Goodbye Telkom, hello Neotel

DISAPPOINTED TELKOM USER writes:

On the January 23, we discovered that our internet connection on our ADSL line was not working. I tried a new modem before planning to report the fault to Telkom.

On the 25th the telephone was dead and when we went out, we noticed Telkom people working at two manholes on Parkland Drive in Esther Park ext 1. On returning home that afternoon our telephone was once again working but all the telephone calls we received were for the wrong number, so we reported the fault on the 25th at about 2.30pm.

I went to Telkom in Greenstone Mall to ensure that the fault was reported and to see if there was some way of speeding up the repair. Since then both my wife and I have sent SMS fault reports almost every single day.

It is now February 6 and still nothing. In the meantime the phone is dead. My children’s school work is suffering as they need the internet and using a cell phone for all our calls is very expensive. Why use Telkom if they cannot provide the service they promised? Neotel, here we come.

There is no way to contact anyone that can actually fix the problem. They only have a call centre and the people there who log the faults don’t give a damn whether you have a problem or not.

The only other way is via SMS, which is just as useless. They don’t let you contact the regional manager or someone who can actually do something about this.

I used to work for the post office’s technical division before they became Telkom and the turn-around time for fault repairs was 48 hours.

If it was a cable fault, then it went up to 72 hours maximum, not two weeks or more.

If this is service, then bring back the old days of runners with forked sticks holding your message. It was quicker then.