Afrihost Business Uncapped Feedback

[savage]

How long can a congested exchange take to be fixed?
Maybe a few weeks, maybe a few months. Same situation here. Ordering the capacity last year was accounting for exchange upgrades and promotions.

We haven't been delivered the capacity, and both MTN and ourselves are pushing for updates. We cannot bring the date closer or turn on capacity that isn't there.

But you CAN do the responsible thing and stop signing up customers in CPT (which will stop making the situation worse - it should have been done months ago already), you CAN stop billing affected customers in CPT, you CAN refund customers affected in CPT... I can think of allot of other things you CAN do... But you don't WANT to...

There's a huge difference between CAN do something, and WANT to do something. I'm sure you know that one too...

 

[jeanres]

We only went ahead with the recent promotions as it wouldn't have any substantial affect on our network.

But guess what! it did

 

[cortexenslaver]

But you can remove the benefits from my Business uncapped account? Why do you keep blaming Telkom or pointing fingers at Telkom, it is afrihost's fault for not planing correctly.

You say that giving people double data was accounted for? you say that signing up another x amount of clients was accounted for? but wait this is Telkom's fault.

I hate Telkom as much as the next person, but damn this is becoming ridiculous.

+10000000000000

 

[AfriGuy]

But you can remove the benefits from my Business uncapped account? Why do you keep blaming Telkom or pointing fingers at Telkom, it is afrihost's fault for not planing correctly.

You say that giving people double data was accounted for? you say that signing up another x amount of clients was accounted for? but wait this is Telkom's fault.

I hate Telkom as much as the next person, but damn this is becoming ridiculous.

How do you plan for something that is completely out of our control?
If there was an alternative method of acquiring capacity trust me, we would have done it. There isn't, we have to wait for Telkom. If the capacity would have gone live in Jan we'd all be fine.

 

[jeanres]

How do you plan for something that is completely out of our control?
If there was an alternative method of acquiring capacity trust me, we would have done it. There isn't, we have to wait for Telkom. If the capacity would have gone live in Jan we'd all be fine.

Did you order the capacity? It is in your control what promotions your run, and you should have waited for the capacity to go live. You could have stopped signups because you knew you had no capacity or that you would have run out and the service would have been degraded.

 

[AfriGuy]

Did you order the capacity? It is in your control what promotions your run, and you should have waited for the capacity to go live. You could have stopped signups because you knew you had no capacity or that you would have run out and the service would have been degraded.

Yes, we did order the capacity late last year. This has been covered so many times dude

 

[jeanres]

Yes, we did order the capacity late last year. This has been covered so many times dude

So answer the rest of my question........ Why did you not wait for the extra capacity before you launched the double bandwidth promotion.

I have 10 GB, now I get 20 GB hmmmm lets download the internets!

 

[AfriGuy]

So answer the rest of my question........ Why did you not wait for the extra capacity before you launched the double bandwidth promotion.

I have 10 GB, now I get 20 GB hmmmm lets download the internets!

Covered it in a previous post.

Our guys have done the calculations, and this includes the double data queries we've seen - nothing we do now will have a drastic improvement..

 

[PurSpyk!!]

I think a lot of us would be "less" irritated if we got a discount on our accounts during this time of capacity issues, so we could pay for a backup service. Tis is like buying a burger and being told sorry the cows are on strike so all you got was the bun, but you were still charged the full price (I am trying to find the humour in the situation, but its failing fast)

 

[jeanres]

Covered it in a previous post.

Ok next one, admit that your calculations where wrong, and refund us for the last month of handicapped ADSL

 

[savage]

Another thing you COULD HAVE done...

Instead of being in bed with MTN and (apparently) outsourcing the entire management of your network... Why could you not have temporarily leased a reseller account with your own realm or something like that from the likes of IS, or another company that has significant IPC capacity? Surely a temporary solution could have been found. A few years ago when MWEB had a Seacom outage, they routed their entire customer base through TENET!!! Not the same thing I know, but it's not IMPOSSIBLE either... We're in the 21st century... ALLOT of things are possible these days.

You COULD HAVE temporarily moved certain users off your IPC and onto someone elses IPC with a few simple configuration changes, peering arangements, and a bit of user involvement (of which I believe the majority would not have minded given the situation).

Not saying it's ideal, not saying it's not allot of work, and not saying there isn't risk involved. All I'm saying is that it is another thing you COULD HAVE done, but you didn't... Because it will cost you money! Just like not billing customers will cost you money, and just like refunding customers will cost you money!

 

[AfriGuy]

I think a lot of us would be "less" irritated if we got a discount on our accounts during this time of capacity issues, so we could pay for a backup service. Tis is like buying a burger and being told sorry the cows are on strike so all you got was the bun, but you were still charged the full price (I am trying to find the humour in the situation, but its failing fast)

I"m afraid that's a management decision that's out of my hands

 

[Chevron]

Another thing you COULD HAVE done...

Instead of being in bed with MTN and (apparently) outsourcing the entire management of your network... Why could you not have temporarily leased a reseller account with your own realm or something like that from the likes of IS, or another company that has significant IPC capacity? Surely a temporary solution could have been found. A few years ago when MWEB had a Seacom outage, they routed their entire customer base through TENET!!! Not the same thing I know, but it's not IMPOSSIBLE either... We're in the 21st century... ALLOT of things are possible these days.

You COULD HAVE temporarily moved certain users off your IPC and onto someone elses IPC with a few simple configuration changes, peering arangements, and a bit of user involvement (of which I believe the majority would not have minded given the situation).

Not saying it's ideal, not saying it's not allot of work, and not saying there isn't risk involved. All I'm saying is that it is another thing you COULD HAVE done, but you didn't... Because it will cost you money! Just like not billing customers will cost you money, and just like refunding customers will cost you money!

Not only that. they also gave us 30gigs worth of capacity on SAIX to use.

 

[AfriGuy]

Another thing you COULD HAVE done...

Instead of being in bed with MTN and (apparently) outsourcing the entire management of your network... Why could you not have temporarily leased a reseller account with your own realm or something like that from the likes of IS, or another company that has significant IPC capacity? Surely a temporary solution could have been found. A few years ago when MWEB had a Seacom outage, they routed their entire customer base through TENET!!! Not the same thing I know, but it's not IMPOSSIBLE either... We're in the 21st century... ALLOT of things are possible these days.

You COULD HAVE temporarily moved certain users off your IPC and onto someone elses IPC with a few simple configuration changes, peering arangements, and a bit of user involvement (of which I believe the majority would not have minded given the situation).

Not saying it's ideal, not saying it's not allot of work, and not saying there isn't risk involved. All I'm saying is that it is another thing you COULD HAVE done, but you didn't... Because it will cost you money! Just like not billing customers will cost you money, and just like refunding customers will cost you money!

Sho, I dunno if doing an IPC migration would have been less painful I think AfriMan appreciates the sleep he gets for now - moving a realm over is a seriously complicated tasks that involves far too many resources to be done as a temporary measure.

 

[jeanres]

I am getting a capped account to facilitate my work. (I actually need my static ip to remote into servers, but will find a way to get around this), @Afriguy where do I send my invoice to?

 

[savage]

Sho, I dunno if doing an IPC migration would have been less painful I think AfriMan appreciates the sleep he gets for now - moving a realm over is a seriously complicated tasks that involves far too many resources to be done as a temporary measure.

I'm not saying migrate a realm... I'm suggesting getting an ADDITIONAL one on a different network. So I can use [email protected] on your congested IPC network, or I can use [email protected] on someone elses network (like SAIX, or IS) - Afrihost can control who gets access to ipcissues.afrihost.co.za through AAA... As far as I know it's a simple matter of setting up the new realm, and a simple radius proxy.... Even with Telkom involved to configure the new realm, realisticly?? It could have taken a few weeks, perhaps month? Given the urgency of the situation you could more than likely have pushed this through someone like SAIX/IS in a matter of a few days...

Again, could have, would have, should have... But we didn't!

 

[jeanres]

I'm not saying migrate a realm... I'm suggesting getting an ADDITIONAL one on a different network. So I can use [email protected] on your congested IPC network, or I can use [email protected] on someone elses network (like SAIX, or IS) - Afrihost can control who gets access to ipcissues.afrihost.co.za through AAA... As far as I know it's a simple matter of setting up the new realm, and a simple radius proxy.... Even with Telkom involved to configure the new realm, realisticly?? It could have taken a few weeks, perhaps month? Given the urgency of the situation you could more than likely have pushed this through someone like SAIX/IS in a matter of a few days...

Again, could have, would have, should have... But we didn't!

Even Mweb has @dsl.mweb.co.za and @mweb.co.za

 

[AfriGuy]

I am getting a capped account to facilitate my work. (I actually need my static ip to remote into servers, but will find a way to get around this), @Afriguy where do I send my invoice to?

We can't cover 3rd party expenses, sorry.

 

[AfriGuy]

I'm not saying migrate a realm... I'm suggesting getting an ADDITIONAL one on a different network. So I can use [email protected] on your congested IPC network, or I can use [email protected] on someone elses network (like SAIX, or IS) - Afrihost can control who gets access to ipcissues.afrihost.co.za through AAA... As far as I know it's a simple matter of setting up the new realm, and a simple radius proxy.... Even with Telkom involved to configure the new realm, realisticly?? It could have taken a few weeks, perhaps month? Given the urgency of the situation you could more than likely have pushed this through someone like SAIX/IS in a matter of a few days...

Again, could have, would have, should have... But we didn't!

Also quite complicated
I truly do believe that both MTN and our teams have thought everything through. If there was a way to improve things we would have.

 

[i.got~issues]

Hey Hey

I am really cheesed-off about this whole thing, but really, going round in these circles is just going to get your blood pressure rising.
No amount of sholda-coulda-woulda but wouldn't-couldn't-didn't banter is going to change that there is going to be no change in this whole thing until the 10th (or mid-month) arrives.

Afrihost and its directors have counted their (your /our) beans and are probably looking at damage control vs costs vs whatever yardsticks.
The reps are doing their jazz-hands and dance routine.
But nothing will happen until the curtain rises on this mythical switch-flip sometime soonish.

Venting might give temporary relief but at the end of the day, this rubbish business experience will still be the same rubbish business experience that it has been this past month, and no matter what is said and done, there is nothing that will change that.