HelloPeter complaint - International calls

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RichardG

Honorary Master
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Location
Johannesburg/Jozzi South Africa
http://www.hellopeter.com/the_comment.asp?recid=182169

have been using Neotel for two months now. I believe the public should know the following because they dont tell you upfront.

Their Internet download speeds are fairly good at between 40K and 50K per minute
Their phone voice quality is good
Their service is not bad

now for the bad part they dont tell you when you sign

You cannot make international calls until you give them a R1500.00 deposit
Their Internet upload speeds are all of 1K per minute. This is totally unusable so uploading to websites ect.. is impossible. I spoke to Fabian at Neotel support and he verified this is the speed they run at and no faster.

Would be nice if they told you this up front. What other suprises *** within I wonder.
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Nice invasion of the complainant's privacy by Neotel customer service - why post his full name on a public forum:(
 
mikef said:
Nice invasion of the complainant's privacy by Neotel customer service - why post his full name on a public forum:(
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Indeed - oh and I like and certainly do agree with your sig :D

Deposit before you can make international calls? :confused: :eek:
Imagine how much Telscum would make if they enforced that LoL :sick: :o
 
This is sad! Our only hope for good telecom,now a edge speeds? i can download around 50kb with Virgin,sup with international calls and upload speeds! That the 2nd post i read with that 1kb speed! shewwiz
 
I really cant believe Neotel. You pay a deposit when you sign up and now you need to pay to make calls from your phone.!!!! They say its a refundable deposit but i still find it apalling...
Neotel is ripping people off!!!!
:eek::eek::eek:very selfish
 
An upload speed of 1KB/sec will make VOIP unusable. They may be wanting to do
this on purpose for 1. Bittorrent throttling - while the line is unshaped, most torrent
trackers require you to upload before and while you are downloading. 2. Prevent
customers from using 3rd party VOIP services like Skype or VoipRaider.

As for Deposit, Telkom does also take a deposit but Cellular co's don't. I was on a
contract - now just on month 2 month and when I asked to have my International
Roaming enabled last year for trips to the States and Europe, CellC did it instantaneously.

Why are Neotel being so inconsiderate? Surely you can ring up far
greater amounts while roaming overseas (and roaming automatically
enables you to make international calls anyway) then with Neotel
who surely get really CHEAP international calls, I'm sure they
get similar wholesale connectivity that Skype or VoipCheap
get - you can sit talking to France for hours and only pay
R10.
 
Well the R1500 thing is not different than at MTN/Vodacom for international calling/roaming is it? I had to either be a 6 month contract user OR pay in a deposit to turn on my roaming at MTN.....

Either way, this also just prooves Neotel also do not have a proper accounting system that give you Rx credit limit [they do a credit check on your afterall RIIGGHT??!!] and shut you down when you reach it. Why do you need freaking deposits?

Will we hear about the guy with the R50k bill soon i assume? [the fact that it happens on Vodacom/MTN is amazing..it should not even be possible].
 
I've had international calls and international roaming enabled on both MTN and Voda contracts without ever paying a deposit.

The 1k upload is pathetic, I agree with PeterCH, it probably is to limit VOIP competition.
 
i think this user isn't the most switched on... 1k per min and 40-50k per min tells me he doesn't know what hes talking about... 1k per min means its uploading in the bytes per second... not even 56k is that bad.
 
from the Neotel NeoConnet FAQ here at http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=126929

Apparently, subscribers are required to pay a deposit, but there is no mention of this in any of the publicity. Does this apply to all subscribers? Why is it not mentioned up front?

Neotel’s pricing guide reflects the basic package and fee structure and there are no hidden costs. Neotel has partnered with TransUnion ITC for credit verification. A combination of customer information, held at TransUnion ITC, and the internal Neotel credit policies is applied at application stage. Certain customers may be required to submit a security deposit. This is a standard practice in the industry and is in line with all of the necessary regulation that governs the industry. The security deposit is refunded to the customer should he/she wish to terminate services at any stage.
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They don't seem to publicize this part so unless you're a frequent reader of the forums here or have heard by word of mouth, you wouldn't know about it. I also think that it affects the minority of people, those being between the age of 18 - 26, those with high profile/risky credit records, those with no credit records and those with credit records which lack enough detail to give a valid rating.
 
Scooby_Doo said:
i think this user isn't the most switched on... 1k per min and 40-50k per min tells me he doesn't know what hes talking about... 1k per min means its uploading in the bytes per second... not even 56k is that bad.
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was about to comment on that as well. 1k per minute... sure, if you say so
 
Scooby_Doo said:
i think this user isn't the most switched on... 1k per min and 40-50k per min tells me he doesn't know what hes talking about... 1k per min means its uploading in the bytes per second... not even 56k is that bad.
Click to expand...

I noticed this too but rather than than insult RichardG the most
obvious explanation is that he mistakenly wrote "min" instead
of "sec". Come on guys, its a common mistake to make.
 
Can't make international calls from work. Real great for an NGO that does work in 5 African countries. Thanks for letting us know about that beforehand, Neotolly.
 
I think all current users that are not aware of this international call debacle should at least go to the ASA.
The current ad says you're able to do anything, compels you to think, that you could at least make an international call :rolleyes:
 
PeterCH said:
An upload speed of 1KB/sec will make VOIP unusable. They may be wanting to do
this on purpose for 1. Bittorrent throttling - while the line is unshaped, most torrent
trackers require you to upload before and while you are downloading. 2. Prevent
customers from using 3rd party VOIP services like Skype or VoipRaider.

I get around 60kB/s upload on NeoConnect Prime. Also, there is NO bittorrent throttling/shaping/blocking

Why are Neotel being so inconsiderate? Surely you can ring up far
greater amounts while roaming overseas (and roaming automatically
enables you to make international calls anyway) then with Neotel
who surely get really CHEAP international calls, I'm sure they
get similar wholesale connectivity that Skype or VoipCheap
get - you can sit talking to France for hours and only pay
R10.
Click to expand...

there isn't any overseas roaming. the device will only work on the Neotel CDMA network.

Regards

--Rob
 
You need atleast 8k to make a voip call of quality. Try looking at international calling card companies who offer voip calling. There are some that offer voip from both mobile and fixed lines without any problems and the calls overseas can start from as little as 28 cents per minute to land lines in most major countries. This is not Skype. The quality is vastly superior as most of these operators have major trunks out of South Africa. Even calling within South Africa is vastly cheaper. One you can visit is www.globalchat.co.za
 
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