Afrihost Uncapped ADSL Feedback (Pt3)

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Ol' Mean Bastid said:
I think AH have screwed the pooch, they've been aggressive in their approach to the market and are now suffering the consequences of growing too big too fast. How much of the problems experienced over the last year or so are related to the MTN backbone move (remember the amount of skepticism on this forum about that). Now they're up the creek and trying to spin damage control but seem to be sliding down hill at a rapid rate.

At the Africrowd, you guys need to get Gian to say something and say something soon, your credibility is all but shot, you okes will not be in the running for ISP of the year this year at this rate.
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You'll be surprised how the sheeple vote. I thought that last year and the year before with all their problems, and yet, here we are.
 
Whatever you do, don't leave AH for Telkom. I just came from there and they were also experiencing capacity issues.

I came to Afrihost expecting the same service I received last year this time. Never was I so mislead.

I'm now looking for other options.

Having F-all capacity is one thing, but having no communication about ETA's is a total different...
 
Ol' Mean Bastid said:
I think AH have screwed the pooch, they've been aggressive in their approach to the market and are now suffering the consequences of growing too big too fast. How much of the problems experienced over the last year or so are related to the MTN backbone move (remember the amount of skepticism on this forum about that). Now they're up the creek and trying to spin damage control but seem to be sliding down hill at a rapid rate.

At the Africrowd, you guys need to get Gian to say something and say something soon, your credibility is all but shot, you okes will not be in the running for ISP of the year this year at this rate.
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I think we're very aware of the negative sentiment that we're seeing, but we also see a lot of positive sentiment through our internal surveys and random sampling of client interactions. Our client base has grown and we are adjusting accordingly, and we believe we are on track to maintaining the high standard of service and personal interaction that our clients rely on to give us their continued trust.
 
wingnut771 said:
You'll be surprised how the sheeple vote. I thought that last year and the year before with all their problems, and yet, here we are.
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Jip, also thought they wont win last year after changing to mtn and the multiple threads on mybb of people bitching about poor service, yet they still won.

Pakka said:
Whatever you do, don't leave AH for Telkom. I just came from there and they were also experiencing capacity issues.

I came to Afrihost expecting the same service I received last year this time. Never was I so mislead.

I'm now looking for other options.

Having F-all capacity is one thing, but having no communication about ETA's is a total different...
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Let us know what you find, Im with Telkom and desperatly want to move because of the useless internet. Wanted to move back to Afrihost but after reading a couple of pages on this thread Ill think Ill pass.
 
Shamus said:
When asking for a date for the increased capacity you are only asking part of the question - what we also need to know is what (if any) difference will it make? The figure seems to be an increase of 21% capacity - given that I am shaped almost continuously to 25% does this mean that the extra capacity will now get us to 46% continuous shaping? I suspect that since AH ordered the extra capacity they have increased the number of customers they have so this increase in capacity will have to be shared round. Anytime AH tell us more capacity is coming "soon" they also make a point of saying this will ease shaping (but never by how much) so I think there will be some sad faces out there when this new capacity arrives.
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When we've upgraded our capacity in the past, we've generally seen long periods (months) where there is little to no shaping at all, well below the target of what would be considered "normal" shaping.

We've never done an upgrade in the manner you've suggested here, we always aim to give clients better than what they expect, and I expect that this would be the case.

I can't think of a single case where we did an upgrade and Uncapped wasn't immediately awesome.
 
AfriMan said:
When we've upgraded our capacity in the past, we've generally seen long periods (months) where there is little to no shaping at all, well below the target of what would be considered "normal" shaping.

We've never done an upgrade in the manner you've suggested here, we always aim to give clients better than what they expect, and I expect that this would be the case.

I can't think of a single case where we did an upgrade and Uncapped wasn't immediately awesome.
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And yet, less than a month after the north's IPC upgrade, long bouts of shaping is already back.

EDIT: because you're giving away capped bandwidth like it's free, which makes one wonder that you're not doing this on purpose, to get everybody onto capped accounts, because uncapped is so crap.
 
The point is it shouldn't be allowed to get to a "bad place" where people start threatening to leave and are experiencing heavy shaping. It seems like it's a pattern - an upgrade is done, everything's fine, then the service degrades to a very low level, and then another upgrade is done. It should be a matter of good network quality all the time. That's how one keeps customers. I really hope this problem is fixed soon and remains that way.
 
Bl1zz4rd said:
The point is it shouldn't be allowed to get to a "bad place" where people start threatening to leave and are experiencing heavy shaping. It seems like it's a pattern - an upgrade is done, everything's fine, then the service degrades to a very low level, and then another upgrade is done. It should be a matter of good network quality all the time. That's how one keeps customers. I really hope this problem is fixed soon and remains that way.
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Makes them look like they're being greedy, based on other ISP's performances, as every single one of them is better than AH right now, even Cybersmart :sick:
 
Bl1zz4rd said:
The point is it shouldn't be allowed to get to a "bad place" where people start threatening to leave and are experiencing heavy shaping. It seems like it's a pattern - an upgrade is done, everything's fine, then the service degrades to a very low level, and then another upgrade is done. It should be a matter of good network quality all the time. That's how one keeps customers. I really hope this problem is fixed soon and remains that way.
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Agreed. I used to work at a company that used to do upgrades whenever utilization reached a certain % of total capacity. Would never get unusable before upgrades were done.
 
wingnut771 said:
This is the issue I have with them. They treat their customers like mushrooms, keeping them in the dark!
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I personally believe that we are extremely open with our clients and transparent. Gian mails and SMS's clients when we mess up, and we always do our best to do the right thing for our clients in these cases.

We'd never want our clients to feel like they are left in the dark, but sometimes we are also in the dark when it comes to ETA's from Telkom or certain other partners we work with.

In my experience, we've always shared information when we've had it to inform and empower our clients.
 
AfriMan said:
I personally believe that we are extremely open with our clients and transparent. Gian mails and SMS's clients when we mess up, and we always do our best to do the right thing for our clients in these cases.

We'd never want our clients to feel like they are left in the dark, but sometimes we are also in the dark when it comes to ETA's from Telkom or certain other partners we work with.

In my experience, we've always shared information when we've had it to inform and empower our clients.
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And yet you can't provide a simple ETA? That's not very open, and nor is "soon".

Axxess can, why can't you?
 
Chevron said:
Agreed. I used to work at a company that used to do upgrades whenever utilization reached a certain % of total capacity. Would never get unusable before upgrades were done.
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If you read some of the articles posted by other ISPs on ordering capacity from Telkom, they all say that this is a difficult plan to implement.

We'd all love to order capacity as and when we need, but the turnaround time can be anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. So it's very difficult to plan for. If you order too much too early, you have to raise your prices. If you order too little too late, then you get a very poor experience for your clients. So most of us are really juggling the variables the best we can to get the best deal for our clients :(
 
wingnut771 said:
And yet you can't provide a simple ETA? That's not very open, and nor is "soon".

Axxess can, why can't you?
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How can we provide a date that we don't know? I don't see how this is helpful to the client to create an expectation that we may not meet. I think we have good track record trusting our gut with our clients, and we won't change from that. Since we are continuing to grow, I think we are doing the right thing for the vast majority of our clients in this respect.
 
wingnut771 said:
That 21% they boasting about is the total national amount. Seeing the north has already been upgraded, lets make it 10% out of the 21%, then that leaves 11%, so 6% to the south and 5% to the east would be a fair assessment.

Now seeing the north has already run out and are shaping home uncapped into the ground again, I doubt 6% will make much difference.

Paint your own picture, but if you ask me, they are over-rated, big time!
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Not sure where you get these figures from, but it really does not work like that. We have our own plans for the long term and short term.
 
AfriMan said:
How can we provide a date that we don't know? I don't see how this is helpful to the client to create an expectation that we may not meet. I think we have good track record trusting our gut with our clients, and we won't change from that. Since we are continuing to grow, I think we are doing the right thing for the vast majority of our clients in this respect.
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Have you seen Axxess's notice? I know you've been away.

axx1.jpg

Posted a week ago.

You should open those communication channels up with your uplink provider. Maybe you need a cricket stadium named after you to get that info, I don't know, all I do know is that this doesn't reflect very well on AH.
 
wingnut771 said:
As an AH client, I am merely providing feedback in the feedback thread.
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So you are a client of ours, telling other clients that they are being robbed? Seems a little strange. Do you feel that you are being robbed? Can we address what is making you so unhappy, and then maybe we can let other's voice their own opinions, so I can also help them?

Just saying ....
 
aybbleek said:
Guess I'll actually have to move, such a shame I really loved Afrihost when I joined...
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I really think that our plans for our DSL clients should realise very soon and our clients will be getting the experience that we want for them. I think we're different in that we want our clients to have an awesome, that's our main priority. We don't hold back any expense, and we usually drop our prices at the first opportunity to ensure our clients get the best value - which I guess is a big part of the internet experience.

I sincerely believe on the whole that Afrihost clients have a better experience, and get the very best value for their spend. We do go through some rough times, like any service company, but we always make good, whether it's big network upgrades or mystery bonuses/discounts - to make sure our clients are never forgotten.
 
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