About Me

I ramble about a number of things - but travel experiences, movies and music feature prominently. See my label cloud for a better idea. All comnments and opinions on this blog are my own, and do not in any way reflect the opinions/position of my employer (past/current/future).

22 October 2010

Telkom: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Ever since I moved to my new place (almost 2 months ago now), I have been trying to get ADSL to be installed. In fact, one of the key criteria when looking for a new place was - does this place have a Telkom line? I first logged a request with Telkom, online, a week before moving in - and that order was lost. The help desk did take my details down - but that order was also lost. I tried the Internet route again - I got a callback to confirm all the details; and yet the order was lost! So I tried again - at the help desk; and this time it went through! It truly says a lot about a company when it looses track of customer orders!

All said, the actual help desk people are very friendly (most of the times) and wanting to help - and my order was finally processed and the line was installed two days back. And yet again a debacle - I was called on Tuesday, and informed of the installation. When I enquired on the time; I was told to call the help desk on Wednesday morning to find out. When I asked if I could choose another day - I was told it would have to be handled as a new order!

So on Wednesday morning, I called the help desk and I was told they have been specifically told not schedule installations, and they cannot help me. They suggested "I wait around" waiting for the installer; and was surprised when I told them I don't have anyone at home who would wait for them. Of all the service problems I encountered with Telkom, this has to rank as the worst.

During the morning, the installer called me, and we made arrangement for the installer. And this is again, where Telkom really did claw back - the guy was professional, and very motivated to getting things done correctly. When the line was first activated, he realised that there was interference, which he proceeded to fix. After that, he still could not get the ADSL router to stabilise, and after some investigation, he established some of the causes (some bad wiring) and a fault on the DSLAM setting at the Telkom exchange. He promised to sort it out, before he signed off the job - and when I came back home that afternoon - it was fully sorted.

So, John (who did not give his surname) - thank you very much - I just wish your colleagues were as efficient and motivated!

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