More silliness from iBurst customer service

JacquesR

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For your amusement... I called customer service on July 13 to initiate cancelling - making sure to build in more than a August's notice period (anticipating screw-ups). The guy I speak to mails me the cancellation form as we speak, I fill it in and mail it back.

The reason I give for cancelling is: "iBurst is no longer competitive on price, bandwidth or speed."

Having heard nothing by the 24th, I call and ask the helpdesk whether they have my cancellation lined up. Nope, no records. Who did you send it to, they ask, and I give them the name. "But he no longer works at this company, sir". But, I say, he answered the phone and mailed me on the 13th... turns out he left the company that day, and my email was just sitting in his inbox - and nobody thought to have someone else tie up his loose ends... so I resend the form to the generic info@iburst address.

I call today to make sure they have it. Yes, and I get a reference number. A couple of hours later, I get a call: "We need to know more about why you are cancelling your service". "Why?", I ask, as I couldn't see what it had to do with them. "Well, we need to understand so that we can improve". "Um" I said, "I believe I said something quite clear, like 'iBurst is no longer competitive on price, bandwidth or speed'".

She asks if there is maybe anything they can do to help. She mentions MTU settings and distance from tower. As far as iBurst goes, I explain, I get a good deal - usually 80% of rated speed, few outages, etc. But with August's reductions, I can get a 4 megabit line and the same (3gb) cap for the same price. "You're simply not competitive on any level".

"Oh. Thank you sir. Goodbye."

It would be interesting to see stats of how many customers they have been losing recently, for these sorts of reasons. Unless you need mobility or can't get a ADSL line, there really is no good reason to us iBurst, is there?
 
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Might want to confirm once more that they're cancelled your account :p
 
This is the year of the "great iburst exodus" as many have left and the numbers will grow as the year progresses.:p

I'd do as suggested above and follow up that it has indeed been canceled. (you never know maybe whoever you spoke to also is leaving the company):rolleyes:

Don't be surprised if they also tell you that you still owe them money from a year ago before the cancellation can go through. <--- (this is the favorite trick they use to delay cancellation) :sick:

Next step after they agree all outstanding payments have been made is to do as I said in this thread below:

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showpost.php?p=1149280&postcount=44

Please keep us posted as to how your cancellation went.
 
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One more thing, after you've canceled and you reach the end of the month that you payed for DO NOT try to connect after midnight at the end of the month or you WILL BE BILLED for the next month.<---- (this is yet another trick they use to get as much money out of you as they can):sick:

Just switch off your modem and either sell it to some other poor "unsuspecting sucker" or use it for a light paperweight.:eek:
 
Thanks MrH - I'll definitely be exercising utmost caution in *trying* to make sure August is the last month I have anything to do with iBurst!
 
I sent iBurst an email requesting cancellation (cc'd Mr Mtshali) and got an email from him asking why I was cancelling. This was around the time they announced the new top up prices. I sent an email explaining why ADSL was better value for money as compared to my G9 account (and I used pre top up increase prices as well). I challenged him to make me stay an iBurst customer. Still no reply today.
 
Just switch off your modem and either sell it to some other poor "unsuspecting sucker" or use it for a light paperweight.:eek:

My baby has taken a liking to it. I will give it to him and he can bash stuff with it (once I have an alternative). :)
 
update

So, I contacted my bank, who can't even find iBurst listed on their back-end as a company authorised to debit my account. So in other words, a stop payment instruction is impossible (as others have pointed out, though, it is possible to notify the bank soon after a debit to have it reversed).

So in my continuing efforts to make sure August is the last month I pay for, I write to customer service, attaching the cancellation form submitted on July 13, and again on July 25:

"Dear iBurst,

My username is xxxxx, and August is my notice month for the cancellation of my iBurst contract. In light of the numerous reports of your company continuing to process debit orders on cancelled accounts, I hereby request written confirmation that my August subscription (already paid on July 25) is the final debit that will be made from my account."

They respond:
"Good afternoon
Kindly complete a cancellation form attached above and fax it back to 086 503 9111.
Kind regards"

I say:
"That was all done on July 25. If you were to look up my account details, you could confirm this. In other words, August is my last month, and I'm simply looking for written confirmation that no monies are outstanding to iBurst, so that if you mistakenly debit me again, I have evidence that this was a mistake."

He says:
"Thanks, I have forwarded it to accounts and Retentions for cancellation."

It's almost too incompetent to be plausible, isn't it? And it goes without saying that I've received nothing official confirming that my contract will be cancelled on August 31.
 
and yet you will keep getting debit order for your subscription until the cow's come home!
 
Ask to speak to someone in accounts, get their full names and then ask for their ID, when they ask why, say you have nominated them to be a duly authorized representative of iburst and as such will be laying a charge of fraud/extortion/theft (delete as applicable) against them. :p
 
Have any of you tried to stop a debit order from going through!!- I went through this same story with cell c..... 3 times!!!! with 3 different accounts!!!!!! If you try to block a debit, the bank charges you an exorbitant amount and the debit order is only blocked for a month, next month they can take more cash off- the best thing to do is to let the debit order go through, then go into the bank and when they tell you that you have to speak to iburst to get your cash back, say to them that you want to fill in a debit dispute form (which the bank wont tell you about because that means work for them) you fill that in, and the bank will reverse the debit for you, iburst pays the bank charges and you wont even need to deal with the incompetent tunnie in accounts
 
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