Communication between WBS & iBurst Customers

[regardtv]

Sihen - please get the helpdesk to read their mail

Well,

I'm getting a Sentech deja vu feeling again.

3 mails 2 weeks ... no response ... and a broken service ... gawd dammit

Time to start making a noise.....

 

[Gatecrasher]

Surely a new venture of the size and infrastructure of WBS (HAVING HOSTED THE LOTTO SERVERS) understand that a lot of nurturing of the market is neeeded if they are going to grow their new network foundling??

There's a huge difference between having one client (Lotto) and having thousands of clients (Iburst). I just hope they are learning fast.

 

[twixt]

IBurst Comms

Not that I can actually get any emails in or out (ThunderTweety is flumaxed by the stationary Burst-i), but has anyone received an apology email from WBS for their Authentication Server having exploded/whatever & locked out the majority of iBurst customers nationwide?

Nope, no reply yet. On the other hand I am still not 100% sure that they have my email address captured correctly as I've never received any mail from them - despite having had my email address corrected by a consultant 3 times.

With regards to latest comms - I just spoke to Tyrone on the call centre and he told me that IBurst is currently experiencing bandwidth problems - congratulations IBurst - honesty at last I was so surprised I almost dropped my phone! No expected solution as of yet... again honesty.. by this stage I was about to pass out. I left a message for his manager to phone me back (this is purely a test of customer relations - I don't expect any great answers).

On other fronts has anybody else noticed that when running international speed tests on stanford uni (http://netspeed.stanford.edu/) - you get more upload then download?

Test results as follows:

click START to re-test
Checking for Middleboxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Done
running 10s outbound test (client to server) . . . . . 108.22Kb/s
running 10s inbound test (server to client) . . . . . . 33.75kb/s
Your PC is connected to a Cable/DSL modem
Information: Other network traffic is congesting the link

click START to re-test
Checking for Middleboxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Done
running 10s outbound test (client to server) . . . . . 90.98Kb/s
running 10s inbound test (server to client) . . . . . . 43.10kb/s
Your PC is connected to a Cable/DSL modem
Information: Other network traffic is congesting the link

 

[Shaun Green]

Operations Report

Hi all IBurst Users.

My name is Shaun Green. National Operations Manager for IBurst.

We are experiencing problems on the network with regards to the speed and disconnections. We understand your frustrations and I apologise for the inconvenience. The engineers are out in the field attending to the problem.

I cannot give a time frame. There is no clear indicator to what is causing the speed issues or the disconnections.

Your patience is greatly appreciated.

Unfortunately i am unable to go onto this forum daily. The pressures of getting the network stable and having many other operational duties force me to give my attentions to them.

We have all experienced IBurst at it's best. The speed is great, no questioning that. Now there have been problems. I prefer them happening now, and giving us an opportunity to be the best in the wireless service industry that South Africa will have to offer, than having the problems coming out after our launch date.

Hang in there Dude's & Dudettes. The best is still to come.

Best Regards.

Shaun Green
National Operations Manager
WBS

 

[colbar]

Shaun that all good and well but in the mean time we are paying R450 a month (exculding other money that as been take in error which still needs to be sorted out) for a service that is slower than dialup .

 

[Shaun Green]

Speed Back

Seems like the speed issue is sorted out. Just downloaded 6mb in 1m15s.

Keep trying lads.

Looks good

 

[guest2013-1]

I'll be the judge re: downloading speeds thanks

Thanks for the feedback Shaun, if we got this a couple of weeks/days ago all would have been much better, rather than the deafening silence

 

[Gatecrasher]

Hang in there Dude's & Dudettes.

If we're Dudes and Dudettes, what does that make Iburst? A Dud?

Seriously, it's great to hear from WBS on the forum. Please, stick around!

 

[Jerry]

"Hang in there Dude's & Dudettes. The best is still to come."

Well, 'no cap' will be good!

Thanks for the info Shaun - keep it coming!

 

[Shaun Green]

No Chance

Sorry Guys & Gals... (Will not be caught again, i hope)

The cap will be implemented. Will give prior warning.

Will not just happen overnight.

There will be buy-more-gig's packages worked out so that you dont have to suffer on 64k.

Just downloaded the same 6mb file, a little slower, 79kbps, 2m34s. This is still acceptable speed.

Will be checking this site for the next 24 hours, and downloading the same 6mb file to check consistancy.

Hope you all have a speedy nite on the web.

Shaun Green

 

[Luke7777]

Although an outsider to iBurst, I *have* to ask the following :

How do you get in less than an hour from

I cannot give a time frame. There is no clear indicator to what is causing the speed issues or the disconnections.

to

Seems like the speed issue is sorted out. Just downloaded 6mb in 1m15s.

I'm sure a "Why" would have been in order, since this has been going on for days/weeks

/me remember ST helpdesk :
ST: 2nd level support is attending to the problem
/me : what is the problem ?
ST: They're not sure

Later...
ST: 2nd level support has found a workaround to fix the problem...
/me: *What* is the problem ?
ST: They don't know..

P.S. Points to Shaun (in his official capacity) for appearing in these forums though

 

[zepher]

I just got of the phone with helpdesk after dropping them a courtesy "I am having a problem" call so that they can add me to the list of clients advising of issues.

With reference to the ITWeb article (Teething problems anger iBurst clients) and the comment that complaints are getting less; does that mean that the vocal users have ditched iBurst and given up or is the service really getting better?

Could someone at WBS confirm if each call that is made to the helpdesk is logged and can they provide conclusive stats to support this?

I ask this as no reference number was given to me when I called and no details were taken from me when I called.

It would be my assumption that this would be the minim required by a call centre to be able to track calls and issues.

How do we know that our little voices are even being heard?

It is my experience that things are getting worse since I joined in December.

 

[Shaun Green]

Response from Management

iro Speed Issues.

I am currently at my home downloading the Norton Virus Definition file from symantec. Slight drop in speed, however, still ok (43kbps).

Test it.

I have informed the office of the speed increase. There are still problems with a few UT's out there with regards their signal. These calls are logged according to the area reports, this keeps the engineers in the field informed as to where they should be concentrating their efforts.

Please believe that we want the service to be of the highest quality by launch date.

Best regards to all IBurster's

Shaun Green

 

[hArTh]

Congratulations on showing your face here Shaun.

iBurst can only benefit from their users' direct input even if it is hard to swallow at times.

/hArTh hands Shaun a pair of asbestos underpants ...

 

[Gatecrasher]

iro Speed Issues.

I am currently at my home downloading the Norton Virus Definition file from symantec. Slight drop in speed, however, still ok (43kbps).

I think you muddling kilobytes per second (KB/s) and kilobits per second (kbps). 43KB/s would be okayish, 43kbps would be worse than dialup.

 

[Shaun Green]

Ok Ok Ok

43 KB/s is it....

Thank you for the correction.

Just tried again... got the file coming down at 76 KB/s. Even better.

I connect to the Sanlam Tower in JHB. My location is Observatory.
Using a UTD.

Cheers

Shaun Green

 

[guest2013-1]

Well Shaun, according to your CFO friend, the Northcliff tower is suffering a bit due to cover alot of people, i'm still experiencing 4.3kb/s - 8kb/s downloads. Stuttering, and disconnecting at random (although immediatly reconnecting)

This is really irratating as I'm lagging on IRC, and when I disconnect it disrupts my experience. This is getting very close to your release date...

I'm having doubts as to if the cap would solve anything, I'll give it 2 months after the cap has been implemented, if I don't see any improvement, I'll cancel, simple as that. I am sure your 30day notice clients would dissapear as well.

 

[Shaun Green]

Will do

However.. Will only post there once the engineers have explained to
me in english the exact cause of the crash. Dont want to b/s or thumb suck.

Will have answers tom.

Will that be ok.

Shaun Green

 

[Drastik]

Great to finally see somebody from iBurst around here, thanks Shaun. Things are definately looking up managed to get here from my home for the fist time in a while.

 

[guest2013-1]

I appreciate your eagerness to answer our questions Shawn, but trust me, if you say tomorrow, we expect tomorrow.

I'm patiently waiting...