'Application of Contention Ratio' - Or Fraud?

I hope for Sentech's sake that this is a temporary blip.

There are a lot of people, like me, watching from the side lines and waiting to see how things develop before they lock themselves into a 24 month contract.

As it happens I've been anally reamed by Sentech with a 24 month contract before. I used their dialup-Sat return product. After a year with them they sold us off to MWEB and the avaiable bandwidth fell through the floor. After sticking it out for 4 months I told them to f**k themselves and blocked their stop order. Didn't hear from them again [:D]

So be warned they HAVE actually pulled Bait & switches in the past.

That all said I'm pretty sure this will be resolved ... Sasser???
 
It doesnt look like any trojan or worm excuse - given they were quite clear about this being due to the 'contention ratio being applied'

As I stated in another thread - the techie I spoke to worked out that the absolute minimum I should expect in terms of download speeds on a 128k is ... around 4k ...
So R650 for 4 or 5k download speed - after at least two months or more of a quite contented 8 - 13k ..I dont think so..

so if Sentech say that 'contractually' they're liable to provide a minimum for a 128 package of 4 - 5k download speed..

I can use a 56k modem and spend 60bux a month and achieve the same result - so again, this seems like fraudulent business practices in action. What say any lawyers on the forum??
 
Message to Sentech staff who read this forum:

The product you sold to your customers is not currently performing as *expected* by your customers.

They don't know if this represents a policy shift by Sentech or just a technical glitch.

They are anxious. They phone your customer "support" line. They speak to tech support and get fobbed off by a minimum-wage script-reading monkey. Your customers get angry.

You can short-circuit this whole vicious cycle and prevent unnecesary customer frustration by putting up a Network Status webpage.

The fact that you, the Sentech staff, know that this is or isn't a temporary problem is irrelevant, your CUSTOMERS need to know this.

The longer you maintain the silence the more angry your customers are going to become. The more they are going to suspect they are being shafted. The more they are going to give negative reviews of your product. The fewer customers you are going to sign up. The closer you are to being retrenched.


Basic psychology ...

Google "customer centeredness"
 
Its time someone kicked those Support techies in the ass.
Guys we know what is wrong but it is not for me to stick my nose in and I agree, the department responsible here should have made some sort of an announcement by now.
Initially the worm bought some time, but thats long gone.
Regarding contentions, on our side we are many many 1000's of users away from any form of contention ratios, so those techies need a lesson.
I'm flying up tomorrow morning so I'll see if I can rattle some cages.


<hr noshade size="1"><center><font color="blue">MyWireless Stuff</font id="blue">
<font size="1"><font color="black">The opinions expressed here are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of my employer</font id="size1"></font id="black"></center>
 
If you know what is wrong then why not say anything? That will shut a lot of us up and also reduce the load on the call centre. Is it some kind of big secret or what? This is turning a lot of proud customers into fools. There must also be quite a huge impact on signups.. why give a legitimate excuse?
 
[:D] Telkom has capped Sentech.

Ok disregard this remark. [:)]

<b><hr noshade size="1"></b><font size="2"><font color="red"><b>You can take Telkom out of the Post Office but you can't take the Post Office out of Telkom.</b></font id="red"></font id="size2">
 
Thanks ProAsm - I hope you get something sorted. Glad to hear it's got nothing to do with contention ratios.
I think we all understand if you can't say anything - contracts and all that legal stuff.

Bottom line, you are a credit to Sentech and they could do with a few more of you !

Anyway, it's the 'deafening silence' policy that irritates customers more than anything else. It's amazing how your customers will understand any issues happening <b>if you let them know there's problems !</b>
 
ProAsm - if there's something sentech techies have done which is causing this slowdown, then you'll be the Cool Dude of the Hour for fixing - otherwise Sentech are probably about to lose a large chunk of the market and discover that ISP reputations online, travel further and faster than any expensive TV ads..

and in other news
I second what hArTh said about the Sentech call centre types - being snobbily told that 'this is the established contention ratio situation and that I was lucky up until now to get decent speeds' (and you higher package guys dont laugh, but I was quite happy getting 8 - 13 k d/l speeds) but the call centre attitude just made me feel a) stupid for actually daring to complain and b) extremely unwanted as a customer..

*he pouts*
 
Well, I'd say next time you get treated badly by customer support, get the guys name and send an official complaint.

There's millions of people unemployed in this country - if the support tech doesn't like his job, there's plenty more people who'll take it !

I've said from the beggining that I don't mind getting 6k a second every now and then - you know, during peak time (I'm on a 128k connection) - I'll fully understand that network speeds vary. So long as it bursts up to 12 to 14k per second off peak, I'm happy.
 
I have, under normal operating conditions, that during the day speeds will vary from about 5-6KB/sec minimum but still spiky. Probably avg 8-9K. During the evenings, it seems to avg about 11K or so and then after 23:00 it maxes out if required. This is on 128Kbps. I have seen similar results on the 256Kbps (relatively speaking, NOT exactly the same speeds but rather 10K(day)-20K(early evening)-36K(late) as it were)

And Im perfectly happy with that. Not disgruntled at all when I get avg 50% of the max at any time as long as I see 14+ once a day then I'm happy.

Contention ratios are highly dependent on users and user behaviour so its not quite fair for anyone to bring it up when bandwidth is discussed. I'm sure Sentech is very reasonable with their CR's. This has been proved over and over by ProAsm and he will know.
 
Spoke to an 'Adrian' at the call centre, who repeatedly tells me that the slowdown is the contention ratio 'because of all the new users coming online' - I say yes but you guys obviously flicked a switch 4 or 5 days ago and yanked bandwidth from all users - it wasnt a contention ratio in place from the beginning, otherwise we would have all noticed the gradual drop. Therefore its NOT 'just the contention ratio being applied' and what you (Sentech) are doing is fraudulent - you've provided a service that works, and then removed it and shrugged saying that this is how its been the whole time.

I pointed the guy towards myadsl - to show him a large number of unhappy users - to stop the guy from trying to make me add up my speeds to demonstrate what the contention ratio should be.
(I ask you with tears in my eyes and a ripped up contract, what kind of life support system for legs thinks they can say that getting 1.6k a sec download from local Tucows, is explainable by trying to make the customer do maths to see how it 'all works' and is being shared between other users..)

This 'Adrian' kept saying that this is how it was, and how its going to be from here on, and there's no actual problem at all. Its all just the standard contention ratio as in the signed contracts. This, according to him, is what he's been told.
"THERE'S NO PROBLEM AT SENTECH AT ALL. THIS IS HOW ITS GOING TO BE FROM HERE ON." unquote.

After I'd pointed out a few home truths at him, and mentioned the lovely publicity I'll give this, he did the 'let me just check with some techies and I'll call you back' line.

ProAsm - work some magic when you arrive back in town...
 
Those guys dont have a clue. They just say that to shut you up or because thats what somebody has told them to say to cover up the actual reason. I seriously doubt that its the truth and ProAsm has mentioned that there is a problem of sorts. The funny thing is those tech dudes have 3Mbps in their offices so they couldnt comprehend 3KB/sec.

Saying that thats just the way its gonna be from here is very cheeky and not how you treat a customer. I know a lot of people who would have engaged in colourful language upon hearing that. Ask 'Adrian' next time if he would accept such a service for R650 a month. --aside-- isnt it odd how you always seem to speak to the same one or two or three guys? At least thats my experience..

For a 3K/sec output and assuming say 1000 users all at full capacity (and all getting the same service : the point of CR) that means 1000*3K/sec = 24Mbps:1000 -- this is lower than the "suggested" 35Mbits : 1000 a while back. Although 24Mbps:1000 isnt all that unreasonable its highly unlikely that every single user is online and maxing out their connection. Also, CR's are applied over 1000s of users sharing say 100Mbps links so its a lot better IRL then it seems. In reality, you can probably assume about 50% are online maxing their connections (probably conservative) meaning AT LEAST 6K/sec in the above calculations which blows their stupid "contention ratio" excuse out-of-the-water -- BUT I may be wrong.

Note that the above is for 128kbps. For 256 multiply by 2 (ie. 2 x 128 users) and so forth.

The only way they can use that "excuse" is if they are contending selected users over a small 10Mbps link and the rest or on the normal pipe. For example, assume they are currently only using 50% of their "bought" bandwidth for whatever reason.. now they take the other 50% and let them contend this extra 10Mbps backup link and keep very quiet about it. So in a sense, perhaps their excuse can be <i>partially</i> true..!
 
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by LoneGunman</i>
<br />
This 'Adrian' kept saying that this is how it was, and how its going to be from here on, and there's no actual problem at all. Its all just the standard contention ratio as in the signed contracts. This, according to him, is what he's been told. "THERE'S NO PROBLEM AT SENTECH AT ALL. THIS IS HOW ITS GOING TO BE FROM HERE ON." unquote.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
I would write this experience up in a "strongly worded letter" and (snail-)mail it to Sentech's management, if I were you, if possible CC to the support center management too. If I was Sentech or the support center management, I'd fire this arrogant Adrian's ass. Quite frankly, with the high unemployment rate in SA I'm sure there are plenty of decent people who would be willing to take his job and do it properly ... people like that don't deserve jobs. Hmm .. perhaps Adrian is secretly getting paid on the side by Telkom :) (joke)
 
Here's the thing. Its not so much the specifics of how Adrian the Phone Answerer behaved - its the fact that both he, and the tech support person he spoke with (therefore Sentech as a whole) were clear on this simple thing: 'There is no problem, the speed you have is the speed you're supposed to - even though you havent had such a slow speed before.'
So a strongly worded letter isnt going to help. Either ProAsm is out of the loop, and there's been a deliberate decision by Sentech to cut everyone's bandwidth and brazen it out on a case by case basis (with those non-apathetic customers who telephone) - or else there IS actually a problem, which they're unaware of.
I doubt that they're unaware of this - assuming that people on this forum have bothered to phone and complain. Which leaves one with the disturbing fact that Sentech seem to think that having signed up users, it can then alter its service and pretend that this is the service we signed up for.
So its either
a) deliberate policy or b) ignorance+technical malfunction

ProAsm's return will hopefully clarify this, and determine which it is. If its a) then they're going to lose me as a customer, quite rapidly-
if its
b) they'll keep me, assuming its 'fixed'.
 
Does any1 have an (physical) address where I can send such a letter? I think the letter idea is great, we should all write and complain.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X