Afrihost ISPA ruling upheld

[LaraC]

Everyone has the right to their own opinions and views etc....
It's seen as shilling and cheerleading because that's what it is.
Looking at the facts presented here, it's clear that they're in violation but yet you still defend them.......I don't get it.

I am not defending Afrihost. I am saying that they are entitled to appeal any verdict.
Our own prejudice shouldn’t cloud our view to this fact.

 

[MagicDude4Eva]

@Magic
How long does this whole they-appeal/you-appeal take.
What happens in the meantime?

There are no timelines for how long an adjudicator or an appeals process can take. The initial complaints process (before it goes to an appeal) is 5 calendar weeks. I will provide additional information on clause 6/7/9 in the next 10 days. I would then think that my feedback and Afrihost's appeal will go to an appeals panel. ISPA management can however reject an appeal without it going to an appeals panel.

You, and it appears that many other customers, have had an unsatisfactory relationship with Afrihost.
I on the other hand have had a very good experience with Afrihost but it would appear as if that is seen as shilling and cheerleading.

That is good for you. I know many people who are happy with Afrihost because they are on 10/20mbps lines but their actual usage is less than 2mbps (email and Facebook - no streaming, no multimedia etc) - even during poor network conditions, they would not be aware of an issue. Some would argue that those customers have no issues like you, whereas I would say that those customers should only pay 1/5 or 1/10 of their monthly ISP bill since they only receive a fraction of the service.

Everyone mentions "best effort" and as such outages can be expected. In such "best effort" scenario you can not advertise as "Rock Solid Reliable Network" (as per their home page), but then have customers receiving less than 30% of the subscribed service. I am unsure why ISPs should have more leeway than other companies. I doubt anyone would be as forgiving if this type of service was offered by a restaurant (you pay for food, but never get any or it is old/cold or not what you ordered) or a motor manufacturer (your car only sometimes drives faster than 40km/h, often does not start or refuses to go where you want it to go)

 

[LaraC]

That is good for you. I know many people who are happy with Afrihost because they are on 10/20mbps lines but their actual usage is less than 2mbps (email and Facebook - no streaming, no multimedia etc) - even during poor network conditions, they would not be aware of an issue. Some would argue that those customers have no issues like you, whereas I would say that those customers should only pay 1/5 or 1/10 of their monthly ISP bill since they only receive a fraction of the service.

Everyone mentions "best effort" and as such outages can be expected. In such "best effort" scenario you can not advertise as "Rock Solid Reliable Network" (as per their home page), but then have customers receiving less than 30% of the subscribed service. I am unsure why ISPs should have more leeway than other companies. I doubt anyone would be as forgiving if this type of service was offered by a restaurant (you pay for food, but never get any or it is old/cold or not what you ordered) or a motor manufacturer (your car only sometimes drives faster than 40km/h, often does not start or refuses to go where you want it to go)

As coincidence might have it I have a 10Mbps line. I have however posted several comments in the Afrihost POC thread which shows I'm getting full functionality of my account.

 

[Hamish McPanji]

As coincidence might have it I have a 10Mbps line. I have however posted several comments in the Afrihost POC thread which shows I'm getting full functionality of my account.

What is Afrihost POC? How many actual consumers have access to this POC magic? Why does a normal consumer have to pay for bandwidth (that expires) that it is impossible to make use of? When they are unable to consume that bandwidth, and have complained....why are they not refunded?

 

[LaraC]

What is Afrihost POC? How many actual consumers have access to this POC magic? Why does a normal consumer have to pay for bandwidth (that expires) that it is impossible to make use of? When they are unable to consume that bandwidth, and have complained....why are they not refunded?

It was said that ±5000 customers were on the network. Here is a link to one of my post in that thread highlight my network experience.

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/712920-Afrihost-POC-Network-Afrigreen-Feedback?p=16299090&viewfull=1#post16299090

 

[Hamish McPanji]

It was said that ±5000 customers were on the network. Here is a link to one of my post in that thread highlight my network experience.

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/712920-Afrihost-POC-Network-Afrigreen-Feedback?p=16299090&viewfull=1#post16299090

My point is you are one of the 'special' ones. That option was not presented to most consumers. I had moved from home uncapped to business uncapped to capped until I eventually quit.

This option was not given to me, so I think your feedback as a 'special' is slightly skewed

 

[MickeyD]

Folks, if you are going to throw around the "shill" tag around, have your proof ready. Is the person being remunerated or rewarded for posting comments? Is the person an employee or in any way contractually linked to the company (other than using their product)?

Relating your personal experience on a forum does not make you a shill.



BTW: take note of how a professional like MagicDude4Eva words his replies and learn from it.

 

[Hamish McPanji]

Folks, if you are going to throw around the "shill" tag around, have your proof ready. Is the person being remunerated or rewarded for posting comments? Is the person an employee or in any way contractually linked to the company (other than using their product)?

Relating your personal experience on a forum does not make you a shill.

I agree with Mickey here. Calling someone a shill is wrong unless you can prove it

Edit: I feel that calling them 'special' is fine though, as the experience they have is different from what the majority of the consumers are allowed to have

 

[LaraC]

My point is you are one of the 'special' ones. That option was not presented to most consumers. I had moved from home uncapped to business uncapped to capped until I eventually quit.

This option was not given to me, so I think your feedback as a 'special' is slightly skewed

The option to take part in the testing phase of the new network was available to everyone. I believe an e-mail was also send to everyone inviting them to take part.

Here is the link where I signed up.

https://www.afrihost.com/landing/network_test/

 

[electrofreeze]

what is the point in taking part in something that is just as bad as the old network with lots of slow speed and problems
the bottom line is we are not getting the service we are paying for
seems you are the about the only one that never has problems and the forum is mostly for complaints
we have had problems since January and it is still going on never knowing what to expect specially after hours
then there is still the 6-11pm problem that is much worse lately

 

[Unhappy1]

The thing is Lara is conflating her experience on the POC network to Afrihosts MTN network, she didn't receive the same kind of performance on MTNs network as she does on Afrigreen.

This ruling is based on the MTN network issues not a test network Afrihost are running.

 

[MickeyD]

what is the point in taking part in something that is just as bad as the old network with lots of slow speed and problems
the bottom line is we are not getting the service we are paying for
seems you are the about the only one that never has problems and the forum is mostly for complaints
we have had problems since January and it is still going on never knowing what to expect specially after hours
then there is still the 6-11pm problem that is much worse lately

The question she should be asked is how she utilises her 10Mbps service. Heavy gamer? Downloader? Uploader? Work? Streaming content? Casual user?

 

[LaraC]

The question she should be asked is how she utilises her 10Mbps service. Heavy gamer? Downloader? Uploader? Work? Streaming content? Casual user?

I would probably be classified as a casual user. Few downloads but streaming YouTube a lot.

 

[MickeyD]

I would probably be classified as a casual user. Few downloads but streaming YouTube a lot.

So your line will never get stressed out...

 

[LaraC]

So your line will never get stressed out...

Whenever I download or stream my download speeds are good.
Stressed as in under load for extended periods, no.

 

[Unhappy1]

I would probably be classified as a casual user. Few downloads but streaming YouTube a lot.

Even as a casual user you could say things werent really up to scratch on the MTN network. You could go as far as saying there was a huge improvement or difference between the MTN network and the Afrigreen one?

 

[AntiGanda]

Folks, if you are going to throw around the "shill" tag around, have your proof ready. Is the person being remunerated or rewarded for posting comments? Is the person an employee or in any way contractually linked to the company (other than using their product)?

Relating your personal experience on a forum does not make you a shill.



BTW: take note of how a professional like MagicDude4Eva words his replies and learn from it.

We have different categories:
1. Employees of the company spouting the virtues of their products and demeaning those who disagree.
2. Fans of the company who feel obliged to 'defend' their chosen team.
3. Genuine customers who have a very different experience. Usually living in a zone that doesn't have problems so don't understand why people are complaining. Possibly they don't use the internet to the fullest so don't see the issues that are present.
4. Employees with an interest in gaining customers by talking up their product often when their competitors are having trouble. (exploitation shill)
5. Employees who are touting for business and post in competitors' threads unchecked (shill)
6. Former customers or those who have given notice trying to warn new ones or who see the 1-3 and the shills in action.
...

 

[MagicDude4Eva]

The question she should be asked is how she utilises her 10Mbps service. Heavy gamer? Downloader? Uploader? Work? Streaming content? Casual user?

Also remember, my ISPA complaint was based on the advertised Business Uncapped account - according to AH's website:

"Unshaped, Unmetered, Prioritised Perfect for the office, or for the power internet user! No shaping (guaranteed) and prioritised for the best performance with unique features to protect your business!"

Download Like a Pro!

Our Business DSL is the Business! Whether you’re looking for affordable and simple internet for your home business or small office, or if you’d just prefer to have unshaped internet all the time without worrying how you’re downloading, Business DSL offers Premium, unmetered, unshaped and prioritised bandwidth 24 hours a day! It’s the performance of a capped account combined with the simplicity of an uncapped account - it’s the best of both worlds! We also offer a unique Protocol Prioritisation feature to prevent abuse of your network and safeguard your priority online services.

As part of my ISPA appeal (yes, I am also appealing the ruling) I will contest the finding of clause 9 and will independently file an ASA complaint (never done one before, so hopefully some valuable insights gained in this process). Remember that I am fortunate in the sense that I am tech-savvy. You need to see the complaint from a perspective of a regular business user (the guy with the corner shop or the mom/pop shop) who signs up for such an account based on what is advertised.

The account was mostly used for business services (myself to support our online business, my wife running her digital business) and it obviously also had a leisure/recreational component to it. The experience was however far from "not worrying" and having "prioritised bandwidth 24 hours a day". It is not correct that an ISP feels that it is perfectly fine (and classified as "best service") to offer 1-2mbps on a 10mbps business account.

The Business Uncapped account did not protect my business as I found myself many nights driving to the office as my internet connection was broken. My wife lost out on business opportunities as she could not reliably deliver to clients. And many times I looked like a complete fool to share-holders as I had to tell them during Skype/VOIP calls to wait 30 minutes for me while I drive to the office and reconnect.

 

[MickeyD]

Whenever I download or stream my download speeds are good.
Stressed as in under load for extended periods, no.

The latter is the reason why I dumped them. Mobile account and my back up DSL account...

Oh yes, and their accounting (payment system) sucked.

 

[MickeyD]

Also remember, my ISPA complaint was based on the advertised Business Uncapped account - according to AH's website:



As part of my ISPA appeal (yes, I am also appealing the ruling) I will contest the finding of clause 9 and will independently file an ASA complaint (never done one before, so hopefully some valuable insights gained in this process). Remember that I am fortunate in the sense that I am tech-savvy. You need to see the complaint from a perspective of a regular business user (the guy with the corner shop or the mom/pop shop) who signs up for such an account based on what is advertised.

The account was mostly used for business services (myself to support our online business, my wife running her digital business) and it obviously also had a leisure/recreational component to it. The experience was however far from "not worrying" and having "prioritised bandwidth 24 hours a day". It is not correct that an ISP feels that it is perfectly fine (and classified as "best service") to offer 1-2mbps on a 10mbps business account.

The Business Uncapped account did not protect my business as I found myself many nights driving to the office as my internet connection was broken. My wife lost out on business opportunities as she could not reliably deliver to clients. And many times I looked like a complete fool to share-holders as I had to tell them during Skype/VOIP calls to wait 30 minutes for me while I drive to the office and reconnect.

I'm on your cheerleading team here...

One thing that really grates me is this:

Unshaped, Unmetered, Prioritised Perfect for the office, or for the power internet user! No shaping (guaranteed) and prioritised for the best performance with unique features to protect your business!"

Download Like a Pro!

There is NO way that "real" business users should be on the same product as heavy "downloaders".

To add insult to injury they then post the data usage of their biggest users... and do so for bragging rights.