Fiber Installation Not According To Specification - No Accountability From Vumatel

Hi Rob,

We have had the exact same problem with Vumatel recently.

After losing connection and after troubleshooting, it was found by technicians after reviwing the issue on site that damage was caused to the line by gardening work and that a reinstallation was necessary and would be charged which we proceeded to pay without questioning (total of R1725).

However, upon the technicians opening up the ground to expose the fibre line/conduit, it became evident that it had incorrectly been layed just below the surface (at ~10 cm) rather than the standard depth of 30 cm. The standard depth had been confirmed by Afrihost and Vumatel online support technicians, as well as the technicians onsite. Obviously with it lying just below the surface rather than at the standard depth of 30 cm, it would be at an increased risk to damage (e.g. when performing standard gardening work).

When I queried this, their excuse was that this was due to a tree root that had lifted the line. I already knew this was a ridicolous excuse and unlikely that a root would cause the entire line to lift UNIFORMLY from the start to the end (~5 meters).

Little did they know they we actually had photographs from the inital installation (~3 years prior) when the line was being laid and which match the exact depth that it was found in recently. The reason we have these photos is because the technicians that were onsite during the first installation had also caused damage to our borehole water piping system despite us warning them about it and which we had to ultimately fix. So that alone already shows how lackluster and shoddy the workmanship was.

When I recently communicated to Vumatel that it has now become evident that the intial installation service had not been done according to specification and that we should be considered for a refund, they informed me that '....your installation now falls outside of the warranty period (12 months), this is the reason reinstallation price was applicable...'. They are bringing in a warranty period condition on a job that was not performed correctly in the first place. They mentioned that initial installation had been signed off by us and which, to them, '...indicated that she was happy with how it was done...'. They immediately jump to '...we have this paperwork in place for our protection as well as yours, when this paperwork is signed off client or person client leaves in charge is happy with the work done....'.

So, from this I gather that Vumatel expect the client to spend ~1/2 hours to oversee the entire process? We as clients expected this so-called professional company to provide a professional service by installing a fibre line according to the standard specifications. What we do is check whether there is ultimately a stable internet connection... It is not our job to oversee the technical part of the installation by the technicians. Are we expected to go along the entire length of the fibre line/conduit with a ruler and ensure that it is the standard depth? What are we paying them for then?

Despite emails back and forth, they have refused to acknowledge that the initial installlation was problematic or to even compensate us for the costs that we have been charged on reinstallation now to fix THEIR mistake. I had to instruct the technicians on this reinstallation to dig and install the line/conduit at the specified depth (but even then it was rather shoddy). Also, although I have been charged for a complete reinstallation (R1725), they used much of the same materials again.

They are also still hanging onto the theory that it was tree roots that caused the fibre line/conduit to lift, despite PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE we have showing that line/conduit to be at the exact same depth now as it was ~3 years ago when it was installed. So that refutes the root hypothesis. This was a poort job done from the get-go.

Unprofessional service and no accountability from their side.