MTN South Africa: You are liars of the highest calibre!

[1nc0gn1t0]

You tell me on Hellopeter.com that all I need to do is fill out a form and send it to Coverage. You do realise that slow data does NOT FALL WITHIN THE RANGE OF COVERAGE?!?

This is what I got:

Good Day,

Kindly call your Service Provider Data Support Helpdesk for further assistance with slow speed problem, because coverage department only deal with providing signal.

Kind Regards,
Thembi Hlongwane

Hellopeter.com Response:

Thank you for taking time to raise your concerns with MTN.

Kindly populate the below template list, and forward the completed mail to our Coverage contact centre hub on coverage@mtn.co.za

Alternatively you can also contact them on number 083 900 1212 toll-free from and MTN number or chargeable from other SP's numbers, weekdays 08:00 to 17:00.

[...FORM...]

Warm regards,
Wenzile Masina
REQ:1807681

You then reply with:

Hi there Charles, my apologies for this. Please can you send me an inbox message, right here on Facebook, with your contact details and a brief explanation of the problem and I will gladly have the team look into this for you

I have had it!

 

[Reine_Viper]

That's their way of solving an issue. I have filled out the form at least twice and having terrible 3G/HSPA+ throughput despite having an excellent signal.

I have just posted 2 days ago on Hellopeter - stating I do not want and I quote "...***...generic feedback from an ill written customer complaints manual..." , yet they respond with the same coverage desk bullsh*t. I have posted at least 4 times on Hellopeter for the past 2 weeks, together with at least 10 mails to MTN Coverage & lodged 3 complaints via the site - received same template numerous times, absolutely pathetic

They are so thick I know for a fact they can't care less for any issues you have on their network. Someone needs to get the top capitalists email addresses @ MTN for us to spam away our concerns until they are forced to look into our grievances - even then it's a long shot.

Tired of wasting energy on this but what else can one do when you are tied-up in a 24 month contract? :wtf:

 

[147GTA]

I know how you feel. It took five long calls to get the "signal booster" i.e. poynting aerial arranged. Can you believe that I was asked in one call four times for my modem cell number - this despite entering it manually to the automated call system and then giving it to three separate help desk consultants.

And it is coverage who helped with my data issue, regardless of what that dimwit said on the mail.

This did help a lot (and for that I do give MTN credit) but you can still see that there are problems with the network. Full signal, then it won't authenticate, then no throughput. Then other days brilliant and can watch streamed video no problem. Do not believe them when they tell you a "co-ordinator" will call you - these are like mythical creatures from the outer realm of "dontgivea****aboutcallback"ville.

Don't believe that 5 bar signal strength on the interface, it lies like a broken clock - I used to see -77 to -83dBm on MDMA but still 5 bars! Antenna brought this down to -63dBm but still can't fix APN/network problems, especially when helpdesks deny any issue.

 

[Reine_Viper]

Lol their incompetence, uneducated and technically challenged minds shine brightly! Ayoba! Where's that Lamborghini now MTN, ey ol' chum?!?!

They did exactly that - "You will receive a phone call from a co-ordinator, within the next 10 working days". What k*k is that? I mailed their coverage desk telling them my laptop and modem ain't broke so don't come waste my time fools. And 10 working days, really? Is this techie being flown in from Sweden or some remote island?

I hardly doubt the aerial will have any impact on the issues I am facing with the ridiculous congestion, as another user in North Riding has confirmed the same issue, despite being near a MTN tower with full signal. I had no issues until end January, this year, now it is an everyday occurrence.

This happens to all MTN bound cellphones as well :erm:

Should I push MTN for the aerial non-the-less? Any contract stipulations that they forced down your throat? lol .

 

[Undocumented]

I'm cancelling my MTN Uncapped Lite contact tomorrow (I'm in the 5 days after getting it). Advertised as for "Heavy Internet users who download large amounts of data", speeds up to 21MB/s before the fair usage cap, and 250KB/s up to 500KB/s after. All this info confirmed by my sales guy.

First day I have amazing speeds. my 3GB fair usage cap drops in 3 hours. By day two i have d/led 16GB and getting the 500KB/s as advertised. Day three its dead, no connection, nothing. I comes up that night and I get a max of 32KB/s. WTS.

Called support on the fourth day and they confirm that I'm over the fair usage cap. He says my speeds will now be throttled to 250kbps, not 250KB/s, and that will be my max speed for the rest of the month.

Great, that's not fast enough to open 2 webpages at the same time. I told the technician that the sales guy sold me the package on the fact that I get 250KB/s and not 250kbps. He tells me the sales guy was just mistaken.

The worst bit is that my friend bought this package 2 weeks before me and he is still getting 500KB/s. Even if the routers are next to each other. He has downloaded over 100GB already with no problems.

Anyway, my rant over. At least I am getting out of it before its too late.

 

[Reine_Viper]

MTN will not allow 250kb/s download speeds when throttled - just comes to show how unskilled and non-technical MTN's staff is.

I am yet to find the MTN employee capable of answering all my questions. Your friend is enjoying the misfortune of some person sleeping at the throttling department. He should abuse the hell out of it while he still can.

MTN's Lamborghini has crashed and burned, now we can all look forward to the return of GPRS! :wtf:

 

[SwaarMetaal]

If the throttled speed remained a constant 250Kbps I would still be happy but alas, when throttled, most of the time, the speed is between 30Kbps and 100Kbps.

For me, everything went so well up until the 7th of Feb 2013. What the f#ck happened on the 7th of Feb and of course since then??? Does anyone actually know???

 

[Reine_Viper]

MTN Coverage confirmed to me this morning they do not handle any transmission / throughput / instability issues when having full signal - after 3 weeks of complaining. MTN Technical @ 1555 is where you are to place such related issues - MTN will be providing me with a free Booster, failing which, they will have an aerial installed, come this Friday.

Will advise outcome

 

[Voldemort]

Reine_Viper- please PM me the reference number of this complaint, id like to take a further look- a booster wont help with full signal so IMO it pointless:wtf:

 

[Reine_Viper]

Hey Voldemort, actually did not get any assistance through normal MTN channels.

Went to MTN HQ in Roodepoort - quickly escalated the matter and I received feedback within 2 hours after wanting to lodge a formal complaint with MTN - or threatened to do so anyway. Techie confirmed it may not solve the issue, but he is willing to offer the same at no cost to myself, which I will be able to test over the weekend and confirm the results. I also have other complaints logged on both the technical and coverage desks, so I have literally covered most bases.

If the booster/aerial does not solve the throughput issue, I will be sure to make an even bigger noise to get it resolved

btw, how do I PM? LOL

 

[Voldemort]

Hi there

You click on my handle and select the pm me option
Well ok, good luck to you and keep fighting the good fight...

 

[Reine_Viper]

Thanks for the tip

Okay so I got the Nextivity Cel-Fi unit installed yesterday - 10 day delay in install - at least the techie was friendly

After playing around with the signal / placement of modem around the area of the Cel-Fi, the best I got was -55dbm which would fluctuate to about -63dbm - measured with my Galaxy S2.

I have to say that it has seemed to improve my experience all-round, however, I will be fiddling for the next few days to try and get the best out of it. Only managed to get about a hour to test the connection and it was between 6 and 7pm.

Does anyone have tips / experience with these units to pass on? Is the above mentioned signal good? I am not too clued up with the cellphone side of things

Btw, I'm using the Huawei E586 wifi modem to connect 2 laptops - getting an international ping of around 229ms - which is what it used to be, without any fluctuations - did experience a delay now and then, but way better than without the cel-fi unit - also think the modem was sitting with a signal strength of -79dbm ; only realized later that by moving your modem around, signal can improve lol

Will post a speedtest result later, got like 12mbps down and 3mbps up yesterday on international.

 

[DTBA]

the lower dbm the beter @55 U got great signal better then most of us

 

[Farmboy]

MTN will not allow 250kb/s download speeds when throttled - just comes to show how unskilled and non-technical MTN's staff is.

I am yet to find the MTN employee capable of answering all my questions. Your friend is enjoying the misfortune of some person sleeping at the throttling department. He should abuse the hell out of it while he still can.

MTN's Lamborghini has crashed and burned, now we can all look forward to the return of GPRS! :wtf:

I bet GPRS is faster than the 30kb/s mtn uncapped lite haha

 

[Reine_Viper]

I think MTN is throttling their entire network due to lack of infrastructure & maintenance upgrades during their so-called "peak" times.

I'm experiencing appalling latency again with an optimal 3G signal strength of -53dbm from 6pm - onwards every evening can't wait to switch to fibre or DSL - tired of being milked every month for a sub-par service.

 

[1nc0gn1t0]

Just to let you guys know, I have opened a case with ICASA because of my awesome dialup connection. If you have no joy, I suggest you do the same.

 

[kingrob]

So MTN only start doing something when there's a formal complaint on hellopeter.com - is this now MTN's new helpdesk agent?

And then they gave senior managers R209 million in bonuses last year. What a faaking joke this company is.

 

[Robin Hood]

...i'm was with mtn for 10 years...cant wait for next year when my contract expires....POOR signals ( all around ). Shall see what happens....otherwise....Vodacom...HERE WE COME ;-)

PS: Seeing my work involves computers, i have seen the best results with Vodafones than MTN 3g-sticks...