Beware of ************ Telkom Technicians

On Thursday last week I had a gentleman at the gate. He told me that he was from Telkom and that his ‘Mentor’ was sitting in the vehicle and if I could go and meet him. The ‘Mentor’ Alfred, said that the visit was to resolve the low internet speed. The ‘Assistant’ accompanied me into the house and we did a speed test

He then walked back to the vehicle and reported the results to Alfred. Alfred is quite a big person and remained in his vehicle the whole time. Alfred told me that the two of them would drive to the ‘Exchange’ in Jeppe and return within an hour.

They did return an hour later and Alfred without leaving the vehicle stated that the problem had been resolved and that I again had 8-10 Mbps. They departed.

I returned to my study and there was an email stating that the “Fault had been cleared”. I did a speedtest and the speed was only 0.7 Mbps instead of the promised 8 – 10 Mbps (please note that I have been paying for a 10 Mbps line all along).

Apparently every time a fault is cleared by a technician he gets a commission (regardless of whether the issue is resolved…). One cannot re-open a “cleared fault”. You start the process all over again. A new ‘Fault’ is opened (with a new reference number) and some other technician will be knocking at your door…

Below the email I received from AfriHost:

Fault 24ARK1… for 011614… cleared Dear Tony

We see that the following ADSL line fault report was cleared and is no longer active on the Telkom fault system:

Telephone number: ********** … Fault ***… Afrihost reference: AH ********** 5-47… Original date: 2019-04-15 (36 days ago)

This means is that the fault is considered resolved as far as Telkom is concerned – it’s all done and dusted, sorted out and packed away with no further action outstanding. We are closing the open fault reference on our side to correspond with Telkom’s view of its status…

Telkom’s service? What service?? By the way… my neighbours Jan and Artemis from across the road (who happen to be Telkom customers) have been without their landline and internet for the past 10 days!!!