Lay a Complaint with ICASA

[dojob]

Hi Guys,

Ive been thinking, maybe we should lay a complaint with ICASA.
We should carefully state our dissatisfaction about ADSL. I know the ISPA have already complained about ADSL but we need to add a consumer persective.

RPM maybe you could co-ordinate this letter?

 

[rpm]

Hi Dojob

Thanks for the idea.

I have already sent two letters to ICASA, but received no reply. I think this options is the obvious route to follow, but I also think they are rather incompetent when it comes to dealing with these issues.

Regards,

RPM
[email protected]

 

[Rtaxerxes]

The 3GB cap is ridiculous. I don't see why it isn't more of a problem for you guys. If I buy a service, surely I should be able to use it for what I wish. One of the main reasons I purchased ADSL was to be in contact with my franchises around the country by Webcam. That chews bandwidth. So now I can speak for the first 2 weeks, and then thats it.

I would like Telkom to:
1) remove the cap
2) or at worst make it possible to carry on using your service once you have been capped by charging for extra GB, and at something reasonable like R10 per GB or something, not R80. (Extra account: R250/3)

Plus Telkom needs to be more forthcoming with exactly what they are doing to our service. What ports are prioritised, what bandwidth we can actually expect, and what amount of bandwidth is being shared by capped users.

MWEB states the degraded service is similar to a 64K ISDN line. They obviously didn't suck this out of their thumb. This is Telkoms reply on the question:

Good morning Matthew

Thank you for your enquiry. Firstly the information that M-Web told
you is incorrect. You will be moved to an alternate (slower) pipe
which is not the equivalent of an ISDN 64 kb link. You need to be
aware that at this time of the month many other customers are also
capped and have been moved over to the slower pipe. Because of this
there will be periods that due to the volume of capped customers
access is not possible however there could be periods when traffic
subsides that you can gain access. This degraded service will not
however affect your local access.

Thanks for your response
Online Internet Customer Support
Telkom SA

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: 22 August 2003 10:11
Subject: Customer_Complaints Other


Feedback_Related_To : Customer_Complaints
Complaining_about : Other
Other_Complaint : ADSL
comments : I understand the need for capping on the ADSL service. But
I feel that the 3GB limit is too low. Anyway, I have been capped, and
now I cannot retrieve my e-mail that is kept on a USA server. I have
not been able to since 19/8/03. Your website clearly states that once
capped, a client will be moved to a slower pipe overseas. MWEB, my
ISP, states that the service will be degraded to the equivalent of a
64K ISDN line. At the moment it is not even possible to determine how
slow the service is since I can't access foreign sites. I do not have
a pipe at the moment. This is unacceptable. Please let me know how you plan to remedy the situation!

Thanks very much to the guys like RPM who are moving this forward.

 

[ASnogarD]

2 points of intrest regarding that e-mail you recieved Rtaxerxes:

1] I was capped since the 5th of August and the capped international speed was unusable at that time so either a majority gets capped fast like me or the connection is usless no matter when you get capped and is not effected by the number of users capped(least it doesn't help if there are less capped users).

2] According to Steven White's stats only a relative few managed to get capped and so this indicated to him the 3 gig is sufficient but according to your e-mail response it is clear enough users are capped to degrade the alternative connection.

 

[leonardharley]

ICASA are supposed to be an independant regulator - the problem is that they are not!

The govt must empower ICASA to regulate - not be allowed to overturn / exclude them from decision making - also it would help if ICASA had competent staff!

I am not surprised that your letters have been ignored RPM.

"The Great Deregulation War has begun!"

 

[grubman]

well, i'll be ... seems telskum have just contradicted themselves again.

"at this time of the month <b>many</b> other customers are also
capped and have been moved over to the slower pipe"

I thought only a minority of users ever got capped? So telskum, which is it? Many users or a minority???

 

[bullstein]

Telkom certainly cannot decide what to say. The more they say the more they contradict themselves.

Soos 'n verkleurmannetjie op 'n smartie-box.

O yes, another thing. I would not insult isdn 64k by comparing it with the slower capped bandwith. That is total crap. I had isdn 64k before i got adsl and i was reasonably happy with it. Then i got adsl and became very unhappy within three days when i got capped just like the many (or is it little) other users.

Anyway i am going back to isdn 64 now - i can't do any international gaming on this adsl for 90% of the month.