No Internet for Christmas Holidays

The whole year we as a family worked our buts off, thinking we will have a nice relaxing December at home with some Streaming Media.

Telkom spoiled that for us!!! On 4 December 2017 our Internet stopped working. On 5 December I logged the fault 578CTK051217. It is still not fixed on 21 December!!!

When I call the Telkom call Center from time to time to follow up (first you wait up to 15 min to speak to someone) all they say is the fault is affecting the whole area. That part I can understand because this problem came about when DFA (Dark Fiber Africa) started digging up and laying fibre in ditches on the corner of Newark and Charles de Guille in Highveld Centurion. I suspect they accidentally affected the Telkom ADSL lines in the process, but can’t say that for a fact, because I have no proof- my Internet Problems just started when they dug up the area there.

What further annoys me is besides the fact that Telkom knows I have no Internet for close to 3 weeks now, Telkom has not done ANYTHING to provide me with a workaround until they can get it fixed. Telkom could have provided e.g. mobile data as a work around or even wifi data but no effort was made by Telkom to help us enjoy the Christmas break while they try to get a permanent fix.

I had to buy my own mobile data (3 times) from other ISPs (Vodacom and MTN) to connect over mobile data to do work. The cost of this alone was about R300-R500, which I wouldn’t have to do in the first place if my ADSL line was still in a working condition.

When I phone the Telkom Service Desk they say Telkom can refund me for the time the line was down. How does that provide me with any benefit when you take into account that I am still paying other service providers for something I now cannot use? E.g. I pay Amazon, Netflix and ShowMax + AfriHost for Data, but to get to them I need the Telkom line which has been down now for an extended period, without a workaround from Telkom. In this December I would have streamed about 200+GB, but now we get Zilch.

Further Telkom Service Desk cannot even tell me how long this is still going to carry on so that we can plan accordingly. If Telkom could have provided us with some real insight and estimates I could have made other arrangements but leaving me in the dark as to when this will be resolved is just making me furious. I need to plan and I need to know for Budgetory Purposes when this will be fixed in our area. Can Telkom investigate and get back with a proper answer? This is really unacceptable!