My Experience with Crystal Web (BAD)

[danielss1]

Hi All,

Just thought i'd share my experience with Crystal Web.

I saw on a MyBroadband article that they were pretty highly rated, so I decided to go ahead and try them out..

I first signed up when Telkom said they were coming to install my 20mb VDSL in February, however they didn't end up installing until May. The accounts department were very nice and credited me for those months, Awesome.

Telkom finally installed my VDSL so I phoned Crystal Web Support to assist me with setting up this account as it is different to an ADSL setup.

The Technician I spoke to asked me what VDSL is and said he hasn't heard of that before, and eventually just hung up on me. I phoned in again and got some one else, who was nice but also didnt know what VDSL is (This is an ISP isnt it?) and he said another guy will call me, as he knows VDSL. Never received a call.

I eventually figured out how to set it up by myself. I phoned their 'Manager' and told him the story, and he never called me back either..

Anyway, this last week I have had terrible speeds, like 4mbps at anytime of the day, Crystal Web support said its a Telkom issue, so this morning I bought an AXXESS Capped account, and boom I was getting 20mbps solid!

I set an email to Crystal Web asking them to cancel all my accounts, then I get a phone call from Mikey telling me I can only cancel at the end of June, of which I corrected him and told him I would not be paying another month for a service that is so ****. He told me he would have to refer me to 'legal'.... I'd rather pay my lawyer R10k than pay a ****ty ISP R389.

Terrible service, these companies think they just rape consumers and expect no resistance.

 

[Orihalcon]

Not going to comment on anything else; but the slow speeds were identified last week as a core network fault and being fixed.


DSL Technical Fault and Maintenance
Incident Report for Crystal Web
Investigating
Crystal Web has identified a technical fault in our network core resulting in higher latency and decreased speeds intermittently, but predominantly being experienced between 18:00 and 22:00. We will be replacing and upgrading hardware over the next 2 weeks with no expected downtime for clients during this process, which will resolve this problem.
May 19, 13:22 SAST



Maintenance Details
Maintenance of the DSL Infrastructure is currently taking place with upgrades and replacement of hardware at network locations in Western Cape, Gauteng, and Kwa-Zulu Natal. This has no impact on FTTH services over non-Telkom lines.
May 19, 13:25 SAST

EDIT: Oh. As for cancellation it's spelled out in their terms and conditions clear as day;

1.Subject to this section, and any term contract you may enter into with Crystal Web, it is agreed that you may cancel any or all of your services before the 19th of the month such that the service will be terminated from the last day of the month, unless otherwise indicated by the product description or marketing. Any cancellation notice received between the 19th day of the month and the last day of the month will be regarded as a cancellation effective on the last day of the following month.

So if you cancelled after the 19th you don't have a leg legally to stand on as far as I know. But I'm no legal eagle.

 

[marine1]

Refer you to legal? Ha ha ha what legal? I don't think they have a legal dept. So funny when people get threatened

 

[aybbleek]

I hope for Crystal Web's sake that they have recordings of the phone calls. Sounds a bit unrealistic that two support staff at an ISP don't know what VDSL is...

 

[Mr Scratch]

Refer you to legal? Ha ha ha what legal? I don't think they have a legal dept. So funny when people get threatened

Paul is probably their legal rep.

 

[marine1]

Paul is probably their legal rep.

Have to laugh....... sorry
This is why I record every call I make

 

[Geoff.D]

Unfortunately, very little of what OP has posted makes any sense at all, so it is difficult to comment.

Maybe for all we know, his router is now finally set up correctly and that is all that happened when he changed ISPs?

Next who is managing his connection? Telkom? CW? If it has now been transferred to Axxess, then how did that happen so quickly?

 

[marine1]

Unfortunately, very little of what OP has posted makes any sense at all, so it is difficult to comment.

Maybe for all we know, his router is now finally set up correctly and that is all that happened when he changed ISPs?

Next who is managing his connection? Telkom? CW? If it has now been transferred to Axxess, then how did that happen so quickly?

Perhaps but doesnt change the "fact" according to the OP of how he was dealt with.

 

[danielss1]

Unfortunately, very little of what OP has posted makes any sense at all, so it is difficult to comment.

Maybe for all we know, his router is now finally set up correctly and that is all that happened when he changed ISPs?

Next who is managing his connection? Telkom? CW? If it has now been transferred to Axxess, then how did that happen so quickly?

My Line is with Telkom, I only had the account through Crystal Web. And when I changed ISP's all I did was change the Username and Password, no other settings were changed.

And I promise you man.. I phoned in twice and both people did not know what VDSL is....The first guy actually thought it was Fibre.

 

[moedawood]

Unfortunately, very little of what OP has posted makes any sense at all, so it is difficult to comment.

Maybe for all we know, his router is now finally set up correctly and that is all that happened when he changed ISPs?

Next who is managing his connection? Telkom? CW? If it has now been transferred to Axxess, then how did that happen so quickly?

His line is with Telkom and data with CW. He said he bought an AXXESS capped account. So I assume it's a data account.

This is what I make out from what he posted.

When CW had their R 1 accounts, I decided to try it. Had constant streaming issues. Wasn't impressed with CW at all. Hopefully things have improved from then.

 

[danielss1]

I hope for Crystal Web's sake that they have recordings of the phone calls. Sounds a bit unrealistic that two support staff at an ISP don't know what VDSL is...

Phone into their support and ask them about your VDSL line, and see what they say.

 

[Geoff.D]

So the thick plottens!

You have a VDSL service from Telkom, as an ASP service. Any setups of routers etc should have been sorted out between you and Telkom NOT CW!

CW would look up their records and find NO reference to a VDSL service that you have organised with them as you still have the line directly with Telkom.

THEN you got yourself a data account with CW - which one? a 4 Mbps account or a 20 Mbps account?

And BTW, are you sure your line is setup as 20 Mbps VDSL and not still on ADSL2+??

And do you have a ISP service from Telkom as well?

The only thing AXXESS would ask you is what package do you want and then give you an account. with usernames and passwords.

There is more to this story than meets the eye.

 

[ponder]

So the thick plottens!
<snip>
There is more to this story than meets the eye.

Read the OP again.
1. Signed up for vdsl & isp account with telkom.
2 Telkom installed late, they reimbursed him for the isp account.
3 Once telkom vdsl line was installed he signed up with CW for isp account.
4 Due to bad CW performance (which blamed telkom) he got an axxess isp account and now gets full speed.

Well that's my comprehension from his post anyway. Hopefully more details come to light.

 

[danielss1]

So the thick plottens!

You have a VDSL service from Telkom, as an ASP service. Any setups of routers etc should have been sorted out between you and Telkom NOT CW!

CW would look up their records and find NO reference to a VDSL service that you have organised with them as you still have the line directly with Telkom.

THEN you got yourself a data account with CW - which one? a 4 Mbps account or a 20 Mbps account?

And BTW, are you sure your line is setup as 20 Mbps VDSL and not still on ADSL2+??

And do you have a ISP service from Telkom as well?

The only thing AXXESS would ask you is what package do you want and then give you an account. with usernames and passwords.

There is more to this story than meets the eye.

There is no plot to thicken here. Everything I said was as it was.

I'm an IT Engineer, I know how to setup an ADSL router, my days of setting up routers is long gone and I've never done a VDSL one before hence calling in to CW to get help. I never asked them about my VDSL line with them, I just said that I have a vdsl line, so they didnt have to look up anything on their system.

Why would I phone Telkom to setup a CW vdsl account? all vdsl setups are different depending on the ISP that provided the account.... Telkom would not have known the settings required for CW.

Why would I have a Telkom ISP as well?

 

[Johnatan56]

Dates for all of this?

"Note that as per Crystal Web's terms of use, a cancellation may not be processed if an outstanding balance remains on your account due to Crystal Web for any services from any date. Same-month cancellations must be submitted before the 19th of each month. "
http://support.crystalweb.co.za/hc/en-us/articles/203383272-How-do-I-cancel-my-account-

VDSL and ADSL have the same set-up, the only difference for VDSL is that your router must be VDSL capable.
I don't believe you when you say support had no clue what VDSL was, I think there is something missing there.
As above Orihalcon's comment, but what package did you sign up for?

Would love to listen to those call logs/have the Crystal Web rep comment, I'm sure there is more to this.

EDIT:

There is no plot to thicken here. Everything I said was as it was.

I'm an IT Engineer, I know how to setup an ADSL router, my days of setting up routers is long gone and I've never done a VDSL one before hence calling in to CW to get help. I never asked them about my VDSL line with them, I just said that I have a vdsl line, so they didnt have to look up anything on their system.

Why would I phone Telkom to setup a CW vdsl account? all vdsl setups are different depending on the ISP that provided the account.... Telkom would not have known the settings required for CW.

Why would I have a Telkom ISP as well?

The only difference is the username/password combination as provided in your welcome mail, the same as all other ISP do it.

 

[Geoff.D]

There is no plot to thicken here. Everything I said was as it was.

I'm an IT Engineer, I know how to setup an ADSL router, my days of setting up routers is long gone and I've never done a VDSL one before hence calling in to CW to get help. I never asked them about my VDSL line with them, I just said that I have a vdsl line, so they didnt have to look up anything on their system.

Why would I phone Telkom to setup a CW vdsl account? all vdsl setups are different depending on the ISP that provided the account.... Telkom would not have known the settings required for CW.

Why would I have a Telkom ISP as well?

Who are you paying for your vdsl line? Telkom or now Axxess? Has Axxess taken over the line from CW who presumably took it over from Telkom?

Do you pay one account or two?


And no the basic setup for any ADSL or VDSL service is the same regardless of the ISP you have. (except for usernames and passwords).

 

[crackersa]

There is no plot to thicken here. Everything I said was as it was.

I'm an IT Engineer, I know how to setup an ADSL router, my days of setting up routers is long gone and I've never done a VDSL one before hence calling in to CW to get help. I never asked them about my VDSL line with them, I just said that I have a vdsl line, so they didnt have to look up anything on their system.

Why would I phone Telkom to setup a CW vdsl account? all vdsl setups are different depending on the ISP that provided the account.... Telkom would not have known the settings required for CW.

Why would I have a Telkom ISP as well?

Interesting....telkom had to convert me from adsl2+ to vdsl. All i had to do with cw was have them move me from a 4mb account to 20mb account.

And being an IT engineer, surprised you needed help setting up a vdsl router. I just plugged and play. Router auto connected at vdsl.

There's more to this story.

 

[Geoff.D]

Who are you paying for your vdsl line? Telkom or now Axxess? Has Axxess taken over the line from CW who presumably took it over from Telkom?

Do you pay one account or two?


And no the basic setup for any ADSL or VDSL service is the same regardless of the ISP you have. (except for usernames and passwords).

Right now I could go to any other ISP and get a data Account, regardless of the fact that my ADSL service is provided by Telkom. All I would have to tell the new ISP is that I have an existing ADSL connection at 2 Mb/s. He would send me an email with a username and passwords and maybe a few other details about email servers etc. The basic setup of the line itself will remain unchanged. If my ADSL line was to give me problems, I would have to report those to Telkom, UNLESS I have transferred the line over to the new ISP.

 

[MickeyD]

Read the OP again.
1. Signed up for vdsl & isp account with telkom.
2 Telkom installed late, they reimbursed him for the isp account.
3 Once telkom vdsl line was installed he signed up with CW for isp account.
4 Due to bad CW performance (which blamed telkom) he got an axxess isp account and now gets full speed.

Well that's my comprehension from his post anyway. Hopefully more details come to light.

1. Signed up with Telkom for a 20Mbps account in Feb. Also signed up with CW as ISP.
2. Telkom only installed in May. CW credited OP until day of activation.
3. Signed for line with Telkom and CW as ISP in Feb.
4. will wait for CW to respond...

 

[Sl8er]

Whatever the case may be, he got full speed when he switched to the axxess account, which means that he probably set the router up correctly.

As for the reps not knowing what VDSL is, why would he (Daniel) lie about this?
Jeez, you guys need to take off your CW-glasses for a second.
It's entirely possible that CW support can fck up, y'know.