Official Afrihost Q&A Thread

I'm happy with this, will probably use 30GB's the first 3 weeks and then download an additional 30GB's of stuff I need at the end of the month. Works out to R8.28 per GB, still a much better deal even than R29 per GB. Thanks for the post Gian.
 
Xavierza said:
I'm happy with this, will probably use 30GB's the first 3 weeks and then download an additional 30GB's of stuff I need at the end of the month. Works out to R8.28 per GB, still a much better deal even than R29 per GB. Thanks for the post Gian.
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Yeah, but you now have to watch your usage like a hawk to avoid throttling. Exactly the thing an uncapped account is meant to render obsolete. This is not freeing the web.

I can understand and support shaping to prevent people downloading 24/7, but the restrictions now imposed, in contrast to the original product descriptions, are way too onerous, punishing even moderate use of the account. And the tool employed to impose these limitations is incredibly heavy-handed, blunt and, quite frankly, moronic.

It is like using a jackhammer to pick your teeth. It's quite clear that Mweb thought this whole uncapped thing through, while Afrihost didn't.
 
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VertigoZA said:
People, you're all missing the point here. None of us are average users... this account is designed for average users. Your average household in South Africa would seldom hit 10GB in a month.. this offer from Afrihost allows these house holds not to have to worry about things like "caps" anymore. They can Skype their aunty in the US and Youtube till their hearts content. For them, this is an uncapped account. 95% of ADSL users would be more than happy with this account... 95% of ADSL users don't understand what shaped or unshaped accounts are.. or throttling, or torrents. My parents, for example, are thrilled with this offer. However, I'm not using it in my home. I read the terms.. I heard what Gian had to say.. and I realised it is not suited to my needs.

You should've done the same.
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Pathetically stupid argument... If this is the case, why offer it to 4meg line users? I can guarantee you the "average" home owner owns a 384 line and this package would suit them wonders...

Secondly, who would be so retarded to pay for a 4meg line and not realize that hey, 10gb capped solution = R290, but still pay R500? For what? Because he'll suddenly double his usage? No. Think before you talk

Why pay for this service, when we can basically all drop our lines to 384/512 and use the exact same amount of data? Retarded business model if you ask me.
 
Thank you for all your comments and feedback.

Today has been a long one and my brain is starting
to shut down.

I will quickly answer the more straight forward questions
now and then I will read through all the comments and
respond to the more involved questions as best I can tomorrow.


WRT the cancellations and refunds for the
amounts debited on the 1st:
-------------------

If you have decided that our Uncapped account is not
for you and you wish to cancel please do the following
to help us refund you as quickly as possible:

1. Cancel your Uncapped solution in your Client Zone;
2. Send an email through to [email protected] with
the Subject: Uncapped Cancellation (MyBroadband).
3. In the email please specify your Afrihost username,
the product you want cancelled and whether you
would like the pro-rata sum for March also refunded.

I will make sure that these get processed over the next
week or so (We will have to wait for confirmation from
the banks regarding bounced debit orders etc and this
usually takes a few days for them to get to us)

However, I promise you that if you cancel and send
the email you will be refunded as quickly as possible.

I wish you all of the absolute best with your new providers.

WRT the Uncapped 384:
-------------------

To be honest since we have only been selling these
for a few days we do not yet have proper usage
patterns. As soon as we have decided exactly how
these accounts (and the 512 accounts) will be handled
I will make sure that it is posted in this thread.


As mentioned I will respond to the other more
complicated questions tomorrow as soon as my
head has cleared somewhat.

Thanks again for all your support and my sincere
apologies again to everyone we upset.

Enjoy the rest of your evening!
 
Sent thru my email to cancel. Cannot cancel in the client zone. Im moving to Axxess. Afrihost = disappointment
 
Shame man, the heavy users must be hitting afrihost pretty hard... I feel for you guys, a small, honest business, trying to shake things up... hopefully things will get ironed out. Maybe the super-heavy 24/7 downloaders are more suited to mweb, where the naspers financial muscle can subsidize them... I don't know enough to comment here... just feel bad for all the negative comments, when the description clearly said it is not for automated download programs...
 
enx said:
Shame man, the heavy users must be hitting afrihost pretty hard... I feel for you guys, a small, honest business, trying to shake things up... hopefully things will get ironed out. Maybe the super-heavy 24/7 downloaders are more suited to mweb, where the naspers financial muscle can subsidize them... I don't know enough to comment here... just feel bad for all the negative comments, when the description clearly said it is not for automated download programs...
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I have no sympathy for the 24/7 downloaders, but moderate usage is now throttled too. They are playing things so safe that they have managed to throttle even the appeal of their so-called "uncapped" product.
 
I dont consider myself a heavy power user, in fact I would probably only need 200gb a month, thats not considered a power user. Unfortunately Afrihost has decided to go in a direction that doesnt appeal to me, I will not pay R500 a month to have my account throttled the way Afrihost will be doing. Their 4mb uncapped package is not what it was advertised to be. Its a shame, because I had high hopes for Afrihost, I guess I'll give Axxess a go and see what they will bring to the table.

@Afrihost,
Your poor business decision has left you with a lot of angry clients who used to swear by Afrihost. I hope that you will learn from this lesson and that in time you will be more careful with your packages and business decisions. Goodluck to you.
 
You say you couldnt predict how users would use this service?
That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.
Why would someone apply for this service?
Surely not to just receive mail or browse the internet????

This product by definition is for people who want to "download the internet".
I am shocked that you could not predict this.
 
Gatecrasher said:
I have no sympathy for the 24/7 downloaders, but moderate usage is now throttled too. They are playing things so safe that they have managed to throttle even the appeal of their so-called "uncapped" product.
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Agreed - I think they will iron things out within a month or so though...I don't believe throttling anything before 60gb is right... I would def keep a backup account for any time-critical stuff in the next month...

and yes, anyone who knows people on here could have told Gian that people were gonna hit it 24/7 right away. But I think they are just working things out, look, even a friend of mine who has only done about 4gb on his 4meg uncapped account is throttled to hell and cant even use skype at times. Let's see.
 
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marine1 said:
You say you couldnt predict how users would use this service?
That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.
Why would someone apply for this service?
Surely not to just receive mail or browse the internet????

This product by definition is for people who want to "download the internet".
I am shocked that you could not predict this.
Click to expand...


+1000000

Exactly why I say bad business decision.
 
Ah right. 100s of GBs. So has Afrihost decided that they will not be calling the accounts uncapped?

the most telling thing
It's quite clear that Mweb thought this whole uncapped thing through, while Afrihost didn't.
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And just to make a further point, because it's bugging me so much: There is no incentive for users of this product to restrict their downloads to off-peak hours. They will be punished just as much as if they downloaded all their files in the middle of the day. All in all, this AUP is a shockingly poor use of Afrihost's available resources. To echo Abe's excellent question on the first page of this thread:

Abe said:
Just a question. why are you throttling the lines instead of just prioritising the groups? I would imagine that with a specific size pipe, it would be in your interest to utilise it to it's maximum capacity at all times.
Click to expand...
 
60 GB soft capped account advertised as Uncapped - change your advertising and cancel my account - terribly disappointed in Afrihost!

Now on to MWEB and to see if they are also to be reported for false advertising to ASASA
 
I too average around 100-200gb per month and find this very dissapointing, i have also cancelled, back to Axxess Express ..... no way im gonna sit on 128k on my 4mb (hopefully to be 8mb soon) line
 
Why not just shape the hell out of torrents on the network? and add a local news server. So people can still download but with local bandwidth? If you shape torrents the excessive users will leave pretty damn soon and doing 200GB a month on local news server is fairly cheap and by shaping I mean 24/7 shaping on torrents..... people can still do 500 GB but most of it will be local bandwidth, rather then imposing limits etc... engage the users and help them get the most out of their uncapped solutions...
 
so axxess express+ still rocks! And no one has the balls to compete? WTF! In a nutshell, I think a killer niche market at the moment is for an ISP to provide a capped unshaped package of around 100GB for like R200-R300. That would rock the market once again.
 
jeanres said:
Why not just shape the hell out of torrents on the network? and add a local news server. So people can still download but with local bandwidth? If you shape torrents the excessive users will leave pretty damn soon and doing 200GB a month on local news server is fairly cheap and by shaping I mean 24/7 shaping on torrents..... people can still do 500 GB but most of it will be local bandwidth, rather then imposing limits etc... engage the users and help them get the most out of their uncapped solutions...
Click to expand...

Just because you're happy with what the local news server has to offer it doesnt mean everyone else is.
 
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