Afrihost Business Uncapped Feedback

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AfriMan said:
Not if that person can procure a reasonable alternative elsewhere.

What I am saying is if you are publicly accusing service provider of being deceitful, lying blatantly and doing business in bad faith on more than one occasion - how does it make sense to then insist that they do business with you?
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That's kinda the nature of your job - dealing with precisely these issues without resorting to cancelling accounts. Pubic perception of these precise issues was created months ago already by Afrihost - not your clients! You had every opportunity to turn this around through acknowledgement, acceptance, and a good faith gesture. So between yourself, and management structures, you guys have failed on that front.

It's a tough job you have, granted. And occasionally you will slip up. No shame in that. And you will have difficult customers. I don't think Jeanre was difficult, I think he was legitimately frustrated. At that point in a service business you become his flippen psychologist and life coach all in one, especially when it plays out publicly. This new era of public engagement requires new ways of looking at customers. You will never ever win cancelling a customer's account publicly. No matter how justified you feel you are in doing so. In this case I for one believe you weren't, and there was a very simple middle ground to be had here.

I appreciate that you've now engaged Jeanre privately. That's great. Where was that before cancelling his account? You've gone about this arse-about-face. All it requires is an apology, and a commitment to let this be a learning curve for all involved at Afrihost. It's all good and well offering some form of goodwill later down the line, but that doesn't cut it for customers right now. Getting 100 gigs in a month's time solves nothing. Fix your schit, or refund customers. Stop taking on new customers, or at least do everything in your power to alert new customers to the current issues. Those were Jeanre's issues that he raised. He did so with some creative language, mind you, but that's the nature of this customer service beast. You had every opportunity to turn it around as a business, and you failed.

It's not the end of the world. I respect what you do - it takes balls of steel, conviction beyond belief, and a very level head. You failed on the last point this time around. Time to admit it. That's the only way people will move on, which is all you'd like to see happen...
 
I laaaaik my new sig, thanks AfriMan :) Please don't cancel my account because of this now...
 
Hummercellc said:
In all honesty you have made your bed, don't get me wrong I am not picking sides here.
For all any of us here know, both or neither could be to blame.
Write a public apology to those concerned, post it here and email it through.

Rather try and mend the bridge then trying to knock it down further.

Life is far to short for fighting and bickering.....

Whats done is done, I feel your pain with regards to having poor network performance.
But you must understand I had to call Telkom every day for 2 years to get my exchange fixed.
They did upgrade it eventually, but I was always nice and polite and now Telkom can't fault me on my attitude.

Afrihost rely on Telkom, and as everyone knows, you can not rely on Telkom (So it is a catch 22 situation)
Afrihost I am sure are trying their very best, but there is only so much Afrihost can do until Telkom comes to the party.
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So you don't care about paying for something you are not getting, go buy a car and get told it does not have breaks.... and we talk again.
 
AfriMan said:
I've dealt with this with him directly, and he is free to reveal those facts to you if he chooses.
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He has. You state that he has a history of abusing Afrihost. I say he did everything in his power to prevent that, and as I've now repeatedly posted, provided a middle ground and a commitment to dealing with it privately. You're both in the wrong here. However I can completely understand Jeanre's reasoning for what he did (which really wasn't a great big deal at all). On that basis I reckon you;ve treated Jeanre rather harshly, and done so without formal communication as required, and without proper notice on that basis...
 
Afrihost rely on Telkom, and as everyone knows, you can not rely on Telkom (So it is a catch 22 situation)
Afrihost I am sure are trying their very best, but there is only so much Afrihost can do until Telkom comes to the party.[/QUOTE]

No longer valid IMHO. This has been in the making now for 6 months odd... There are VARIOUS things that they COULD HAVE done to avoid the situation that they are in now. Hiding behind Telkom is not a valid excuse... Especially not with comments like "we don't know." That just indicates to me that they are in fact NOT actively engaging / pushing Telkom to deliver.
 
jeanres said:
So you don't care about paying for something you are not getting, go buy a car and get told it does not have breaks.... and we talk again.
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If they refund me what I paid for the car and tell me that I can continue using the car for the rest of the month while I look for another car, I wouldn't complain.
 
efitol said:
If they refund me what I paid for the car and tell me that I can continue using the car for the rest of the month while I look for another car, I wouldn't complain.
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In this case they cancelled your vehicle loan without informing you and told you to return the vehicle by the end of the month and find a new dealership to work with in purchasing a new vehicle. Because they're having issues in servicing their clients, and you took exception to that and made it known publicly.

Let's not try to oversimplify things to make it out as if Afrihost have done something great here...
 
DJ... said:
That's kinda the nature of your job - dealing with precisely these issues without resorting to cancelling accounts. Pubic perception of these precise issues was created months ago already by Afrihost - not your clients! You had every opportunity to turn this around through acknowledgement, acceptance, and a good faith gesture. So between yourself, and management structures, you guys have failed on that front.

It's a tough job you have, granted. And occasionally you will slip up. No shame in that. And you will have difficult customers. I don't think Jeanre was difficult, I think he was legitimately frustrated. At that point in a service business you become his flippen psychologist and life coach all in one, especially when it plays out publicly. This new era of public engagement requires new ways of looking at customers. You will never ever win cancelling a customer's account publicly. No matter how justified you feel you are in doing so. In this case I for one believe you weren't, and there was a very simple middle ground to be had here.

I appreciate that you've now engaged Jeanre privately. That's great. Where was that before cancelling his account? You've gone about this arse-about-face. All it requires is an apology, and a commitment to let this be a learning curve for all involved at Afrihost. It's all good and well offering some form of goodwill later down the line, but that doesn't cut it for customers right now. Getting 100 gigs in a month's time solves nothing. Fix your schit, or refund customers. Stop taking on new customers, or at least do everything in your power to alert new customers to the current issues. Those were Jeanre's issues that he raised. He did so with some creative language, mind you, but that's the nature of this customer service beast. You had every opportunity to turn it around as a business, and you failed.

It's not the end of the world. I respect what you do - it takes balls of steel, conviction beyond belief, and a very level head. You failed on the last point this time around. Time to admit it. That's the only way people will move on, which is all you'd like to see happen...
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I'll take the good with the bad in your post - but just again a reminder that you're only seeing part of the story, and I'd encourage you to get all the information. It won't be the first time or the last time an ISP has asked a client to politely leave, and I do think this was done in the right way, with the right settlement of notice and compensation.

I've been engaging the client privately from the start, so it was his choice to make this public. However, whatever we do in private we should be prepared to justify in public or that would be double standards on the part of any company.
 
jeanres said:
So you don't care about paying for something you are not getting, go buy a car and get told it does not have breaks.... and we talk again.
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I paid Telkom for services I did not get for 2 years, but I had no alternative.
I either had Slow DSL or No DSL.
I had to deal with the facts and hang on. My patience paid off as I now have 10 meg DSL Lines...

No matter how much you fight this topic, The DSL network belongs to Telkom and that is your common denominator.
 
ok so management took the decision to cancel my account, Afriman, now that I am not a client anymore I will show you what I really think
 
savage said:
Afrihost rely on Telkom, and as everyone knows, you can not rely on Telkom (So it is a catch 22 situation)
Afrihost I am sure are trying their very best, but there is only so much Afrihost can do until Telkom comes to the party.

No longer valid IMHO. This has been in the making now for 6 months odd... There are VARIOUS things that they COULD HAVE done to avoid the situation that they are in now. Hiding behind Telkom is not a valid excuse... Especially not with comments like "we don't know." That just indicates to me that they are in fact NOT actively engaging / pushing Telkom to deliver.
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I would like to see you "Push" Telkom into delivering.
Not even the ANC can get that right :p
 
AfriMan said:
I'll take the good with the bad in your post - but just again a reminder that you're only seeing part of the story, and I'd encourage you to get all the information. It won't be the first time or the last time an ISP has asked a client to politely leave, and I do think this was done in the right way, with the right settlement of notice and compensation.

I've been engaging the client privately from the start, so it was his choice to make this public. However, whatever we do in private we should be prepared to justify in public or that would be double standards on the part of any company.
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Aren't you supposed to abide by ISPA's Code of Conduct, since Afrihost is a member?

http://ispa.org.za/code-of-conduct/

A. Freedom of expression

ISPA members must respect the constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression.
 
DJ... said:
In this case they cancelled your vehicle loan without informing you and told you to return the vehicle by the end of the month and find a new dealership to work with in purchasing a new vehicle. Because they're having issues in servicing their clients, and you took exception to that and made it known publicly.

Let's not try to oversimplify things to make it out as if Afrihost have done something great here...
Click to expand...

That still sounds like a win to me. They settle my loan on a car which I have clearly come to hate and now I get to find another car elsewhere.

Did you read jeanres's tirades in this thread? Why would he even want to continue being an AH subscriber if he really feels that way? I've left ISPs (including AH's hosting) for much, much less.
 
AfriMan said:
I'll take the good with the bad in your post - but just again a reminder that you're only seeing part of the story, and I'd encourage you to get all the information. It won't be the first time or the last time an ISP has asked a client to politely leave, and I do think this was done in the right way, with the right settlement of notice and compensation.

I've been engaging the client privately from the start, so it was his choice to make this public. However, whatever we do in private we should be prepared to justify in public or that would be double standards on the part of any company.
Click to expand...

I'd also prefer that this thread continue to serve as actual customer support now, so I've sent you a PM instead of replying here. Let's get the thread back on topic...
 
Hummercellc said:
No matter how much you fight this topic, The DSL network belongs to Telkom and that is your common denominator.
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That is just so wrong! Telkom is a 3rd party to the service contract between Afrihost and the Client. Afrihost have an obligation to deliver the service the client has paid for. The interaction between Afrihost and Telkom is none of the client's concern.
 
efitol said:
That still sounds like a win to me. They settle my loan on a car which I have clearly come to hate and now I get to find another car elsewhere.

Did you read jeanres's tirades in this thread? Why would he even want to continue being an AH subscriber if he really feels that way? I've left ISPs (including AH's hosting) for much, much less.
Click to expand...

If I buy a car I love, and it breaks down, I expect better service than "we're cancelling your agreement and the broken down vehicle must be returned to us within 30 days". It's hardly a win. That's not true bidirectional customer service. That's unilateral dictatorship...
 
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