Goodbye Webafrica

[hambone]

Whilst people in the generator business are not highly dependent on the internet, surely you can understand that WA is running a business too. Just as if your clients don't pay in the time you specify, you mail them or call them to remind them of an overdue invoice. If you still use a dot matrix printer and have those nice 30/60/90 day blocks, after 90 days you'd be entitled to remove the product.

However, you are talking THOUSANDS of Rands here, WA is talking less that 60 bucks. Recovering those small amounts is in many instances very difficult to achieve, because its a) such a small amount and people tend to forget about it, b) there are many people to call every day unlike your generators (unless you have over 10000 transactions/installations everyday), and an e-mail or SMS is the only practical way to go about telling people they owe them money, c) of course its in WA interest to tell you you owe them money, its just not feasible for them to call you over an amount of R59.00, and d) its far easier to cut you off than to come in and remove the product.

[Are you just cross cause you never got an SMS? An SMS is useful, but you could have e-mail on your phone just as easily, no?]

Anyway, you're not happy with them. So I'm glad you did something about it. You've joined the rest of the ADSL community in your fickleness over your provider. I've had 8 ISP's in a year and seem to have settled down to one I like. Until i'm not, then I'll move again. But for future reference, do a debit order it is far less hassle.

PS: My grandad put water in the diesel inlet of our generator because (he thought) it was over heating, it now doesn't start. What to do?

 

[Venomous]

Sorry, you are stupid.

Posted on the 19/01:


Now, prove to me where did Webafrica say that they sent me an SMS?



The above refers to e-mails, which I did receive after I returned to office. I'm sure Jeff can confirm this.

Now crawl back into the cave where you come from and stop calling people names, when you're the stupid one.

Was it their fault that you were away? They followed the std process as per you account type. Besides if email is soooo important surely you woulda tried to read mail. Perhaps use another means of net & their webmail interface...

Their Ts & Cs are on their site & you would have had to agree to them.

 

[w1z4rd]

Generator Man sounds like that bottom 5% of clients you dont want. Manage your stuff better, and stop blaming others for your bad management? If your IT communications where actually that important you should have treated it like that and had redundancy. Even a spare 1GB adsl account on a different backbone would have being sufficient, but there are also other alternatives like 3G and 4G. You can even get those routers that connect to an ADSL line then fail over to a 3G or 4G connection. Theyre so cheap.

 

[Venomous]

Generator Man sounds like that bottom 5% of clients you dont want.

more like the bottom 1% of that 5%.

 

[hambone]

Interesting terms and conditions - if anything happens it's not his fault......but we kind of figured that by all in this thread.....

8) LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY
8.1) ******* Generators or any of it's employees or directors shall not be liable for any contingent damage or losses under any
circumstances whatsoever, for loss of profit or damages, direct or indirect, consequential or otherwise, which may be sustained
by the Purchaser/Customer as a result directly or indirectly of:
8.2) goods supplied by the company being defective
8.3) goods repaired by the company being defective due to defective workmanship or materials.
8.4) any delay in delivery of any goods by ******** Generators.
8.5) any delay in effecting any repairs
8.6) any faulty or incorrect installations made by our approved installer and any damages as a result thereof.

Interestingly, and FYI: 8.2-8.6 are unenforceable under the common law, and will be even less enforceable with the Consumer Protection Act on 1 April 2011.

 

[cpu.]

Interestingly, and FYI: 8.2-8.6 are unenforceable under the common law, and will be even less enforceable with the Consumer Protection Act on 1 April 2011.

Wonder how "acts of God" would do legally:

8.7) the failure by ******* Generators to deliver any goods or in respect of any deliveries of goods by ******** Generators which may be incorrect or which result from riots, acts of God, ...

----

Generator Man sounds like that bottom 5% of clients you dont want. Manage your stuff better, and stop blaming others for your bad management? If your IT communications where actually that important you should have treated it like that and had redundancy. Even a spare 1GB adsl account on a different backbone would have being sufficient, but there are also other alternatives like 3G and 4G. You can even get those routers that connect to an ADSL line then fail over to a 3G or 4G connection. Theyre so cheap.

We don't have 4G yet, but it would've been nice.

 

[waroop]

After having our 6-year old account suspended today for not paying the princely sum of R59 for 1 Gig of Bandwidth top-up purchased at the beginning of this month, I have, after giving them I don't know how many second chances decided to terminate my account as from ther 01/02/2011.

I've had 5 years of brilliant service from Webafrica, the last year has been downright pathetic and unpleasant.

I run a multi-million rand company that needs IT access 24/7, we have always paid our accounts to date, and we were merely not aware of your draconian measures that all top-up purchases made during the month must be paid up IMMEDIATELY and are no longer added to our monthly account.

After I spoke to a manager at accounts, and was told that "yeah well you only spend R199/month with us" that was about the icing on the cake.

Hi Generator Man

Im really grieved to hear about the negative experience you've had with us. We highly value all of our customers and take these situations very seriously. Please accept my humble apologies for the inconvenience this has caused you.

On the collections process; We never suspend customers without first sending multiple emails and smses (typically around 5), however clearly we can improve our process and communications further - we actually have been considering updating the suspension process to look at a customers history, in which case this sort of situation could've been averted.

Out of interest, were you made aware that;
- Additional account contacts can be added to your customer profile to ensure that multiple people are kept informed around your accounts? This could've helped since you mentioned the notifications were missed while you were on leave?
- We offer customers debit order facilities to streamline managing payments - which also may have avoided this problem.

 

[HavocXphere]

2007-2011 is 4 years dude. The business was started in January 2007, so to January 2011 it's 4 years.

Had I know that info when I wrote the post, I would have said 4 years. It could just as well have been December making it 3 years & a few days based on the info I had.

Speak about trying to pick a fight where there's none to be had...:erm:

Wait you think I'm attacking you on the date thing? Lets review the comments in chronological order for some seriously need perspective:

Vague info:

It has been like this since inception of this business in 2007.

Complement:

Oh and congrats on building a multimillion business in ~3 years.

Attack:

Maths not your forte' hey? :wtf:

Defense:

We're 22 days into 2011, plus 3 full years (2010,2009,2008), plus an unknown number of months in 2007 (Since you didn't specify when in 2007). So 3 years and 22 days plus an unknown factor. The tilde character indicates approximation. So ~3 years is correct. As is ~4 years given the vague timing info you made available.

 

[who.is.michael]

...might as well move to Afrihost, it is a better deal and support is great:

Afrihost Gold 50 GB @ R 475 pm No streaming, FTP, issues, You Tube loads quickly, however no redundancy.

WebAfrica Data 50 GB @ R 2 259 - R413 pm (line rental) The price of redundancy? From this test it is clear that WebAfrica's connectivity is not superior by any means. And please do not ask me to contact support, I'm tired of their excuses and they of me.

 

[Generator Man]

Interesting terms and conditions - if anything happens it's not his fault......but we kind of figured that by all in this thread.....

8) LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY
8.1) ******* Generators or any of it's employees or directors shall not be liable for any contingent damage or losses under any
circumstances whatsoever, for loss of profit or damages, direct or indirect, consequential or otherwise, which may be sustained
by the Purchaser/Customer as a result directly or indirectly of:
8.2) goods supplied by the company being defective
8.3) goods repaired by the company being defective due to defective workmanship or materials.
8.4) any delay in delivery of any goods by ******** Generators.
8.5) any delay in effecting any repairs
8.6) any faulty or incorrect installations made by our approved installer and any damages as a result thereof.
8.7) the failure by ******* Generators to deliver any goods or in respect of any deliveries of goods by ******** Generators
which may be incorrect or which result from riots, acts of God, fire, strike, civil commotion, labor dispute, accident, delay in
manufacture or transportation, shortage of fuel, material or labor or any act, demand or requirement of any State or
Government or any other authority, or any cause whatsoever which is directly or indirectly or entirely or partly beyond the
control of the Company
b) Should ******* Generators supply goods or parts or do work free of charge in excess of its obligations under these
Conditions of Sale, ******** Generators shall be under no liability whatsoever if such goods or parts prove in any way to be
defective.

Standard legal industry terms and conditions.
Visit any of the Generator manufacturing, sales or rental company websites and see.

Not sure of the relevance of this to the matter at hand? But then I don't expect anything less on this forum I guess....

 

[Generator Man]

Hi Generator Man

Im really grieved to hear about the negative experience you've had with us. We highly value all of our customers and take these situations very seriously. Please accept my humble apologies for the inconvenience this has caused you.

On the collections process; We never suspend customers without first sending multiple emails and smses (typically around 5), however clearly we can improve our process and communications further - we actually have been considering updating the suspension process to look at a customers history, in which case this sort of situation could've been averted.

Out of interest, were you made aware that;
- Additional account contacts can be added to your customer profile to ensure that multiple people are kept informed around your accounts? This could've helped since you mentioned the notifications were missed while you were on leave?
- We offer customers debit order facilities to streamline managing payments - which also may have avoided this problem.

Thank you, apology accepted!
That being said, you might want to look into why sms notification was only sent after termination, honestly, I never received anything beforehand.

 

[Generator Man]

PS: My grandad put water in the diesel inlet of our generator because (he thought) it was over heating, it now doesn't start. What to do?

What genset is it?

 

[Generator Man]

and will be even less enforceable with the Consumer Protection Act on 1 April 2011.

Our T&C's of supply are being reviewed and will be changed accordingly prior to that date.
Poster has also selectively omitted our warranty terms, which specify that all goods manufactured by us are covered this for a certain period, except in the event of negligence or wear and tear.
As much as our company is entirely focused on product quality & after sales service, we need to protect ourselves from unreasonable/fraudulent clients (of which there are a few unfortunately).

Still don't understand the relevance of our T&C's to thread at hand though.

 

[hambone]

Our T&C's of supply are being reviewed and will be changed accordingly prior to that date

Still don't understand the relevance of our T&C's to thread at hand though.

No, I don't know why either... but nevertheless I thought it may be handy to know that those terms won't be enforceable April 2011. Clearly you're onto it though so, good. Will PM about the problem with our generator, its buggered good and proper I think.

More on topic though, WA is a complete rip. There is no question about it. You're better off without them anyway, hope Afrihost can fill the gap until you find a permanent solution to your internet requirements.

 

[Rocket-Boy]

Again, selective reading. If you read my original post, you would have picked up that I was travelling.
I don't have e-mail access when travelling to remote areas.
It's my fault to not prioritize payment of R59 over a R48m contract, but yeah, I don't expect everyone to understand what running your own business is all about.


You see, once again, assumtions. Who came in acting all high and mighty? I was simply putting their actions in perspective. All it would have taken is an sms stating "your account is in arrears, please pay", or a call "listen, we are about to suspend your service, can you please pay?". But no, Webafrica covers their back by sending solicitation e-mails, and then cut your service with a **** you attitude.

Again read above, anyways I don't expect you to comprehend courtesy and good business manners. You're knowledge is probably limited to programming, and I suggest that you stick to that rather than get involved in petty fights to entertain your rather low intellect.

You make me laugh. No really you do.
I have dealt with many people like you in the past. The flaunting of alleged money and contracts normally proves to be false in the end. It is like I said, WA is better off without you.
I find it interesting though that you are able to make assumptions about me, I can make you a matter of fact guarantee that my IQ is substantially higher than yours, seeing as you were so keen to bring that up.
I also find the assumption that I do not have my own business quite interesting. It was stated as mentioned before that an sms was sent to you, are you unable to receive those in those remote areas?

Surely someone that is randomly signing R48m contracts can afford decent comms and decent redundancy methods? Apparently you cant.

 

[Pohm]

Here's the problem.. You state that people are picking fights where there's none to be had, yet, you will dissect a post and take out all the "nitty" issues that you feel are against your way of thinking, and run on that.. Clearly, after another post from WA, it seems they DID send you SMS'es and EMAILS. The fact remains that they did their part. Furthermore, you come along, after I apologized for "in case" I did not understand what you were on about, but you turn around and bite me in the face. I suppose you also doing a bit of selective reading there.
Now for the other problem, you say you run a multi million rand business, and you gave us all the address, so we can all go and see which generator company it is..from this post you don't seem to be a competent business man, and have no clue of public relations at all. How many people can you piss off before it starts backfiring on you?

"On the collections process; We never suspend customers without first sending multiple emails and smses (typically around 5) It is out of WA's hands once they send the SMS/Emails.. its not their fault if the sms only gets received when you are back in a reception area, they might have sent it DAYS before you get it, and after calling me stupid because I need to prove that they sent you and sms, YOU claim to have received one..YOU(That being said, you might want to look into why sms notification was only sent after termination, honestly, I never received anything beforehand.)(think about the reception area factor here a bit please)!! If they sent emails, do they go to your office email, or home? Why is there no-one that can even CHECK that for you? I find that to be a very highly debatable question. Maybe you are just a big BS'er?

For the fact that you called me stupid for the second time.. I will take my own steps to make sure your multi million rand business suffers.. Think before you speak, you don't know who most of us are.. we might be using your company already, but will be turning away from now on.
I'm sick of this post.. now go to your corner and .....

 

[Pohm]

I have dissected this a bit more.. just for fun, you have a 4GB account with them.. yet you had to buy a top up on the 8th cause you stated earlier that you owed them R59 for 12 days, and this thread was started on the 18th? You say you use it just for emails mostly.. that would be round 200megs in a month.. if even that much. where did the other 3.8gb go in 8 days? Any of your staff have access to the internet from your business? Or do you browse a bit of porn on the side to use up the 3.8gb so quick? I think it was you, because nobody else has access.. otherwise they would have received the emails stating your financial standing with WA.. ooh owing R59.00, how embarrassing.. lolz.
I hate those bricks that "your" factory is made out of, at least it looks a "little" better than the other factories around there.

 

[Rocket-Boy]

Pohm, I think we are wasting our time with him. If it wasn't for the reply from WA I would assume this was just a troll thread.
He clearly has double standards and looks at things in a very different way to the rest of the world. I hope he doesn't get too lonely out there in his imaginary world.
I just find it amusing that he is on this forum and yet insulting all of the users on it.

 

[Mephisto_Helix]

For the fact that you called me stupid for the second time.. I will take my own steps to make sure your multi million rand business suffers..

twofold lol ...... don't sink to his level with even more silly stuff.

 

[Pohm]

twofold lol ...... don't sink to his level with even more silly stuff.

Doubt that I ever would, it takes much more than this to get me to do something... The guy just needs to think a little bit more before calling the wrong people names.