Fair warning to prospective MyWireless users.

TheRoDent

TheRoDent

Cool Ideas Rep
Joined
Aug 6, 2003
Messages
6,758
Reaction score
3,858
Location
Johannesburg
If you have the option of getting connectivity from Telkom, then DO so, rather than getting MyWireless from Sentech...

Just read these forums. Read about the technical issues. Read about the bad service. And it will be patently clear. As for myself, I've been here a while. Since the week after Sentech launched in fact...

Telkom is actually offering a better service (even if it might be crippled) at the moment.

If, after having digested all this, you're still willing to go ahead and get MyWireless, then consider this: I've been one of their biggest supporters to this day. And I've just given up the ghost.

Perhaps, in about 2 years time, MyWireless will be a viable service, and perhaps, by that time Sentech will have sorted out all the technical details and logistics behind running a service that they advertise as "Allways on broadband".

Until such a time, rather stick with a stable 64k ISDN, or even a crippled ADSL connection in conjunction with a "uncapped" VPN or proxy solution of some sorts.

MyWireless is difficult to get hold of, unsupported, slow, unreliable, and about as expensive as ADSL is. Really.
When it came out, I was all excited. So excited I actually wrote the Linux driver for the modem, since IPWireless and Sentech sure as hell wasn't going to do that. I did research on antennae. I posted technical solutions to their driver issues. I was really wired. And into it.

Right now, I'm actually not disappointed with how they have cocked up the service. I always expected the worst, and hoped for the best. Well, I haven't been disappointed in that sense, whatsoever. They've managed to royally fsck things up, even with technically profficient and strong people such as ProAsm on their team. He's unfortunately only one guy. And any other complaints just get stonewalled by their extremely incompetent helpdesk.

Danger Will Robinson.
MyDraadTrek will ruin you, and you will WISH you didn't sign up for 2 years.

As for the rest of you, that might not feel this way, consider this little story about scams in general, and how it plays on peoples' emotions.

In the USA, at a stage, a direct marketing company sold "washing water atomizers" to housewives. Essentially all it was was a little plastic ball, that promised to "atomize" your washing machine water, thus making the soap 500% more effective. You'd save water, soap, and electricity all by just sticking this little "magic" plastic ball into your wash...

The scam was brilliant, because it depended on one thing. Housewives' inability to admit that they'd been duped. They felt too ashamed to admit it. They'd go ahead, and LIE to their friends about this little plastic ball (which naturally did fsck-all). Just so that they wouldn't feel alone in their shame...

MyWireless SUCKS. C'mon. Let any subscriber out there come and protest that it doesn't. Even Telkom 128k ISDN is more stable, offers better pings, and better, stable, predictable bandwidht than MyDraadTrek does. Sure, it's a bit more expensive. But at least you know you're not paying for a little plastic ball attached to a USB port that does nothing...

I'll admit: I've been duped. I feel like an 4sshole. I'm not getting my money's worth. And thank fsck, I didn't cancel my ADSL.

Your turn... And don't be shy:

<center><h5><font color="red">Oo. MyWireless <s>Hacks</s> Tweaks & Tech Info.oO </font id="red"></h5><h6>Have you checked the fawking FAQ?</h6></center>
 
That's a bleak picture you paint - it's really not quite that bad, but it's not that good either.

I'd say we're at a 50/50 stage with Sentech MyWireless - about 50% of the people 50% of the time are getting what they are paying for. The rest are getting it where the sun refuses to shine !

I feel like I'm heading for a bum tan right now to be honest - been offline from 5.30pm when I got home till 7.30pm just now.

Ahahah - I must be on the new 20something/7 connection scheme ! [:p]
 
I dont diasagree, but

It seems to be luck of the draw at the moment

The two connections I deal with have been running at over 30Kb/s on international sites since they have been installed (256 Packages), the one having been activated for more than 3 weeks now and constantly downloading work related data.

Only down time we have had was the tower maintnance this morning/afternoon, and since then they are back to full strength.

I must agree their customer relations suck
And if you want a fully stable connection go the old route
but for now I love MyWireless

I hope they fix it for everyone else
 
bb_matt. The 50% of people that are entirely happy with the service is in your imagination. Look around these forums, and get enlightened man.

The fact is: My ADSL is up ALL of the time. It hasn't so much as disconnected me ONCE in the year or so that I've had it. I've had Sentech since February or so. And it's been a constant pain in the 4rse. I've just grunted it. But the fact is, that it does suck. MUCH more than Telkom's service does.

Admit it now. Actually you have. You've admitted to getting a bum tan. Let the people who are NOT getting BUM TAN's speak up now!

<center><h5><font color="red">Oo. MyWireless <s>Hacks</s> Tweaks & Tech Info.oO </font id="red"></h5><h6>Have you checked the fawking FAQ?</h6></center>
 
I had no worries for exactly 1 month and then the *** started and hasn't stopped since.

Tower Tweaking is the reason given for every problem.
I suspect a hearty amount of bull**** behind that.

Then of course there's the wonderful "Scheduled Maintenance"
I find it quite intelligent that it's usually scheduled from 6am in the morning until 9am, weekdays.

Sentech, in finite wisdom, have decided to punish it's paying users.
They will schedule maintenance during OFFICE HOURS UNTIL 9 FHUCING AM 3 FKUCING MORNINGS IN A FHCKING ROW !
 
I dunno Rodent. I can't really complain. Sure I've been disconnected today like bb_matt from 17:30 till now, but if I look at everything I've downloaded sofar......

Some people, like me, don't sit on an old copper exchange, but fiber and telkom's ADSL don't work here, and there's no plans to "downgrade" to copper. MyWireless is deff the best option for me atm.


--
 
I won’t for one minute blame the poor “rank & file” at Sentech (heaven knows, even the village idiot can see they are now all stressed out). However the top echelons of Sentech need to realize that if they want to rescue their careers (It’s already probably too late for the elusive “Mr Smith!) they have only a VERY limited period in which to:
1. Start communicating truthfully with their customers.
2. Get their short, medium & long term planning and strategy in order.
3. Publicise it!!!
4. Stop the advertising campaign. (Guys… you can’t even cope now!)

When someone like TheRodent (Who has obviously put in a huge effort on behalf of all users) states his view like this, it’s time to be worried…. VERY worried!

To Sentech Senior Management: (Yes we all know you read this forum) … it’s just time before Computing SA or Network Times (etc.) get hold of the groundswell
currently underway and then it’s OVER!
Please act now, by at least coming clean and communicating will all customers.
Much distress will then be avoided by everyone concerned. We all know it’s a
new technology and that teething problems would obviously happen.
I’m sure that you would be amazed at how receptive everyone would be if the
fact were honestly put forward and your plan of action stated. By continuing with your silence…. You are simply shooting yourselves in both feet!

As for me... I can’t use MW because I'm still plagued with the
“The connection was terminated because the remote computer did
not respond in a timely manner” problem!!!
 
Rodent, I am going to stay with wireless, not because I love the money i have spent on getting a mere 2 % signal , I dont have any other option.
 
With my dial up service,I had problems - with Mywireless, I have problems, but, the problems generally come right for both.

Mywireless has advantages that any dial up service can not provide and to name a few.

Permanent connection (93% availabilty on my dynamic server.)
A dynamic server for web server and mail server.
Faster speeds
Capped cost.

I believe that we should try and assist Mywireless in attracting clients so that they become more profitable and hence hopefully provide a better service. If you keep on pulling them to pieces the opposite will happen and go like the service in New Zealand.[xx(]

I agree they need a kick up the backside because their communication skills don't exist, but the Mywireless service is still better than dial up.

Hey tonight I can talk, because everything is running smoothly. Last night, if I could have got hold of anyone at Sentech, I would have told them to stick their service[:)]
 
Rodent, I agree totally with you. I am always someone who will keep my mouth shut if I don't have a solution to whatever I wanted to bitch about (btw , are you running fsck as a cron job :-) Only solution I can think of is to work on a Pay (as and when you go) iow, if you don't get a signal or connection, you don't pay for that day. That will get their arses into gear quite quickly.

BTW, I sent Sentech a CV of a mate of mine in the States who rolled out a big section of BTWireless Network - he knows his ****e and just laughs when I tell him about the problems here. He reckons that if Sentech was in the States, they probably would have closed down by now. If not sued by some widow who sued MW for 1 Billion US because her husband fell off the roof while fiddling with the Patch Antenna and died after his organs were "Not Responding" :-)

"Sentech Management is Not Responding"
"Modem disconnecting"
"Modem disconnected"
"Reason - Routine BS"

ProASM, don't take this personally. A family/group/team/company is only as good as their leaders"

And Rodent, I hate to say it but our DSL has also been rock solid too.
 
Everyone shouts when things go bad. Sentech has just begun and you cant blame them for their service at the moment., So what if you cant connect for a few hours or a day or 2. Go do something constuctive rather then complaining. Everythiong will come right again and everyone will be quiet but then when things go bad every1 will moan and graon. Be gratefull that you have an internet connection coz sum ppl would just wish to be able to connect once a week at the slowest speed.
Now everyone hold hands and sing with me!
"EVERYTHING IS GONNA BE ALRIGHT,EVERYTHING IS GONNA BE OK,
SENTECH F888ED UP 2DAY AND I STILL HAVE TO PAY"

Glory Glory Man United!
 
Well, I have to agree that this week so far mywireless has been pretty useless to me. I'm in the habit of browsing over breakfast... Imagine that! Expecting to be able to use my internet service during those few hours when I'm actually at home!

I suppose there is no good time for "scheduled maintenance" since there's always someone likely to be using the system, but really, if the maintenance is genuinely "scheduled" they should bloody well schedule it between 1 AM and 4 AM... It seems disrupting customer service is less of a concern for them than getting a good night's sleep :-(

Remember though that Telkom has years of experience in planning implementations of this scale and dealing with large numbers of users, and they still screw up regularly. For Sentech, this is the first time out of the gate for this type of service. Sentech is used to having customers it can count on one hand, and is now trying to deal with hundreds of people... When you consider that, I guess you should expect teething problems.

I'm frustrated that we seem to experience the same problems time and again and getting no worthwhile response from the polite, friendly but unfortunately underqualified call centre staff at the call centre.

I still like the service, though. I played with a beta unit over Dec/Jan, and finally signed up for a contract about a month ago, and it seems to be more stable than it was at the beginning of the year. Sure, they're still sorting out some crap, and us "early adopters" are going to pay for that one way or another...

ADSL was faster, but it was quite a lot more expensive (I'm on a 128Kb package now) and the 3 GB cap leaves you hanging mid-month with a useless connection anyway. There's "uncapped" VPN alternatives, but they just make the ADSL solution even more expensive. And no matter which way you look at it, ISDN isn't feasible for 24/7 connections.
 
Inevitable: you ae missing the point, yes stuff goes worong, but at the least communicat with your PAYING clients, and as for the little comment about "So what if you cant connect for a few hours or a day or 2. Go do something constuctive rather then complaining." I AM PAYING FOR A SERVICE I AM NOT GETTING! I would bet if you did not have electricity for a day or 2 you would be pretty pissed! I depend heavily on my connection, party for my income, and no connection, NO MONEY! and then sentech will damm well not get paid!
 
It's about "perceptions" in this Industry. When the Publics and companies get the perception that Sentech is Useless (sometimes read "Use Less" if you are a Depeche Mode fan), they will be dead. I think ICASA or the Constitutional Court should step up to the plate and declare their 2 year contracts nul and void. If you know the customer is locked in for the 2 years, why worry about keeping them as a customer?
 
Agreement with TheRoDent.

Feb was fab, March to now got sillier and ****e. I went from being connected (Good coverageon their map) to connecting once or twice a day and barely getting mail (Now listed as no coverage). I gave up my ISDN (Telkom line and ISP account) that first month, so it will be hard to move back.

The biggest thing I want is COMMUNICATION. I gave up on the friendly but completely powerless and uninformative help desk a long time ago. There is no status or news page or anything from them. This forum is my only hope and I jump on it every moment I get some online time.

Please Sentech, talk to us! Create a user communication channel that actually responds. Please, please, please!

DarkLight Nocturnal Entertainment
 
I dont mind that much, I always connect when I want to, even at a bit slower speed, but I'd say 90% of the time since Feb, I've had nice use of my 512k connection. Been the ADSL and ISDN route, and found this to suit my needs brilliantly.

Yes, after buying a house I'm a bit cash strapped and wished I'd just go for 128k and upgrade later, but thus far I'm not unhappy. Speeds seem to be up again, and I expected the service to be crappy and full of problems from the start.

I agree with TheRodent, but then I have to disagree with him. You're frustrated bud, face it. You knew this going in, you should realise that now that it is what you expected, you can't really be dissapointed that you ever got it? Right?

Or have you been lying to yourself.... tsk tsk tsk

Anyway, get Sentech, don't get it, you will always have some idiot preaching the end of the world every year (most just to sell books, most are crazy) but you'll always have that element.

Where could Sentech make a u-turn on this? DONT OUTSOURCE ALL YOUR **** !!!!! Sentech has brilliant technicians, but if they keep outsourcing like they have done, at the end you end up with the most crappiest service ever, because the company outsourced (for instance their helpdesk) won't care about THEIR customers, they'll care about how many calls they can close or not even open by spinning bullsh!t stories and getting paid by Sentech at the end of the month.

Thats why marketing/management of Sentech needs a big wakeup call...

Why do you have to "put your two cents in"... but it's only a "penny for your thoughts"? Where's that extra penny going to?
 
Hmmm,

I personally have a very stable, efficient, quick connection (it's on an ethernet cable to a smoothwall box, have only ever had a problem when the power was cut, and then it just reconnected).

Maybe I am just lucky. I just feel that sentech needs to get their ass into gear and fix these problems - FASTER THAN THEY ARE.
 
I have a free drinks ticket for Rodent and 3 other irate MW users ... to have drinks with the Sentech upper crust at Futurex.

Will also be selling tickets for the ensuing fistfight at R10 a pop. [:D]

Mr. Smith - RIP

MyDraadloos -Base 36 Bedfordview Signal=9%patch Freq=2518 Gain99db

Pass the Pringles please !
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X