Thursday, August 25, 2011

Helkom

This is a true story about the trials and tribulations of dealing with the supply of a First World technology service in a Third World country.
Thanks to Ryan, who not only submitted it, but actually experienced it.
It'll make you weep, but hopefully only with tears of laughter.


Ok, so I didn't seem to write a blog about it, but basically, I was going for a visit to the States and would be gone for two months, and MWEB had been messing me over, and I cancelled with them, but I paid for the DSL line separately through Telkom.

So, before I left for the states I called and asked them to disconnect the line and, of course, it could not be done that easily and I had to write a letter and all of this stuff. So, in the letter I asked them to disconnect the ADSL line, and even told them I'd be out of the country for two months and gave them my email in case they needed to contact me.

I got back from the states and my phone was disconnected. I called, and of course there was nothing they could do on the phone and I had to go in to a Telkom office. There, the conversation went something like this,

Me, "I clearly stated in my letter that I want the ADSL service disconnected, NOT the entire phone line."

Telkom employee, "Well, how were we supposed to know that?"

Me, shocked, "Um, by reading the letter?"

Telkom employee, "What you don't understand is that most people have a separate line for their ADSL service, so we just assumed you wanted the entire line disconnected."

Me, "I have had this phone line WITHOUT the ADSL for nine years, I've only had the ADSL for one year. Common sense would tell you that is not what I was asking."

Telkom employee, "We don't use common sense when dealing with clients' requests."

Me, "That's obvious."

Submitted by Ryan.

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