Imagine Uncapped Feedback

[randomguy]

Yeah, I understand shaping and I understanding priority and all that, but they have been WAY to aggressive, my 4meg line is getting 512kbps speeds on newserver downloads, its disgusting IMO!

Guess ill be with a different ISP next month!

 

[froot]

512 on a 4096? (12.5%) That's not too bad.... I get 0-2KBps on a 384 line (<5%) ......

 

[ppedrick]

Yeah these reps seem to disappear after a while.

Thanks Pooky... I've been called many things but a rep is not one of them!
My last post was on Tuesday as I've been off with a gastro virus unfortunately.... although I have just been called by my colleagues to reply to this thread. You can't get rid of me that easily!

Pooky - that email you received is terrible. I have one of the Directors going through the mail logs now to crucify the person who sent it. I'll keep you informed. It will NOT happen again and thanks for letting us know. We need to really stamp on this kind of thing.

Regards the general shaping on the account, we are still fighting for you guys with IS.
It seems that the 384k lines are far worse for performance as the lines are so slow and the shaping seems more severe. It seems that the sheer number of people continually using the uncapped service is huge. Obviously, now the floodgates have been released everyone is trying to download a huge amount to catch up.

I know that IS will come right on this but everyone is running out of patience with them. It's hugely annoying though as it makes us and the other resellers look bad as well.

Please PM me or email our helpdesk - helpdesk at imagine.co.za if you have questions. I'll keep looking at the forums between my 'episodes'.

 

[ppedrick]

EDIT - We now have the ticket and are following it up so please ignore the below 12:45 - thanks Peter
Oh Pooky - quick question:
We can find no ticket, phone log or email from you.... do you know why the support guy emailed you?
I'm hoping like hell that you actually contacted him initially.

We're also going through entire response history to see if this was just a moronic moment - thankfully it seems like it for now.

Cheers
P.

 

[randomguy]

Hi ppedrick, thanks for replying to the thread, sorry to hear about the virus :O get better soon!

As far as the accounts being hit, the 4megs arent fairing well either (when you take price : performance into account). Last night for example I couldnt break 40kbps, on a 4meg line thats REALLLY unacceptable....

I understand the shaping, the traffic, the issue from the ISPs side, MY issue is the frustration of paying for a 4meg line and a 4meg account, but getting 384kbps results for my money.

 

[ppedrick]

I know Randomguy,

It's completely doing our heads in as we're spending more time dealing with complaints and calling up IS to ask wtf is going on than anything else right now.

We are in a bit of a rock and a hard place at the minute as we kinda have to sell the accounts but we know they are not what they should be... but we do know that they will be eventually.

So somewhere between all of this is a headache that no one is enjoying - either you or us.

We have considered reselling the MWeb accounts but there are so many legal issues around it and other hassles that for the single payment commission they offer it really isn't worth it... especially as they make it very clear that they OWN the customer and we couldn't cancel, manage or help you out in anyway... except answer the phone to you.

I hope our frustrations are coming across as well.

P.

 

[randomguy]

Hi ppedrick, I hear you, it seems EVERYONE is having an issue with the IS accounts...

My question is (and I mean no offense by this) could this REALLY not have been predicted? Was there proper testing done before you started reselling these accounts? Also, surely you guys shouldn't be putting your reputations on the line selling a product which you had admitted is poor and causing frustration for your customers?

 

[ppedrick]

Hi ppedrick, I hear you, it seems EVERYONE is having an issue with the IS accounts...
My question is (and I mean no offense by this) could this REALLY not have been predicted? Was there proper testing done before you started reselling these accounts? Also, surely you guys shouldn't be putting your reputations on the line selling a product which you had admitted is poor and causing frustration for your customers?

Great questions and ones that let me have another rant again... you'll notice that I've said this a LOT on other threads as well as this one.

These accounts are a knee-jerk reaction to MWeb - who had the time to plan much better (or at least covered their current client base + 30%).

In my honest opinion, IS should be making these accounts better than MWeb to show their size, network management and to stop the fact that a lot of their customers have 'jumped ship'. The reasons in favour seem (to me) to be basic business sense - they would lose money initially but this tidal wave of usage will not last and they will be left with a better reputation and a serious number of customers who only use a few GB per month.

Hence my call for transparency. There are two type of IS accounts being resold by companies at the minute. One is sold by IS as 'uncapped' the other is per GB... yet no customers know the difference or what it means.

'Regional Tier 2' providers should not be trying to push 'regional Tier 1's' products as their own.... FULL STOP.

The benefits of this are numerous:
- It stops IS and other Tier 1's from hiding from the customer
- It will force the Tier 1's to give better clarity and better account quality as the customer will also be looking directly at them.
- It stops ISPs over charging for the same product ( it will in fact drive the prices down)
- It forces ISPs to give better service as they can not hide behind the over-branding tag
- It forces the ISPs to start developing value added services that can be bolted on to your ADSL account
- It will allow the customer the ability to stay with the ISP who offers the best service and value adds, whilst swapping to the best ADSL provider at the time... simply and easily!

There's a lot more too it but there is no turning back from the uncapped accounts and the future development of the South African ADSL market... I just want to see it happen quickly and painlessly for the customer and I believe the above is the best way to go to drag it there quickly.

We are now as tied by the market as you and hence our reasons for always being very clear about he product you are buying... if it's not ours then we will not brand it as such.

Phew... rant over... P.

 

[Afrikali]

Hi ppedrick, is your business ADSL account (2K pm) any different than ordinary 4M uncapped account in terms of speed expectation from Rapidshare ?

 

[ppedrick]

Hey Afrkali,
I'd have to check on that with the tech guys as Rapidshare is web-based.
EDIT: I assume you are referring to the Imagine Uncapped accounts we sell,,,

I do know that all of our products are under review and as soon as the 'dust settles' we will be analysing what stays and what goes. It's a little too early to be killing off systems that worked so well before, in case the new uncapped take a while to get up to speed.

If you are seriously interested in these accounts then I will look in to it for you and tell you for definite what is an isn't shaped/monitored.

P.

 

[Afrikali]

What I am serious about is that something that can work within my budget, R500 was accaptable level, more than that needs a better motivation.

 

[ppedrick]

I know and I can only apologise on behalf of the Tier 1's.

All file sharers / downloaders are causing the system to clog right now because it is considered 'open season'. I don't know the exact figures but you can guarantee that Internet use has gone up by a significant factor in the last 2 weeks. It is annoying that the customer has to deal with it - however, you must also accept that every Tier 1 looks on downloaders as the bain of their lives.

Therefore it is specifically the downloaders (and am I'm included) that have caused such massive over-use of the network and it is them that are being penalised.

I know it won't always be this way but it's going to take a while for the dust to settle. This country has been starved and the Tier 1's have had it relatively easy. Now everyone is rushing to download everything they can and the Tier 1's are trying to 'up their game'.

I feel your annoyance and can only say that we are all in the same boat... we just resell this product and all it does is make you annoyed with us. The services that we are currently developing to compliment your new Internet connection will be awesome, but right now it doesn't help.

All I can hope to do is be honest, transparent and say 'I'm sorry' a lot on behalf of these guys.

 

[randomguy]

ppedrick you've been fantastic. I have been upset and disappointed and felt I basically pissed R500 away on this account, I considered trying to kick and scream and make a case for a pro rata refund and jumping ship but your transparency and honesty has at least convinced me to not kick and scream and try get a pro-rata refund.

If at month end I do leave Imagine (which at this point, looks like I probably will, out of no fault of your own) it will be on good terms and chances are good ill return sometime... After the dust settles as you put it.

Tier 1s have had it very easy in this country, bandwidth has been LUDICROUSLY over-priced and we've been starved of it. Everyone knew that once uncapped became affordable, people were going to take MAJOR advantage. However this wont last forever, so hopefully in a few months things will settle!

Thanks again for your responses ppedrick!!

 

[ppedrick]

Thanks again for your responses ppedrick!!

No worries and thanks RG. It is annoying that you will leave us and I do hope to see you back again.

Like you've said, once the Tier 1's get their s**t together then we as Tier 2 ISPs/IPSs can start offering decent service and services to make you rejoin us. I do believe that will be when we start shining as a business and look forward to seeing you then!

 

[Ferris Wheel Junkie]

Hi ppedrick, thanks for replying to the thread, sorry to hear about the virus :O get better soon!

As far as the accounts being hit, the 4megs arent fairing well either (when you take price : performance into account). Last night for example I couldnt break 40kbps, on a 4meg line thats REALLLY unacceptable....

I understand the shaping, the traffic, the issue from the ISPs side, MY issue is the frustration of paying for a 4meg line and a 4meg account, but getting 384kbps results for my money.

ppedrick you've been fantastic. I have been upset and disappointed and felt I basically pissed R500 away on this account, I considered trying to kick and scream and make a case for a pro rata refund and jumping ship but your transparency and honesty has at least convinced me to not kick and scream and try get a pro-rata refund.

If at month end I do leave Imagine (which at this point, looks like I probably will, out of no fault of your own) it will be on good terms and chances are good ill return sometime... After the dust settles as you put it.

Tier 1s have had it very easy in this country, bandwidth has been LUDICROUSLY over-priced and we've been starved of it. Everyone knew that once uncapped became affordable, people were going to take MAJOR advantage. However this wont last forever, so hopefully in a few months things will settle!

Thanks again for your responses ppedrick!!

I agree with you 100% with randomguy on this 1.

I honestly feel I am getting a 384 service but paying for 4meg.
And I feel the same way about Imagine and their support.

They initially helped me out by transferring me from the Uncapped express account (throttled during the day but unshaped afterhours) to the new uncapped basic account at the beginning of the month for free (when I should have had to give a months notice) so I am very great-full for this. Of course this means I had already paid R1000 so I basically got 2 free months of this new account. If by the end of May (when my paid for credit comes to an end) and these issues still exist I will almost certainly jump to Mweb as torrents and news server speeds seem "more acceptable"on their accounts.

This is not something I want to do, because I think Imagines support service is amazing, but if I am paying R500 a month I want to be able to get some value for money.

I honestly hope things comes right in the coming weeks (hopefully sooner)

 

[howardb]

I don't understand how there can be such extremes - I just upgraded from a 512 to 4096, and although my connection will not attain 4096, I'm really happy with the browsing/e-mail/etc. speeds on the account - I have a few copper wire issues that will be replaced by Telkom in the next few weeks, after which I should see the connection go to 4096 -- but until then, the ADSL modem connects at the following rates:
Line Rate - Upstream (Kbps): 512
Line Rate - Downstream (Kbps): 3424

I grabbed a distro on an international news server two days back and the speed was averaging 400KB - no problems.
Browsing is lightning fast, as is e-mail retrieval and FTP

Maybe I just have a "lucky line" or exchange, or maybe I was just so used to lower 512kbps speeds, but I'm really happy with my Imagine IS account.

@ ppedrick
Also to highlight - credit where credit is due. The Imagine staff, from the receptionist to the sales and technical support staff are such a pleasure to deal with. Every time I've had the need to contact them, either telephonically or via the Support tickets, I've been blown away by their positive service attitude towards their customers - I support you guys all the way! Keep it up!

 

[Ferris Wheel Junkie]

Browsing speeds are good, it is just torrents and news servers that are frustratingly slow.
Now if I was just going to browse, I wouldn't really need an uncapped account.
Yes sometimes I get 300kb/s on my downloads, but that is more often the exception, I usually find I am getting maxed at 40 (often exactly 40) kb/s, even very late into the night (after midnight)

 

[cavedog]

Browsing speeds are good, it is just torrents and news servers that are frustratingly slow.
Now if I was just going to browse, I wouldn't really need an uncapped account.
Yes sometimes I get 300kb/s on my downloads, but that is more often the exception, I usually find I am getting maxed at 40 (often exactly 40) kb/s, even very late into the night (after midnight)

+1

it seems like IS has set out limited bandwidth for these accounts. Its frustrates me cause for just R400 you can get the unlimited after hours account. Which you can use much more bandwidth. They could have at least opened the gates after 00:00am

 

[Pooky]

EDIT - We now have the ticket and are following it up so please ignore the below 12:45 - thanks Peter
Oh Pooky - quick question:
We can find no ticket, phone log or email from you.... do you know why the support guy emailed you?
I'm hoping like hell that you actually contacted him initially.

We're also going through entire response history to see if this was just a moronic moment - thankfully it seems like it for now.

Cheers
P.

Hey welcome back! Hope you feeling better.

I didn't send any support request or ticket, just got that random email out of the blue...

The email suffix is imagine.co.za , I'm assuming that is actually from you guys...

I can PM you the prefic and the name that came up in the email if you want...

 

[ppedrick]

Hey welcome back! Hope you feeling better.
I didn't send any support request or ticket, just got that random email out of the blue...
The email suffix is imagine.co.za , I'm assuming that is actually from you guys...
I can PM you the prefic and the name that came up in the email if you want...

Nah - but thanks mate... we got him

He'd mistakenly created two accounts for you - one he did with you live (when you were on the phone or live chat) and then the other later on... he just decided that the best way to get out of it was to dig a bigger hole.

Really have no idea how he managed to sound like he couldn't speak English either. Must have been mild panic!

I'm really sorry for the madness around all of this and hope that you've had a great experience with our guys otherwise. Now we've found out what was going on it's kinda funny - but before there were a few knives out.

Let me know if there's anything you need. (internet related only!)

Cheers

P.