Afrihost false product information

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Shred

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I am posting this to vent a bit; see if any others have the same issue and hopefully Afriman can resolve this.

I have a dedicated server that originally had a 100GB traffic allowance. On the 21st November I stumbled accross the fact that the traffic had been upgraded to 1.25TB. I had some data that I needed to transfer between Bryanston and MTN data centre as Afrihost has servers in both. So I transferred the data. It was around 300GB.

Now Afrihost slap me with a bill of over R2k for the over usage. When I queried it the they said that the new bandwidth was only available from 1st December; but it was advertised on the 21st. Nowhere did it stipulate this. Furthermore ClientZone has never been able to report on the usage of the server.

I think this is pretty unfair and unethical to advertise new bandwidth allocation when it is not yet affective and just over bill your clients without warning.
 
+1

Same thing happen to me with mobile data double. It was advertise early but effective later.
Also with ADSL bundle, false advertised, now battling 4 weeks to get refund. There service WAS great but sadly to say they messing up badly and Most products aren't advertise clearly.
 
The fact that hosts still charge for traffic in and out makes me sick, its like charging you for me driving my car :sick:
 
Shred said:
I am posting this to vent a bit; see if any others have the same issue and hopefully Afriman can resolve this.

I have a dedicated server that originally had a 100GB traffic allowance. On the 21st November I stumbled accross the fact that the traffic had been upgraded to 1.25TB. I had some data that I needed to transfer between Bryanston and MTN data centre as Afrihost has servers in both. So I transferred the data. It was around 300GB.

Now Afrihost slap me with a bill of over R2k for the over usage. When I queried it the they said that the new bandwidth was only available from 1st December; but it was advertised on the 21st. Nowhere did it stipulate this. Furthermore ClientZone has never been able to report on the usage of the server.

I think this is pretty unfair and unethical to advertise new bandwidth allocation when it is not yet affective and just over bill your clients without warning.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry that you ended up being charged unexpectedly. We did mention in our Press Releases and Newsroom articles that pricing would be effective from 1st December for existing clients. This is due to changes being implemented while gathering real time traffic reporting.

We did our utmost to inform clients with regard to the changes and how it would affect them :(

http://www.afrihost.com/site/newsroom/view/hosting_the_future_with_afrihost
 
Dark Agent said:
+1

Same thing happen to me with mobile data double. It was advertise early but effective later.
Also with ADSL bundle, false advertised, now battling 4 weeks to get refund. There service WAS great but sadly to say they messing up badly and Most products aren't advertise clearly.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what you feel was falsely advertised - we always do our best to make effective dates as clear as possible in our press releases and advertising. If you read that info via a 3rd party, like a press article, we can't be responsible for the information they choose to omit.

If you can give me a more specific idea of exactly which deal you are referring to, I'd be happy to look into this for you :)
 
AfriMan said:
I'm sorry that you ended up being charged unexpectedly. We did mention in our Press Releases and Newsroom articles that pricing would be effective from 1st December for existing clients. This is due to changes being implemented while gathering real time traffic reporting.

We did our utmost to inform clients with regard to the changes and how it would affect them :(

http://www.afrihost.com/site/newsroom/view/hosting_the_future_with_afrihost
Click to expand...

Hi AfriMan

I still don't agree with this whole issue because if you really wanted to make sure clients knew exactly what was going on this information should have been on the product page prior to December the 1st. Whether or not it's right or wrong, the perception is there. Whether Afrihost values the extra rands and cents for the bandwidth or keeping the client happy is questionable.

Another issue that I would like to raise is that on the dedicated server in question client zone has not been able to show the usage of the server. Surely all of that points to the fact that over charging in November wrong? Do you honestly think that it is fair that your client pays for this?
 
AfriMan said:
I'm not sure what you feel was falsely advertised - we always do our best to make effective dates as clear as possible in our press releases and advertising. If you read that info via a 3rd party, like a press article, we can't be responsible for the information they choose to omit.

If you can give me a more specific idea of exactly which deal you are referring to, I'd be happy to look into this for you :)
Click to expand...

How can you revert to press releases and advertising after the fact when the information you gave directly to a client via the customer portal had no such references to these? Unless it did, in which case I apologise for this accusation.

If however there was no reference to the advertisement or an official statement then I cannot fathom how you can think that this supersedes the information you've directly given to a customer.

This comes across as incredibly opportunistic on Afrihost's part. Why reflect the upgraded allowance when it is not available? What point does this serve if not for attempting to derive additional income from clients? Or it was a simple mistake on Afrihost's part?
 
Shred said:
I am posting this to vent a bit; see if any others have the same issue and hopefully Afriman can resolve this.

I have a dedicated server that originally had a 100GB traffic allowance. On the 21st November I stumbled accross the fact that the traffic had been upgraded to 1.25TB. I had some data that I needed to transfer between Bryanston and MTN data centre as Afrihost has servers in both. So I transferred the data. It was around 300GB.

Now Afrihost slap me with a bill of over R2k for the over usage. When I queried it the they said that the new bandwidth was only available from 1st December; but it was advertised on the 21st. Nowhere did it stipulate this. Furthermore ClientZone has never been able to report on the usage of the server.

I think this is pretty unfair and unethical to advertise new bandwidth allocation when it is not yet affective and just over bill your clients without warning.
Click to expand...

Welcome to Afrihost. You got off lightly. With me they bill 3 months in arrears for the overages... so I had to pay over 7k.
 
DJ... said:
How can you revert to press releases and advertising after the fact when the information you gave directly to a client via the customer portal had no such references to these? Unless it did, in which case I apologise for this accusation.

If however there was no reference to the advertisement or an official statement then I cannot fathom how you can think that this supersedes the information you've directly given to a customer.

This comes across as incredibly opportunistic on Afrihost's part. Why reflect the upgraded allowance when it is not available? What point does this serve if not for attempting to derive additional income from clients? Or it was a simple mistake on Afrihost's part?
Click to expand...

+1
 
DJ... said:
How can you revert to press releases and advertising after the fact when the information you gave directly to a client via the customer portal had no such references to these? Unless it did, in which case I apologise for this accusation.

If however there was no reference to the advertisement or an official statement then I cannot fathom how you can think that this supersedes the information you've directly given to a customer.

This comes across as incredibly opportunistic on Afrihost's part. Why reflect the upgraded allowance when it is not available? What point does this serve if not for attempting to derive additional income from clients? Or it was a simple mistake on Afrihost's part?
Click to expand...

That is very unethical, but then again do companies care about ethics?Scum Afrihost.
 
This is seriously causing me to consider if I should remain with them, I currently have many products from them.

I have always been a loyal Afrihost customer, even after things happen like private information from clients become public (whole google saga thing the other day), but seriously now, has anyone noticed the increase in complaints about bad service from Afrihost on the forums lately? They have been increasing each day. I wonder if they are starting to drop the ball, would be a shame though.
 
Fudzy said:
So do you think Shred will get another OOB attack bill?
Click to expand...

Only if he did the data transfers over 3 months. Looks like he did one big transfer. This was not a constant stream of data (like an infected wordpress website).
 
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