Cool Ideas Fibre ISP - Feedback

[PBCool]

My sign up experience with Cool Ideas, for reference.

Got my Vumatel connection installed and activated 9am last Wednesday. Immediately activated a 100/100 connection with Cool Ideas on the Vumatel portal, as I've read great things about them and didn't mind paying a little extra for a managed network and reportedly good client service, as well as an official presence on these forums. Vumatel's blurb indicated that typically a service connects automatically within minutes after activation.

Two hours later my connection has not been activated by Cool Ideas. Phoned them and spoke to a representative, who said he'd follow up with accounts dept and contact me back.

Half an hour after that called again and got disconnected from a second representative after stating the problem.

Called again, and the third representative advised me to manually sign up on the Cool Ideas website for a new order, so that the system can capture my banking details. Also, so that he can ship me a router within a few days which will be necessary to activate my new account.

I manually signed up a new account on the Cool Ideas website so that they can have my bank details, as per their request, and called back. I told him I have an Apple router with a WAN port, and we were able to activate my connection, three hours after installation and Vumatel connection. The representative was helpful and patient in helping me to get my router connected to the network after a few tries, and so far the connection has remained stable.

The first representative I talked to that morning did eventually call me back at 5pm that afternoon, verifying that he see my account is registered.

I received an email confirmation of my order, stating I'll receive a routing number of the courier package of the free router before the end of day. So far, 5 days later, and I have not received a routing number nor the delivery of the router.

The web experience is good. Steam, Netflix, Google, Origin, Blizzard all deliver full speed consistently.

It has not been as slick an experience as hoped. I am however happy with my current service.

I will follow up for you, please dm me or email me Paul at cisp.co.za there was a brief issue with the courier. Is the delivery of the router all that is outstanding? So what happened with the activation is that you signed up for a package with one device that Mac got bound to, so your router wouldn't work until we release the IP (this is the way the Vumatel system works). So just a bad series of events which puts back the activation a bit unfortunately. If you selected to have a router couriered we would assume you would want to use the router .

But please do note you can always come to me directly for assistance or escalation.

 

[PBCool]

Alternatively for Vumatel, if you know the MAC address of your current router, most routers have the facility to clone a MAC address, so you just set the same MAC address on the new router. On the TL-WR840N supplied by Cool Ideas, this can be done via the Network => Mac Clone option of the admin interface.

Yeap that also works .

 

[Fluttershy]

I was told by support that static IP addresses are not offered on residential packages. Are there any plans for this or am I SOL barring moving to a business package?

 

[Sinbad]

A big thanks to PBCool and the whole Cool Ideas team for the incredible service. You really make the whole process easy and go out of your way to help your customers.

Get yourself a gigabit switch and network cards for that extra 10mb/sec ...

 

[PBCool]

I was told by support that static IP addresses are not offered on residential packages. Are there any plans for this or am I SOL barring moving to a business package?

What do you need a fixed IP for? Dyndns?

 

[Fluttershy]

What do you need a fixed IP for? Dyndns?

VPN server. Not entirely necessary just thought it would be cool.

 

[PBCool]

VPN server. Not entirely necessary just thought it would be cool.

Then Dyndns will work fine, even use it in conjunction with your own domain using cnames. Problem with offering fixed IPs is businesses then start using our residential packages to which they weren't designed. Is the tricky thing when you offer unlimited bandwidth.

 

[SandMan]

@PBCool,

I sent an email to connect (at) cisp.co.za yesterday morning regarding signing up, but haven't received any response yet. A support ticket was created and I can see it in the client portal with status "open".

Can you please look into this matter when you get time?

Thanks

 

[PBCool]

@PBCool,

I sent an email to connect (at) cisp.co.za yesterday morning regarding signing up, but haven't received any response yet. A support ticket was created and I can see it in the client portal with status "open".

Can you please look into this matter when you get time?

Thanks

Sure dropped you a pm.

 

[marine1]

Hi boys had to do a reset of modem it froze and could not get back in. I obviously put in username and password and it's working but now instead of 25 it's getting a speed test of about 11 to 15mb. Can you maybe check your routers and check if any more settings are needed ? Perhaps DNS etc etc? Thanks

 

[panayi]

Yeap that also works .

So, decided to be patient and collect the real router from your offices today.
Quick and friendly service - well done!

Got home, connected the router to Vumatel CPE and signed up super slick.
For some reason did not auto provision and needed me to call support. Got back to me quick after sorting problem with Vumatel and now speeding along....

Kids watched a high resolution movie from Netflix with no buffering - awesomeness.!!

Thanks for the great service!

 

[PBCool]

So, decided to be patient and collect the real router from your offices today.
Quick and friendly service - well done!

Got home, connected the router to Vumatel CPE and signed up super slick.
For some reason did not auto provision and needed me to call support. Got back to me quick after sorting problem with Vumatel and now speeding along....

Kids watched a high resolution movie from Netflix with no buffering - awesomeness.!!

Thanks for the great service!

The auto provision side has been delayed in the past, Vumatel system unfortunately not ours. Glad you got connected .

 

[PBCool]

Hi boys had to do a reset of modem it froze and could not get back in. I obviously put in username and password and it's working but now instead of 25 it's getting a speed test of about 11 to 15mb. Can you maybe check your routers and check if any more settings are needed ? Perhaps DNS etc etc? Thanks

Is this over cable or wireless? Sorry might seem a silly question. All settings are auto, so no further changes required.

 

[marine1]

Is this over cable or wireless? Sorry might seem a silly question. All settings are auto, so no further changes required.

Thanks for reply.
Both......i tried both and download same but upload is 25mb

 

[PBCool]

Thanks for reply.
Both......i tried both and download same but upload is 25mb

Just following up that this is fine now? As mentioned via our chat that it may have been the operator considering we didn't change anything.

 

[marine1]

Just following up that this is fine now? As mentioned via our chat that it may have been the operator considering we didn't change anything.

So far so good man, thanks, the speeds are about 20-24 down and about 25-28 up

 

[sand_man]

Any issues with international right now? Network is a bit flaky for me...

 

[coop]

Any issues with international right now? Network is a bit flaky for me...

International just became unusable for me for about 10 minutes. Seems to be OK again now though. Reminded me of my old ADSL line.

 

[Wyrd]

Yeah, international has been having a bit of a snooze all day

 

[simstim]

International also very slow for me at the moment.