our phone line for us. He arrives on the premises, tests all the sockets available and does a sync test for ADSL, informing us that the line's getting an excellent connection to the exchange and that everything's up and running. He then phones in and asks them to give us a number.
The next day, around mid-day, our phone and ADSL services are disconnected. We get to a pay phone and call in to find out what's going on, and we're told there's no physical connection to the property and never has been. There is and has been for at least five years, so we point out that we had the phone connected yesterday. The lady gets aggravated with my mom and asks her what the phone number we had is, my mom gives it to her and the lady begins insisting that that number was registered to some business a town over, on a completely different area code, and a business that hasn't existed for almost a decade.
It took us a month of constantly going to the pay phone on a daily basis, sometimes more than once a day, to find out what's happening about having our "new" connection installed. Eventually I began phoning them and I explained in very specific detail the exact structure of the line that's already there, and explained that if we didn't get a connection anytime soon I would go and take down one of our neighbours' connections and combine it with our already existing line so that we could have a connection to phone them from without standing next to a busy main road, where I'd be able to further 'explain things' to them until they get a technician out there to come and reconnect our services, or sort it out on their end.
After an hour of being on that pay phone with the lady, telling them "you will not disconnect me, I will file a complaint if you disconnect me and I will ensure that this circulates a fair amount of news sites and other media", they finally got their manager to come onto the line with us, who then checked to see what was going on, and then rectified the entire situation while I was on the line with them.
It took a month of us getting gradually more annoyed with them, and various 'threats' to get them to bring their manager over to have a look at the situation. I doubt we were dealing with the same people every time we phoned, so it wasn't just one person that was being incompetent, either.
On the other hand, back when we first got ADSL I managed to get them to come install it in 3 days, as I'd pointed out that I cycle around our town a lot every day and that I saw many Telkom bakkies all over the place, and that I'd begin following them and bothering them while they're trying to (not) do their work until they installed our connection, if they didn't ensure that one was assigned to come do our installation.
