Goodbye Sentech

to all those who said iBurst was going the way of sentech it looked that way for me too. But they promised me my problems would be sorted by tuesday night and as of 5PM monday it is smooth again, so no, they are not.
 
vowthorn said:
i think at this point its not that hard to beat Sentech. I mean Sentech is the worst ISP on earth at this point in time so to be worse I think u have to try.
Click to expand...

I think Telkom is the reining champion on this one
 
well atleast with telkom you semm to get the advertised speeds.

right now Sentech caps at 4.7Kb international and the bastards still tell
me its under investigation. more like they want to see how many users complain.
 
I don't think that Sentech have many options left.
Even though the product is now quite stable and reliable,
with acceptable local speeds, if they soon don't lift the
International restrictions to a MINIMUM of 6kB/s, the product
will simply be left behind.
At a minimum they have to exceed dial-up... at 4.7kB/s
they are failing to do this.

On the other hand... maybe they are intentionally
doing this to chase away any "power users" and
leave their customer base as a low intensity
casual user who won't be demanding ????
 
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<ot>
Just as a matter of interest, what is the cost price of them IPWireless modems, I mean before Sentech puts their markup on & sells them for R3500?

Why, you ask - well it occurs to me that if Sentech reduced the price of the modems, and halved the monthly subscription, and kept their speed capping & other crepe bandages in place, they actually could entice the email & solitaire market away from the likes of TelkomInternet & MWeb.​
</ot>
 
Running 384ADSL now. Just downloaded a file and the cap after a short while, for a download, is at 26KB/s.

dbnnet, I think you are right, they must be trying to get rid of people. But the question is how are they going to make money. Surely they need a large customer base to pay for the network installation costs.

Anyway, going to get skype up and running, something i couldn't do previously
 
Robone, no. They don't need customers. They simply need what every other
parastatal needs .... you and I , the Tax payer :)

As for Skype... I must admit that I use this very successfully on MW though.
They key here:
1. Get yourself a headset, rather than using standard speakers and a microphone!
2. Change the default Windows sound settings as per the following:
http://www.skype.com/help/guides/soundsetup.html
 
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vowthorn said:
well atleast with telkom you semm to get the advertised speeds.

right now Sentech caps at 4.7Kb international and the bastards still tell
me its under investigation. more like they want to see how many users complain.
Click to expand...

I know it will sound unfair,but its the truth

Do you know who is ultimately responsible for this 4.7 kb/s throttle ?


Telkom - cost of SAT-3 bandwith !
 
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LoneGunman said:
I then went past my bank, and stopped the debit order, deciding that I'm simply not willing to give Sentech even the chance of taking any more money from me. (This is the only weapon left to me as a ripped off consumer. Namely: deprive them of money. Nothing else matters to Sentech, in the larger capitalist scheme of things. Just money. Therefore - make sure they receive no more from me. Ever.)

It felt good.

And both I and my bank will be watching to make sure that there's no attempts to take any further money from me. (Naturally I will lay a criminal charge of theft and/or fraud, if there are.)
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LG
Watch out here. You cannot just *cancel* a debit order. Remember, you've signed an agreement with Sentech giving them the authority to deduct Rx a month from your account. You cannot cancel the debit order from your side, it has to come from them. You can only return it (at a cost to you). And you will need to do this every month.
What is likely to happen, is that if Sentech does not cancel the debit order on their side and the first debit order is returned, the next month they will send through a double debit which the bank can't pick up because the second amount differs from the first. If this happens, you will have to go back to your bank, get the debit reversed and sign a dispute form. If done within 45 days (I think that's your period of grace) your bank is obligated to reverse the debit no questions asked. After 45 days there's a slightly different procedure.
It then becomes a contractual dispute between yourself and Sentech.
But if the Orcs don't do what you want and cancel, in the third month you could be faced with a triple debit and so it goes.
Watch your bank account.
 
I'm watching..

After the blatant lies, and wildly unprofessional approach of Sentech towards me as a customer - I'm keeping watch on my account, and am quite happy to spend the few bucks every 3 months to continue having my bank keep an eye on any potential attempts by Sentech to take money.

Thus far they haven't tried to take anything, since I cancelled..

They p*ssed me off so mightily, I'm happy to throw some money away, in order to make sure that Sentech DOESN'T get any of it.

Gee, now if only they'd been clever enough to understand that some customers have a lot of money to burn, and if they're treated right, will become valuable longterm cash-cows for the company..

Instead..

I'll get around to dropping off their modem at some point - at MY convenience :)
 
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If you want to push matters, and make Sentech have to play 'catchup' to you - return the modem, request a clear receipt showing that the modem (and any extra gear) has been returned and signed for.

It can be the secretary in Reception or anyone working for Sentech - it doesn't need to be the 'correct person in the correct department' - all you need is a letterheaded paper showing that a Sentech person has acknowledged receipt of the modem on such n such a date.
And if/when they get around to telling you that they 'can' or 'can't accept your cancellation, just shrug and quietly point out the simple fact that you've already returned the modem and have officially signed proof that they've accepted it.

What are they gonna do then? :)

I find 'doing something' and 'telling them what you've already done' - puts you in a far better position than 'asking them if you can' - so that they're presented with a clearcut and complicated situation, that can best be resolved by them accepting 'what you've already done'.
Whereas 'asking' is like begging, it tells them that you think they have some power over you. And if you show someone that, they'll often behave as if its true.
 
nice idea...

Regardless of what is said by Head Office I will continue as if the contract has been cancelled and return the modem as you suggest. To cover my bases I will fax the cancellatoin letter through to make it 'legal' and return the modem. Even if the tea girl has to sign the reciept...

Has anyone here read clause 11.5.2?
basicly the contract is considered breached if:
Sentech ceases to make the system available to the customer, or the services are substantially reduced (128K ---> 48K ?????) in eaither case for a continuous period exceeding sixty days......

my speed ticket is 5 months old !!!!

So yeah lets see

just a quickie... hows iBurst Lonegunman??? thats my next choice..
 
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re Iburst.. at this point, its all up in the air.
I wouldn't feel secure either recommending it - or suggesting
people avoid it. IBurst've got - what - 28 days or so, until
their official launch date. So if you can, hang in there for just
a little bit, and keep an eye on the growing IBurst forum - as
its currently the best way of seeing what's going on..

I think a lot of folks are watching to see how the next few weeks
go, with IBurst - myself included.
 
Just as a Epilogue, I'd finally got the modem dropped off back at Sentech, a few weeks back - and got a call last week from an Orc, saying
'Um, we just checking - I know you have sent through a cancellation fax, but have you returned the modem yet? Please let us know, coz we're updating the database."
Naturally I didnt bother calling them.
 
Same thing happened to me.

Modus Operandi - "Make sure Legs don't know what head is doing and that brain is kept under lock and key."
 
Hmm, I'm actually past my contract period now (my company has been footing the bill for usage of my sucktech modem - our reporters need to send email occasionally whilst in the field) and I think I should actually get this cancelled now too. No point in continuing to support Sentech.

In fact, I predict the modems are going to start piling up on their doorstep, as these next few months drag on.
 
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