Afrihost Business Uncapped Feedback

[AfriMan]

I used my AH Business account, PostmanPot used my AH Business account... and we were both using it at the same time.

So much for "locked to the phone number of the subscriber".

I also gave Zertop my account to use as a test, as well as a couple of other friends after that to test... trying to eliminate my setup as a variable, this was before the official IPC announcement or acknowledgement of any issue.

Maybe this too is one of those "grey areas".

This definitely should not be happening. It could be that if you upgraded from a Capped account in recent month, the account inherited the traits of it's predecessor and allows concurrent connections, which should have been updated by the Radius when you moved data on the new profile setting.

I would be truly grateful if you would PM the username concerned. If there is a bug in the system, it may be something we can sort out to improve experience.

 

[cortexenslaver]

Uhm... well, what the AH site actually says about this product is exactly why i chose this product.

If what they are saying about this product has zero relevance to the actual product, well then, something can be done.

I am not taking a shot at you... quite the opposite. I have moaned and complained as much as anyone on this thread. All I am saying is that I have now been "beaten into submission" and have decided to wait till the so-called IPC upgrade comes online. All of us have pointed out the many discrepancies regarding the service we pay for, versus the service we are getting... and it's falling on deaf ears... Let's hope for AH's sake, and ours, that the upgrade makes a huge difference. Let's hope that they maybe make a good will gesture of a discount for the past month to ALL uncapped users (I have a Home and Business account) to maybe restore some faith in AH. In my experience with the AH Business Uncapped, it was by far the best account I have ever used (in 8 years) for the first 3 months... but this last month and a half has been the worst ADSL experience I have ever had. This is where ALL of our frustration has come in, and we are ALL unfortunately in the same boat.

Everything above is the same as we have all been saying over the past few months. My prior comment was based on the fact that nothing AH claims is a reflection of our (the clients') reality right now. I used those quotes from the site to highlight how poor their service is at the moment, and how their "guarantees" regarding the service means absolutely nothing at all - all we are doing is waiting for this "promised" improvement

 

[AfriMan]

That's quite alarming. I mean if people are sharing their business accounts with everyone at the bowling club, the church social, the masonic lodge and the local shebeen, its no wonder there is no capacity available.

We'll need to find out to what extent this could be happening. I doubt that it would have a significant impact, because the nature of uncapped accounts is that when we have allowed multiple connections (like our old IS Uncapped accounts) we split the throughput between the connections 50/50. I would imagine that this is the case, but we'll need to investigate on our side.

 

[Zertop]

This whole idea point of this thread is for clients to lodge complain ( and sometimes say thanks for great service.) So stop trying to shoot down peoples opinion's based on their experience. Some people's livelihood are at stake here. Some people here use business DSL for BUSINESS. Not just to NNTP and troll forums like some other people do....

I think you are forgetting that everyone is entitled to their opinion and this forum is used as a medium for that.

I'm not shooting down opinions, I'm just saying that there is no point in complaining about the same thing over and over, and always getting angry at the reps - cause it's not going to solve anything

Complaining is great! It helps point out flaws, but sometimes complaining goes over the top - and that's just not cool.

 

[cortexenslaver]

Guys, I wouldn't be too alarmed about more than one concurrent connection. Leave that to the OpenWeb clients whose accounts are being shared/sold twice...

Things are much more kosher at Afrihost, I can guarantee.

As i.got~issues said, there was about a 50/50 contention for the bandwidth. We could not each get full speed.

These accounts are locked to a speed. My old 4MB MWEB Uncapped was the same. Mine was on a 10MB line, but locked at 4MB speeds. Another forumite has a 20MB line with a 10MB Business, and his speeds are also locked at 10MB, albeit a bit faster than the rest of us (no overhead to compensate for, as a reslut of a higher sync rate).

 

[i.got~issues]

This definitely should not be happening. It could be that if you upgraded from a Capped account in recent month, the account inherited the traits of it's predecessor and allows concurrent connections, which should have been updated by the Radius when you moved data on the new profile setting.

I would be truly grateful if you would PM the username concerned. If there is a bug in the system, it may be something we can sort out to improve experience.

Hi

Not an upgrade, signed up for a new account.

Will PM info.

 

[AfriMan]

My internet is basically dead. I'm lucky I can even post this message. Cannot browse any website. Speedtest not loading, FNB online banking not working. Nothing works with this useless piece of garbage! And yet I'm paying R700 for this rubbish. Does anyone know gians email? Is it [email protected]? I am seriously considering sending Gian an email with an invoice attached to reimburse me on having to buy a capped account to use because his company is useless as well as demand that afrigoat refund me 1 month.

I've got your PM in my Inbox, promise I will get to it ASAP.

That is Gian's email, and anyone is more than welcome to use it. At the end of the day though, I'm sure what you're after is a solution - so please don't stop PMing me so I can try to help quickly where I can.

 

[AfriMan]

Hi

Not an upgrade, signed up for a new account.

Will PM info.

Thank you, I really do appreciate the assist

 

[i.got~issues]

Thank you, I really do appreciate the assist

Quick question ... My AH clientzone username or ADSL login username ?

 

[cortexenslaver]

I'm not shooting down opinions, I'm just saying that there is no point in complaining about the same thing over and over, and always getting angry at the reps - cause it's not going to solve anything

Complaining is great! It helps point out flaws, but sometimes complaining goes over the top - and that's just not cool.

I agree... it seems that a few are a bit more sensitive the last few days?
We all have issues... we all have complaints... venting is good, as long as it is done in a healthy constructive way. I have been guilty, too of maybe, overstepping... best keep yourself in check, reign it in a little, take a deep breath, and remember that we are ALL in the same boat in the South and other areas

 

[AfriMan]

Sorry to say this guys, but there is no point in continuously complaining, seriously -_-. There's nothing locking you into a contract, if you don't like it.... Leave? Simple. If you say you've been getting sub-standard levels of service, leave? Why stay and complain about it? Also - bashing the reps and the company won't solve anything, in fact it just makes the situation worse.

And don't say you can't now because the month has already been paid for, you could've cancelled last month. No point paying for a service, knowing it's flawed, and then wanting your money back. Just remember, although the grass may be greener on the other side now, we are approaching winter.

And to some other users, if you need a static ip, go to Axxess? They too provide static IP's.

EDIT: And yes. I know you can say Afrihost made some bad business decisions. However they believed it wouldn't impact the network. Maybe they were wrong, yes. However, no point continuously complaining about it.

I think there is always value in open and honest feedback. I think I do feel that when conversation turns to sarcasm and personal insults, it's very difficult to see a way forward. Especially when the GIF's come out - which I think really breaks down a conversation! I know that for some there is a particular satisfaction in breaking down a rep or a company and I guess I understand that. However, at the end of the day, we're all in this together and we can achieve more when we work together than if we're not. There have been many occasions where straight feedback here on MyBB has led to awesome changes - like when we upped our thresholds on our old rolling windows, when you guys have alerted me to bugs in the system, when we did our exclusive MyBB 80% discount links. As long as we keep the conversation open, there is no limit to the ways that you can help us be better in every way.

So let's always keep the conversation going. Whether it's negative or positive, I'll always be here to listen, to help and to understand.

 

[AfriMan]

Quick question ... My AH clientzone username or ADSL login username ?

DSL username will be fine

 

[i.got~issues]

DSL username will be fine

PM sent.

 

[AfriMan]

And are you a business client paying a premium for a degraded service? Oh, no, that's right you're not.

There is every reason to continuously complain about it. People should receive the service they pay for. Otherwise service providers get away with ripping off their customers. And there is enough of that already in this country. Complaining about shoddy, overpriced or poor service is why this entire website came into being. And the purpose of this forum and this thread is EXACTLY to complain to an ISP when their service fails to live up to its billing.

It might be that there is nothing to be done until the new capacity comes online, but the more complaints and discontent about this huge blunder in network management, the less likely Afrihost will repeat this farcical performance in future.

For me this is all about trust - we would like to think in a situation like this, our clients understand exactly what our motivations are. If you honestly believe that we're ripping you off to make an extra buck - then we've done something wrong in communicating our core values as a company. We make decisions based on what we feel is best for our clients, and sometimes not what's best for our profits or conventional business sense. We firmly believe, like many companies are starting to around the world, that our company and our clients are our brand - it's not about fancy t-shirts and impressive websites. What we believe, what we do and how we treat our clients, and how our clients treat us, is the brand that everyone sees on social media and in private or public conversations. And the only way to give the best impression in those conversations is to always do what's best for our clients.

It may not seem like it right now, but I can promise you that no selfish decisions are being made to save money or to make a quick buck. In fact upgrading our network comes at a huge risk to us, because there are massive costs involved, and we've made financial commitments to secure the capacity. We're happy to do this, even with the risk, because if our clients have a better experience, we know that this will only improve our relationship - when you are always getting the absolute best experience we can deliver.

 

[AfriMan]

Doesn't work that way. Your limit is set on a per port basis, seeing that there are two independant ports in question here, they each will receive maximum speed either by the subscription package, or by the port (sync) speed.




This, thankfully, isn't sanral. I'm sure no one will bite your head off for identifying a massive flaw in their system

It definitely shouldn't work that way. Firstly there shouldn't be any concurrent connections, but also if there were (as I explained earlier) the radius logic will split throughput evenly to ensure we protect the network. So two 4Mbps lines on an uncapped 4Mbps essentially become 2 2Mbps lines, etc, etc.

We'll investigate though - hope it's not something widely spread

 

[Wackyza]

I agree with most of your points. I personally don't have anything against Afrihost. I enjoy a lot of your services/solutions, especially your web hosting.

I just think if your having a mobile launch in which you give out over 2000 mifi devices for free, holding comps for ipads and handing out double bandwidth promos to all capped clients, then surely you can acquire 3rd party solutions to handle the load when your network capacity runs out. I think you guys do a lot of good. I just don't understand how you guys have for consecutive months not taken the step to acquire 3rd party support to give clients even just close to the service level that they are paying for.

And this is not in any way trolling you, or being negative. This is purely me trying to find the logic in this drastic step

For me this is all about trust - we would like to think in a situation like this, our clients understand exactly what our motivations are. If you honestly believe that we're ripping you off to make an extra buck - then we've done something wrong in communicating our core values as a company. We make decisions based on what we feel is best for our clients, and sometimes not what's best for our profits or conventional business sense. We firmly believe, like many companies are starting to around the world, that our company and our clients are our brand - it's not about fancy t-shirts and impressive websites. What we believe, what we do and how we treat our clients, and how our clients treat us, is the brand that everyone sees on social media and in private or public conversations. And the only way to give the best impression in those conversations is to always do what's best for our clients.

It may not seem like it right now, but I can promise you that no selfish decisions are being made to save money or to make a quick buck. In fact upgrading our network comes at a huge risk to us, because there are massive costs involved, and we've made financial commitments to secure the capacity. We're happy to do this, even with the risk, because if our clients have a better experience, we know that this will only improve our relationship - when you are always getting the absolute best experience we can deliver.

 

[AfriMan]

This whole idea point of this thread is for clients to lodge complain ( and sometimes say thanks for great service.) So stop trying to shoot down peoples opinion's based on their experience. Some people's livelihood are at stake here. Some people here use business DSL for BUSINESS. Not just to NNTP and troll forums like some other people do....

I think you are forgetting that everyone is entitled to their opinion and this forum is used as a medium for that.

Everyone is totally entitled to have their say. Like I said, it's about having conversations, not shouting at each other or broadcasting spam into people's brains. I'd love to think that the only things that will ever be missing are a few cold beers and a texan steak on the braai. If we ever get there - I'm buying the first round

 

[AfriMan]

I agree with most of your points. I personally don't have anything against Afrihost. I enjoy a lot of your services/solutions, especially your web hosting.

I just think if your having a mobile launch in which you give out over 2000 mifi devices for free, holding comps for ipads and handing out double bandwidth promos to all capped clients, then surely you can acquire 3rd party solutions to handle the load when your network capacity runs out. I think you guys do a lot of good. I just don't understand how you guys have for consecutive months not taken the step to acquire 3rd party support to give clients even just close to the service level that they are paying for.

And this is not in any way trolling you, or being negative. This is purely me trying to find the logic in this drastic step

That's very complicated to put into effect. Remember that realms are pointed specifically to IPC networks. So to split off one piece of the realm to go to a 3rd party network is impossible - or so impractical it's worse than impossible.

We are learning as we go, and we have a contingency plan for the future that we've worked out with MTN and Telkom that should carry us through the next phase. If it's susccessful, we can implement this plan nationally and never be in a position like this (for so long) again.

But ISPs are always stuck between the frying pan of capacity and the fireplace of growth. If we don't grow we can't get more capacity. If we don't get more capacity, we can't grow. So we're always juggling those two concepts to get the right balance for our clients.

 

[Wackyza]

I really hope the contingencies will have a lasting effect, because I really like Afrihost as a company. I know its hard as a company to balance all of it because you have running costs and you can't just say, well lets not have the clients pay until the IPC is sorted. When you goto pay a couple of hundred thousand/million a month running its just not possible. However from a client perspective, you cant really expect the client to not complain either when they are possibly running their own businesses and have their own running costs. I can understand its a tough situation.

That's very complicated to put into effect. Remember that realms are pointed specifically to IPC networks. So to split off one piece of the realm to go to a 3rd party network is impossible - or so impractical it's worse than impossible.

We are learning as we go, and we have a contingency plan for the future that we've worked out with MTN and Telkom that should carry us through the next phase. If it's susccessful, we can implement this plan nationally and never be in a position like this (for so long) again.

But ISPs are always stuck between the frying pan of capacity and the fireplace of growth. If we don't grow we can't get more capacity. If we don't get more capacity, we can't grow. So we're always juggling those two concepts to get the right balance for our clients.

 

[AfriMan]

I really hope the contingencies will have a lasting effect, because I really like Afrihost as a company. I know its hard as a company to balance all of it because you have running costs and you can't just say, well lets not have the clients pay until the IPC is sorted. When you goto pay a couple of hundred thousand/million a month running its just not possible. However from a client perspective, you cant really expect the client to not complain either when they are possibly running their own businesses and have their own running costs. I can understand its a tough situation.

We definitely don't expect clients to be quiet, and we welcome these conversations that I believe bring us closer to our clients in the end. It's not all about good times and then everyone goes home after the party. We believe that even the bad times, that we get through together, make us stronger in a partnership.

Most of the time most people never think about their broadband, and yet it's so important. When you get into your car to drive to work, you look at the condition, the paint job, does it still compare with the latest models, does it still WOW you.

By comparison, we only think about our broadband when it isn't working, and it's not always natural to say to yourself "I'm on the internet, I'm on internet banking, I'm gaming, I'm watching Netflix" and somehow tie that back to a product that works well. So we do expect that most of the time comments and posts will be about what doesn't work, rather than what does.

But truly appreciate your understanding and your faith in us. I do believe we'll get there, and it's only through your continued support.