-
Join the MyBroadband community
South Africa’s biggest forum. Discuss, discover, and connect with thousands of members.
-
Question of the Day: What's the most interesting small town you've visited in South Africa?
Afrihost are lying.
- Thread starter bboy
- Start date
RogueRunner
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2008
- Messages
- 314
- Reaction score
- 0
Nature of the beast I'm afraid.
I signed up since I lost my freeride kinda and had to get cheap BW somewhere. I send in my ID just after 5, was ready for the bitch and moan bit since their ad states instant activation and phones were not answered when I called around 17:15. I did log a ticket with support though to activate my account and lo and behold, 30min or so later it was active!!
So now I'm busy updating my Iphone to 3.1.2 and it's not fast but not slow either. Earlier downloads were cruising around the 200k mark, hope that gets better
On my axxess prepaids I got linespeed almost always which was nice. Time will tell.
I signed up since I lost my freeride kinda and had to get cheap BW somewhere. I send in my ID just after 5, was ready for the bitch and moan bit since their ad states instant activation and phones were not answered when I called around 17:15. I did log a ticket with support though to activate my account and lo and behold, 30min or so later it was active!!
So now I'm busy updating my Iphone to 3.1.2 and it's not fast but not slow either. Earlier downloads were cruising around the 200k mark, hope that gets better
On my axxess prepaids I got linespeed almost always which was nice. Time will tell.D34M0n7
Executive Member
What happend is this:
You were dling something, or someone else was on your internet connection and they went OVER your 1GB cap by 19.336GB...
You have a 1GB cap allocated to your USERNAME
eg. lets just say someones user name is [email protected] and that user name has a 1GB cap allocated to it, then the user downloads 1.5GB... They have just used 0.5GB that IS NOT allocated to their user name and therefore they must pay for that 0.5GB that they used becuase it is not allocated in their usual monthly bill.
What usualy happens when you go over your cap with afrihost is - They deduct it off the next months cap of off your topups but now, because you are calceling the account you must pay the ammount upfront of 19.336GB.
Its not Afrihosts fault/problem if people are not mindful of their useage, if you have a 5GB cap and start a DL of 6GB don't be suprised and happy when you see the DL hit the 5.6/6 GB mark.
What I suggest you do is NOT go over your limit, keep a close eye on how much you DL... and if it was not you that went over then, if you use wireless LAN change your password to something very complicated and check with everyone else that has access to your internet connection.
Last edited:
TheRoDent
Cool Ideas Rep
I disagree. If you buy 1 litre of milk, and you get one litre of milk in the carton fine... Everyone happy. That model is called prepaid. I prepaid for something, I get to use it.
If you buy a 1 litre carton of milk, and it actually contains 2 litres, then the corner cafe is going to have a really hard time trying to claim payment for the extra 1 litre of milk that came in the carton after the fact, unless he has a postpaid agreement with you.
In fact, the consumer protection act adresses this. It's called "hidden charges". And nobody can force that on you unless it was contractually agreed to.
And if it was hidden in Afrihost's fine print, then you could probably still take them to the Consumer Complaints Commission.
Consumers shouldn't have to "watch their usage" on a prepaid account, for fear of postpaid usage charges if the product is advertised and sold as a prepaid "hard capped" product.
Go and buy a prepaid data bundle from Vodacom on 3G. Use it. Watch them trying to charge you for "overusage" due to technical issues on their side... Not going to happen.
Freshy-ZN
Executive Member
Its not prepaid its a monthly account.
were these accounts sold as soft or hard capped? if they were sold as soft-cap then fine the issue is with the user.
But if sold as hard cap, then I should be able to start a 100GB download on a 1GB account and should be fairly assured that I will be capped with somewhere between 98GB - 99GB left on the download. It would not be reasonable to expect that as much as 20GB would flow before I was hard hard capped. The point being that other hard capped accounts manage to do this without issue.
And Gian has admitted as much above
[quote
No need to panic. There was a glitch at the end of last month where bandwidth was only being soft capped! (Doh!) However we have taken full responsibility for this. From now on we going to be hard capping (the way it should have been done all along.)[/quote]
But if sold as hard cap, then I should be able to start a 100GB download on a 1GB account and should be fairly assured that I will be capped with somewhere between 98GB - 99GB left on the download. It would not be reasonable to expect that as much as 20GB would flow before I was hard hard capped. The point being that other hard capped accounts manage to do this without issue.
And Gian has admitted as much above
[quote
No need to panic. There was a glitch at the end of last month where bandwidth was only being soft capped! (Doh!) However we have taken full responsibility for this. From now on we going to be hard capping (the way it should have been done all along.)[/quote]
Last edited:
Haha, odd day.
This morning I get a sms saying
"Hi Bboy, you have used 80% of your bandwidth for DSL account ...."
I'm like huh that account is 100%, then I get an email
"Dear Bboy
We trust that you are well!
Please note that your account (*****@afrihost.co.za) has
used 91% of the bandwidth that is included
with your 1 GB package.
The 1 GB package includes 20823.62 MB of
traffic and you have used 19120.42 MB so far."
So, thats even little more confusing, and then later on I get an email from Moshe
saying that account is cancelled ,nothing to be billed,everything rectified. Bananas, and in the client zone is says "cancel pending" or something like that.
So i'm a happy customer now,maybe I should upgrade my 3 gig to a 5 gig
This morning I get a sms saying
"Hi Bboy, you have used 80% of your bandwidth for DSL account ...."
I'm like huh that account is 100%, then I get an email
"Dear Bboy
We trust that you are well!
Please note that your account (*****@afrihost.co.za) has
used 91% of the bandwidth that is included
with your 1 GB package.
The 1 GB package includes 20823.62 MB of
traffic and you have used 19120.42 MB so far."
So, thats even little more confusing, and then later on I get an email from Moshe
saying that account is cancelled ,nothing to be billed,everything rectified. Bananas, and in the client zone is says "cancel pending" or something like that.
So i'm a happy customer now,maybe I should upgrade my 3 gig to a 5 gig
hj2k_x
Honorary Master
So, it turns out that they weren't actually lying then?
Gekco
Expert Member
I dunno what they were doing, obviously changing the figures in their system was setting off alerts. I havent received an explanation as to what went on, but its cancelled and thats the goal.
Freshy-ZN
Executive Member
Then why did you say they were lying if you didnt actually know?
guest2013-1
guest
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2003
- Messages
- 19,800
- Reaction score
- 13
They don't charge you for bandwidth after you've used it.
They charge you for bandwidth before you use it. (on a monthly basis)
Thus, what you're referring to is prepaid.
I think the term prepaid gets muddled when compared to cellphone usage. But, in effect, you're pre-paying for a service before they deliver it.
It's like renting a house. You have to pay rent for the month in advance. That way, if you move out during that month, the owner still has the money. Imagine the chaos if a tenant only paid rent AFTER he lived there for a month.... and then promptly moves out and disappears
guest2013-1
guest
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2003
- Messages
- 19,800
- Reaction score
- 13
They told them they would cancel it. They didn't. That's lying.
It's like telling your dad you didn't take the car out for a spin while he was at work and did exactly that. That's lying.
/me is wondering to himself why he's teaching these basic principles to people...
hj2k_x
Honorary Master
guest2013-1
guest
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2003
- Messages
- 19,800
- Reaction score
- 13
If your wife/girlfriend becomes pregnant, and they don't tell you, and somehow manages not to see you for the duration and give birth... and you want to break up with them, and from out of nowhere they go "Sorry, but you have a responsibility to us" and shows you your baby..... how would you have known otherwise?
hj2k_x
Honorary Master
Is this meant to be some kind of analogy?
Perhaps I am missing something.
Either way, it has been resolved. And the sensationalist title was once again unnecessary.
guest2013-1
guest
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2003
- Messages
- 19,800
- Reaction score
- 13
Yes it was
I know it's been resolved, it's just that when you have the tools to login and check your bandwidth usage. Got the SMS and got the emails... and want to notify of a cancellation to only then find out you need to pay for excess bandwidth... ah well *flogs the dead horse some more* seems people don't understand the concept much. All they see is "BARGAIN!"
I bought an account, I used it,I decided I did not need it anymore.
I cancelled it.
I was then told I could not cancel until I paid more, which is in direct contradictions with their terms. LIE
I was told I had moved/used/allocated 20+GB data via email, when no such sms's, emails, stats stracker(client zone) reflected any of that. LIE
I cancelled it.
I was then told I could not cancel until I paid more, which is in direct contradictions with their terms. LIE
I was told I had moved/used/allocated 20+GB data via email, when no such sms's, emails, stats stracker(client zone) reflected any of that. LIE
This analogy is wrong, because if you are bonking your wife/girlfriend you are aware that there is a risk she will get pregnant no matter what birth control is used.
The correct one should be.
If your wife/girlfriend becomes pregnant after telling you her tubes are tied and her ovaries are removed, and they don't tell you, and somehow manages not to see you for the duration and give birth... and you want to break up with them, and from out of nowhere they go "Sorry, but you have a responsibility to us" and shows you your baby..... how would you have known otherwise?