Comments on: Impressed with Telkom http://blog.frith.co.za/2008/07/08/impressed-with-telkom/ Ramblings about life, university, mathematics, computing, Linux, open source, etc. Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:00:40 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: nafi http://blog.frith.co.za/2008/07/08/impressed-with-telkom/comment-page-1/#comment-4429 nafi Sun, 19 Apr 2009 09:23:00 +0000 http://blog.frith.co.za/2008/07/08/impressed-with-telkom/#comment-4429 My last experience of Telkom technical services hasn't been too bad either, in Feb 2009. My parent's phone line was dead. Yeah, totally. The techy was friendly and efficient, but he might very well have been quicker and more efficient if he had a field assistant. The poor guy had to travel to and from his vehicle numerous times, getting & returning ladders and equipment. when looking at Telkom's profits, I find it hard to see why this para-statal company don't employ more people. But that's just me. I also experienced a 2 day wait for the techy to come. And i had to phone Telkom to remind them I needed help there. But things happened within hours after that. That is a much different experience than the one I had with their billing department. I don't have a telkom phone line anymore, because of that experience. And I never will. I'm an idiot that way. I moved from a flat to a house. I disconnected the old line, went to the Telkom offices to pay the "final" bill. Six months later I receive a final notice from some lawyer acting on behalf of Telkom, demanding (get this) R4.37. I doubt sincerely if the lawyer wrote that letter for free, seeing as though the postage was more than the "outstanding" amount. It cost me more than R50 in cellphone calls to try to get them to see reason, and I eventually got to this incompetent "bigwig" whom I told to go do something rude and sue me if she wants. Telkom is not my favourite company, as you can see. Not by a long shot. My last experience of Telkom technical services hasn’t been too bad either, in Feb 2009. My parent’s phone line was dead. Yeah, totally. The techy was friendly and efficient, but he might very well have been quicker and more efficient if he had a field assistant. The poor guy had to travel to and from his vehicle numerous times, getting & returning ladders and equipment. when looking at Telkom’s profits, I find it hard to see why this para-statal company don’t employ more people. But that’s just me.

I also experienced a 2 day wait for the techy to come. And i had to phone Telkom to remind them I needed help there. But things happened within hours after that.

That is a much different experience than the one I had with their billing department. I don’t have a telkom phone line anymore, because of that experience. And I never will. I’m an idiot that way.

I moved from a flat to a house. I disconnected the old line, went to the Telkom offices to pay the “final” bill. Six months later I receive a final notice from some lawyer acting on behalf of Telkom, demanding (get this) R4.37. I doubt sincerely if the lawyer wrote that letter for free, seeing as though the postage was more than the “outstanding” amount.

It cost me more than R50 in cellphone calls to try to get them to see reason, and I eventually got to this incompetent “bigwig” whom I told to go do something rude and sue me if she wants.

Telkom is not my favourite company, as you can see. Not by a long shot.

]]> By: adrian http://blog.frith.co.za/2008/07/08/impressed-with-telkom/comment-page-1/#comment-1261 adrian Fri, 25 Jul 2008 23:42:02 +0000 http://blog.frith.co.za/2008/07/08/impressed-with-telkom/#comment-1261 Well, of course, this impression is all relative to my previous experience with Telkom line repair when my parents' line broke (literally, the wire from the house to the pole was snapped). In that case, it took them three days just to agree who was responsible (this was the early days of DSL service); and five days to actually come and fix it. And I spent interminable hours listening to the on-hold music. I didn't have to wait around the whole day - perhaps the post is a bit misleading; what they actually said was "the morning". Given the possible variation in the time different repairs might take, I don't think its unreasonable to specify a whole morning or afternoon as the time slot. I agree that it would be more useful if they could arrange a time suited to the client; perhaps they can. I didn't ask because it was the vacation and I didn't have anything else going on. The thing that I am really happy about, though, was not having to negotiate with their call centre at all. Well, of course, this impression is all relative to my previous experience with Telkom line repair when my parents’ line broke (literally, the wire from the house to the pole was snapped). In that case, it took them three days just to agree who was responsible (this was the early days of DSL service); and five days to actually come and fix it. And I spent interminable hours listening to the on-hold music.

I didn’t have to wait around the whole day – perhaps the post is a bit misleading; what they actually said was “the morning”. Given the possible variation in the time different repairs might take, I don’t think its unreasonable to specify a whole morning or afternoon as the time slot. I agree that it would be more useful if they could arrange a time suited to the client; perhaps they can. I didn’t ask because it was the vacation and I didn’t have anything else going on.

The thing that I am really happy about, though, was not having to negotiate with their call centre at all.

]]> By: jerith http://blog.frith.co.za/2008/07/08/impressed-with-telkom/comment-page-1/#comment-1105 jerith Tue, 08 Jul 2008 15:13:04 +0000 http://blog.frith.co.za/2008/07/08/impressed-with-telkom/#comment-1105 Interesting that a two day turnaround time and requiring you to be at home most of a day in case the guy showed up is "impressive". I'd consider it downright awful if it were any company other than Telkom. I would expect them to respond within a couple of hours and give me a solid time that I could rely on, preferably one that suited me. Not everyone can work from home and losing a day's income (or leave) to have a phone line fixed is rather too high a price for me. Interesting that a two day turnaround time and requiring you to be at home most of a day in case the guy showed up is “impressive”. I’d consider it downright awful if it were any company other than Telkom. I would expect them to respond within a couple of hours and give me a solid time that I could rely on, preferably one that suited me. Not everyone can work from home and losing a day’s income (or leave) to have a phone line fixed is rather too high a price for me.

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