Afrihost ISPA ruling upheld

MickeyD said:
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.
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Category 6. - and incidentally not permitted in the Telkom section. :D
 
Grep said:
Sure I can. My company has LOADS of accounts with them setup over the years for our clients. The clients are located all over the country...

The answer is no. Our job as tech's is meant to be on the road all day fixing problems totally unrelated to the internet, we also don't have the manpower to drive all over the country to cut client's over and lastly, who is going to pay for all the fuel costs? So yes, that is why we are still with them.
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It's 2015, why are these things not remotely managed?
 
MickeyD said:
I'm on your cheerleading team here...

One thing that really grates me is this:



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.
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"protect your business" and "Download Like a Pro!" shouldn't be on the same webserver...
 
ghostR said:
"protect your business" and "Download Like a Pro!" shouldn't be on the same webserver...
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Fully agree. Any IT professional will instantly see the problem. Around December 2014 I had to take steps to protect my business which was being negatively impacted as a "Business Uncapped" customer. Marketing and pricing the same product to businesses and "download Pro's" was reckless.

Remarkably it is 10 months later, any technology business that takes 10 months to remedy a fundamental problem like this should really not still be in business.

I should have seen the inherent contradiction in the marketing nonsense before I signed up. Lesson learned, never again. From now I advise anyone to ignore the marketing cr*p and read these threads carefully before deciding on an ISP product.
 
Hey MODS thanks for deleting my post in this thread about the "must not name the expensive cars seen at Afrihost office else my post will be deleted again". MyBB working for ISP I see these days.

Freedom of speech my @ss!!! Oeps, going to get deleted for that statement now also
 
Just an update:
- This weekend I filed an ASASA complaint as ISPA felt that ASA has jurisdiction over advertising standards. As such my ASA complaint covers Section 4 “Truthful presentation”, Section 4.2 “Claims”, Section 4.3 “Value of goods”, Section 4.5 “Up to…”, Section 10 “Testimonials”, Section 15 “Guarantees” and Section 16 “Money-back undertakings" (http://www.asasa.org.za/codes/advertising-code-of-practice/section-ii-general)

- I also appealed the ISPA ruling (all my original complaints) and provided additional information to substantiate those complaints.

The appeal window for Afrihost will close on 27th October and I am sure ISPA will respond to feedback from both parties accordingly. Although ASA deals with electronic media advertising, I can not remember ever seeing a ruling about it - this will be an interesting journey (bucket list: File an ASA complaint - TICK)
 
Freakboy said:
Hey MODS thanks for deleting my post in this thread about the "must not name the expensive cars seen at Afrihost office else my post will be deleted again". MyBB working for ISP I see these days.

Freedom of speech my @ss!!! Oeps, going to get deleted for that statement now also
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When you became a member of MyBB you tore up your right to total freedom of speech. Go read the rules...
 
MickeyD said:
When you became a member of MyBB you tore up your right to total freedom of speech. Go read the rules...
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If his post did not include pictures of the cars and/or bikini-clad girls foam-washing the cars you made the right decision in deleting the post.
 
@LaraC you forgetting a Business ADSL account is ment to be used for "Business" so priority should be for Business first and downloaders second - if you screw up your own network because of these massive downloaders and you don't rectify the problem before it hits everyone. Admitting that you screwed up, apologizing for the poor network speeds, "refunding", and giving customers a POC network may be sufficient for one or two users but when you have a Company expecting internet service, expecting mail delivery and losing money because you cannot provide the service you promised is bound to have consequences
 
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fishfly said:
@LaraC you forgetting a Business ADSL account is ment to be used for "Business" so priority should be for Business first and downloaders second - if you screw up your own network because of these massive downloaders and you don't rectify the problem before it hits everyone. Admitting that you screwed up, apologizing for the poor network speeds, "refunding", and giving customers a POC network may be sufficient for one or two users but when you have a Company expecting internet service, expecting mail delivery and losing money because you cannot provide the service you promised is bound to have consequences
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I agree with your comments, but nothing should stop me (as a non-business user) to signup for a Business Uncappped account and then utilise the service fully. I personally did this, as I found it to be the best value proposition as the product advertised offered just that "prioritised bandwidth" - so I expected that my VPN connectivity to office and data-centre would be always 100% solid (which it hardly ever was), that my wife could run her digital business from home (and upload/download gigs of data as her business required) and then my kid benefited during the quiet periods (weekends, evenings) and went full blast with bandwidth/gaming/downloads.

None of this behaviour was ever against Afrihost AUP (BTW: there is a nice spin to their AUPs which I discovered during my appeals process). In my mind, Afrihost decided to irresponsibly grow their customer base without looking at capacity issue.
 
MagicDude4Eva said:
I agree with your comments, but nothing should stop me (as a non-business user) to signup for a Business Uncappped account and then utilise the service fully. I personally did this, as I found it to be the best value proposition as the product advertised offered just that "prioritised bandwidth" - so I expected that my VPN connectivity to office and data-centre would be always 100% solid (which it hardly ever was), that my wife could run her digital business from home (and upload/download gigs of data as her business required) and then my kid benefited during the quiet periods (weekends, evenings) and went full blast with bandwidth/gaming/downloads.

None of this behaviour was ever against Afrihost AUP (BTW: there is a nice spin to their AUPs which I discovered during my appeals process). In my mind, Afrihost decided to irresponsibly grow their customer base without looking at capacity issue.
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I'm definitely not pointing any fingers at any end user who took advantage of the AH product offering, as that is how it was advertised!
 
fishfly said:
@LaraC you forgetting a Business ADSL account is ment to be used for "Business" so priority should be for Business first and downloaders second - if you screw up your own network because of these massive downloaders and you don't rectify the problem before it hits everyone. Admitting that you screwed up, apologizing for the poor network speeds, "refunding", and giving customers a POC network may be sufficient for one or two users but when you have a Company expecting internet service, expecting mail delivery and losing money because you cannot provide the service you promised is bound to have consequences
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I am well aware that any customer expect quality service for which they are paying. It seems that there is a perception that I’m defending Afrihost’s actions which is not the case.
What I’m doing is to show that Afrihost has a right to challenge any legal procedure that is brought against them.
I also pointed out that it is commendable that Afrihost subscribed to the ISPA code of conduct. They could easily have sidestepped the predicament they find themselves in if they didn’t.
 
So Afrihost is now switching over to the 'NEW' network.

Will they still have to place the disclaimer

"I order that the ISP make it patently clear on initial perusal of its websites that it is experiencing technical difficulties and that service it may not meet the offered service levels at this time. This information should be communicated upfront on the website, and pro-actively to each existing and potential customer until such time as these issues are resolved."
 
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