Afrihost NIGHMARE

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Clamenco

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Hi there,
I’m pretty sure this has been asked a thousand times but quite honestly right now I am fuming. I just can’t explain how angry I am. If this has been discussed before please point me to the correct thread.
I am currently using Afrihost’s 512k uncapped shaped offering. Up until last week everything was not too bad. Then last week we had to change the username to [email protected] and since then it’s been a complete nightmare. Pre-username change I was getting d/load speeds on torrents of between 40 and 50kB/s, after the change I am lucky to get 20kB/s, this is after hours when the lines are supposedly unshaped. I used the tool to test for shaping on the line, and during peak times the tool can’t even d/load anything coz the data packets get lost. I’m even struggling to browse WebPages now, and I reboot the router way too often. So I create a ticket explaining my issue, and ask if it could be my ADSL line itself that might have a problem and also how I can see my usage, and now the fun starts….
I get a reply that doesn’t mention anything about whether it could be my line or not, I just got a reply on how to check my usage. My usage, 13GB total, is that above average or not, goodness knows. Anyway cutting a long sad story short, after hours I had to d/load a torrent update that is 7MB, it took wait for it…. 45 minutes to d/load. I really can’t go on like this, and I have made up my mind that I am going to change ISP’s.
I have a 512k line, and I’m willing to spend max R500 a month on the data line. Can anyone please suggest what the best product is for me? I have heard the Axxess reduces everyone’s line speed to an unshaped 384k line during peak time and then opens the lines up completely in off peak time. I have looked at the all hours unshaped lines but the cheapest seems to be 700 or 800, which is just a little but expensive.
 
apparently IS start to shape at around 9-12 GB. it happened to me so i cancelled my uncapped option and moved over to a capped option.

my advice: stay away from any ISP that uses IS. they throttle you to death really quickly. try out mweb and see how that goes.
 
Clamenco said:
So I create a ticket explaining my issue, and ask if it could be my ADSL line itself that might have a problem and also how I can see my usage, and now the fun starts….
I get a reply that doesn’t mention anything about whether it could be my line or not, I just got a reply on how to check my usage. My usage, 13GB total, is that above average or not, goodness knows. Anyway cutting a long sad story short, after hours I had to d/load a torrent update that is 7MB, it took wait for it…. 45 minutes to d/load. I really can’t go on like this, and I have made up my mind that I am going to change ISP’s.
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Click to expand...

My feeling on Afrihost is they have machines to answer the tickets - keep sending you inane, useless responses. No wait, even when I eventually got to speak to a human, I still didn't get my problem resolved.
 
Is a "nighmare" a really bad sexual experience?

Seriously, try MWeb or Openweb Gold.
 
Clamenco I'm having the exact same experience. There are a few of us, and most of them are happy with the move.

Started with the move to IS. I emailed them about it and also got the same response explaining how to check usage. My usage at that time was 6 gigs.

After more emails, I eventually get forwarded a PDF from IS detailing their usage policy. It states that you will have half speed during office hours when you reach your threshold, and full speed after hours.

Clearly they were not reading my emails so I sent back a more forceful one. On Wednesday (almost a week later) I was phoned by a support guy who asked me to do some tests during office hours and again after hours, using my account and another test account I was provided login details for. I thought ok at least they're taking me seriously now.

I did the tests on wednesday evening and again last night, both times sending the results to Afrihost.

Check this out (384K line, tested at 10pm):

One minute Youtube clip
- My account: 10 minutes and 3 seconds
- Test account: 1 minute and 44 seconds

http://news.sky.com/skynews/ page load
- My account: 2 minutes and 40 seconds
- Test account: 19 seconds

1mb http file download
- My account: 2 minutes and 21 seconds (maximum of 9.8 kB/sec shown)
- Test account: 36 seconds (up to 38 kB/sec shown)

Today it emerged that these results were only forwarded to IS this afternoon.

I'm still sitting here with dialup speeds and nobody gives a $hit.

It's been over a week and I haven't even been offered a different account. They do however have the time and resources to dish out free gigs to customers who's accounts are working fine (3 for 1 deal) as well as hand out iphones and ipads in their spiffy new competition.

I am also now beyond angry. There is clearly a problem with our accounts. Others are working fine. They've left us like this for over a week. During the day everything just times out, and at night you get dialup speed.

What really grinds me is that this is not OUR problem. We are Afrihost customers, not IS customers. I don't really give a toss about Afrihost's problems with IS. I paid my money, where's my internet access? They just let the days go by not realising that we're sitting in internet hell here all day every day. I now have to wait until tomorrow again as there is no response to my latest email.

I'd be dearly happy with even the fully throttled speed of 192 kbps, even though I'm nowhere near my bandwidth threshold anyway. This is completely ridiculous.

It's also not an ISP vs ISP thing. Others who have been switched are happy with it. This is a problem with a select few accounts (I know this from my lengthy phone conversations with them) and they couldn't possibly drag their asses any more about fixing it.
 
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i just laugh at afrifail and anyone fail enough to give them money
 
I must admit that I'm happy I never went for uncapped. I rather moved to a capped unshaped account as unshaped costs came down too.

I must admit I've never used afrihost before.
 
These Internet Solutions accounts are extortion. Move to MWEB. They are the only real (cheap) uncapped accounts in SA atm. Personally I think the thugs at IS should be arrested.
 
Cancelled my Afrifail account today. They moved me to IS where newsgroup downloads were going @ between 8kbps to 17 kbps on my 384 connection. Moved to Openweb and am back to 42 kbps.
 
Thanks for the replies, i will definitely be investigating other options.

Oh yes i also mailed them to ask if i cancel my account today is there any refund and the answer was no coz you account is still active till the end of the month. Another fail in my opinion.
 
Clamenco that's exactly the issue. If they had held up their hands and said ok fine, this clearly isn't working, here's your money back OR here's another account, then at least I'd leave them with a bit of a good vibe.

But nothing. And no this isn't just an issue with being throttled to death, there is something wrong with our accounts, and they are making their problem our problem, and we have to pay for it?
 
It's not the money, it's the principle. I refuse to pay again for this month. I'm not letting this go until I have my money back or a working account.
 
I just cancelled my capped accounts and my uncapped account with them, do not want to deal with such a company again.

Back to Telkom ISP for now and then mweb for the heavy stuff.
 
I see these accounts that are unshaped still have the FUP connected to them... WTF?
 
Oh if i have an unshaped uncapped account i want to be able to d/load 10TB without any throttling or any nonesense.. Ok i can't d/load that much but i'm just trying to make a point...
 
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