Cable theft. What now?

F

fragtion

Expert Member
Joined
Dec 26, 2004
Messages
2,899
Reaction score
195
Location
Cape Town
At about 02:15AM on Thu 13 March 2008 my internet just dropped while I was on Skype chatting to a friend. I sat waiting for it to resynch for 20 minutes during that time reset my modem etc and figured it wasnt on my end. So I picked up my phone and it was dead/no dial tone. my dsl is on my fax line which is totally seperate to my voice line. The voice line was also dead.
So I called telkom and reported the fault on my cell (waited ages for them to pick up - not looking forward to my cell phone bill). 2 days later I called them again and they said it was a cable theft.

My entire street (the least I know of - it may be this whole area) is affected, and Telkom informed me that we're in a long queue and it may take up to 6 months to replace the stolen cable (apparently it goes through stages and needs ****ing approval etc.). So I've been considering iBurst for the interim, but they're ridiculously more expensive than ADSL and I'd need to buy a modem which costs a fortune and I'd only be using iBurst until my dsl is fixed. 3G is out of the question because I'm an intensive bandwidth user (My family eats a good 10GB on skype/youtube/facebook alone in a single month) and R2/MB is sickening - ADSL is most suited for my needs.

Am I going to be paying my Telkom ADSL subscription and line rental fees while having no service for 6 months? This is PATHETIC.

Has anyone here had a similar experience? What should I do here this is highly frustrating. You'd think that a fault affecting so many people would be of higher priority, yet instead it just sits at the back of a long queue.

I just recently had relief from another fault with my line where my signal/noise ratio was bad and my modem kept losing synch. It didnt take a month after they fixed that and here we go with another fault again.

I'm in Helderkruin/Wilro Park on the 011 768-xxxx range

*sigh* Why do we have to put up with stuff like this?

Any helpful suggestions/feedback/advice would be really appreciated.
 
Last edited:
moklet said:
fragtion_ said:
Am I going to be paying my Telkom ADSL subscription and line rental fees while having no service for 6 months? This is PATHETIC.
QUOTE]

No you should get a refund for that
Click to expand...
Thanks, but do you know who I can get hold of to arrange that?
I'm assuming the Telkom phone support desk, but that's going to add more cost to my cell phone bill, and some incompetent idiot is most likely going to answer (after 80 minutes of holding), and then be unhelpful or unsure on how to help me...
Click to expand...
 
Yes you do get refunded, all you need to do is take your ref number to the nearest telkom shop and they will sort it out. You can also call the normal help line 10219 (:confused: I think) with ref number and ask them to credit your account.

However what drove me crazy was the fact that you have to wait till the fault has been resolved before you can claim your refund, in the mean time you just have to keep on paying. I was tempted to give up ADSL, but as you said, ADSL is better in spite of all the c*** that goes with it. :mad:

I was without a line for 6 weeks.

You could look into vodacom's airtime bundles. Most cost effective is 2GB for R389. Just dial *111# and follow the data bundle option. This is on pre-paid, don't know how it work for contract users.
 
Oops, got to correct myself, I'm talking about refund, but they don't actually refund you, they just credit your account and for the next month or two you don't pay anything. I seem to recall reading on this forum that their billing system don't allow for refunds.
 
I might have a few people drastically disagree with me on this, but I think that you shouldn't even pay them in the duration of time which you don't have a line. Will you pay for 30 movies and be told: "sorry sir, you can't watch them now as our movie-house is down for maintenance, though you can gladly come and watch movies for the same amount of money in 6 months."? No, because you went to the movies *now* to watch what you want to watch. It's stupid paying for something you don't get, and paying Telkom for lack of service is just plain illogical. I'm not sure of the legal edge of it, but I guess that if enough people started following a drastic course of action (like this), it should very likely force the people who run the show into listening.
 
AdLo said:
Normal fault reporting. Log a fault, write down the ref number .....
Click to expand...

I would suggest that you actually go to a Telkom Shop and do it there face to face. I got very lucky recently, the employee called me as promised and gave me real / accurate feedback, he was indeed efficient.

Just a bit of advice take some snacks and something to read or keep yourself occupied with, alternatively choose your Telkom Shop wisely (normally avoid those in the big shopping centres near business hubs).
 
fragtion_ said:
At about 02:15AM on Thu 13 March 2008 my internet just dropped while I was on Skype chatting to a friend. I sat waiting for it to resynch for 20 minutes during that time reset my modem etc and figured it wasnt on my end. So I picked up my phone and it was dead/no dial tone. my dsl is on my fax line which is totally seperate to my voice line. The voice line was also dead.
So I called telkom and reported the fault on my cell (waited ages for them to pick up - not looking forward to my cell phone bill). 2 days later I called them again and they said it was a cable theft.

My entire street (the least I know of - it may be this whole area) is affected, and Telkom informed me that we're in a long queue and it may take up to 6 months to replace the stolen cable (apparently it goes through stages and needs ****ing approval etc.). So I've been considering iBurst for the interim, but they're ridiculously more expensive than ADSL and I'd need to buy a modem which costs a fortune and I'd only be using iBurst until my dsl is fixed. 3G is out of the question because I'm an intensive bandwidth user (My family eats a good 10GB on skype/youtube/facebook alone in a single month) and R2/MB is sickening - ADSL is most suited for my needs.

Am I going to be paying my Telkom ADSL subscription and line rental fees while having no service for 6 months? This is PATHETIC.

Has anyone here had a similar experience? What should I do here this is highly frustrating. You'd think that a fault affecting so many people would be of higher priority, yet instead it just sits at the back of a long queue.

I just recently had relief from another fault with my line where my signal/noise ratio was bad and my modem kept losing synch. It didnt take a month after they fixed that and here we go with another fault again.

I'm in Helderkruin/Wilro Park on the 011 768-xxxx range

*sigh* Why do we have to put up with stuff like this?

Any helpful suggestions/feedback/advice would be really appreciated.
Click to expand...


ask if they can supply you with WiMax in the mean time.Since you can't get ADSL no more. until cable in replaced.
 
Last edited:
magneto said:
ask if they can supply you with WiMax in the mean time.Since you can't get ADSL no more. until cable in replaced.
Click to expand...
Did that this morning, thanks for the suggestion. Somehow I highly doubt this will happen though.

Oh yea, sorry for bumping the thread - just thought I'd let everyone know that me and my 5 neighbors are still without phones/dsl. I really don't know what to do about this but it's so damn ridiculous. Is there nobody I can contact to speed the process up a bit?
 
Ask someone on jawug to open their ADSL router to you?
Yeah it's not acceptable policy - but hey, no is the worst response.

Can then get a VOIP solution on top of that...I feel for you - I get agitated by a days downtime. :o
 
stolen capable solution

well if lines are down, and you lucky enough that they intend to replace it then you look anywhere between two weeks and a year depending on who you bribe and if telkom decides to come.
Try www.talk4less.co.za it's a phone that uses least cost routining and well has excellent quality all the time and doesn't need lines or internet, i know because i use it, I'm very happy saving money although i wish telkom would get there act together.
 
Thanks pixie1 :)
Dude, as crazy ****ed up as it seems, I'm very willing to bribe! I just need to know who there is to bribe and how to get hold of them. It's been over 70 days now, and really at this rate I could see it going on for easily up to a year. Neotel would be up and running in my house loong ago if their value was better, but at this point I'm just checking people's feedback on the service, and will probably land up ordering it at the end of this month if Telkom hasn't already fixed my line by them.

Another option I've been considering is actually going outside and finding where the copper pair was stolen, going to spar to buy a few meters of lampshade extension cable, and doing the job myself, because damn these guys are slow, and I have work to do. If there are any ex telkom techies here or anyone with experience in this who would be willing to do this for me, please let me know (by pm if preferrable).

The helpdesk informed me that two cables were stolen: one 95m and one 105m. They also claimed that the reason they hadn't repaired my line yet was because of repeated theft (this was apparently the 23rd time) -- but not once in 15 years living in this house has the line been down for any noticable period of time for this reason.

I've been a loyal, paying Telkom customer for decades. I've always had two separate lines (one fax/dsl), and been an intensive user (back in dial-up days I'd be connected for most of the day for my business, building up accounts of up to R10'000 per month).
Is this how they're thanking me for my business?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X