MWEB + THE WEEKEND = FAIL

ToxicBunny - perhaps my post wasn't definitive enough....i've been experiencing this problem for days on end....I'm aware of the usual suspects 'Seacom - Telkom' etc etc - explored all avenues, problems started before the seacom ship left port - and i was referring to http, not P2P, not torrents, not NewServers....just plain old-fashioned http protocol.......

+1 though anyway - perhaps things will clear up sooner rather than later
 
ghambit said:
I would assume that it's life and deal with it. As life is not perfect and fussing about it just proves useless. In my experience leaving the fist shop keeper for another shopkeeper just ends up with other problems. I think there is a saying the grass is not always greener on the other side? While that might be going a bit far out of context, my point is one will never be truly happy with the service. I was with Openweb before MWEB and they had their share of ups and downs, and that was with a 10GB Semi-Shaped account, never mind uncapped. And I've seen the pattern here as well, people jump ship more than people change their underwear. Why? Because the ISP had a week? Month? Then they rant on how crap the service is and how these ISP's lie and scam us. It's like the world revolves around them, forgetting that actual people do hard work to supply this service at this cheap rate and that they are most likely just as annoyed as you are, not to mention all the verbal abuse they take. I think as a consumer one should also some respect.

Don't get me wrong, if the service doesn't work for you, change. By all means. But don't come around saying this and that, and they are **** because you had a bad experience. Say I like the sugar at this shop, and I don't mind waiting for it. Because at the end of the day I know the sugar is good. Even if the shopkeeper could not supply me at the time I needed it. I know that the Shopkeeper did everything he could, to supply me with my sugar. Not to forget, that the same shopkeeper has to supply thousands of other people as well and not just me. And please lets don't forget that the shopkeeper had no control over the truck, he just signed a contract saying the truck will arrive at said time with enough sugar for everyone. The shopkeeper at the end of the day is just as pissed as you are, as he is wasting money on a service that he is also not getting.

The service clearly states the terms and conditions and that it's shaped and anybody with an IQ would know because it's a new service, several hic-ups are to be expected for the first 6 months, if not more.

Bleh - now I'm done.
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I disagree with this pretty strongly.

First of all, fussing about it definitely does not prove useless. If we didn't fuss about products that we aren't happy with, companies would either exploit us or not realise that their product was of an inferior quality. This is simply fact. A companies first priority is profit, and if consumers stick with an inferior product without complaining or declining to buy it, the company will not lose profit in order to increase the quality of their product. Consumers have only one bargaining chip with which to advocate for quality services: the ability to choose which product to go for.

I think that it is fantastic that South African consumers are becoming so demanding about quality internet services. In the last few years I have noticed a definite increase in the amount of complaints and demands for better quality and cheaper internet in this country, and looks what happened this year: Internet prices have dropped significantly. This proves that the ISPs in South Africa respond to consumer demands. Why stop now?

Your comment about the need to have "respect" as a consumer I find particularly puzzling. One of the cornerstones of consumerism is that the customer is always right. Not only is it logical that if one is unhappy with the quality of a paid service one has the right to complain, it is set out in law in the Consumer Protection Act.

My last comment is regarding the supply and demand issue. What Mweb has essentially done is oversold their bandwidth. "enough sugar for everyone" is simply a false statement, as if everyone used their bandwidth at the advertised capacity, the entire network would grind to a halt. Wait... isn't that what is happening? The Consumer Protection Act specifically mentions overselling products as bad behaviour which is precisely what Mweb has done. It's like overbooking a movie theatre, assuming that a certain percentage of people won't pitch. It's just unethical. They saw an opportunity for a quick buck, knowing that half of the country would jump onboard as soon as the mentioned "affordable uncapped", and are making potloads of money, to the detriment of their "valued" customers.

When I first heard about the uncapped deals I was very excited, and questioned the sanity of ISPs like WebAfrica who declined to offer similar packages. In retrospect I see that WebAfrica made the right choice. What will happen when consumers get sick and tired of the bad quality uncapped packages? They'll switch to the good quality, but equally cheap high cap packages on offer elsewhere. I just don't think Mweb and the rest thought that it would start happening so soon.
 
camerongf said:
I disagree with this pretty strongly.

First of all, fussing about it definitely does not prove useless. If we didn't fuss about products that we aren't happy with, companies would either exploit us or not realise that their product was of an inferior quality. This is simply fact. A companies first priority is profit, and if consumers stick with an inferior product without complaining or declining to buy it, the company will not lose profit in order to increase the quality of their product. Consumers have only one bargaining chip with which to advocate for quality services: the ability to choose which product to go for.

I think that it is fantastic that South African consumers are becoming so demanding about quality internet services. In the last few years I have noticed a definite increase in the amount of complaints and demands for better quality and cheaper internet in this country, and looks what happened this year: Internet prices have dropped significantly. This proves that the ISPs in South Africa respond to consumer demands. Why stop now?

Your comment about the need to have "respect" as a consumer I find particularly puzzling. One of the cornerstones of consumerism is that the customer is always right. Not only is it logical that if one is unhappy with the quality of a paid service one has the right to complain, it is set out in law in the Consumer Protection Act.

My last comment is regarding the supply and demand issue. What Mweb has essentially done is oversold their bandwidth. "enough sugar for everyone" is simply a false statement, as if everyone used their bandwidth at the advertised capacity, the entire network would grind to a halt. Wait... isn't that what is happening? The Consumer Protection Act specifically mentions overselling products as bad behaviour which is precisely what Mweb has done. It's like overbooking a movie theatre, assuming that a certain percentage of people won't pitch. It's just unethical. They saw an opportunity for a quick buck, knowing that half of the country would jump onboard as soon as the mentioned "affordable uncapped", and are making potloads of money, to the detriment of their "valued" customers.

When I first heard about the uncapped deals I was very excited, and questioned the sanity of ISPs like WebAfrica who declined to offer similar packages. In retrospect I see that WebAfrica made the right choice. What will happen when consumers get sick and tired of the bad quality uncapped packages? They'll switch to the good quality, but equally cheap high cap packages on offer elsewhere. I just don't think Mweb and the rest thought that it would start happening so soon.
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You make a lot of good points however, after downloading 235GB in April and paying less than I was paying iBurst for (15GB) at a faster speed (4 Mbit vs 1 Mbit) I have to say that although this service isn't always fast - most of the time it is about technical glitches - the overall value for money is very good when put in context what we currently have and had.
 
PeterCH said:
You make a lot of good points however, after downloading 235GB in April and paying less than I was paying iBurst for (15GB) at a faster speed (4 Mbit vs 1 Mbit) I have to say that although this service isn't always fast - most of the time it is about technical glitches - the overall value for money is very good when put in context what we currently have and had.
Click to expand...

Wait till the next cable lands - MWEB hasn't made any friends and any ISP offering a decent service (and some support) at a reasonable price will surely inherit most of MWEB's current subscriber base. MWEB has moved from a dial-up base to a DSL base and does not take into account that most subscribers expect an always on, stable service. (I predict that MWEB’s Uncapped Service will be the benchmark for the poorest internet access in South Africa in the future)

As for comparing iBurst (MAX download or 250 Kbps - http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Wireless/710.html) to 4 Mbps ADSL is not a good comparison.

Also, most broadband users were accustomed to paying much inflated prices for access and MWEB was part of this collusion - they were one of the ISP's that had the highest fees for access to the internet (in some cases higher than Telkom) and was losing subscribers at an alarming rate, therefore the uncapped offering. Don't think they are doing you any favours; they have a magic PR firm (Atmosphere Communications).

Yes we as broadband consumers deserve lower prices and one would have thought that after the excessive profits these ISP’s have made (check share prices of past) they would have at least invested some of these profits in their infrastructure. This obviously has not happened that is the reason why you are currently experiencing such a terrible service.
 
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I have also had the downtime when Neotell goes down but speed has been fine mostly.

As for joeyhza have you checked if your line isn’t maybe synching low?

As for getting “50Kb/s for the past 3 days,” so you are saying that you are getting a reported download speed of 6.25KB/s? (8Kb/s is 1KB/s and when windows reports download speed it is usually in KB/s (Kilobytes per second) not Kb/s (Kilobits per second)

Or do you mean you are getting 50KB/s download?
If so

What line speed and ADSL account do you have?
I assume 4096Kb/s since you are complaining that 50KB/s is extremely low

Now with overheads a connection should give you about 80% of its speed for you to use
So if you take 512Kb/s line and divide it by 8 you get 64KB/s
80% of that is 51.2KB/s
So if you were on 512Kb line then you are getting about 1KB les than you would normally expect and that is definitely within the standard ballpark. ( average range should be from about 47KB/s to 55KB/s or so)

However if you are on 4096Kb line then you should get about 400KB/s

But that depends on quite a few things
First of do you have 4096Kb/s uncapped account with MWEB
Then do you have 4096Kb line with Telkom?
And is your line getting a stable 4096Kb synch with the DSLAM.

And then where are you downloading from? because allot of sites puts limits on their per connection speed otherwise they would go down if some people with fast connections use them

I have had a 4096Kb line which would never connect at 4096 so the router negotiated the speed with the DSLAM and it connected at allot lower speeds
In the end Telkom set it to 2048Kb to get it stable so check on your router what line synch you are getting.
 
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