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

Are you satisfied with your Crystal Web account?

  • Total voters
    126
Status
Not open for further replies.
MyLowBandwidth said:
I signed up for CW mid April. During the sign up I don't remember selecting an activation date but after signing up I got an email saying that the services are provided on the basis of an up front payment. My previous ISP required a months notice so I gave that notice as required and paid CW for services for June. I had emailed them numerous times to change my activation date to 1 June. I also had an online chat with someone, where I very politely asked that my activation date be changed to 1 June 2015. I have never received a response, except for a few very acerbic emails reminding me that my May invoice was overdue.

My most recent email is from their CEO (Shaun) saying that I must pay the R395 for services for the month of May. My rationale is that I didn't use their services in the month of May as I was not connected to the CW network at all.

Except I had connected to CW in May... I connected on 31 May 2015 10:58pm. Apparently, according to Shaun, this warrants the use of their services and I should pay the R395.

I'm not sure of the ethics here. Does this really warrant being invoiced and liable for a full month?

In my opinion: no. It does not.

But I'm really questioning the business ethics of a CEO who would pose this logic. This is the CEO of an ISP who is apparently the best ISP in the country, and they apparently have the happiest customers. Billing me for an hour and 2 minutes after ignoring repeated emails and messages to their customer support team, asking to change my activation date speaks volumes of this wonderful ISP. Maybe this is the sign of things to come. Today its excepting full payment for seriously minimal use, tomorrow its being sneaky in how they bill me for my usage.

CW is not for me. Time to move on.
Click to expand...

wow
 
Paul Hjul said:
Hi I don't have anything in the complaints schedule in connection with this matter (on the presented facts, I have another matter on a different set of given facts) at all and really it is a channel provided contractually to customer. It appears - on the facts you've alleged here - that you made an error in you signing up and compounded that error and knowing that you've made an error rather than working towards a resolution are taking to bad mouthing the company [which btw is something which we do recognize as within a customers general rights if there is a reciprocal right of reply - and bizarrely an increasing number of consumer agreements are seeking to deprive customers of these rights]. And trying to frame your defamatory post as "really questioning the business ethics" doesn't depart from the fact that without using the disputes resolution process built into the Customer Relationship Agreement it is difficult to see any "really questioning the business ethics".
Click to expand...

oh
 
Paul Hjul said:
A brief update on the IPC constraint situation:
The bad news is that there is a snag that has been picked up in getting the additional IPC properly provisioned. So the ETA of today has shifted to Monday afternoon :(
On the good news front a temporary workaround that sees additional capacity diverted over the weekend for our pipe.

Unfortunately the good news is limited to products on our normal pipe - home capped remains under observation.
Click to expand...

My account is working better (a LOT better), but I get the distinct impression based on the above comment and other statements of late that us home capped users are like poor relations in the whole CW / IS family.

Call me cynical.

#"Hey. You're on a value product. Stop Bitchin'"
 
Last edited:
thewusman said:
My account is working better (a LOT better), but I get the distinct impression based on the above comment and other statements of late that us home capped users are like poor relations in the whole CW / IS family.

Call me cynical.

#"Hey. You're on a value product. Stop Bitchin'"
Click to expand...

not poor relations as much as the 13 year old bright kid ...

A PITA that we are hoping to mould into something great
 
Paul Hjul said:
Hi I don't have anything in the complaints schedule in connection with this matter (on the presented facts, I have another matter on a different set of given facts) at all and really it is a channel provided contractually to customer. It appears - on the facts you've alleged here - that you made an error in you signing up and compounded that error and knowing that you've made an error rather than working towards a resolution are taking to bad mouthing the company [which btw is something which we do recognize as within a customers general rights if there is a reciprocal right of reply - and bizarrely an increasing number of consumer agreements are seeking to deprive customers of these rights]. And trying to frame your defamatory post as "really questioning the business ethics" doesn't depart from the fact that without using the disputes resolution process built into the Customer Relationship Agreement it is difficult to see any "really questioning the business ethics".
Click to expand...

Actually. You have your facts totally wrong.

Anyway, I've cancelled my services with CW and based on your response, probably the best thing to do.
 
does anyone have the 2mb basic uncapped package?

If so how is it? i do gaming mainly(2 hours a day including Teamspeak)

Downloads (torrents) about 30gb

Streaming i do as well.
 
Paul Hjul said:
not poor relations as much as the 13 year old bright kid ...

A PITA that we are hoping to mould into something great
Click to expand...

To follow up a little bit on this (and to get to quote myself :D)

Our Home Premium accounts are the product range which reflects what we as consumers want in the market and are largely the reason people really love Crystal Web (and I think it is fair to say that a lot more people love Crystal Web than dislike Crystal Web). Because of the love of Crystal Web a lot of people want Crystal Web accounts; any Crystal Web account. So there has been a spike in customer numbers and a lot of that spike has been on the Home Capped accounts.

However the high number of customers who signed onto the product with expectations as to capped products that simply aren't aligned with the way an efficient network operates (as a result of a lot of discourse that has been resorted to in order to drive customers back to capped accounts) without our sales team having an opportunity to ascertain if the product is ideally suited to the customer and the particulars of the product have made it quite a nightmare for us.

Now if you look at the CRA and the general ethos of the business - and what I've said about net neutrality as a value and the importance of finding ways to expand accessibility to broadband Internet - being able to make quality Internet access available to all South Africans is something we really do value.
[and as a side note, it is because of this commitment that we put energy into various things - like the National ICT Forum, the regulatory process surrounding the acquisition of Neotel and so on]

So getting home users large caps on value priced products is certainly something that Crystal Web is committed to and please don't mistake discussions about the dynamic as being anything more than a hope that candor and insight into challenges. There is also a lot of timing issues at play and growing the company as a whole - the Home Capped accounts are more intensive on the staff and we are dependent on slightly more nuanced commercial relationships to provide these accounts while scaling the business - but in the long term they form part of a broader strategy.
 
After sitting with 300ms+ latency to CPT hosted gaming servers I had to switch over to my Webafrica account. The WA account was sitting pretty at around 20ms... ... ...

I just stuggle to reconsile this if both ISPs are struggling with IPC issues...
 
Logic! said:
After sitting with 300ms+ latency to CPT hosted gaming servers I had to switch over to my Webafrica account. The WA account was sitting pretty at around 20ms... ... ...

I just stuggle to reconsile this if both ISPs are struggling with IPC issues...
Click to expand...

+1

Absolutely agree. "Daar is n drol in die drankwater" when it comes to CW. Blaming IPC is a convenient excuse to buy time to figure out how the ISP profit game is played. This is whats really happening.

CW suddenly has lots of unhappy clients when it comes to user experience with their products and its now spilling over onto how they treat new clients.
 
Paul Hjul said:
and I think it is fair to say that a lot more people love Crystal Web than dislike Crystal Web
Click to expand...

Just a little bit of hubris there, huh?

My experience as a customer of CW has been abyssmal from the start. CW is by far, the worst ISP I have ever used. I consider myself a reasonable person when it comes to service delivery, but CW have failed to deliver even the most basic expectations and services from day one.

> D/L speed and latency is crap - blame IPC
> Billing and client management is crap - blame the client
> Dodgy business ethics - Shout "defamation"

At what point are you going to admit that something is rotten at CW?
 
Last edited:
MyLowBandwidth said:
There is only one true version of events. Everything I have said can be backed up by supported evidence.
Would you like me to post that evidence here?
Click to expand...

I'd like you to send through the evidence on the complaints system - send them by email to legal[at]crystalweb.co.za as then your privacy remains protected. Posting personal (relating to yourself) information in a public forum has a habit of backfiring on somebody.
 
Paul Hjul said:
I'd like you to send through the evidence on the complaints system - send them by email to legal[at]crystalweb.co.za as then your privacy remains protected. Posting personal (relating to yourself) information in a public forum has a habit of backfiring on somebody.
Click to expand...

If I wasn't a paranoid South African, I'd think there was a threat in that post :)

By the way, congrats to CW on helping me to officially hit the lowest speedtest I have ever had since I have had ADSL! this is the slowest my speedtests have have been in 10 years!!

For clarity, this was done my macbook, with it being the only device connected to my wifi. And mysteriously, during the same period of disconnecting all devices , I somehow managed to use 500MB of data according to CW while my router reported usage of a few mb's. Rather odd...wouldn't you say?

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4429304782

Results of speeds on my 10mbps ADSL line!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X