Telkom is the worst TC and ISP, avoid at all cost!

Telkom is all about grabbing your money, delivering a mediocre service and providing zero support. No wonder that Telkom is rated as the worst ISP available in South Africa according to MYBROADBAND: https://mybroadband.co.za/news/adsl/229951-best-adsl-and-fibre-isps-in-south-africa.html. Take note that Telkom not only scored the lowest in all respects, but that they also fall flat on their faces in regards to support & billing.

Currently I have a Telkom account mainly for ADSL, but I do receive an occasional telephone call from time to time. I have been experiencing intermittent line drops ( ADSL and telephone) for months. The telephone has been almost unusable for more than a year, because of noise on the line. When calling me, people usually need to call more than once, since I can't hear them on the first call. I had 58 line drops (lost carrier errors) in November 2017 alone, according logs provided by my ISP. Since I'm a resident of a sectional title estate, I can also add that at least two other residents, that I've spoken to, experience the same problems than I do with their respective telephone lines.

I believe that the problems start at the Telkom DB's, situated inside the sectional title estate where my residence is located. Telkom have not repaired or maintained their own infrastructure, and because of their negligence, it has fallen into a state of disrepair. The door hinges of the DB's have rusted and the doors fell off, exposing the wiring to the weather for more than a year. With exposure to various weather conditions, the wooden back panels are rotting away, the connector blocks are damaged and corroded.

So how can the damage and bad state of Telkom's infrastructure go unnoticed for more than a year? Telkom technicians rarely come to the client's premises, they prefer to troubleshoot off-site at the Exchange for example. They will never see or do anything about the damaged DB's. Even those technicians that do visit the client's premises don't report on or do anything about the DB's... they'll just re-wire your line to another spot on those same damaged and corroded connector blocks.

(1) I have logged a call (250CTK061117) to Telkom on 6 November 2017, a Telkom contractor came on the 8th of November 2017 unprepared without any parts to fix the DB's. Maintenance of the Telkom DB's, including re-wiring with new connector blocks, should be the proper starting point to troubleshoot and solve my problems. Since he couldn't do anything, he left assuring me that he will return tomorrow. But instead the call was closed the same day.

(2) I logged another call (139CTK09117) to Telkom on 9 November 2017, since then I have spoken to numerous Telkom representatives concerning this problem. Some called me, and other times I called the support desk to get updates.

(3) Keep in mind that Telkom commits themselves to a two-week runaround time. By the 27th November 2017 four weeks have passed, but Telkom have not resolved my problems. So I called the support desk again on the 27th November 2017, but I got disconnected (another line drop) whilst explaining the whole problem from the start. I specifically mention this, because that guy actually phoned me back on my cellphone in order to help and assist me! Thank you very much, that was wonderful service. There should be more people like him working at Telkom, give him a promotion or a raise in salary! He helped me to register an escalation (F245115).

(4) No Telkom technician have come to the premises since 6 November 2017. I've called the Telkom support desk on the 1st Desember 2017 and today on the 4th of Desember 2017, each time hearing the same nursery rhymes, excuses and worthless assurances that a Telkom technician will contact me on this or that day.

In conclusion: Telkom is quickly losing ground and market share to new competitors providing better service and support than Telkom. My recommendation to everyone is to close their Telkom accounts and move to a fibre internet service provider. Avoid even Telkom's own Openserve fibre offerings, since Openserve is a division of Telkom, it will undoubtedly be plagued by the same mediocre service delivery and non-existent support.