AfriHost CEO explains why the network has been underperforming..

[AfriGenie]

Its amazing how far you can stretch loyalty with a real apology. AH doesn't need to give people full refunds, even the smallest things like a month of unshaped access for a few hours a night would do wonders. Simply being truthful upfront and truly transparent when confronted with difficult questions would build trust even when the answers make you look bad.

But instead we get assurances that they "care" and more of the blame game. The only thing transparent is that Gian is more worried about avoiding losing customers than keeping them (there is a difference, ie damage control vs good quality).

Once again, I am not entirely able to go into details, but Gian and the Directors are taking into serious considerations the impact that our network management issues have had on our clients and users. I am sure there will be further communications from Gian over the coming days.

 

[techead]

Once again, I am not entirely able to go into details, but Gian and the Directors are taking into serious considerations the impact that our network management issues have had on our clients and users. I am sure there will be further communications from Gian over the coming days.

It just boggles my mind that it takes things to get so bad, to get some kind of communication flowing... I really just dont understand it???

 

[stormart]

Guys, give them a break.

Why must you assign attributes to Gian and the team that aren't true. They are not greedy, or selfish or any of that.

He literally just humbly come out with the truth, how many CEOs do you know would write an email like that and send it?

Honesty, integrity, transparency. You gotta admit, these are not common qualities in South African CEOs.

 

[KillerBOB]

Oh no, how will they ever recover.

Funny guy.

 

[KillerBOB]

Guys, give them a break.

Why must you assign attributes to Gian and the team that aren't true. They are not greedy, or selfish or any of that.

He literally just humbly come out with the truth, how many CEOs do you know would write an email like that and send it?

Honesty, integrity, transparency. You gotta admit, these are not common qualities in South African CEOs.

Lol.

It took a lot of **** hitting the fan before Gian opened his mouth.

Let me explain with two words: DAMAGE CONTROL.

 

[MartyMarts]

Guys, give them a break.

Why must you assign attributes to Gian and the team that aren't true. They are not greedy, or selfish or any of that.

He literally just humbly come out with the truth, how many CEOs do you know would write an email like that and send it?

Honesty, integrity, transparency. You gotta admit, these are not common qualities in South African CEOs.

Took him a while though. A bit too long imo.

 

[The_Unbeliever]

What does it take for a CEO to note the suffering of his clients these days?

First we had the hoo-ha with CellC.

Now this...

What will be next? Are all the CEO's surrounded by "glass walls" so that they cannot see that their customers are experiencing issues?

But good that Gian is taking action, may something good come of this!

 

[MartyMarts]

What does it take for a CEO to note the suffering of his clients these days?

"How dare you launch a new product, and try suck money out of us now - First fix your network before you do something new. Since you partnered with MTN you have changed and now all you care about is the money and sucking your clients dry. You have sold your soul Gian. Afrihost has changed. I used to love you but now I hate you"

Maybe when they start telling him that they hate him :erm:

EDIT: Now we know guys. Sh*t product/service - tell the ceo you hate them

 

[techead]

What does it take for a CEO to note the suffering of his clients these days?

First we had the hoo-ha with CellC.

Now this...

What will be next? Are all the CEO's surrounded by "glass walls" so that they cannot see that their customers are experiencing issues?

But good that Gian is taking action, may something good come of this!

Apparently too much.

 

[CapetonianMike]

Once again, I am not entirely able to go into details, but Gian and the Directors are taking into serious considerations the impact that our network management issues have had on our clients and users. I am sure there will be further communications from Gian over the coming days.

Oh, are they discussing how they are going to be "transparent"? I doubt I will ever get an answer to my question, but maybe I can get someone to feel really uncomfortable when it is asked by an NCC investigator.

 

[Heisenborg]

So all the "testing new configurations" responses in the AH thread were complete BS?

 

[KillerBOB]

So all the "testing new configurations" responses in the AH thread were complete BS?

Pretty much, yes. SPIN, SPIN, SPIN BABY!

 

[i.got~issues]

So all the "testing new configurations" responses in the AH thread were complete BS?

Pretty much, yes. SPIN, SPIN, SPIN BABY!

 

[AfriGenie]

So all the "testing new configurations" responses in the AH thread were complete BS?

Pretty much, yes. SPIN, SPIN, SPIN BABY!

Not at all, I've lost track of the different versions and iterations of the software on the device that has been tested, updated, tweaked, and deleted over the past two weeks. The changes made last night appear to be the definitive version, which so far look very promising.

 

[Heisenborg]

Not at all, I've lost track of the different versions and iterations of the software on the device that has been tested over the past two weeks. The changes made last night appear to be the definitive version, which so far look very promising.

Are you intentionally misreading my comment? That "configuration" BS response from AH reps have been going around for months now.

 

[AfriGenie]

Are you intentionally misreading my comment? That "configuration" BS response from AH reps have been going around for months now.

You didn't mention a time frame, so I assumed you were referring to the period that we have experienced the issue with our network management software.

Prior to this, our IPC upgrades were put in place, and other than short period of optimization - which in hindsight was probably exacerbated by the network management device - there were no extended configuration periods.

 

[Arthur]

Fair enough. I've just read the email to users, which arrived in my Inbox at 13h02 today.

It's commendable to come out and acknowledge the issue. Well done, Afrihost.

Anyone with any experience of hard-to-diagnose infrastructure and equipment problems knows just how difficult it can be to pin down the problem and fix it. So they have my sympathies.

I think he's being sincere and as open as he can be, and I doff my hat.

Of course I want them to get it fixed sooner rather than later. I believe them when the say they are doing everything in their power to resolve the problems.

As a business owner myself, as well as a customer, I also understand why they can't give refunds. Besides, their costs have gone up because of this issue. I want my ISP to be profitable so it can attract and keep the right talent and make the investments needed to properly manage growth.

If you can't wait a little longer and couldn't care less about your relationship with your suppliers, by all means go elsewhere. Thank goodness we still have a choice.

I'm hanging in.

 

[stormart]

Fair enough. I've just read the email to users, which arrived in my Inbox at 13h02 today.

It's commendable to come out and acknowledge the issue. Well done, Afrihost.

Anyone with any experience of hard-to-diagnose infrastructure and equipment problems knows just how difficult it can be to pin down the problem and fix it. So they have my sympathies.

I think he's being sincere and as open as he can be, and I doff my hat.

Of course I want them to get it fixed sooner rather than later. I believe them when the say they are doing everything in their power to resolve the problems.

As a business owner myself, as well as a customer, I also understand why they can't give refunds. Besides, their costs have gone up because of this issue. I want my ISP to be profitable so it can attract and keep the right talent and make the investments needed to properly manage growth.

If you can't wait a little longer and couldn't care less about your relationship with your suppliers, by all means go elsewhere. Thank goodness we still have a choice.

I'm hanging in.

Finally, someone who is sensible.

The good they've done far outweighs the bad.

Greener pastures will come back.

 

[Tinuva]

The specific updates that Gian references in his mail have been uploaded to the various Region's Network Devices over the last few hours. When these updates are loaded, the actual device needs to have restarted, which will result in a temporary disruptions in the specific region.

These updates have so far looked very promising, and we are starting to see reports of improved performance in all regions, so I am certainly hopeful that we are coming towards an end of the network management issues. It will take a few hours for the changes to take full affect, but if you are continuing to see poor performance, please let me know.

Those devices have bypass units surely? You can prevent downtime completely by turning on the bypass mode before rebooting it.
Also the issues they exhibit I have seen before. It usually happen because of 1 of 2 reasons, 1 - too many rules and policies, which mean the device sometimes take to long to put a packet into a specific line/pipe/vc and then it seems to get dropped. Boom random issues like you see now. 2 - Other times, you just forgot to give "Other TCP" and "Other UDP" decent bandwidth, which causes breakage in random apps and games.

2 - is easy to fix
1 - not so easy, but easy enough by just simplifying the ruleset in the policy editor.

 

[KillerBOB]

Finally, someone who is sensible.

The good they've done far outweighs the bad.

Greener pastures will come back.

Sensible, or a sucker for punishment? These problems didn't start yesterday guys. I've been with AH for about 5 years, so it wasn't a glib decision on my side to part ways. Anyway, I don't begrudge you for wanting to stick with them and give them more of your money for a sub-par service. That's just not my style.