[kictanet] Quality of Tech Support with Kenyan Telcos

Tue Oct 18 14:28:54 EAT 2011

It was at Westgate. Could tell no techies are based there from the questions
they could not answer.

Maybe the Orange Kenya's Communications Manager on this list can provide
contacts of engineers who can assist.

SMM
On Oct 17, 2011 9:45 PM, "Odhiambo Washington" <odhiambo at gmail.com> wrote:

> Which shop was this? I'd like to carry my router and USB stick to that shop
> and ask them to sort me out - on a serious note.
>
>
>
> On Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 20:38, S.M. Muraya <murigi.muraya at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> There was a USB modem sticking on it. Cannot recall which model it was.
>>
>> I remember streaming a YouTube HD video on a laptop present for demos.
>>
>> Noted bandwidth @ 4Mbs - 7Mbs via speedtest.net
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 4:34 PM, Odhiambo Washington <odhiambo at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>> Did you see a USB modem sticking on it? This DIR-412 can work like the
>>> DIR-825 - they both can use 3G modems but fall back to an Ethernet
>>> connection for WAN. DIR-412 has a 10/100 Ethernet port while the DIR-825 has
>>> 10/100/1000 ports (fully Gigabit).
>>> So if there was a USB 3G modem sticking on it, it could be several
>>> things:
>>>
>>> 1. Could be a Huawei (documented and easy to find AT strings for)
>>> 2. Could be a ZTE (their techie managed to disable the virtual CDROM, but
>>> did not share the info on what AT strings to use)
>>> 3. Could be just a dummy sitting there...
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 15:35, S.M. Muraya <murigi.muraya at gmail.com>wrote:
>>>
>>>> This does not answer your question, but, I noticed a D-Link DIR 412
>>>> being used at an Orange Kenya shop.
>>>>
>>>> www.dlink.com/dir-412
>>>> On Oct 17, 2011 1:45 PM, "Odhiambo Washington" <odhiambo at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Both AT command sets return ERROR for the ZTE MF192.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks.
>>>>>
>>>>> On Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 13:25, Nicholas J Dear <
>>>>> ndear at sundayafternoon.me.uk> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Have you tried AT+ZCDRUN=8 to disable, AT+ZCDRUN=9 to re-enable?****
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ** **
>>>>>>
>>>>>> That works on other ZTE modems.****
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ** **
>>>>>>
>>>>>> N.****
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ** **
>>>>>>
>>>>>> *From:* kictanet-bounces+ndear=
>>>>>> sundayafternoon.me.uk at lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:
>>>>>> kictanet-bounces+ndear=sundayafternoon.me.uk at lists.kictanet.or.ke] *On
>>>>>> Behalf Of *Odhiambo Washington
>>>>>> *Sent:* 17 October 2011 13:06
>>>>>> *To:* Nicholas J Dear
>>>>>> *Cc:* Kictanet
>>>>>> *Subject:* [kictanet] Quality of Tech Support with Kenyan Telcos****
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ** **
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Apologies in advance for cross-posting.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I'm somehow very appalled at the level of technical support we get
>>>>>> from our Telcos. What surprises me is the fact they they have some of the
>>>>>> best brains in the market, yet they simply cannot get these brains to
>>>>>> address the consumer problems. A simple problem can take you ages to get
>>>>>> solved -- unless you go behind the scenes and contact these techies at a
>>>>>> personal level.
>>>>>> I've come to the point of thinking that either there is too much
>>>>>> bureaucracy introduced between the people we talk to (the CSEs) and the
>>>>>> engineers who work in the background or the escalation process simply isn't
>>>>>> streamlined. The process of getting a solution from the engineers can take
>>>>>> ages (to me, a week is ages!). Then again, the Customer-facing teams simply
>>>>>> seem to be robots who don't want to try and reason out. Is thinking out of
>>>>>> the box not acceptable for CSEs working in these Telcos??
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Take one such problem that I'm facing currently with one these Telcos
>>>>>> - ORANGE: I bought their much touted 21Mbps modem. The issue at hand is that
>>>>>> I need to share the Internet connectivity with other residents of my house
>>>>>> via a WiFi router. My router, a D-Link DIR-825, has a USB port that supports
>>>>>> a 3G modem. There is one obstacle that I must overcome with the ZTE modem
>>>>>> for me to be able to use it with my D-Link router -- I must find a way to
>>>>>> disable the virtual CDROM and card reader from the USB stick/modem. The
>>>>>> problem is no technician at ORANGE knows how to do this. Probably there is a
>>>>>> technician (I have a feeling Orange must have gotten ZTE to train some
>>>>>> technicians, or in the daftest form, ZTE must have seconded some techies to
>>>>>> Orange!) but it's not possible to reach him/her/them!
>>>>>>
>>>>>> My router already works with the Safaricom's Huawei E1820, because I
>>>>>> was able to go-ogle and find the AT Command to use to disable the virtual
>>>>>> CDROM (AT^U2DIAG=0 does the disabling; AT^U2DIAG=1 re-enables it if I
>>>>>> need to), which then enabled my router to recognize the USB modem.
>>>>>> Fortunately, after installing the drivers on a computer, I really do not
>>>>>> require the virtual CDROM interface anymore.
>>>>>> I have not been able to find an equivalent command for ZTE-MF192 USB
>>>>>> stick and has called Orange Customer Support (Data+Internet) so many times
>>>>>> and they simply don't have a clue as to what I am asking for. I'd have
>>>>>> thought they are trained to know that some clients are more demanding than
>>>>>> others and as such they are allowed to go the extra mile and reason outside
>>>>>> the box to help such customers.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I am not sure  if I am expecting too much, but because I paid money to
>>>>>> get this modem, I'd expect Orange to help me in any way that I'd like to use
>>>>>> the modem. They still make their money by allowing me to use it.
>>>>>> What I don't seem to be able to wrap my head around is why there is no
>>>>>> technician at Orange (whether native or Chinese) who can help me with this
>>>>>> problem? Aren't we supposed to expect a better quality support from these
>>>>>> Telcos than we are getting now??
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I started by generalizing on "Telcos". I have only detailed my problem
>>>>>> with Orange, but such problems are not exclusive to Orange. I remember
>>>>>> Robert Yawe has detailed his own tribulations with other Telcos on this very
>>>>>> forum.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> Best regards,
>>>>>> Odhiambo WASHINGTON,
>>>>>> Nairobi,KE
>>>>>> +254733744121/+254722743223
>>>>>> _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
>>>>>> I can't hear you -- I'm using the scrambler.
>>>>>> Please consider the environment before printing this email. ****
>>>>>> ------------------------------
>>>>>>
>>>>>> No virus found in this message.
>>>>>> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
>>>>>> Version: 2012.0.1831 / Virus Database: 2090/4556 - Release Date:
>>>>>> 10/16/11****
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Best regards,
>>>>> Odhiambo WASHINGTON,
>>>>> Nairobi,KE
>>>>> +254733744121/+254722743223
>>>>> _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
>>>>> I can't hear you -- I'm using the scrambler.
>>>>> Please consider the environment before printing this email.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Best regards,
>>> Odhiambo WASHINGTON,
>>> Nairobi,KE
>>> +254733744121/+254722743223
>>> _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
>>> I can't hear you -- I'm using the scrambler.
>>> Please consider the environment before printing this email.
>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Best regards,
> Odhiambo WASHINGTON,
> Nairobi,KE
> +254733744121/+254722743223
> _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
> I can't hear you -- I'm using the scrambler.
> Please consider the environment before printing this email.
>
>
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