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Atom .03This afternoon, it will be 28 days ago that I reported my phone being out of order.
This morning I tried to phone the local Telkom office. 047 535 1133, if anyone else wants to try and see if they can find a literate person on the other end. Usually the number is never answered - this time it was. Or you can always try OFaultB@telkom.co.za
I asked about the status of my phone line, and was told by the woman who answered that I had to report the number to Telkom's fault line. I told her I had. She said I should report it again. I told her I'd reported it several times - with weekly enquiries. She said I still had to report it again.
The problem is that each time I report it, they are perhaps unable to read the report here in Umtata.
I asked if I could speak to her manager. She said no, he was out. I asked for his name, and she refused to give it. I asked for her name, and she refused to give that too. After a while, she did mumble a name, and when I asked her to repeat it, she mumbled it again.
When I asked her to spell it, she refused, saying she couldn't. On clarification, she said she was unable to spell her name.
Was she just hiding her identity to avoid reprimand if I got hold of her superiors?
Or was she really illiterate? Was she really incapable of spelling her own name?
If the local Telkom people here in Umtata can truly not spell their own names, the following scenario would explain the mess Telkom has made:
Judging by their actions, and by their telephone skills, maybe it is. Or maybe they're just too incompetent to do their work.
This morning I tried to phone the local Telkom office. 047 535 1133, if anyone else wants to try and see if they can find a literate person on the other end. Usually the number is never answered - this time it was. Or you can always try OFaultB@telkom.co.za
I asked about the status of my phone line, and was told by the woman who answered that I had to report the number to Telkom's fault line. I told her I had. She said I should report it again. I told her I'd reported it several times - with weekly enquiries. She said I still had to report it again.
The problem is that each time I report it, they are perhaps unable to read the report here in Umtata.
I asked if I could speak to her manager. She said no, he was out. I asked for his name, and she refused to give it. I asked for her name, and she refused to give that too. After a while, she did mumble a name, and when I asked her to repeat it, she mumbled it again.
When I asked her to spell it, she refused, saying she couldn't. On clarification, she said she was unable to spell her name.
Was she just hiding her identity to avoid reprimand if I got hold of her superiors?
Or was she really illiterate? Was she really incapable of spelling her own name?
If the local Telkom people here in Umtata can truly not spell their own names, the following scenario would explain the mess Telkom has made:
- 2 technicians figured out the problem, but the first couldn't communicate that in any sort of record, and neither was able to use a telephone to communicate with me
- 1 technician was unable to find my place because he can't read street names
- 1 technician could not read a watch, and perhaps judges time by the temperature, arriving well after 10am when she said she'd be there at 8:30am.
- Weekly e-mails can't be understood if they can't be read, and phone calls don't get responded to because they get logged in a central place by literate people, and the local Telkom people can't read the logs
Judging by their actions, and by their telephone skills, maybe it is. Or maybe they're just too incompetent to do their work.
on August 22, 2007, 2:47 pm
After patiently waiting for the maximum of 3 weeks to pass (during which time a technician was supposed to call me to make an appointment to come do the activation) my almost daily telephonic enquiries started. I was told a date was logged on their system for the activation 2 weeks ago (1 week after I applied and paid for it), but NO reason was indicated on the system for not doing it. Nobody called me! My query now had to be logged and required 2 workdays to be resolved. After this I was told a to high workload was the reason for just “forgetting� about me. I was told that a technician would call me to make an appointment - deja vu. I strongly objected to this and so started a futile process of complaining to the ascending hierarchy of Telkom inadequacy. At every point I was told that it is indeed not right that I should have to wait 6 weeks after they screwed up my initial activation date and that every effort was made to ‘find me a gap’….. this never happened.
6 weeks after my initial application (on the second date set by Telkom) the technician called me to say he wouldn’t be able to fit me in on that day!! Miraculously he managed to show up the next day. The technician spent no more than 5 minutes in my house during which time he plugged some device into the phone socket, pushed a few buttons and complained about his excessive workload of activating telephone lines. If I’m not mistaken activating inactive telephone lines means signing up new customers, which means making more money that could be used to employ more people to sign up new customers even faster to make more money quicker and help put food on the table for some unemployed soul who has to take his HIV medicine on an empty stomach!
Ps. If there are developing and developed countries, is it not logical that there must also be undeveloping countries? Zimbabwe might be a stronger case in point…..
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