MWeb can go to hell

[Debbie]

What is wrong with this company? I call them now to get information on an account - I want to know if this account is under a long-term contract or not - and they are 'unable' to help.

I went through to technical support, and the consultant there was very pleasant, although I did have to stay on hold for too long before I got through to a real person. So I ask my question and get told that he cannot give me the answer and that I have to call during business hours.

Ok, I understand that this is a query about a type of account, but come now. Considering that MWeb is a very large ISP, and considering that the nature of their business is not confined to 9am-5pm hours (hey it's not like the internet shuts down at 5pm every day), surely they should have at least one person able to handle queries of this nature after normal business hours?

Apparantly this is just too much for MWeb to do!

Note to companies: You are NEVER 'unable' to help. There is always something you can do, or at the very least, you could fake concern for the customer's dilemma.

 

[kaspaas]

Beware of M-Web':

A client sent them a letter cancelling all services.

A few months later they received a lawyers letter demanding payment for fees not paid.

Sorry, but your fax was received by dial-ups, and only dial-up can be cancelled by faxes sent to that number. You should have sent the fax to 327 additional numbers to cancel all the services M-Web offers...

 

[Darth Garth]

Considering that MWeb is a very large ISP, and considering that the nature of their business is not confined to 9am-5pm hours (hey it's not like the internet shuts down at 5pm every day), surely they should have at least one person able to handle queries of this nature after normal business hours?

Well nobody does that ... account queries is during normal business hours unless they have an online Web based account query system like WebAfrica.

The support people who deal with the technical support issues don't have access to the accounts system as it contains rather confidential customer information.

 

[Debbie]

Well nobody does that ... account queries is during normal business hours unless they have an online Web based account query system like WebAfrica.

The support people who deal with the technical support issues don't have access to the accounts system as it contains rather confidential customer information.

So where was the "I'll get someone to call you back about it"?

Don't give me this bs about 'confidential customer info'. They were quite willing to log on to the account and give me other details, even without me providing the password. All I needed to give them was the @Mweb email address! I'm not even the account holder. But they can't tell me something simple like whether the account is under contract, which I want to know because I want to see if they wil allow them out of such a contract (should it exist) in favour of an MWeb ADSL account (need to keep MWeb as service provider in order to retain the email address).

 

[BTTB]

MWeb's Contact Details

Hello Debbie2

This is MWebs Help Page with their contact details and hours of business.

Hope this helps.

 

[Debbie]

Thanks BTTB - I would have emailed them but they would probably email the account holder back instead of me. I'll call then tomorrow, if I feel the need to waste at least R20 on finding out this basic bloody information.

 

[BTTB]

Those Plants

Hello Debbie,

You are welcome.
I keep meaning to find out about those plants for you and today the gentleman that knows a great deal about them was here and I forgot to ask him again.
I even printed out the message and put it in our diary.

Funnily enough I had another person this last week looking for similar plants.
Will find out and get back to you.

Cheers,
BTTB

 

[Debbie]

Heheh, the word is spreading!

Thanks, there's no rush, just whenever you remember.

 

[fairlady]

Sorry, it is kind of off-topic, but I had to spread the word.

Beware of M-Web':

A client sent them a letter cancelling all services.

A few months later they received a lawyers letter demanding payment for fees not paid.

Sorry, but your fax was received by dial-ups, and only dial-up can be cancelled by faxes sent to that number. You should have sent the fax to 327 additional numbers to cancel all the services M-Web offers...

I had a similar problem. I had a Tiscali hosting account which I cancelled in the begining of 2005. A year and a half later I receive a huge bill from MWEB Business asking me to pay back for hosting. Turns out that the cancellation was not reflected in the database they received from Tiscali. How convenient! By a miracle (it was more than a year and I had lost the record of the fax in a move) I was able to retrieve the email from Tiscali support (in an old forgotten email account on my laptop!) stating that my cancellation has been processed. If I didn't have than I would have had to pay Mweb a lot of money. They politely explained that I "may have or may have not cancelled, and the fact that you have not used the hosting service does not mean that I should not pay for it", when I asked cancellation why would I order and pay redirect on my domain name if I was using their hosting?

Moral of the story: Keep a written record and do not trust the companies to have accurate data on you.
Look out for the new data protection legislation when you will have the right to be informed when and who your data is being sold/transferred to.

 

[spellcheck]

I vaguely recall [from about 2001..2002] that there is an online account area - hidden in MWeb's online help, that you can log into and see & do stuff - knowing MWeb it probably won't work with Fx so use IE instead - maybe try that instead of feeding the monopolistic beast tomorrow...

Is it the bottom item of the left hand menu on the page referenced by BTTB - here? If so, then some of the subsequent menu items don't work, for now at least, not even in IE.


All of this is making me worried - I have just applied to Telkom to upgrade my 192K to 384K, also to beat the August "rush". And I suddendly have no idea what MWeb are going to charge me. Their website only shows their rates for 192K!

 

[Darth Garth]

So where was the "I'll get someone to call you back about it"?

Their offices are in N1 City .

 

[gljackson]

So by implication MWeb's customers cannot trust MWeb's technical staff after 5pm bcos MWeb doesn't trust them enough to give them access to contract and other details??? - please clarify - are these Gremlins that MWeb employs after 5pm whilst the normal business hours staff are Mug-Yz?

Now you're just being silly - thats like saying "why don't banks just leave their vault open for all their staff to walk in and out of".

If you want to have accountability, you need to control access.

 

[Moederloos]

Now you're just being silly - thats like saying "why don't banks just leave their vault open for all their staff to walk in and out of".

If you want to have accountability, you need to control access.

Not quite.
A better analogy is to give everyone a code to enter the vault and have a big camera on the inside recording every movement.
I do not see why an operator cannot log on, have his entries logged, and be able to answer simple account enquiries. We are dealing with an IT company here, not a company that has no clue how technology works (although, at times you would not think so...)

 

[BTTB]

Is it the bottom item of the left hand menu on the page referenced by BTTB - here? If so, then some of the subsequent menu items don't work, for now at least, not even in IE.


All of this is making me worried - I have just applied to Telkom to upgrade my 192K to 384K, also to beat the August "rush". And I suddendly have no idea what MWeb are going to charge me. Their website only shows their rates for 192K!

Hello Spellcheck

I think you are confused?
Only Telkom charges you for the Connectivity Portion of your ADSL. I.E. Line Rental.
Whether you have a 384Kb or a 1MB line?
It is your bandwidth cost charged by MWeb that may vary when you use more or less in a month.
The per GB charge is the ISP's cost.

Customers should compare the cost per GB when choosing an ISP.

Thanks
BTTB

 

[spellcheck]

Hello Spellcheck

I think you are confused?
Only Telkom charges you for the Connectivity Portion of your ADSL. I.E. Line Rental.
Whether you have a 384Kb or a 1MB line?
It is your bandwidth cost charged by MWeb that may vary when you use more or less in a month.
The per GB charge is the ISP's cost.

Customers should compare the cost per GB when choosing an ISP.

Thanks
BTTB

I think not in this case. (I may be confused, but that's a lifelong problem ). See MWeb's pricing here. Look at the fine red print below the table. The devil is frequently in the detail.

 

[Moederloos]

I think not in this case. (I may be confused, but that's a lifelong problem ). See MWeb's pricing here. Look at the fine red print below the table. The devil is frequently in the detail.

damn, but that table is anything BUT useful.
No prices for anything except 192. the blurb at the bottom does not mention 1MB

* These prices are based on a 192kbps option. 384kbps and 512kbps are also available

and, those prices! OMG, people, on a 192 line you will pay R100 at cybersmart for 3GB...

I no MWEB is very expensive, but that is just a joke.

 

[BTTB]

ADSL has 3 Cost Portions

I think not in this case. (I may be confused, but that's a lifelong problem ). See MWeb's pricing here. Look at the fine red print below the table. The devil is frequently in the detail.

Hello Spellcheck.

I see your point.
I should have asked for a link first.

That is really a silly table.
Surely it makes no sense to only include 192Kb as an example.
Or read the small red print under the table makes no further sense.

I understand what MWeb are getting at, but will the other consumers?
MWeb seem to be trying to explain the cheapest ADSL option available including Telkom's Connectivity and Line Rental.
The Rental portions are not applicable to MWeb, but to someone not knowing this, they may become easily confused.

Mr Branson should start Virgin Broadband and try and simplify the equation for the people as for the not so informed customer this is not easy to understand and I am not referring to you Spellcheck, but to the Public in General.

ADSL actually has 3 costs, namely Line Rental (Telkom), Connectivity Rental (Telkom) and ISP Costs.
Add the three together and you have a completely different story.

My ADSL Internet still costs me more than R1000 per month.
The total cost has not changed since I first bought into ADSL. Actually my speed has been reduced as I opted for the cheaper 384Kb ADSL as when ADSL was first introduced into South Africa, the only option from Telkom was 512Kb.

 

[Carlhead]

damn, but that table is anything BUT useful.
No prices for anything except 192. the blurb at the bottom does not mention 1MB

and, those prices! OMG, people, on a 192 line you will pay R100 at cybersmart for 3GB...

I no MWEB is very expensive, but that is just a joke.

The account (MWeb) prices are the same irrelevant of line speed.

But it's like that with every ISP excl. Cybersmart... and MWeb is up to twice the price of almost any other ISP in the market... including other massive ISP's like Datapro, IS and Telkom.

 

[explorian]

MWEB v. WebAfrica

Can someone please explain if the packages offered by MWEB are comparable to the shaped or unshaped service offered by Web Africa?

Thanks
Stephen

 

[Carlhead]

Can someone please explain if the packages offered by MWEB are comparable to the shaped or unshaped service offered by Web Africa?

Thanks
Stephen

They're not compareable, they're identical to the Web Africa shapped service; MWeb are SAIX resellers, the same as WA.