MWEB responds to consumers

[Desertsnowman]

I think MWebs client base age group average on between 40 - 70 years, people with limited internet knowledge

 

[Necuno]

on dailup i easily surf 30+ meg, which includes patches, news sites, game sites coding resources. which then for average month would be if there is 30 days
30 * 30 = 900mb. for bout 2hrs a night. a 1 gig connection with 192kb ... hehe dont make me laugh how long is that going to last you on 24.7 connection

money making scheme ? yes of course the cost price of dailups is ±R50 (well thats what IS's sells them for to isps) then charging R149 or more what ever they ask.

and besides you only get from the net where youve been. problem with spam - make a email adress and use the aliases, devided them into groups which you give out or use - change them if problematic.

one thought...
maybe good thing would be to drop the cap and just throttle the p2p stuff ?

anywhays cheers,
ryu

 

[Silent_Bob]

very limited knowledge!

 

[rustic]

Well it is quiet simple, this offer is only typical of what company's are used to and get away with for years, They can offer you **** and you will have thousands flocking to it and think they do you a service. This is typical ZA consumer mentality. That is why it is so easy to make huge bucks if you are an unscrupulous company.

Just a thought....

I have never seen an ad from the smaller guys out there offering better packages for less. Why don't these guys advertise? Surely it's not that expensive. Most people that i speak to, have no idea whats avaliable out there, so when the see an ad like this MWEB "fantastic" offer rubbish, they take it at face value. They simply know no better.

 

[bwana]

Just a thought....

I have never seen an ad from the smaller guys out there offering better packages for less. Why don't these guys advertise? Surely it's not that expensive. Most people that i speak to, have no idea whats avaliable out there, so when the see an ad like this MWEB "fantastic" offer rubbish, they take it at face value. They simply know no better.

Advertising during prime time like mweb does or in print is pretty expensive - and those costs inevitably get passed on to the consumer.

 

[Juice]

Did she really say:

“We therefore actively campaign for lower costs and an anti-competitive, deregulated industry to the benefit of all ISPs and consumers.”

Hmph. Thought we had an anti-competitive industry already...

ROFL

Juice

 

[TimTango]

When you move from 56k to 1g adsl you actually move backwards

the vast majority of dial people in SA use less than 200MB over their dial connections. 1GB ADSL represents 5x the capacity they were actually using before. All the ISPs know this - that's why Sentech, iBurst and Vodacom have all come out with low-end packages that bundle only a few hundred MBs - eg MyWireless Flexi.
For users moving from dial, but still just checking their email, browsing web, banking etc 1GB is a big step up, and way better than the low-end wireless options.
This forum needs to understand that they are NOT representative of the general internet public, but are an 'elite' group of high-end users.

Take a look at BT's ADSL packages -
http://www.bt.com/broadband/bb_info...Type=LINK&obsOID=89065&targetSection=packages

They sell ADSL in 4 packages - 2GB, 6GB, 20GB, 40GB
It's not very different to SA (except for price), and this is one of the first-world countries that has had deregulated ADSL for years.

 

[TimTango]

another MWeb employee, please go and see international trends on the internet... but I suppose your cap will only allow you to see one or two sites

http://www.bt.com/broadband/bb_info...Type=LINK&obsOID=89065&targetSection=packages

Take a look at international trends yourself - BT offers 2GB, 6GB, 20GB and 40GB packages.
Not very different to SA. Their prices are lower. SA prices continue to drop.
We'll get there when Telkom's monopoly is shaken, or the regulators get some teeth and the will to use them.

 

[moosag]

This is an absolute joke. And for those of you who actually try defending it by justifying that 1GIG is enough, or that the general public know of "what can be done on the internet" but choose not to do it... IS ABSOLUTE RUBBISH!!! You lucky you not standing in front of me.

Mweb is a company. They obviously have their reasons to charge this high price. What I dont agree with is them saying that they competative and that they trying to help the industry. What I hope is that they get good responses from ppl on dialup changing over to ADSL. That way people can first hand see how they being ripped off. Companies like Telkom and Mweb think that by signing up people onto their services is a good thing. Yeah sure for an initial signup its great. But what both companies lack in terms of ADSL is inconsistent service, support and prices. Its 1 thing to get someone to signup... Its a completely different story maintaining them. And with user groups like MyADSL, somehow, somwhere we tell the people the truth.

IMO its going to backfire in their faces and thats when we can use that against them. I also think that MyADSL, Hellkom and all the other groups out there should make an example out of companies like these. If you want to charge your mothers price for a service, then by all means go for it.... BUT IF YOU WANT TO JUSTIFY IT BY USING THE DEREGULATED TELECOMS ENVIRONMENT AND SAYING ITS GOOD FOR THE ECONOMY... Then I think someone should setup a www.mwebsucks.co.za

For every company that steps out line we should make an example out of them. Hellkom got good exposure. MyADSL just as good. Sentech had their boat rocked quite nicely.... Now if someone takes mweb to task then things should heat up quite nicely.. And I pray that they take us to court for it. That way we can get all the exposure we need.

WE NEED TO START PRESSURISING THESE COMPANIES!!!!! In whatever way possible.

 

[rpm]

This forum needs to understand that they are NOT representative of the general internet public, but are an 'elite' group of high-end users.

Hi TimTango

While this forum might consist of partly higher-end users, it also consists of tech-savvy consumers that can sniff out a poor deal and warn the general public about such deals. That is partly what we are here for…

Regards,

RPM

 

[Roman4604]

This is an absolute joke. And for those of you who actually try defending it by justifying that 1GIG is enough, or that the general public know of "what can be done on the internet" but choose not to do it... IS ABSOLUTE RUBBISH!!! You lucky you not standing in front of me.

While I'm not one to get upset about such things, if you came to my house and tried to tell my wife she's a joke cause she only chooses to use email & do some surfing, she'd take one of her nice pointy stilletos and kick it so far up your gat you'd be crying for mommy again.

 

[Albereth]

I googled for the best isp for adsl in south africa. It turned up icon - which is now in the mweb fold. And that was it.

Somehow the myadsl forum needs to get on the list, otherwise those organisations with advertising budgets are going to influence customers.

 

[MaD]

No idea why everyone is going on about this.. if 1GB is too little for you (which it certainly is for myself, by a long shot) then simply don't use MWEB. There are what, over 100 ISP's in this country, no one is saying "USE MWEB 1GB OR ELSE".. it's a 1GB offering, it's there, and that's that. If consumers need it they will buy it. If not then they won't.

So wish MWEB luck.. but at R145/GB I doubt they will get the response they are waiting for though.. but then again that's where the choice of other ISP's comes in handy..

 

[moosag]

While I'm not one to get upset about such things, if you came to my house and tried to tell my wife she's a joke cause she only chooses to use email & do some surfing, she'd take one of her nice pointy stilletos and kick it so far up your gat you'd be crying for mommy again.

Never assume coz its the Mother of all F'ups... Anyways my point was not to justify the usage of 1GIG whether it being enough or not, but merely too look at the bigger picture.

 

[Sneeky]

No disrespect to anyone that finds 'email' and 'a bit of browsing' an adequate internet experience, as everyone has their own needs, but it is just that type of blinkered thinking by the 'string pullers' that is stymying the rollout of 'REAL' broadband in this country to everyones detriment and in favour of a few fat cats bank accounts.

This forum needs to understand that they are NOT representative of the general internet public, but are an 'elite' group of high-end users.
,,,,,
It's not very different to SA (except for price),

Cant fault that we are mainly the so called 'high end users' here, but then lets define 'HIGH' by global standards and see where 3 gigs of shaped bandwidth fits in!!!

Ahh the price, is that not the basis of the whole argument.

We in South Africa have a terrible habit of just accepting what is given to us without question, perhaps this stems from the isolation and the old regime, hell, we blame everything else on that. The point is that these offers are not acceptable by almost any international std. Price being the main problem.

Although MWeb justify the package as getting people to move from dialup to adsl at no extra cost really and there is merit in that, its a money spinner, cause everyone knows that a fair percentage of those that do make the switch will not be satisfied with 1 gig in no time at all.
Instead of waiting for a few minutes for a page to load you can now browse more informative sites more quickly, when on dialup you probably would just close the page due to the time it takes to load ie a page of pictures that you wont be able to effectively open on dialup, it all equals more bandwidth so the correlation to what they use now (on dialup) and what they will use (on Adsl) is largely not relevant.

Even at the last telkom talk shop 30 gigs was used by Dr. Tim Kelly, from the ITU (International Telecommunications Forum) as a std to judge pricing where we fell horribly behind anyone else, this before the per gig billing which will only make us come stone last, nothing to be proud of or to accept.
Get users hooked, then people will pay without question. I think thats the primary reason behind the small packages, migrating people from 56K to ADSL is just the sales pitch.

There is a greater underlying issue behind the unsatisfaction here with the latest and greatest offering from MWeb, and I reckon if MWeb want to jump on the bandwagon and cash in with these offers thats fine and probably good for their business, but then they should take the criticism on the chin along with the cash in their pockets.
jmho.

 

[bwana]

This is true, but what irks me about the MWEB 1GB ADSL thing, is the 12 month contract and the fact that most consumers switching from dialup to ADSL will not be aware of the additional Telkodemonopoly charges - mainly bcos of the misleading advertising by both Telkodemonopoly and MWEB [in this case]. What will happen, is consumers will apply for ADSL through Telkodemonopoly, existing MWEB dialup customers will sign a 12 month ADSL 1GB contract with MWEB, and the bills will arrive, and those low-usage-consumers will be saying:

'hold it, i'm paying more now on ADSL than i was before with dialup'

I feel for anyone that signs that 12 month contract without visiting MyADSL & checking it out first...

I was under the impression that the 12 month contract was only if you wanted the r99 modem. At least thats how the ad made it seem.

Mweb should at least add the Telkom costs to the advert even if its only the 192k line rental.

 

[TimTango]

... what irks me about the MWEB 1GB ADSL thing, is the 12 month contract ...

The 12-month contract is only to get the subsidised modem.
The customer is free to join MWEB on a month-to-month basis and bring their own modem.

They are also free to move to the other ADSL packages MWEB offers within the initial 12-month period if 1GB is not enough.

It's pretty obvious that MWEB doesn't want to subsidise a modem that is then used for a competitor's ASDL service.

AFAIK, the modem is available without a contract, but at the R300 mark.

I don't see this as an attempt to rip consumers off, only to move more people to ADSL from old dial connections. Why is that such a bad thing? From the amount of moaning on this forum one would think that making steps forward towards widespread ADSL adoption, and in all likelyhood thereby reducing the montly line-rental costs for everyone (more people paying for Telkom's 'infrastructure rollout') is regarded as a bad thing??
How is having more people onboard, even on low-end packages so terrible?
You're right, those 1GB, 192 people will probably want to upgrade at some point.
So?? How are they being ripped off? Every one of those people has weighed up the costs and perceived benefits, and decided that having a permanently connected line about 5x faster than the old modem is a good thing. Stop calling them idiots - they are making a choice about which service and which ISP they want to use. In many cases simply moving from their exsiting MWEB dial accounts to ADSL. Real choice does exist, unlike with our telephony industry.
Just because those people are not making the same choice as you doesn't make them idiots.
It's like saying "are you crazy?? why are you buying levi's jeans?? you can get some very similar blue jeans down at the flea-market for R50. Are you an idiot? misinformed? Don't buy the hype!!!" etc etc.

 

[Vlad]

Every one of those people has weighed up the costs and perceived benefits...

You've said it correctly there. As a non-ADSL user i just want to say that if you use less than 1 Gig of data a month, you're probably cheaper off on dialup. Sure if you want the faster speed and are willing to pay for it, who's to stop you. And without the line rental , i don't think R145 is such a bad price (given the circumstances).
But this whole broadband issue has spawned a sickening display of misleading advertising (from most providers) which portray low end packages as the next best thing to hot air.
If they really were good deals they wouldn't receive this outburst of negative reactions (although some people can never be pleased).
So ja, you sell bandwidth, but allow me to be informed and critical.

 

[AntiThesis]

Criticisms on these forums stem mainly from the innevitable comparisons we make with actual first world countries. As has been pointed out, we were lower than most other countries before the introduction of the hard-capping system. Now we really are right down at the bottom.

Mweb prices have always been higher than those offered by other ISPs. I think the main objection in this thread is that the advertising done to date by Mweb and Telkom does not reflect the facts. They focus on things like "24/7" connectivity (minus the disconnects) and super-fast speed. And yes, I know that is advertising but it still seems pretty scummy not to mention that there will be additional charges which the consumer probably knows nothing about.

Taken in an international light, all of our ADSL offerings are a joke. If I were to start an ISP in the US and offer a 3gb hard cap or even a 10gb hard cap for $56 a month (excl. line rental, modem) I'd be bankrupt within the hour.

 

[Peter_J]

I think that this Mweb offering is merely a hook to catch you as a customer. You will soon realise that 1Gb is paltry and you will be looking to upgrade to the 3Gb offering as a minumum.