A day after Grocott's Mail had spoken to Telkom about complaints from residents in and around Grahamstown about their faulty telephone connections, one Telkom client who'd been waiting for more than two weeks for his phone to be repaired called the newspaper with the good news that it was working again.
A day after Grocott's Mail had spoken to Telkom about complaints from residents in and around Grahamstown about their faulty telephone connections, one Telkom client who'd been waiting for more than two weeks for his phone to be repaired called the newspaper with the good news that it was working again.
Nick James, who lives on the edge of the Grahamstown commonage, thanked the newspaper for publishing his letter and said Telkom's manager had called him and was now, finally one month later, trying to solve the problem.
The news from Michael Mason, who lives in the Martindale area, 19km from Grahamstown on the Port Alfred road, was not so good, however. His telephone problem, which has persisted for even longer, is still unresolved. Mason, said he reported that his phone had stopped working on 28 February.
On 16 March, he said, he finally got a phone call from Telkom, informing him that his telephone connection would not be repaired until the end of April. He discovered that they required a part to be sent from France in order to fix the fault. “In the past, they used to keep all the spares for the equipment in the store,” explained James, whose telephone stopped working a day later, on 29 February, after a short thunderstorm.
“These days it’s not even in the country. They have to order it from overseas and importing takes a long time.” James had reported the fault immediately, but his connection was only restored after Grocott's Mail published his furious letter on Tuesday.
Before James's connection was repaired, his business had been without any kind of communication. He runs a fish hatchery business, trading ornamental fish. He deals with fish farms across South Africa, he says, and uses his phone to reach his customers and connect to the internet, where he advertises his products.
Alternative internet connections, such as 3G, are not always an option, as they are expensive. James was furious at what he said was plain bad service. “Five kilometres from Rhodes University, they cannot provide a single telephone. They can’t even be bothered to contact their customers,” he said at the time.
Mason also relies on his telephone for business, writing web content and designing websites. Moreover, his farm has recently been put up for sale and prospective buyers have the only contact number in the advertisement, his telephone number.
“Normally, they fix the line in a couple of days,” said Mason, “sometimes a little longer when the solar panel gets stolen.” Both Mason and James have radiotelephones, using transmitters instead of copper wire, which is often stolen. However, the transmitters are charged by solar panels – which appear to be just as popular with thieves. “But this time, the panel is still there on the pole,” said Mason.
Pynee Chetty, Senior Media Specialist for Telkom, said there had been no network failure in the area, and therefore believed the problem must be on a larger scale. “It may be due to lightning damage,” he told Grocott's Mail this week.
Chetty had been unable to investigate Mason's case by the time of going to press; however, he said he was confident in the enquiry process. Customers logged complaints, he said, by dialling the call centre at 10210. Their details were processed and their numbers tested either remotely or on-site, before the connections were fixed.
In James’s letter, published in Grocott’s Mail on Tuesday, he expressed frustration at the fact that Telkom had no local presence, referring to the recent closure of the local Telkom office. Chetty, however, believes the closure of the local branch should not affect how customers reach Telkom.
It was simply a retail outlet, comparable with chain stores such as Incredible Connection, Dion and Game, he said. “Enquiries can be made efficiently through the phone line.”
