Here is an email I sent them dealing with their nonsense (I'm mad as all hell because my connection was working fine before today and now it's slow)
Hello once again,
I will reply to your message bit by bit, but firstly, do not patronise me with cut and paste replies. I may not be a qualified IT professional, but I do have enough knowledge to know that a staggering 4.26kbps is not acceptable on a 128kbps package. That is an absolute load of nonsense and a blatant lie. I can understand that during the day speeds may be low due to businesses (and everyone) being online, but let’s face the facts. On a dialup modem you get up to 7kBytes/second, with speeds averaging 5kB/s even during the day (I can prove this to you). On sentech’s 128kbps service, you get a possible maximum of 16kBytes/s but in reality it’s 2kB/s (I can prove this to you too).
Now to reply to your message:
> While I can understand the frustrations that you are having
> with the speeds on the MyWireless Product, it is important
> to remember several facts regarding the product before
> judging what is "acceptable bandwidth"
I don’t care at all what you think acceptable bandwidth is. I am your customer, and your customer is always right – even when you think he isn’t. Why would I pay R 650 a month only to get LESS than I did when I was on telkom dialup? I’d like to see your logic in that. Explain why your adverts list the product as a 128kbps package if you’re only going to give 4.26kbps? That is false advertising which equates to lying. I believe you already have several complaints with the ASA against you.
> Firstly the product operates on a shared bandwidth
> platform, as advertised, which means that you are paying
> for a shared service, not a guaranteed service.
I am not stupid, I do know this applies to all ISPs in South Africa. However, why is it that all other ISPs, while not guarenteeing it, are able to maintain speeds higher than you do on slower analogue modems (that don’t disconnect whenever the wind blows)?
> This means that there is a contention ratio placed on the
> product which will come into play and reduce the amount of
> available bandwidth. This contention ratio will affect all
> internet services, being http, ftp, p2p, etc.
For a contention ratio to come into effect, first of all it will affect ALL OF MY SERVICES. WHY DON’T YOU READ MY EMAIL AS I SAID THE PROBLEM IS ONLY WITH P2P, even when used with many sources, INSTEAD OF SENDING ME A CUT AND PASTE EMAIL. Secondly, every user will need to be maxing out his or her connection for it to become noticeable. Are you trying to tell me that every single other user is downloading at full speed all the time? I don’t think so.
> All of this is stated in the Service Level Agreement, the
> Terms and Conditions and the Acceptable Useage Policy all
> of which you agree to accept on signing your contract.
I was not made aware of your service level agreement during the signup process, nor was I made aware of your acceptable usage policy before signing the contract. This makes these contractually invalid, as even first year basic law subjects at university will tell you that unless your client both is aware of and fully UNDERSTANDS your contract or part thereof, the contract may be declared invalid, even if it is signed. Your AUP document was only recently put onto your web site.
A reply to this message and my questions, that is not a copy and paste effort but with real valid answers, is compulsory.
Regards,
Donovan
> From: MyWireless Support <mywireless@sentechsa.com>
> Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2004 08:39:18 +0200
> Cc: <cwilsnagh@sentech.co.za>
> Subject: Re: P2P too slow
>
> Good Day Donovan,
>
> While I can understand the frustrations that you are having
> with the speeds on the MyWireless Product, it is important
> to remember several facts regarding the product before
> judging what is "acceptable bandwidth"
>
> Firstly the product operates on a shared bandwidth
> platform, as advertised, which means that you are paying
> for a shared service, not a guaranteed service.
>
> This means that there is a contention ratio placed on the
> product which will come into play and reduce the amount of
> available bandwidth. This contention ratio will affect all
> internet services, being http, ftp, p2p, etc.
>
> Contractually when the contention ratios are applied, in a
> worse case scenario your bandwidth can get as low as
> 4.26kbps on the 128kbps package. This is the service that
> is offered and provided that you are receiving that
> bandwidth or above, Sentech is contractually meeting it's
> obligations.
>
> All of this is stated in the Service Level Agreement, the
> Terms and Conditions and the Acceptable Useage Policy all
> of which you agree to accept on signing your contract.
>
> Regards
> Tristan
> Sntech Support
> 0860 736 832
>
>
> On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 22:05:09 +0200
> Donovan John Cairney <donovan@cairney.co.za> wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> First of all, well done. It seems that the speeds with
>> HTTP downloads and
>> browsing have come right – please keep it that way.
>>
>> HOWEVER, p2p and any similar file transfer services are
>> too slow. THIS IS
>> NOT ACCEPTABLE AND MUST BE FIXED NOW, if not then you
>> guys are opening
>> yourself up to a flood of lawsuits because your adverts
>> list you as
>> unlimited broadband. This is not unlimited, nor
>> broadband. I do not want to
>> hear any excuses (4kbps is not acceptable on a 128kbps
>> package, I am not
>> stupid), just fix the problem or remove the speed cap.
>>
>> Thank you,
>> Donovan.
>
>
Sign up with Google
]