Official Crystal Web ADSL performance feedback thread Part 2...

Are you satisfied with your Crystal Web account?

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Looney said:
Don't assume to know me just because I have a problem that CW is unable to resolve inspite of me giving them enough time.
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Hi Looney,

Even though the line transfer request has been sent, we did escalate the fault further for you again this morning as per your request.
 
Crystal Web said:
Hi Looney,

Even though the line transfer request has been sent, we did escalate the fault further for you again this morning as per your request.
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Thank you, thats really all I needed from you. There was no need to move my line back to Telkom but you did insist, so I will not fight with you on this.
 
Crystal Web said:
These days it shows as wholesale on the Telkom systems and Telkom will refer you to the ISP.
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Huh, interesting. This arrangement will probably hold me back from giving any ISP ownership of my line. No offense intended to any ISPs especially CW being my current one, I just prefer to be the one lighting fires under the feet of the local techies to get something fixed.
 
@DJ, Paul, et al., what's the business case for handling a client's line, i.e. how does a business benefit from managing all that admin?
 
MrR said:
@DJ, Paul, et al., what's the business case for handling a client's line, i.e. how does a business benefit from managing all that admin?
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We get a little more insight into the line data, but it's really a value added service for customers instead. It's an intentional loss leader for us in its current state which we are re-evaluating.
 
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Crystal Web said:
We get a little more insight into the line data, but it's really a value added service for customers instead. It's a complete loss leader for us in its current state which we are re-evaluating.
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I can only imagine.

From my perspective, CW handled my fault with Telkom admirably - even to the point of handling my butthurt (I didn't quite go completely loony though) with aplomb. Thank you.

Background:

Two weeks ago, Telkom "upgraded" the Congella exchange and in the process took down around 70 homes' DSL connections. Within a day, they'd returned the overwhelming bulk of those connections to service, excluding yours truly and one other client I subsequently found out about.

CW opened the fault with Telkom and called them daily to follow up on progress. I received regular updates on the status from CW, which consisted mainly of some unknown Telkom employee closing the fault without doing anything about it. From their side, they were seeing the line and it looked just dandy on some computer screen in Cape Town, so it was closed without further action. From my side, I was getting DSL sync, but the account was not connecting (CW, AH 1GB and Telkom guest accounts).

So CW dutifully opened and re-opened the fault, and continued to follow up with Telkom. Each and every time.

In the interim, I behaved badly (to my shame) and Shaun handled it like a true gentleman.

Eventually, Telkom closed the fault so comprehensively that a new fault had to be opened, which CW did.

Finally, after 11 days of chasing Telkom around the mountain, a local technician called me. I described the fault to him in great detail and he made an appointment to see me the next day (a Sunday). That evening, I noticed that the connection had come back up during the course of the afternoon (by this stage, we were living on reams of 3G data, at great expense).

When the tech arrived the next day, he informed me that he'd requested that the DSLAM be recreated, which must have happened the previous evening, thereby resolving my issue.

So, from my perspective, having the ISP manage my line worked for me. I simply do not have the time to wait in the queue to speak to their call centre (heard of an 8 hour wait on the radio yesterday). CW did all they could to get Telkom to take action, and frankly they were as frustrated as I was with the situation.

I would be embarrassed and saddened were CW to discontinue this part of their service due to some of their clients' misbehaviour (and mine). :cry:
 
Thanks for the feedback, ShoalDiver. Yours was a particularly frustrating issue that required personal intervention on my part eventually to get resolved. The ordinary channels simply failed at that point, but it's this personal intervention that's starting to become the de-facto expectation that proves to be a little problematic as I simply cannot personally attend to each Telkom fault. Our staff are typically very good at liaising via the correct channels, however, and know when to escalate internally to me.

I don't think you were unreasonable about your frustrations with us at all - we truly empathise with these issues and we relay those same frustrations across to the relevant parties behind the scenes. We're not looking to drop line management at all. But we are re-evaluating whether running it as a loss-leader is the ideal way forward, and this was not as a result of any of your interactions with us during the progress of your fault, rest assured. So pricing and some channel management may change. However as usual, existing customers will retain their special discounted pricing if we make pricing changes.
 
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Is anyone having problems at the moment? I am getting huge amounts of packet loss atm.
 
Yesterday was another one of those frustrating days in South Africa where anyone who answers a client / customer phone doesn`t have a clue about their own job description. Why do companies employ these people as front-line personnel?

Anyway... started my daily downloads and the speed was running at 50%. I wasn`t happy and immediately contacted CW live support and after speaking to the technician he passed me on to the CEO. I was already in a bad mood and made some unfair and unjustified comments but at least I had my say. (That`s what we do.... right?)

Today I received the "How do you rate our support" email and it included our chat transcript from yesterday. I read through it and realized that CW are doing a great job.

How do I rate their service? 10/10... for being knowledgeable, professional and courteous.

I apologized to the CEO in person today because I was wrong. Their service levels are of the best and they are doing a great job.

I cannot speak for everyone but I really appreciate this "international" mindset from a local company.
 
DJ... said:
Haven't seen any of that here on my end on our test lines. Are you still seeing packet loss?
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Yeah, still happening - internet will work for 5min then die again. Been like that the whole afternoon. Looks like it must be Telkom fault though as my backup account is doing the same thing.
 
Rohan said:
Yeah, still happening - internet will work for 5min then die again. Been like that the whole afternoon. Looks like it must be Telkom fault though as my backup account is doing the same thing.
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Sounds like it. Want me to check for any reported Telkom faults in your area, or just want to see if it resolves itself tonight? Sounds like an isolated sort of issue...
 
Would be great if you could check. I am in Orkney, North West. I have sent an email to someone I know that works at our exchange to ask him to test the line for me but haven't heard anything yet.
 
Rohan said:
Would be great if you could check. I am in Orkney, North West. I have sent an email to someone I know that works at our exchange to ask him to test the line for me but haven't heard anything yet.
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I see Wikoppies in Klerksdorp has been having issues and you may route via this ESR - not 100% sure if you do. If you PM me your username I'll check to see what ESR you route through to see if this could be causing an issue.
 
I agree that the CW service and Online support is good.

Unfortunately Im not happy about Http shaping levels.

I'm not going to pay for the most expensive 4Mbps account in the country(iirc) and receive 30 KB/s - 40KB/s on http downloads.

I rarely stream atm and it seems everything takes a backseat for that.
I said at the beginning of the month when the shaping policy was announced, that I would give it two weeks.

It is not quite two weeks, but the status quo won't change much in that regard.

So here I go again in search for an ISP that suits my usage patterns.
 
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Crystal Web said:
I see Wikoppies in Klerksdorp has been having issues and you may route via this ESR - not 100% sure if you do. If you PM me your username I'll check to see what ESR you route through to see if this could be causing an issue.
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Sent you a pm, thanks.
 
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