Neotel issues. Again

ScrooV

ScrooV

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The same issue Neotel had a month or so ago are back. About 1/4 of all websites just won't load. It appears like a dns issue, but that is not it. I have switched between 5 or so dns settings and the same timeout occurs.

If I switch to a vpn or tor, everything works again, so the issue is related to Neotel's network.

Last time this happened it took Neotel 5 days to fix, with barely any acknowledgement of the problem, no apologies and no updates.

I'm thinking it's time to find a new provider as they clearly have a lack of technical skills to quickly source and resolve these kind of network problems.
 
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Do they have a twitter presence? I find Telkom responds reasonably quicker if I provide annoying twitter posts hourly when I am awake until the problem is sorted. #boltspeedmyass

Sometimes it seems you have to drag out the fight into the public eye to get any response.
 
Good morning, please kindly send us a message here on MyBB or on Facebook so that we can get our technical team to look into this for you? Thank you.
 
Thanks francoislr, will try that next time.

Neotel's network went completely dead for about 5min an hour ago. After that it seems OK again now.

Perhaps they have been watching The I.T. Crowd and actually tried turning it off and on again ;)
 
N3otel2012 said:
Good morning, please kindly send us a message here on MyBB or on Facebook so that we can get our technical team to look into this for you? Thank you.
Click to expand...

Thanks N3otel2012. Everything seems back to normal now, the issue was only there for a few hours this morning. Was irritated because last time it took 5 days to resolve, with many subscribers affected.

The only complaint now would be the high contentions on the line - I can only get my 6mbs during the early hours and average about 3mbs during office hours, and even less during peak times. Hopefully that will be addressed some time in the future.
 
Thank you for your feedback. Please message us on Facebook and we will look into your speeds for you?
 
This issue is not corrected. Experienced the same issues as per above (and as per the outage of 5 days referred to) this entire morning. Now it is down completely and has been for the past hour.
 
RVFmal said:
This issue is not corrected. Experienced the same issues as per above (and as per the outage of 5 days referred to) this entire morning. Now it is down completely and has been for the past hour.
Click to expand...

Can confirm RVFmal. This time though, it was not some routing issue on the Neotel network, but my local tower was offline (no signal) for about an hour. (Banbury / Sundowner area)

I think we can take it as a good sign that they are trying to fix! Hopefully..
All good again for the moment though.
 
Anyone else having issues with websites loading? For example I'm trying to access Frontosa's website (www.frontosa.co.za) but it's not loading at all. On a Telkom and Afrihost account it loads perfectly.
 
I’m so sick of this totally useless excuse for a company.

My wifi dongle wont load pages again, just like when their CDMA service crashed a two months back for 4 weeks. Pages like facebook just hang and timeout.

I have been experiencing the gradual degradation of their wifi network in my area (Gardens - CT) for the past six months.

I have called customer support umpteen times and sent many emails and PM's on their fb page. I have received ZERO resolution or even an attempt by them to remedy the problem.

Because I'm using their prepaid data and a dongle (R499 a month), they REFUSE to send out any support staff to look into the issue. They rudely informed me today that they don’t offer technical support to prepaid customers and only contract customers. This is because prepaid customers can't hold them to any contractual service level agreement.

I am convinced my local Neotel tower is the problem, because:

1. there are too many people connected to it and hence no I get little and erratic bandwidth.
2. the tower's bandwidth has not been increased or been upgraded with demand.
3. the tower has moved and I'm no longer getting a reliable signal.
4. the tower is faulty.

I find it incredulous that the technical department will not lift their butts do a site visit, despite repeat complaints by myself and neighbours I know who use the same service and experiencing the same issues. Im smack dead in the middle of their supposed coverage zone, according to their coverage map, so they cant use the excuse I'm out of range.

Worse, one can not get past the customer care switchboard stonewall to speak to anyone in management or networking to discuss the issue. All you get are so-called technical assistant reps who have no clue, will or power to do anything beyond issuing a useless reference number.

Does anyone have a direct number for someone in Neotel management I can call?

I’m at the point where I'm keen to launch various social media channels for Neotel customers to lay it out bare and shame them publicly.
 
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Don't hold your breath SFA. Their support is nigh on pathetic. I am still waiting for resolution on an issue since inception of my "service" in March of this year. Their rep on this site, N3otel2012 is just as useless as does not bother responding to PM's.

Am actually beginning to suspect that Neotel share their support call centre with iBurst.
 
SweetFennyAdams, I’m in Table View and am experiencing the same problems. Friends in other regions report similar outages. (For the last 3 months, and on all Neotel’s networks)

I’m on a contract and have been refused any technical support apart from being told to unplug the device, wait 10 minutes, and then to reboot. I have complained to ICASA, but have not received a response - apart from the initial computer generated email.

I’ve contacted several IT publications, but they aren’t particularly interested in Neotel’s protracted internet problems I can’t assist with contact telephone numbers, as I’m unable to access most websites, but here are the names of the “top team.”

Sunil Joshi
Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer

Abid Qadiri
Chief of Business Solutions and Excellence

T V Chalapathi Rao (Chala)
Chief Network Officer (CNO)
 
It is my opinion that Neotel is the most useless, inept, lying and thieving telecoms operator in South Africa.

Their CDMA wifi network has been plagued with snail-pace speeds for months now, and there appears to be no will to resolve the issue so that anything near the advertised speeds are reached by it's customers.

Their modus operandi in dealing with service complaints appears to be the same for all complainants.

1. The phone support agents simply issue a reference number for passing over to the technical team. If you are lucky to have a member of the so-called technician call you in the next two weeks all they tell you to do is unplug you device and switch it back on half and hour later. They know customers won't stay in the line for half an hour to verify if the problem is resolved. When the customer's issue isn’t resolved, which is in the majority of cases, they have to go through the entire complaints procedure again. This is a never-ending loop of nonsense.

2. Their support reps on social media redirect complainants from posting negative comments by asking them to send private messages which aren't read by the other users. This exercise is primarily aimed at negating negative customer feedback on their brand, and not a sincere offer to assist with issues raised.

I have logged almost 12 phone complaints about their CDMA wifi over the last three months. Only one resulted in a so-called technical team call calling me back. The so-called technical team member didn’t seem to be any more educated about IT than the call centre agents.

I have spoken to many Neotel users who can all corroborate what I'm saying here.

I'm confident in labelling this company a lying and thieving enterprise, not worthy of any further support until it delivers on its mandate and promises. Its agents are useless and powerless, and its management hides behind a firewall of useless minions, impunity and arrogance.


If you are considering signing up for Neotel's CDMA wifi network, PLEASE RECONSIDER!

Your chances of losing your hard earned cash, experiencing a sluggish network (false advertising), and no support are HIGH!


 
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Kidkaroo said:
SweetFennyAdams, I’m in Table View and am experiencing the same problems. Friends in other regions report similar outages. (For the last 3 months, and on all Neotel’s networks)

I’m on a contract and have been refused any technical support apart from being told to unplug the device, wait 10 minutes, and then to reboot. I have complained to ICASA, but have not received a response - apart from the initial computer generated email.

I’ve contacted several IT publications, but they aren’t particularly interested in Neotel’s protracted internet problems I can’t assist with contact telephone numbers, as I’m unable to access most websites, but here are the names of the “top team.”

Sunil Joshi
Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer

Abid Qadiri
Chief of Business Solutions and Excellence

T V Chalapathi Rao (Chala)
Chief Network Officer (CNO)
Click to expand...

The CEO Sunil Joshi resigned at the end of last year after the chief financial officer Steven Whiley reported him for alleged financial irregularities (corruption). It was alleged that he had Neotel pay bribes to secure Transnet business. http://www.bdlive.co.za/business/technology/2015/12/08/suspended-neotel-chief-walks-away It appears Neotel have not updated their website since before then.

I love Joshi's 2011 interview on CNBC Africa where he states: "If you look at our home offering, it's based on our CDMA infrastructure for voice and data. It enables us to overcome a limitation of access and to give consumers a service that is quicker, better and faster."

In a 2015 mybroadband interview with Kennwdy Memani (Neotel Director In Charge and Non-Executive Director), he categorically stated "Our continued focus in terms of customer support and maintaining relationships and to exceed their expectations for the next 12 months"

Well, I'm one of those customers and certainly not seeing any of these promises translating into action.
 
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And again today the Wireless Broadband service is down.
 
RVFmal said:
And again today the Wireless Broadband service is down.
Click to expand...

Yep, it's been a complete dog's breakfast since last night. My local tower has been rebooted 4 or 5 times, being down for up to 30mins at a time, 75% of all websites just won't load. The ones that do load come at full speed, and the ones that are dead are completely dead. Those include BBC, Google, Gmail, Steam and a host of others.

I thought they were fixing these issues, now it seems they are just sticking band-aids on top of band-aids on top of...

Losing faith rapidly that they'll ever sort out their problems.
 
Another two days of slow/no internet. Some websites load, others don't. I contacted Neotel and went through the usual instructions of, "remove device, wait 10 minutes, and try again." Needless to say there has been no improvement. And to think, I'm on month 2 of a 24-month contract.
 
Unbeliveable.

The CDMA network is faulty AGAIN.
Slow speeds, high latency and DNS resolution issues.
Third time in two months.

Are they using elasto-plasters and chewing gum to fix bugger-ups in their data centre or what?
I’m not even going to phone customer service, as they have proven to be beyond useless in the past 50 complaints.

Is anyone else affected by the current outage?
 
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