ADSL line down and no accountability or urgency from Telkom to fix it 187CTK301216

Item: Telkom
Rating: 1
Author: discodvx D

On Monday 12th December 2016, I lost connection on my ADSL. The line is Telkom supp****, but a different ISP (Internet Service Provider) was in use. I logged with Telkom and the service technician explained to me that he/she could not pick up any problem with the line and there was clear communication between the line and the private modem that I am using. The technician told me that the problem lies with the ISP and I need to contact the ISP to get the modem resynchronised. Multiple attempts to contact the ISP have failed, leading up to a decision on the 28th December to switch the ISP to Telkom. I made call on the 28th to Telkom and the switch was made, however, it took 2 days and more than 3 calls to 3 technicians to finally get the modem synchronised and to internet connection on the line. The connection happened on the 30th, around 8:30 in the morning and soon after, the connection was lost at around 10:15 the same morning. I called Telkom, and low and behold, the loss of connection was assigned to a FAULT ON THE LINE, the same line that diagnosed as fully functional around the 12th when I lost connection the first time around. Regardless of my attempts to explain to the technician that there cannot be any problem with the line and assign this to the IPS change, she confirmed multiple times that she can see that there is a problem on the line. Be that as it may, this was the first strike for me regarding the unprofessional and ********* service from Telkom. Due to an *********** or ********* technician's judgement, I spent over a week and a half, calling my ISP (at cost) to try and resolve this issue. Worst of it all is that I ended up terminating my contract with the ISP and switched to Telkom, only to be told a week and half later that there is an actual fault on the line. Nevertheless, the technician informed me that she could not run a full diagnosis on the line while I was on a call with her. She told me to hang up, and she will run a diagnosis and once the fault is identified, she will log a call and I will get an sms with the call reference number within the next hour. The sms never came, and I had to follow-up personally the next day to get the reference number. While on the call with the technician, I was informed that my fault will only be responded to in 10 days or more, as there were more than 300 calls in queue. This was on the 30th December, almost 2 weeks after I lost internet connection and I was being told of an additional 10 days wait. I explained my frustrations to the agent but she offered no additional help or advise on how to escalate my case or find a work around my challenge. On the 4th of January 2017, after not receiving any update or progress sms, I called Telkom to follow-up. I was told that the call had not been assigned to a technician yet, SOMEONE WILL CALL ME WHEN THE CALL HAS BEEN ASSIGNED. Unhappy with that feedback, I explained my frustration from the inconvenience and additional incurred by the lack of internet connection, over the holidays period for more than 3 weeks. The agent then suggested that I go to a Telkom store and obtain an Integrated Data Sim that can be linked to my ADSL data and use that (on a mobile device set-up as a hotspot) to get internet connection while my line is being sorted. Happy as I was about this workaround, I was infuriated by the fact that the technician I spoke to on the 30th did not bother to advise me about this alternative approach. Could this be incompetence or shear lack of integrity and consideration towards me as a customer who is inconvenienced? I think it's both. Anyway, I visited the Telkom Shop in the Kolonnade Retail Park in Montana (within the hour of taking the call) and got the sim card. I was helped by a gentleman called Louwtjie at the shop, who after giving me the Sim card told me the card is linked and I need to insert it in a mobile device and follow the instructions to activate the Sim card. About 2 hours later, the Sim card was in a device, I could see that the Sim card was connecting to the Telkom network but there was no internet connection on the Sim card. After making 2 calls to the Telkom, I was advised that the Sim card has not been linked to my ADSL account yet because agent at the shop (Louwtjie) did not process the order correctly and that the agent on the line could not do anything to complete the order. The agent informed me that I need to go back to the shop and give them a TIN (Telkom Internet Number) ********** as reference and ask them to complete the order. After complaining to the agent, he asked to consult with his supervisor for advise, asked me to hold the line in the meantime. I held on the line for over 45 minutes and the agent never came back to me until I hung up and drove back to the shop. This is still on the same day, 4th January. Back at the shop, I was not helped by someone else, Frikkie Erasmus who apologised for his colleague and raised something called an IPACC number ********** which he explained as a form of email priority request for order completion which gets a fast turnaround, within 1 hour. This IPACC was raised at 16:10 in the Telkom shop. I did not bother to follow-up on the 4th, given how late it was in the afternoon and expected that by midmorning on the 5th, all will be sorted. The 5th came and went, still no change. I called Telkom again to find out the status of the IPACC and my ADSL fault line. No change on the fault feedback and I was told that Frikkie will receive the direct response on the IPACC and he will contact me directly. That did not happen. On the 6th January, around 8:30, I received a call from someone called JR from the technical department telling me that a technician will come out either on the 6th or the 7th to sort out my line. I informed JR that I will not be home on the 6th and he confirmed that the technician will come on the 7th guaranteed. Around 10am on the 7th, I called Telkom again to follow-up on the fault and the Sim card. The agent informed me that a technician has been assigned and will call me before coming out for the call. After explaining to the agent that I had received a commitment that the technician will come out on the 7th, I asked her to connect me directly with the technician or the technicians supervisor instead of waiting for them to call me. She explained to me that it's against company policy to connect customers to the technicians. I could not accept her explanation, and then her next excuse was that she cannot see (on the system), the name of the technician assigned. Again I rejected to accept that as an excuse (given the marvels of technology and the sophisticated systems housed in Telkom). She then put me on hold and tried to call the technician, and he/she never answered the phone. The agent then sent an email to the technician and instructed he/she to call me on my mobile phone. The call never came through. Still on the 7th, I made a separate call to follow-up on the linking of the data Sim to the ADSL account. The technical guy put me through to Telkom Sales department (the Business Division) an later got transferred to the Household Division. This call was taken by Rubindree who explained that the technical people should have helped me and that it was not her job to assist with this query. However, after explaining my 3 week problem to her, she put me on hold and made follow-ups. Upon her return, she explained to me that the order is complete on the accounts side but for the data to be assigned or linked may take up to 7 working days, telling me to allow until Tuesday the 10th for the service to be functional. I was shocked by the 7 day lead-time which is contrary to what I have been told since the 4th when I was advised of this option. Rubindree then put me on hold while awaiting for he supervisor to be available to take my call. I held on for more than 20 minutes, where after her supervisor offered nothing more than "we can't help you further, wait until the 10th" response. At around 13:00 on the 7th, I received an sms stating that the Sim card has been activated and that I should follow instruction to setup my device. I did as such and low and behold, I could connect to the internet via the cell phone that the Sim card has been inserted in. However, when I switched on the phone's hotspot, other devices could not connect. I tried every trick in the book to try and get the hotspot to share the data with other devices and nothing worked. So at around 13:17 I called Telkom to try and get assistance. The call was taken by one of the worst agents ever, who asked me to confirm my landline number, my name and my address 3 times, while telling me that he is trying to access my information on the system. More than once, the technician asked me to "SPEAK SLOWER" while I was confirming this information with him. When he asked me to confirm my details one more time, I refused and instructed him to put me through to his supervisor, an instruction he ignored and automatically ended the call by putting me through to a survey, one that I rated very poorly and wonder if any action will be taken thereon. I immediately called back, spoke to an agent called Loan Ciel, whom I asked to put through to a supervisor to lodge a complaint against the previous agent. Loan put me through to his supervisor, Danielle Patel who listened to my case, asked me to hold the line while she transfers me to her office line/computer in order to see who I was speaking to. Danielle put me on for longer than 10 minutes, until the line went silent/dead. Because I was extremely irate, I decided to cool off for 2 hours before calling the 10210 number back in effort to get some assistance. Then later on, I called and was answered by Nontsikelelo who explained that she will put me back to Telkom sales but routed my call to the Business division. The Business division then put me through to an agent called Lebo who also put me on hold trying to get advise on my case but ended up routing me back to the main menu again. Thereafter, my call was picked up by Meshack listened to my problem and raised another fault/call with the Soctier Technical team to resolve the data and hotspot sharing issue. The reference number for the fault raised is ********** 50. According to Meshack, the Soctier team works shifts even over weekends and would respond to my call shortly. At the time of submitting this review/complaint, no one had contacted me yet. This long thesis of a story goes to document the repeated, prolonged disservice that I have subjected to by Telkom in a space of 3 - 4 weeks. Let summarise these for context: 1. Incurring additional costs from buying and consuming over 12 gigabytes of mobile data. 2. Spending more than R200 on call costs to the previous ISP and private banker to resolve an issue that now seems was non-existent. 3. Spending more than 3 hours a day on average, making calls and following up on repairs to the fault, while I was being pushed from pillar to post by the sales department, the billing department, the technical department and the Telkom store. 4. The overall inconvenience of not having uncapped ADSL during the most crucial time of the year, school and summer holidays. Of all the departments and people interacted with during this period, none of them seemed to possess the care to own this problem and have it resolved on my behalf instead of making it my job to speak to 4 different departments of Telkom. At minimum, I expect the following: a. An accounting authority to contact me and offer to resolve this matter on my behalf without being sent from pillar to post. b. An official detailed apology on the inconvenience caused and the poor service received and an account of remedial actions to be taken against all the agents that took me down this memorable road. Most specifically, the technician who in the beginning assured me that there was nothing wrong with the line but rather the ISP service, and also Supervisor Danielle Patel and her subordinate. c. An accounting authority to ensure I get reimbursed for all additional and unnecessary costs I have incurred since the 12th December on this matter. All costs will be substantiated. d. An accounting authority to take responsibility to ensure a complete credit to my account for the service not received but paid for. I trust you will find all in good order. Regards, Victor Xaba **********

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