Dear Rain, Riddle Me this:

[werny]

Yeah thx mrlgm007, but I think 5G is managed a bit differently than LTE, so your speedtest doesn't really count. This issue relates to Fixed LTE, not 5G.

Rain has pretty much given up on LTE and is now only focused on rolling out 5G, which isn't a bad thing, but unfortunately they will lose customers due to neglecting LTE (where the money still is), especially the few that are still on their Fixed packages via ISP's.

Anyways, screw them, in January I'm moving over to MTN for sure, someone else in my area got 85Mbps last night and youtube was flying at full speed, Rain simply cannot compete with that. Bye-Bye

 

[Pixual]

I got my MTN sim card yesterday and after some issues with getting the APN settings right on the Huawei B618 I have it working now. So far it seems to be OK. Fast.com records a 24Mbps d/l speed, which is good, especially considering the awful weather we are currently having in Durban. My last Rain speed test dropped to about 8Mbps last night.

Looking at the Afrihost Client Panel I see that this product actually offers daily usage stats, unlike the Rain one, which only shows your data allocation shrinkage. My conundrum now is that I don't know if 150+150 is going to be enough for me to get by in a month. I really do wish they had a 200+200GB option. I have no need for the night time data which only kicks in after midnight.

I have checked P2P and it's working the way Rain used to work - FAST!

 

[phly]

I got my MTN sim card yesterday and after some issues with getting the APN settings right on the Huawei B618 I have it working now. So far it seems to be OK. Fast.com records a 24Mbps d/l speed, which is good, especially considering the awful weather we are currently having in Durban. My last Rain speed test dropped to about 8Mbps last night.

Looking at the Afrihost Client Panel I see that this product actually offers daily usage stats, unlike the Rain one, which only shows your data allocation shrinkage. My conundrum now is that I don't know if 150+150 is going to be enough for me to get by in a month. I really do wish they had a 200+200GB option. I have no need for the night time data which only kicks in after midnight.

I have checked P2P and it's working the way Rain used to work - FAST!

Which MTN package/deal did you get?

 

[Pixual]

Which MTN package/deal did you get?

Just the cheapest one for now to test it out. I will most likely upgrade to the 150GB deal before the end of the month and drop my Rain deal down to its lowest level. But now I am wondering... it would probably be cheaper to just get the Rain R250 deal, put it into a different device and flip flop between them depending on what I am doing (i.e. use MTN for streaming on media devices and the Rain sim on computers).

 

[Pixual]

I was just looking on the Rain website for this R250 deal and noticed that if you want to go 5G with them you have to sign a 24 month contract. That's never going to happen in my case. Not a sausage.

But it does raise the concern that they will try to force existing customers to migrate away from 4G as they continue to shape everything it does. Unless MTN/Afrihost's new Fixed LTE offering doesn't fold up the way Cell C's did.

My big concern with this wireless technology is that it works great for a while and then suddenly you find yourself comparing your connection to what you had when dial up was all the rage.

My kingdom for a fibre connection...

 

[Pixual]

Who is the MD or CEO of Rain and how do I get a message to them? Surely, surely, somebody at their company must give enough of a dump to care about customer experience? I mean, Afrihost are only interested in processing your debit order every month and when asked for assistance it seems they are only good for asking you to provide the same information repeatedly (like 4 times on the same ticket!!!!), so who looks after the PR at Rain to the point where they can explain how it is acceptable to throttle speeds on so many services, but still charge you an exorbitant amount of money each month?

Anybody got some ideas on who the faces are behind this internet access scam?

 

[Apogee]

I was just looking on the Rain website for this R250 deal and noticed that if you want to go 5G with them you have to sign a 24 month contract. That's never going to happen in my case. Not a sausage.

That's not entirely accurate.

You can also opt for the month-to-month option, provided you are willing to pay the R3,450 upfront for the 5G Huawei router.

 

[Scorpion101]

That's not entirely accurate.

You can also opt for the month-to-month option, provided you are willing to pay the R3,450 upfront for the 5G Huawei router.

The option of purchasing the router once off is no longer available if i am correct

 

[Pixual]

Alright, so nobody at Rain to contact.

To wrap this up now, I have downgraded my Rain Fixed LTE-A service to the lowest level of 25+25GB and I have upgraded the MTN Fixed LTE to their 150+150GB. I don’t think that I will have enough data on the latter to get through a month but we’ll see. At least when using it I am able to update my Adobe programs the way they are supposed to update and streaming seems in order, along with a P2P test.

It is truly shocking that Rain are firstly deliberately hamstringing the product that I pay a lot for, but moreso that they refuse to provide any corporate voice to their products (even if only to acknowledge the existence of their customers). 100% disappointed.

 

[danny0]

I've just moved house and opted to rather go LTE instead of back to ADSL (which is dying anyway).
Got a Rain sim to test and speedtest results were great!
Was planning to get the R250 Rain plan for daytime usage (mainly for the kids) and MTN Fixed LTE from Axxess for streaming between 6pm - 11pm.
Yesterday afternoon I got the kids all hyped up to watch some kiddies movie... it played less then 20 seconds and stopped. Yet speedtest results were very good.
Youtube seems to play okay but streaming through other apps is just dead.
Think I should rather go for higher MTN Fixed LTE packaged and let Rain go down the drain.

 

[Pixual]

I've just moved house and opted to rather go LTE instead of back to ADSL (which is dying anyway).
Got a Rain sim to test and speedtest results were great!
Was planning to get the R250 Rain plan for daytime usage (mainly for the kids) and MTN Fixed LTE from Axxess for streaming between 6pm - 11pm.
Yesterday afternoon I got the kids all hyped up to watch some kiddies movie... it played less then 20 seconds and stopped. Yet speedtest results were very good.
Youtube seems to play okay but streaming through other apps is just dead.
Think I should rather go for higher MTN Fixed LTE packaged and let Rain go down the drain.

It’s basically boiled down to a scam. Promise of high speed internet, but it doesn’t work where it’s needed to work.

 

[MirageF1]

Anyways, screw them, in January I'm moving over to MTN for sure, someone else in my area got 85Mbps last night and youtube was flying at full speed, Rain simply cannot compete with that. Bye-Bye

Cancelled my Rain fixed LTE last month which I've had for nearly the last 18 months and at avg of 5Mbps/1Mbps DL/UL could barely get through my 25+25 package which was costing me R299 for the displeasure... signed up with MTN fixed 30+30 for R199 after doing some signal tests and have not looked back since..

Sure it is fairly early days yet, but at 15-20 times the speed 24x7 I'm staying for now.
My best speed has been close to 95Mbps.
Quite frankly at these speeds I have no desire nor need to spend R1000 for a possible 50-500Mbps on "5G"

 

[Pixual]

If I had to describe in details the agony of having to deal with Afrihost's "support" since this shaping issue on entertainment websites began I think you'd all think I was making it up. But honestly, I have never, ever before had to deal with such ineptitude at any level. It's like they are taking salt and rubbing it into the wounds of an ailing Rain internet service.

I used to believe that Afrihost could get things sorted out, or at least clarified but now I am of the opinion that if they ever had any brains working at the company in support, they were all replaced with script readers who try to parse your intellect as code that is undecipherable.

#beyondbelief

 

[WarriorWolf]

Afrihost's support really went down the drain over the years. They were always so quick to understand and act whenever I had issues with my ADSL. The last 2 years I was with them, I had nothing but issues. Their support suddenly shifted from amazing to outright useless. I imagine they either cut costs or they implemented a new support system, which obviously didn't work.

 

[PAYBACK]

Funny that. For me whatever my speed-test speed is, is my FAST/Netflix speed is. Which is nothing to drag about currently.

 

[SeaSickMama]

Afrihost's support really went down the drain over the years. They were always so quick to understand and act whenever I had issues with my ADSL. The last 2 years I was with them, I had nothing but issues. Their support suddenly shifted from amazing to outright useless. I imagine they either cut costs or they implemented a new support system, which obviously didn't work.

Afrihost got a mate there they pay very little for the amount of work you need to do, think they pay around R8000 per a month for support and that’s if you on the good books when they employ you. My mate started at R7200 a month which is a joke.

so only from low pay can you also move up the company in ranks and in that way they controlyour pay growth to save themselves money. Only field you can get employed in and call the price is programming and sometimes graphic.
Their support has been crap although my hosting with them has been okay quick to help