Cool Ideas Fibre ISP – Feedback Thread 3

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midasza said:
Fandom will not change the truth. Cool Idea's normal support is abysmal. You can log a call about packet loss, attach a MTR, explain its tested on cable and you have rebooted the CPE and router. And 48 to 60 hours later you will get a response asking if you tested on wireless and if you have rebooted the router. I mean their ability to read the calls as logged is terrible and their response time is worse.

Now naturally if are technical and pop onto the forums and pm PBCool or TheRodent and send them your log number it gets resolved generally pretty quickly, but 1. Why do you need to do this? 2. Not all people are aware of Mybroadband as a source of support.

Sounds like the original poster experienced "normal" support, and wasn't happy, that's his right. Maybe he is exaggerating, but Cool Idea's support isn't the greatest and definitely behind other ISP's when it comes to responsiveness to a problem initially being logged telephonically, or via email.
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When was the last time you logged a ticket with us?
 
midasza said:
but Cool Idea's support isn't the greatest and definitely behind other ISP's when it comes to responsiveness to a problem initially being logged telephonically, or via email.
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I see you have never dealt with the likes of Mweb, WebAfrica and AfriHost... I've been with all of them over the years, and while CoolIdeas first line support is a bit slow / strictly script based (i too have played mtr / speedtest / are you on wifi pingpong in the past) they are miles better than the other isps ive mentioned.
 
MFN had some issues in Alberton earlier I believe.
 
I recently dealt with afrihost on behalf of a client. Other than the hassle of getting Vumatel to create a sub address - the actualy support was acceptable. Someone emailed back the same day, they followed up until it dropped into the Vumatel quagmire at which point it reappeared 10 days later and was activated the same day. I have dealt with Cool Ideas and Bitco Home on behalf of other clients with exactly the same issue and the resolve time was about the same. The first line response for me personally was faster at both Bitco home and Afrihost than at Cool Ideas. And as I said it generally does get solved, and I have and can escalate here but that hasn't changed my personal experience on behalf of customers.

tardomatic said:
I see you have never dealt with the likes of Mweb, WebAfrica and AfriHost... I've been with all of them over the years, and while CoolIdeas first line support is a bit slow / strictly script based (i too have played mtr / speedtest / are you on wifi pingpong in the past) they are miles better than the other isps ive mentioned.
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My personal line - 27/03/2020 - I escalated here and got the answer within an hour. I never received a follow up call or email and the call was closed in May - I never got an email so I have to go with the date on coolzone.. Personally I logged a speed issue in June for a business client (so not my client but in their name), soon realised it was an area issue - client on supersonic and one on vox all within a 6 block radius also had issues. Also resolved itself within a few hours - without requiring escalation, got a reply the following tuesday - so 2 working days later.

PBCool said:
When was the last time you logged a ticket with us?
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midasza said:
My personal line - 27/03/2020 - I escalated here and got the answer within an hour. I never received a follow up call or email and the call was closed in May - I never got an email so I have to go with the date on coolzone.. Personally I logged a speed issue in June for a business client (so not my client but in their name), soon realised it was an area issue - client on supersonic and one on vox all within a 6 block radius also had issues. Also resolved itself within a few hours - without requiring escalation, got a reply the following tuesday - so 2 working days later.
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We have made some major changes to the support process in the last few months, with lockdown we have had to pivot in a big way to focus even more on the support aspect.

So hopefully the next time you need to interact it will be a different experience.

Also if it's a business line there is a completely separate department so please use it.
 
I am happy for you that your experience was great. I am always happy to hear positive reports - the support agents need to hear it. Note how at no point did I accuse you personally of being on any type of medicine while this was your experience (hint other people on the forum), possibly I have been unlucky with the type of calls I log and my experiences. I will say I went back and checked and calls I logged in early January 2019 seem to be replied to within the same day, so it seems the problems for me at least started in August 2019. Possibly my next experience will be as good as yours (well as good as your ones that didn't take a week to receive a reply to).

I am generally very happy with the day to day service I receive, I am not threatening to quit, and I use Cool Idea's at clients where I manage their connectivity - personally I don't have the confidence to recommend them to clients where I don't manage the connectivity yet. This also has to do with the support desk only working office hours - while personally I don't expect anything to be done at 10pm at night on FTTH, the homeowner who calls and gets an answering service just get more frustrated. So they get "another ISP" and that ISP answers their call, gives them a reference number and does nothing until the next day but the perception is something was done.

Tinuva said:
Strangely enough, the 2 tickets I had recently, the agents were able to read my correspondence very well and understood it perfectly. They even called me each time to confirm they understanding me correctly. You dont get better support than that and I didnt even mention those ticket numbers here. This is not fandom, just how I experienced support this past month.

Previous month, what was slow, was them getting back to me almost a week later about a downgrade, but they did do it 100% fine so again while response was slow, the action on the ticket was spot on.
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midasza said:
I am happy for you that your experience was great. I am always happy to hear positive reports - the support agents need to hear it. Note how at no point did I accuse you personally of being on any type of medicine while this was your experience (hint other people on the forum), possibly I have been unlucky with the type of calls I log and my experiences. I will say I went back and checked and calls I logged in early January 2019 seem to be replied to within the same day, so it seems the problems for me at least started in August 2019. Possibly my next experience will be as good as yours (well as good as your ones that didn't take a week to receive a reply to).

I am generally very happy with the day to day service I receive, I am not threatening to quit, and I use Cool Idea's at clients where I manage their connectivity - personally I don't have the confidence to recommend them to clients where I don't manage the connectivity yet. This also has to do with the support desk only working office hours - while personally I don't expect anything to be done at 10pm at night on FTTH, the homeowner who calls and gets an answering service just get more frustrated. So they get "another ISP" and that ISP answers their call, gives them a reference number and does nothing until the next day but the perception is something was done.
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Support doesn't only operate during business hours?
We operate until 8PM weekdays and 3PM weekends/public holidays.
 
I've only used support about 4 or 5 times and of those only really had one issue where the person clearly never read my ticket but they got assigned off the ticket quickly it seemed like. I think i had a guy called Wouter who helped me once sort something out and every like 2 days he called as soon as he replied to a ticket was very nice experience. I have dealt with mweb and webafrica in the past and well yea... only reason i stayed with WebAfrica was because i knew someone who worked as a network engineer as soon as he left so did i
 
@PBCool
Please can you give me feedback on ticket #COOL-20200820-495652

We have been experiencing connectivity drops in Devil's Peak area for weeks now and I initially logged the call on your advice. Router was replaced and still problem persists. Issues keeps on being "escalated" but, 4 weeks later it's actually gotten - even impacting on our ability to stream in the evenings. I know it is an Octotel issue but, if they are not interested in fixing it, please let me know - I am considering going back to Wireless Internet because even though it is hellishly expensive and slow, at least I won't constantly be kicked from Teams and Zoom and my kids will be able to stream their shows.
 
Sargeant said:
@PBCool
Please can you give me feedback on ticket #COOL-20200820-495652

We have been experiencing connectivity drops in Devil's Peak area for weeks now and I initially logged the call on your advice. Router was replaced and still problem persists. Issues keeps on being "escalated" but, 4 weeks later it's actually gotten - even impacting on our ability to stream in the evenings. I know it is an Octotel issue but, if they are not interested in fixing it, please let me know - I am considering going back to Wireless Internet because even though it is hellishly expensive and slow, at least I won't constantly be kicked from Teams and Zoom and my kids will be able to stream their shows.
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Sure will do.
 
General question. I recently put fibre into my folks house in Polokwane, similar set up to what I have in JHB, Vumatel and Cool Ideas. What I noticed was interesting if I run speed tests in JHB I get my max line speed up and down almost every time. When I do the same thing in Polokwane, I get mixed results with only about every 4th test giving me max speed. I didn’t have proper router like a pfsense box at my folks house to make sure that at the time of tests it was only the test consuming bandwidth, but it did lead to my question below.

As fibre gets rolled out to the outlying areas, who supplies the bandwidth from that town to the main hubs. Is Vumatel supplying the back haul bandwidth or is Cool Ideas supplying it.
 
PURE said:
General question. I recently put fibre into my folks house in Polokwane, similar set up to what I have in JHB, Vumatel and Cool Ideas. What I noticed was interesting if I run speed tests in JHB I get my max line speed up and down almost every time. When I do the same thing in Polokwane, I get mixed results with only about every 4th test giving me max speed. I didn’t have proper router like a pfsense box at my folks house to make sure that at the time of tests it was only the test consuming bandwidth, but it did lead to my question below.

As fibre gets rolled out to the outlying areas, who supplies the bandwidth from that town to the main hubs. Is Vumatel supplying the back haul bandwidth or is Cool Ideas supplying it.
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FNO supplies backhaul to the hubs where the ISP then picks it up. For Vumatel you can run this speedtest ( http://isp-handover.speedtestcustom.com/) to see what the speed is like at the handoff point. So in my case, Vumatel carry traffic from my house to Teraco in Cape Town where CISP will pick it up then.
 
CrypticZA said:
FNO supplies backhaul to the hubs where the ISP then picks it up. For Vumatel you can run this speedtest ( http://isp-handover.speedtestcustom.com/) to see what the speed is like at the handoff point. So in my case, Vumatel carry traffic from my house to Teraco in Cape Town where CISP will pick it up then.
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My test attached 50/5 line
 

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PURE said:
General question. I recently put fibre into my folks house in Polokwane, similar set up to what I have in JHB, Vumatel and Cool Ideas. What I noticed was interesting if I run speed tests in JHB I get my max line speed up and down almost every time. When I do the same thing in Polokwane, I get mixed results with only about every 4th test giving me max speed. I didn’t have proper router like a pfsense box at my folks house to make sure that at the time of tests it was only the test consuming bandwidth, but it did lead to my question below.

As fibre gets rolled out to the outlying areas, who supplies the bandwidth from that town to the main hubs. Is Vumatel supplying the back haul bandwidth or is Cool Ideas supplying it.
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Could be loss on the line which with a bit of latency has an impact on throughput, Vumatel being part of the same group as DFA would typically get backhaul from DFA.

Also are you testing this with a cabled device?
 
Hi @PBCool

Seeing your support on this forum is the main reason I'm joining CoolIdeas.

Here's the response I got when trying to sign up:

"Please be advised we are unable to place your order as your address is not available for us to place as needs to be created on Openserve’ s systems. We have requested that Openserve create your premise on the portal so that we may place your order:

Can you advise how long this usually takes? Is there anything I can do to speed up this process on my side?

Thanks!
 
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