On Mon, Mar 21, 2011 at 08:24, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

Hi,

I have just received an invoice in the post from Telkom/Orange totalling 952,000/- shillings for provision of a 512 kbps Kenstream (wired high-speed) connection that to the best of my knowledge I never applied.

This invoices have been sent to us diligently for over 5 years yet the last time we had a data service from Telkom was in 2003 and it was an analogue tie line, which are what ISPs in those days used to provide leased line connections. The charge for the tie line was 1,500/- so how it got to 11,500/- and became a Kenstream service from the Kenline service only Telkom would know.

If accounts like this one are what Orange had been presented with when they where valuing Telkom before the purchase then they definitely got a raw deal both from whoever did the due diligence and the seller.

Yet what is shocking is that no one on the management of Orange has ever thought of doing a quick analysis of the number of active ports on their Kenstream switch against the accounts being billed.

In addition what work do the credit and recovery department do as most of the previously postpaid services are now prepaid? The service is being charged at 11,600/- and has accumulated, auto charging can be a devil, to 952,000/- yet no manager as though it prudent to follow up on the issue. Doing a basic calculation of 952,000/11,600 it would mean that this account is over 6 years over due.

Maybe I need to apply for the job of MD at Orange, as I await for an opening at Postal, because within 3 months I will have surpassed the current data connections by over 100% as from this invoicing fiasco it is clear that management are looking for funds to buy new switching equipment yet 60% or more of the current equipment is unutilised yet the records indicate otherwise.

The same also applies for their internet bandwidth traffic which would explain why they give you twice the bandwidth and you end up with slower speeds.

If anyone on this list has a contact at Orange please forward this post to them as we all know that they have a n even higher ivory tower than Safaricom's.

The relevance of this posting is to help us understand why Orange does not seem to be making progress and most of this is because of technical people like ourselves who are not delivering, if I was to be appointed MD of telkom aka Orange today the first group to go home would be finance and IT.

Regards

Robert Yawe
KAY System Technologies Ltd
Phoenix House, 6th Floor
P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200
Kenya

Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696

Robert,

This is a very good piece, and I can assure you about two things:

1. There are lurkers on this list from Orange, so they will definately read this. They'll however do nothing on it.
2. You don't want to apply for a job at all in Orange. You will not achieve anything. Such discoveries as you have made are some of
those things which you'll never be able to resolve, because the politics & cartels (secret groupings) within Orange will not let you
do that. From what I gather, Orange is politically controlled. Forget the French. They may soon be packing!