Pay the piper

ADSL South Africa (Broadband South Africa), 17 December 2006

Telkom went from zero to hero on the consumer website HelloPeter in what might be deemed as a clever but ‘deceiving’ move at best.

Telkom went from the top of HelloPeter’s ‘Companies who do not respond’ list to the top of ‘Compliments about companies who respond’ in a very short time.

Has Telkom really turned into a hero overnight? 

Well, according to HelloPeter the answer is clearly ‘yes’ although we know that it’s far removed from reality. “HelloPeter explained that the company that received the most compliments or complaints over the last 10 days tops the list for each category. It is however impossible for a company who responds to be included in the complaints category or vice versa” (Telkom’s top consumer rating confuses, MyADSL, 2006).

The fact of the matter is that companies have to pay the Piper, sorry HelloPeter, an annual fee before they can “respond to customers and join the ‘companies who respond’ list. It is however beneficial for customers when a company starts to respond to them, and HelloPeter’s revenue model may serve the purpose of both keeping the website going and encouraging companies to join the website (Telkom’s top consumer rating confuses, MyADSL, 2006). While it is true that HelloPeter’s revenue model has its perks, it’s also true that it leaves the door wide open for misuse. In other words, if your company is having a bad field day at HelloPeter you just show some green buck!

To be honest, HelloPeter has become Bye-ByePeter (in terms of telecoms complaints) for us the moment Telkom gained star status on their clock. ADSL South Africa encourages people to make use of MyADSL’s and Hellkom’s forums instead. For instance “on MyADSL there are no fees for companies to join, but there are also no incentives like being removed from a complaints list” ” (Telkom’s top consumer rating confuses, MyADSL, 2006). It would be a better idea if HelloPeter operated on a voluntarily contribution basis supported by customers and not companies.

ADSL South Africa (Broadband South Africa) deplores the way they are out to deceive and cheat you.