Communication between WBS & iBurst Customers

[slimothy]

Hey LG - use a Gmail account instead: gives you 1Gb of mail (dunno what hot/yahoo mail gives, but probably less than this) - can send you an invite if you're interested...

yeah but gmail allow thrid party scanners to scan the content of email and block access to dll, zip, exe, msi etc file extentions

 

[Gatecrasher]

Having your own domain is the best. I know Afrihost are good with that and for R60 a month you get your own website too...

You can get the same from overseas servers plus email for under R60 a year (free if you don't mind ads). And if your site is popular, bandwidth is much cheaper too.

 

[Edinetz]

You can get the same from overseas servers plus email for under R60 a year (free if you don't mind ads). And if your site is popular, bandwidth is much cheaper too.

I think ADSL users would want local so they can still access their email after being capped.

 

[guest2013-1]

I think ADSL users would want local so they can still access their email after being capped.

Unless they have a UUNET uncapped account

 

[Crash]

Phoned support desk and found it has been cleverly disguised as "customer consultant".
The network status page is showing degraded performance on JHB core network and I can't connect at all.

Crash: On the network status page it says that core network jhb is degraded. What is the problem?

Techie: The technicians are attending to the problem.

Crash: That doesn't help me at all. What is the problem?

Techie: I don't know.

Crash: I can't connect to the network.

Techie: Oh, we have been having authentication problem for about two hours.

Crash: So you do know what the problem is.

Techie: <deadly silence>

Crash: How long until the problem is solved?

Techie: Don't know.

Crash: Thanks for wasting my time.

What is going on? He basically lied to me at first. Then when I pressed the point I got an answer. I am actually trying to demo the iburst to a client of mine, so you can understand how unhappy I am that it won't connect. Thanks WBS support. You are worse than Mweb support.

Next thing, if there is a problem on network, then why is it not on the Incident Report Pages?

 

[Gatecrasher]

Refering to the helpdesk person as "Techie" is just plain wrong.

Realise that when you converse with the helpdesk the most informed person is you. YOU are providing THEM with information.

They are only there to complain at. Don't expect anything useful.

 

[guest2013-1]

Oh, and this authentication problem started yesterday already, so it's not isolated nor "only a couple of hours"

Gatecrasher, I think Crash might have used Techie as a sarcastic comment. And what you've said about "you providing information to them"

Deja-f2cking-vu

Sentech == WBS

 

[Swoosh]

return == true??

 

[guest2013-1]

nope, correct syntax would be return true;

 

[Crash]

Sorry Gatecrash.
Techie is now = Lieing Bastard at Support Centre.
That Better

 

[native]

Is Shaun Green still alive?

 

[koffiejunkie]

noone, do you have a link to that uncapped uunet package? I can't seem to find it on their website.

Thanks

 

[guest2013-1]

yes i do, hehe, try www.webafrica.co.za

I was thinking of becoming a reseller to make some extra dosh and come in around R40 cheaper than everyone, but then I added the start up costs and the hassle of admin and support etc and I figured I'd rather sink in the startup capital in upgrading my house

 

[guest2013-1]

Asof 28-02-2005 05:21 PM apparently yes (assuming that the PA does not have permission to act as his proxy service).

I did ask WBS again today if he was still sick, I was told he was, anyway I eventually managed to get hold of Sasan Parvin who promised to get someone to call me about delivering an external antenna to me, Sasan if you are listening I have not been contacted by the mother ship yet...

And don't expect to be. Today I received an email to notify me of their network status page. What they failed to mention is that it's been there for several weeks (and alot of people noticed it already, so they got the 3rd degree) and the fact that their network status only shows radio signal problems, and not actual internet connection problems.

They can come suck my hairy ass.

 

[LoneGunman]

Same rule of thumb as learned at Sentech, needs to work here. Lousy speeds? Packet loss? Disconnections? Pester them.
Phone the help desk, repeatedly. Get the Orcs name, detail what they say to you, on forum - so any apparent lies or false stories, can be cross referenced and understood by everyone else.
Also, speak to their supervisor if the Orc just hides behind 'oh they're working on it' as an excuse.

There's 29 days left - to when I expect to have a fully working and stable internet connection, allowing me to download whatever I want, up to the so-called 'cap' limit.

 

[LoneGunman]

I agree re trying to cut down on telkom calls - BUT..

trouble is, they seem to rarely, if ever, either speedily respond to emails - or even give any indication that they're keeping watch on their email In-Box in the helpdesk section.
I've always had to phone them and point them towards the email I've sent, in order for them to notice it, and pass it on to Luis. So whatever training they've had, its clearly insufficient in terms of proactively responding and reacting to customers emails.

Added to this
-the time taken for them to answer calls, is getting longer and longer.
-They are still not assigning 'job numbers' to calls - so there's no customer-side record or accountability for what they're doing.
-In addition, whatever their equipment is that they're using - the stupid adverts come through at full volume, and the helpdesk personnels voices are often this faint, barely audible whisper. So either they have lousy phone equipment, or they have no clue about how to communicate clearly using telephones/headsets. (I repeatedly have to tell them to speak louder and to put the mouthpiece closer to their mouths - and this after loud muzak and adverts, so its not my ears, or the phoneline - its stupid Orcs with no training in hands free mikes, or an incorrectly wired telephone system..)

I'd like to see an auto-response immediately from any email sent to the helpdesk, followed up by live mail or phone call.

If IBurst want to survive to the end of this year, they better learn that the customer

a) is always right

b) is paying their salary

c) wants an immediate solid response when contact is made to report problems

d) (thanks to the 30 day contract) the customers is always just 30 days away from walking away from IBurst and taking their money with them.

 

[TheRoDent]

/me thinks Shaun found a nice copout excuse.

 

[LoneGunman]

Just as a dose of cold (paranoid) looking at 'what's actually there' as I see it.

Notice how 'IBurst' as one single big company, 'appears' to us..

There are serious problems - yet there's just ONE apparently decent, helpful and 'good guy' who is the access route for us to get the basic service we're paying for. If that person is off sick - gee, we just have to wait. Have discussions whether or not this one person is 'really' sick.
Meanwhile the Company continues on doing what its doing, without any real overall accountability. He's the good cop, and the Company continues being the bad cop - and we bounce between them, and focus our hopes and attention on the good cop..

Then there's what seems to be a deliberate 'holding pattern technique' that's occurring..
For instance:
It seems to take a day or more, and repeated calls and cut n pasting of ping results, to persuade the 'helpdesk' that there is a problem on a specific tower. Followed by a further two to three days of them using 'the technicians are looking at it' as an excuse. How many weeks now has the excuse of 'there's some sort of problem on northcliff/bryanston' been used?
But the end result is a slow-down of speeds that's almost become a 'norm' for some users.

A Company that's invested X millions of rands in providing a technical service, would surely not only behave in a more rapid way to what it sees as 'real problems' - but would want to be SEEN to be reacting rapidly, to 'real' problems.

If its not behaving this way, then perhaps it should be considered that some of what we see as 'problems' - to the Company - are exactly the desired end results it wants to have in place? ie: the slower speeds..

Because there's an odd 'slowness' and 'resistance to alerting of issues by customers' to what seem to be problems, that are not the appropriate behaviour of a Company that's launching in 28 days time.

So either they are quite startlingly and profoundly inefficient in both technical ability AND customer PR - or else, we are misinterpreting the situation - and IBurst are moving precisely towards a predetermined method of slowed down internet delivery speeds, while observing to what degree of reduced bandwidth delivery they can provide and still retain a customer base.

My $90860986096 Zim dollars worth

 

[guest2013-1]

I agree with LoneGunman, I think it is all too convienient that the participation from Shaun's side has died down to nil. I shudder to think if we actually did go to that meeting what would have happend.

 

[mbs]

Hell, dejavu all over again - remember how Proasm got whacked?!