Afrihost Overusage

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Pooky

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A couple of days ago I got a notice that my Afrihost account is at 97% bandwidth usage.

Today I was wondering why I hadn't been capped and I logged in to find that my overusage is at 400mb, also on the stutus it says capped, but I am still able to access the internet.
I don't want to get a sudden bill if I carry on using it...

Surely they should not allow so much!?
 
You wont get a bill for that, but what you over used will be deducted from next months cap
There are lots of other threads complaining about this.
 
But in the past the over usage has been like 30mb not 400!

And this overusage business is a stupid concept anyway.
 
You pay for what you're using.

fair is fair.

Be glad it's not like VC or MTN who'll charge you an arm and leg for downloading after cap.

But why did you still download after you got the message saying you used up 97%? I usually stop using my afrihost acc after it reaches 95% or so, and switch over to another account to prevent this sort of situation.
 
Well, if they can "overuse", then they must be forced to rollover un-used as well.

But, I don't mind the overuse system, unless the reason for my over-use is a virus or something, in which case I will be quite angry.
It would be so much safer if they just cut it off, but of course, they're not working on 100% real-time figures, thanks to IS, so any cut-off system will result in losses.
 
Strange how you cannot carry a positive balance over to the next month, but you can carry over your negative balance.

As much as everyone loves them for pushing down prices, that selective carryover is pathetic.
 
Afrihost has puzzled me immensely since I opened my account a few months ago. In the first few months i went up to about 2 and a half gigs over and they promptly deducted the usage from the next month. Recently they capped me as I hit the limit. Just a few days ago I went over a few hundred meg by the 15th, switched to my other account till I was capped on the other account on the 30th, then logged back on to Afrihost, only to get capped after a further 10 megs of use. So I haven't figured it out yet?
 
Pilgrim said:
Strange how you cannot carry a positive balance over to the next month, but you can carry over your negative balance.

As much as everyone loves them for pushing down prices, that selective carryover is pathetic.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Good point.

I'll still live with it though without complaining too much... Still a fanboi. For now.
 
Pilgrim said:
Strange how you cannot carry a positive balance over to the next month, but you can carry over your negative balance.

As much as everyone loves them for pushing down prices, that selective carryover is pathetic.
Click to expand...

Yeah that would be cool. I find this practise of theirs quite uncommon and definitely uncalled for. Just force us to use a topup or cut us off after a wee bit of grace.... but don't go and charge us for it by cutting from the next cap!
 
So they aren't gonna bill me if I carry on using it? Only if I purchase another gig?
 
Pooky said:
A couple of days ago I got a notice that my Afrihost account is at 97% bandwidth usage.

Today I was wondering why I hadn't been capped and I logged in to find that my overusage is at 400mb, also on the stutus it says capped, but I am still able to access the internet.
I don't want to get a sudden bill if I carry on using it...

Surely they should not allow so much!?
Click to expand...

T&Cs Pooky - read them!

Why does this keep coming as a surprise to people on this forum, after several threads have pointed this out?
 
Pooky said:
So they aren't gonna bill me if I carry on using it? Only if I purchase another gig?
Click to expand...

They'll bill you don't worry - it'll be taken from next months usage if you don't purchase another gig.
 
timgaul said:
Intriguing. Guess you could just use another ISP, but now do you really want to do that at the price Afrihost is offering?
Click to expand...

No but I can create a new thingy. I already have a couple from where I payed with credit card and another with debit order.

Not an actual afrihost account, just a new adsl one.
 
Unfortunately it is not financially viable for us to allow the positive amount to go over as we work on a breakage and for this to be sustainable we do charge for the extra bandwidth used and not vice versa. Also as stated in many threads we do not get the stats from IS immediately so it is possible to go over. Especially if you have a fast line and concurrent users (we do allow 5).

Other ISPs have a padded margin to allow extra bandwidth to not be deducted off your account, but since our markup is already so low, we can't offer that perk.In essence you are paying them for the extra bandwidth as you are paying us!
 
What I don’t understand is how other ISPs are able to get the data fairly quickly? I’m pretty sure the others will get overusage of a few meg here and there. Overusage the tune of 400mb is unacceptable.
 
milomak said:
What I don’t understand is how other ISPs are able to get the data fairly quickly? I’m pretty sure the others will get overusage of a few meg here and there. Overusage the tune of 400mb is unacceptable.
Click to expand...

Yes, I was happy with the little bit it went over, and I'm not complaining about the 400mb because it mean I get it for free (hopefully)....

I'm on a 384kbps line...
 
Pooky said:
Yes, I was happy with the little bit it went over, and I'm not complaining about the 400mb because it mean I get it for free (hopefully)....
.
Click to expand...

There's your problem, you kept going thinking it's free, when you get to 90%+ it's time to topup.
 
Afrihost-Moshe said:
Also as stated in many threads we do not get the stats from IS immediately so it is possible to go over.
Click to expand...

Can anyone confirm this? Is there anyone else using IS bandwidth, either directly, or through an IS reseller?

@Moshe - How often do these updates come through? It'll help us to plan our usage better if we know we've got to wait 30min before the new usage is reflected in the ClientZone.

Afrihost-Moshe said:
Other ISPs have a padded margin to allow extra bandwidth to not be deducted off your account, but since our markup is already so low, we can't offer that perk.In essence you are paying them for the extra bandwidth as you are paying us!
Click to expand...
[/QUOTE]

@Moshe - makes sense. I still don't have any major problems with bandwidth not rolling over, or getting billed for overusage. At R29 per GB, I'll live with it.

But once WebAfrica launches it's new products on 1 March, and other ISPs also drop bandwidth prices to similar rates, this will become less and less acceptable, and more people will start complaining.

If Afrihost doesn't want to lose a good chunk of the customers they gained from the R29 per GB offer, they'd better sort this out with IS - make sure the updates come in quicker, and also give a padded margin of say 50mb per GB..
 
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