The challenges of technology...

Well, I finally have my Telkom ADSL back. It only took a month to get it reinstalled and have several visits from the technicians to troubleshoot the installation to get it working right. Yesterday I had to call Telkom because I was hooked up to the ADSL line and the router was showing all lights green but I was getting no data transfer.

So, here is the comparison between Cell C and Telkom: when I had the exact same problem with my Cell C stick and I tried to call tech support it took 90 minutes of calls to finally reach one person who didn't know anything about the stick or the network and could not help me; whenever what was wrong with the network was eventually corrected, my data began to flow again (hours later). I called Telkom once, the second person I talked to was the right guy (who actually knew what was going on) who said "let me reset something..." As soon as he did that, it was fixed. The whole thing, from my realization that data was not flowing to the resumption of my data stream, took less than 15 minutes and only one telephone call.

I am not whitewashing Telkom. I've had my issues with them and some of their installation technicians are modern day incarnations of the Keystone Kops, but at least when I call with a problem I can 1) get through to them, usually on the first phone call; 2) get the ear of someone who at least has a clue about the technology that is not functioning; 3) has some reasonable idea as to what to do to remedy the problem. None of the three, in my experience, apply to Cell C when you are faced with a problem with those ridiculous whooshless sticks.

But my technology problems don't stop there. For the past week or so (today being a notable exception) my router has been going nutso. This is a wireless router and not only does internet reception to the laptops depend on it, we have wireless printers, so they depend on it too.

The router is usually left on all of the time. It kind of defeats the purpose of having laptops with batteries that can be used anywhere in the house or garden to have to hunt down a plugged-in device when you want to use the wireless one, so it stays plugged in. This has never been an issue in the past.

When we reinstalled the ADSL, the router had been in constant use during the ADSL hiatus since we needed it to print, no matter what our data source. But once the ADSL line was restored, the router started acting badly. On the off chance that it was a question of age (the router is at least 5 years old), Hubby updated the firmware. It solved the data drop out problem, but now a new problem has begun: it turns itself on and off.

Now this, I think, is absolutely bizarre! I go to bed at night and the router is plugged in and working. I get up in the morning, boot up the laptop, and it can't connect to the web. I go check the router and the lights tell me that it is turning itself on, booting up the in-house wireless, hooking up to the internet...and turning itself off and then after a second or two, turning itself on and starting the cycle all over again!! This will go on endlessly unless I unplug the beast and leave it alone for an hour or so before plugging it back in.

One might think it is an overheating problem, but I tried unplugging it at bedtime and plugging it in come morning and the problem returned. And it doesn't happen every morning...this morning it was just fine. And the problem isn't limited to morning (although it usually occurs then)...over the weekend Hubby had to reset the stupid thing several times in mid afternoon in order to get his internet connection.

I can't figure out if we have a hardware problem, an incoming line problem...or if the cosmos is trying to tell me I am spending too much time on the internet!

More Cell C nonsense...so lame it's almost funny!

Yesterday I received a comment on my post "Dear Cell C" that was supposedly from the CEO of the company. I dunno if it was really him or a person with a sick sense of humour, but it doesn't matter since I was unable to respond to LPR's offer to help me because LPR didn't bother to leave me a number, email address, or other means to send him my contact details. In case you don't already know, leaving a comment on a blog in no way enables the blogger to contact you back, especially if your own profile is private and the blogger get can't into it to send you a message back!

Then, this morning, I got an email from Cell C's Customer (dis)Service saying...and I quote..."kindly contact up on 140 fro more information on your speed stick." It was followed by a link entitled "Disclaimer."

OK, I wasn't born yesterday and the dismal spelling and (lack of) capitalization put me in mind of a phishing scam. Add to that the fact that dialing "140" on the cell phone got me to a recording that told me there was no such number. I am actually hoping that this email was a phishing scam or some lame attempt at a hoax because if that email really did come from Cell C, the company is even more hopeless than I thought.

Meanwhile, I have been without landline service since Tuesday morning...Telkom tells me this morning that I am not the only one in my area reporting trouble. Ummm...okay...then shouldn't that make this a higher priority than just one lone person calling up to report a line fault? The technician agreed to "escalate" the report, whatever that means. But for the short term, I have no land line, which means no phones, no fax, no ADSL, and this miserable stick...which works capriciously at best...as my only link to the net.

I love South Africa, but if American telecom companies worked like the local companies, there would be some serious head rolling going on!!

Adventures with Telkom

So, Hubby, tired of listening to me moan about that accursed Cell C stick, calls up to get Telkom's ADSL line reinstalled.

After a few days, I get a call from Telkom confirming Hubby's call and confirming the order...except that they have the order wrong. I correct them, they acknowledge.

Monday, the ADSL line is functioning...for about 3 hours. Then it is back to the stick while Hubby calls Telkom to report the line has gone down.

After a few days, Telkom calls to tell him that the technicians will be out Friday (today) at 4:30 to see what is wrong with the line.

At 8 this morning Telkom calls to confirm the technician are coming out: "You want to convert your ADSL line to regular phone lines?" the caller asks me. "No," I say, "I want my ADSL line to work," I tell him. "Oh!" he says, surprise in his voice. "Your line is not working?" He then tells me the technicians will be here at 10 this morning.

At 8:30 my phone rings...the technicians are outside, "testing" my phone line. "There's nothing wrong with my phone," I tell them. "My ADSL line is not working."

A few minutes later they are at the door and after seeing my wireless router, I am asked if I asked for "wireless" when I signed up for the new ADSL line. "I don't need to do that," I told them. "I have used this router in three houses in two cities and NEVER had to sign up for wireless...you just put an ADSL line into the router and it makes the wireless signal."

He appears unconvinced. Taking the router down from its lofty perch he examines it. "Where is your ethernet cable?" he asks.

"Huh?" I respond. "This is wireless, it doesn't use an ethernet cable."

He sends his partner out to their truck to bring in their own wireless router which, when plugged in, shows the four lights necessary for connection...mine had only been showing three."

"Your router is broken!" he tells me.

"It was working just fine earlier in the week...it had all four lights and I had an ADSL connection, then suddenly the ADSL line was dead."

By this time my husband, the engineer, has come home. They cannot blow smoke up his arse because he knows more about this than they do. "There is nothing wrong with the router," he tells them. "The wireless is working just fine...we can print to the wireless printer using it...the problem is your ADSL line."

The techs are not convinced. I leave the room so Hubby and the techs can talk jargon and try to convince each other that the other party is wrong. Eventually the techs call their office on the landline, have the person at the other end synchronize something, plug my router back into the ADSL line and voila! all four lights come flashing on!

My router is fine, just as Hubby said, but the technician is not convinced. He then unplugs the ADSL line to see which light goes off on the router...he is sure my router is faulty, despite the evidence that was before his very eyes!

Eventually, Hubby convinces him that the router is fine, and now they have fixed the ADSL line so everything is working. He escorts them to the front door and goes back to his office, thankfully only five minutes away.

Amazingly, this fiasco...which ended in success...is preferable to the ridiculousness of the Cell C experience because at least I can reach someone on Telkom's phone and eventually someone comes out to fix the problem. Three months with Cell C and the problems were never resolved...

I know how weird it sounds, but I am actually glad to be back in the clutches of Telkom for my internet connection!!

Dear Cell C

I have two of your "speed sticks," a white one and a black one. I have had them since December. I HATE them. HATE HATE HATE them. I hate them so much that next week I am going back to Helkom and their ADSL.

I put up a blog entry in December, a week after I got these pieces of crap, complaining about them. That blog entry has had more than 30 responses, and all of them hate this nasty little stick too. You've already seen the blog entry. You've already contacted me about it. Your "fix" was to make promises that were never fulfilled. I am not the only person who has had this experience with your customer dis-service organization, either...see the blog.

Do you realize you are engaging false advertising? This stick does NOT work as advertised...and neither does your customer service. When I call the 084140 number, the prompt asks for my Cell C telephone number---I do not have one and, considering the dismal performance of this horrid little stick, do you honestly think I would be stupid enough to get a cell phone that works on this miserable excuse for a network?? OK, eventually bright spark in your organization got an idea and added a prompt for people who are too smart to get one of your phones...but stupid enough to believe your false advertising and get one of your sticks. When I press the prompt designed for such people I am transferred to 30 seconds of dead air space, after which the line disconnects. Clever...you can maintain a fiction inside the organization that your stupid stick is as wonderful as you advertise it to be because you PREVENT COMPLAINING CUSTOMERS FROM REACHING THE SERVICE ORGANIZATION.

Last week I had a four hour drop out...the light on the stick said it was connected but no data flowed. I rebooted everything except my feet, but it just sat there, plugged into my laptop, winking from one colour to another in its slobbering stupidity. Because I had URGENT business to transact that REQUIRED an internet connection, my poor husband had to leave work, pick up the data from me on a thumb drive, then drive back to his office and send the necessary stuff from his work computer...using his employer's bandwidth because MINE WAS INACCESSIBLE.

Yesterday this piece of (expletive deleted) shut itself off twice...yup, just shut itself off...no light blinking on the stick or anything. Today I am experiencing data transfer so excruciatingly slow I actually went out to the kitchen and made myself a cup of tea and when I got back to the computer it STILL had not connected to the website I needed!! I have had to reboot the stick four times in the last five hours just to keep that excruciatingly slow trickle of data flowing.

You people should be ashamed...abjectly, red-faced, head-hanging ashamed...for not only putting a product this bad into the marketplace but for your baldfaced lies about it in your advertising and your cleverly constructed telephone labyrinth that keeps complaining customers at bay. You should be further ashamed of making token passes at customer service, like calling me up and promising the problem will be referred to technical support and someone from there will call me...I've been waiting for TWO MONTHS for that call...it hasn't happened yet!

What I do get is operators on your main line who, after hearing that I cannot use 084140 because I don't have a Cell C phone, put me through to it anyway. Or they transfer me to a supervisor who doesn't answer his/her phone. On the rare occasion I have managed to reach someone marginally technical, I have literally had to make a dozen or more phone calls and waste 90 minutes or MORE, just in the attempt to reach someone who MIGHT be able to help me.

I hate this thing. I truly, honestly, from the bottom of my heart, hate this thing. It doesn't do what what you say it does...not even once in a while. And your company's obtuseness when it comes to providing customer service just exacerbates the problem. But most of all, I hate that with your on-going advertising campaign of lies, you keep sucking in more and more of the unsuspecting, people who end up on my blog...sometimes within HOURS of purchase!...who are just as unhappy and disappointed with it as I am. http://sweetvioletsa.blogspot.com/2010/12/ineptitude-thy-name-is-cell-c.html

It would be very nice if someone from your organization who actually has the power to change things would contact me in response to this email. If all you can muster, however, is some little drone who can only send me scripted replies/links (like your telephone operators and the customer service people who have contacted me in the past) then please do not waste your time or mine. If you cannot hook me up with someone who actually has the authority to FIX things, then just send me a note with the procedure I need to follow to return these turkeys and get my money back.

Sincerely (and I MEAN that)

Sweet Violet

cc: http://sweetvioletsa.blogspot.com/2010/12/ineptitude-thy-name-is-cell-c.html

Cell C, I am fed up and now I am lodging an official complaint

One of the wonderful things about South Africa is the Advertising Standards Authority. This is a proactive organization with teeth and it is not afraid to use them. I love the ASA!

When a company is advertising something falsely, misleadingly, or if the advertisement is offensive, you can lodge a complaint with the organization and it will investigate. If it agrees with you (and they seem to be very pro-complainant) it will make the company remove or modify its advertising to be more acceptable.

I am going to complain to the ASA about Cell C and its false advertising about the "Whoosh" stick. The advertising is patently false...they fact that the stick may, on occasion, reach lightning speed does not give them the right to mislead potential buyers into thinking it is always that fast when, in fact, for a significant portion of time the stick is either miserably slow or completely off line (I had a four hour drop out earlier this week that wreaked havoc on my attempts to get a vacant flat rented!).

The ASA has its own standards for reporting. You can report a company on line via their complaint form or by email, but whichever you choose, they require certain information. The following is from their website:

All complaints lodged with the ASA must meet the following criteria:

* The complaint must be in writing.

* The identity of the complainant(s) must be disclosed.

* The contact details of the complainant(s) should be clearly stated.

* The complainant(s) identity or passport number must be provided.

* The grounds on which the complaint is based must be clearly stated.

* Where the complaint relates to advertising on broadcast media (e.g. television, radio or on cinema) information should be furnished on where and when the advertisement was screened / transmitted.

* Where signs, posters or any form of outdoor advertising is involved, the nature of the advertisement and the wording should be specified.

* When the complaint is about print advertising, the relevant advertisement should be attached.

* If possible, the contact name, address or telephone / fax number of the advertiser should be provided.

Complaints may be submitted as follows:

* By delivery, to the ASA at Willowview, Burnside Island Office Park, 410 Jan Smuts Avenue, Craighall Park, Johannesburg;

* By post to, PO Box 41555, Craighall, 2024;

* By telefacsimile, to +27 11 781 1616; or

* E-mail complaint to: complaint@asasa.org.za

* Use the e-complaint form on this website

Their website is located at www.asasa.org.za. If you are as fed up with Cell C's misleading advertising and crap product, you now have a productive avenue of complaint. Use it!

Ineptitude, thy name is Cell C!

OK, it's official...the Cell C "whoosh" wireless connection thingie sucks. Big time. Constant drop outs, reconnects that don't actually reconnect to the network. Long dead times while you connect, reconnect, and reconnect again. Save your money and stay away from this turkey! This review is based on the following, an experience capping seven days of drop outs, emails lost in the ether, and endlessly repeated reconnections (which are not automatic…every time it drops out, you have to go into a window and reconnect manually).


Wednesday, 8 December, 2010
Sandton

One (1) Cell C Speed Stick and one (1) Dell laptop computer.

Speed Stick loses connection to the Internet at 12:26 pm: it can connect to the Cell C network but is unable to download any data from the web (meaning it cannot even refresh an open page, like the email).

For testing purposes, a second Speed Stick is plugged into a ThinkPad laptop: it connects to the network but it also cannot download any data from the web.

Forty (40) minutes and nine (9) telephone calls to Cell C result in seven (7) transfers to technical assistance that went into endless selection loops or that were cut off, and one (1) person who gave us a telephone number for Tech support, which we had to dial ourselves because transfers go into an endless selection loop.

Fifty (50) minutes after the things stopped working, connection to a technician who, for some bizarre reason, seemed to think that fiddling with the Internet Options settings on one of the computers will resolve a problem affecting two (2) computers and two (2) sticks.

At 1:36…one hour and ten minutes (1/10) after the data stopped flowing, the tech support person refers the problem to the Network Services department and tells us someone will call us back.

Seventy (70) minutes chewed up to find out that not only does Cell C not know why my Speed Sticks are not working, but to learn that Cell C itself does not even know its network has a problem!

At 1:56 the signal is intermittently back. But it comes and goes, causing the light on the stick to cycle randomly through green/blue/indigo/dead without warning.

This wasn’t my idea and, believe it or not, Telkom and an ISP that is growing too fast for its own good (and efficiency) is a better option. Save your money until Cell C can tell, without you wasting an hour on the phone (at Telkom rates), that there is something is wrong, wrong, wrong with their network!

Hubby, hear my plea! Take this turkey back to the farm for a refund and give me my ADSL back!!