TELKOM

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TELKOM … ARE THEY PASSING THE BUCK?

Since our move-in on 26 November 2007, we had THREE visits from Telkom officials … and no telephone as yet. The first visit took place round about 28 November when an official of Telkom arrived and we were so excited about having a telephone so soon … but the excitement was short lived when the Telkom official explained that he was only doing a preliminary investigation.

He asked us to indicate where we would like to have telephone points in the house … and upon opening op these points he discovered that there were no telephone wiring within these points. We expected that they will pull their wires through the already existing ducting in the roof, but no such luck. Conroy was handed a big roll of Telkom wiring cable and were bluntly informed that Telkom does not get into clients’ roofs anymore and that we should get an electrician to do their wiring for them … now I ask you Doing Lifers … would you not seriously label this as ‘PASSING THE BUCK’.

Being seriously anxious in getting a Telkom line asap … Doing Life’s Online Shoppe needs to continue business as usual … we did not let any grass grow under our feet and got our builder’s, Pappachristos’ electrician to do Telkom’s wiring for them. This was done the next day. So for nearly three weeks now we have 4 open plug points with Telkom i.e. the Fourie’s wiring dangling out of them, awaiting Telkom’s installation.

Round about 4 December 2007 the same Telkom technician arrived along with a sub-contractor i.e. Mike, which was briefed from where to where Telkom has to draw their lines. A few days later Mike and his team arrived to pull through the wires. During the operation our intercom buzzed with Mike on the other side requesting my presence. We walked down to the corner of our street where I was shown the point where they hit a blockage whilst pulling through their wiring. Once again Telkom stood back and ‘PASSED THE BUCK’ to their client. I was firmly informed that Telkom does not dig within secure estates. So once again the ball is in our court. The blockage was pinpointed as being right under a resident’s landscaping which was done right onto the verge of the street. So now we have to get permission from the resident to dig up their landscaping find Telkom’s piping and fix their piping … oh yes, we were also requested to build a little brick enclosure around Telkom’s piping to protect their piping for them … in effect put in a manhole for them. Only once this is done will Telkom be willing to return to site and pull through their wires.

At the moment we are at stalemate asking ourselves the following questions:

* Are we going to dig up someone else’s landscaping who took the risk of landscaping a verge under which general services are running?

* Are we going to fix Telkom’s pipes which have been damaged by someone else?

* Should Telkom not maintain their services themselves?

* Are we going to incur costs to fix Telkom’s property for the benefit of ourselves as well as two other houses being built between ourselves and Telkom’s manhole who will in future benefit from our costs incurred? I don’t think so ….

* Should we not play the waiting game and utilize Telkom’s competitors due to become active in 2008.



In summary, thus far we have started Telkom’s implementation for them at our own discomfort and expense and for which we are going to pay endless months’ of rent to Telkom. Weird isn’t it.

…. Another Chapter to follow ….

- Touching Tomorrow ... Out of Reach ... signing off