Call centre blues

[Dave A]

Well, I'm still impressed with Telkom's call centre - but certainly not with their physical tech support.

Yesterday morning, my wife got an sms saying the fault had been assigned to a technician. Later in the day she got a call saying a tech would be coming tomorrow (that would be today). During that phone call my wife confirmed that the tech must call her first on her cellphone and she would be there within 5 minutes.

Today at midday she gets an sms saying the tech couldn't get access and the fault report has been closed. Please call 10212 to re-report the fault and get a new fault reference. No phonecall first

Naturally, I called the call centre - in a right royal blue mood.

The call was answered in a couple of minutes - and the lass who answered copped it, big time. Shame, she ended up putting down the phone. Which made me even more livid.

So I called back again.

Now I want to point out something - right at the beginning of the sequence you have to enter the telephone number you're calling about. My call got answered in about 15 seconds - and the guy that answered was a call-centre genius. Plain and simply bloody excellent. I can't help thinking it wasn't an accident I ended up with this guy on the line.

I still don't know when the fault is going to be sorted out - and the tech definitely screwed up. I am way less than impressed with Telkom in general. But credit where it's due - I really think they've managed to get something right going with that call centre.

[IanF]

So my theory of a 3 day turnaround has now gone to 3 week turnaround. That is unacceptable, but who are Telkom's competitors?

[Dave A]

When it comes to fixed-line, no-one at the moment

[wynn]

Leave a large notice near the doorbell telling the tech to phone your number and hope there are no other opportunists lurking around.

[tonyflanigan]

I think Checkers was Clive Weill

[Dave A]

I'm now sitting in the call centre queue for the Compensation Commissioner (WCA) for coming up on an hour now. It's just been answered.

I have the background noise of an office with people happily chatting away - to each other - and no-one talking to me on the telephone.
I've been listening in for about 10 minutes now, whistling and calling to try to get attention from time to time. Here's the amazing thing - not a single phone ringing in the background in all that time. Not one!

This is a call centre? I guess they all must have their phones off the hook...

[Dave A]

Just for the record, that telephone fault I referred to previously - fault originally logged on 6th January - got fixed yesterday.

[IanF]

3 weeks

[Dave A]

3 weeks

I'm sure there's supposed to be a word starting with f in there somewhere

[IanF]

And we wonder why our cell phone networks keep on growing

[murdock]

i got to share this...as some will know i have been having problem with telkom adsl...so i went and invested in a new telkom netgear router...twice the speed...double the range...blah...blah...blah.

all i wanted to know was must the green light on the right which indicates lock wireless or something be on or off...so i call telkom support...sorry they dont support the router...the supplier of the router does the backup support...so i get a number...after 15 calls to the support number i give up...and decide to contact telkom via their website telkomsa.net and leave a message..over a 3 day period i get 5 read confirmations from 5 differemt people...since a couple of weeks ago..i have had numerous emails indicating that the problem has been resolved.

i have never received a call nor have they resolved anything...i still dont know if the light should be on or off... i just leave it on.


considering the following as indicated on east coast radio...the average life span of a male in south africa is 52 and considering i am in the higher "risk portion"...i could be dead anytime now...i need to start focusing on more important issues like how and what will happeen to my family if i die tomorrow...so from now on i need to start focusing on more important things in life...

we live in a third world country...nothing is gona get better...call centres are hubs for uneducated people to make companies look good with employment stats and improve bbeee ratings...they are not there to resolve issues.

[tec0]

If anything I agree most help desks are useless and are probably why MTN introduced a shelf help service. Dealing with this incompetence is fast becoming the sole reason why I will never take another contract with any mobile service provider again.

Every aspect of a contract is designed to remove the user's rights and it is blatantly stated. Funny thing is how low they will go to keep you as a customer.

Now most service providers will tell you that the cost involved to keep our internet going is big, that said with all South Africans owning mobile phones it is hard to imagine that they are not making any money.

That said the worse rip off I was exposed to was when I phoned my Medical aid help desk. I had to wait for 30min before they answered the damn phone. Now 30min is a hell of a long time to wait if you have broken foot.

Then they confirmed that a small portion of my medical aid was no longer available partly because they deducted an emergency operation from the wrong funds that where available. Again the doctor took where he could get the money the fastest and had no regard for me whatsoever.

Still the most basic of questions could not be answered by the help desk at all. Regardless of the fact that they have all your info they pretend not to understand the simplest of instructions and is always "confused"

Thankfully I knew where there head office was located and when I stopped there and spoke face to face with a manager there he was really afraid because I was bouncing around on a broken foot because they could not relay the correct info to me.

Eventually I gave up trying to figure out if I must pay for what and just paid for everything myself. So not even when one is in pain will the help desk or manager be able to help you. I downgraded my medical aid considerably to a hospital plan only. Having anything else is useless.

[murdock]

off the topic so i wont go into details...my son cuts his finger right off...flew across the room...he collected it rushed to hospital and waited in the emergency room for 3 hours before they attended to him...i complained about a pain in my chest...it wasnt a heart attack...but i was still taken in front of all the awaiting patients and given priority...eeeish i suppose you could die from a heart attack but not if you cut off your finger.

medical aids and doctors are a scam...a family member has just been in for an operation...while getting pre authourisation...the cost to do the op R5000...by the time we finished negotiating with the doctor...payment...now you gona laugh...R1300...who is scamming us...doctors charging 300 % higher than medical aid rates...bend over lads and take it like a man...7 years training blah blah blah..

think carefully about this...why have a medical aid if the doctors are charging more than the actual medical aid covers...the medical aid covers R1300 and you pay R3700 to the doctor...something is seriously wrong with this picture...where the customer protection when it comes to medical aid...the goverment should step clean up this mess.

if you pay R5000 per month for medical thats R60000 per year...thats R300 000 in 5 years...i could pay off my bondif they werent screwing me so badly with the interest...

while on the subject ...paid over R200 000 towards my bond...got a statement...it has reduced by a couple hundred rand

[Justloadit]

Murdock,

Government is doing something about medical aids, they calling it "The National Health Plan".


When it kicks in you die while waiting for your free medical treatment.

[wynn]

I had to find this didn't I?

Is this what really happens?