Ongoing frustrations with Web Africa

F

Fulton17

Expert Member
Joined
Jul 27, 2005
Messages
1,543
Reaction score
2
Location
Durban
Many years ago, WA was my ISP, until there were too many issues, so I decided to move. Then I managed to get one of the MYBB specials and now have a very good package and deal with them that meets most of my needs.

When I moved to ADSL one of my reasons was for streaming internet radio. Right from the get go with the myBB special, everything was just awesome. Then WA continued to be kind to users and increased our caps and gave us DL+ bandwidth. Over time there were problems that came and went and the service had times of being superb and other times of real frustrations - see various posts and threads on this forum.

Over the last three weeks or so, streaming radio has during office hours been a no go. I have reported this to support; Treslan has tried to help and many trace routes later and various tests accounts, the problems persist. Vaughan has been dealing with me for ages and credit to him for trying to help. He has been in touch with me on an almost daily basis and he must be praised for this. I have taken the matter up with the customer care manager and even spoke to the MD's secretary and asked to speak to the MD - I am still waiting for his call.

As I get various information that differs from person to person, it is quite hard to see what is the actual story, but I really have tried to get this matter resolved and it appears that it is not likely to happen.

So, I want to be able to stream internet radio when at home (generally any time after 15:00). This uses about 2% of my line capacity (at CD quality) I am not asking to download huge files, or watch youtube etc. No this is not possible I am told.

The following has been given to me - and I hope I am representing this correctly.
You are a silver priority (the lowest level) and businesses have priority during office hours - this has been the case for ages now, but my problem only started 3 weeks ago, so not sure how this fits in.
We have capacity on the network, so capacity is not the issue - then why can I not stream during office hours?
If you want to stream internet radio during office hours, I was told I must upgrade my package - so I must pay 2 or 3 times as much so that I can have a basic service that a "premium" ISP should surely offer.
I have been told there is a problem and it is being looked into, but no time frame given for a solution.
On my back up Afrihost account, I have no problems streaming internet radio during office hours.

So, why am I still with WA?
My package is a good deal and not worth giving up at this stage. (Maybe they want me to give it up and hence these issues??).
Also their news server is great and this works for me well during DL+ hours.
My line is with them, so a hassle to move.

So, why am I moaning?
I have tried their channels to get this resolved and am tired of the stories I get and all the run about I am having.
I am doing this so that hopefully I will get what I had with them when I was given this package and had a near flawless service that was a pleasure.
Basically I want them to be what they claim to be.
I also want people to see what frustrations I have had so they can be better informed before making a decision to go with WA or not (at this time I certainly would not suggest moving to a WA capped account)
 
If you're not willing to move then I'm afraid that your complaints will count for little. The best way to make a stand is to walk. Is it possible that your exchange is congested?
 
Mind posting the station URL? I'm on one of those packages and I listen to streaming radio often from multiple providers
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
If you're not willing to move then I'm afraid that your complaints will count for little. The best way to make a stand is to walk. Is it possible that your exchange is congested?
Click to expand...

At one stage it was and they increased capacity 300%, so now is fine. All the trace routes showed no problems

PsyWulf said:
Mind posting the station URL? I'm on one of those packages and I listen to streaming radio often from multiple providers
Click to expand...

I use iTunes and have these saved as favourites, so not sure how to give you the URL's. Would station names help?
 
Hmmm... and just when I was considering saving a bit and moving to WA Uncapped line inclusive. Maybe I should remain with OpenWeb if this is the case.
 
Well I stream shoutcast radio 24/7 with my uncapped account and it works quite well. Most 320k streams work fine without any problems but it does buffer some times but other than that it works fine with me. I would demand it if it didn't cause for me at R599 I am paying a fortune.....
 
Huh, I have the same sort of problem as the OP, except with me it's online gaming. I get that during the day it's going to be an issue with business accounts taking priority, but this is happening after hours.

*The route traces I run all show normal ping, so I'm guessing their shaping is to blame here.
 
PsyWulf said:
Sure i'll see if I can track it down :)
Click to expand...

Thanks. See a selection below

Got radio – new age; Got radio – the big score. These are 64kbps streams
Bigloo Christian radio; The faithful road. These are 96 kbps streams
Air 1; K-Love; Spiritfilledradio; 1 Faith FM – the hits channel. These are 128kbps streams

The problem is during office hours only. After hours and generally flawless.
 
Just had a call from WA asking for stations and telling me that a change has been made to iTunes protocols or something like that, so will see in the next few days if this has sorted out the problem. At least this sounds like a step in the right direction.
 
Hi Fulton,

I believe that you've been in contact with a few people here in an effort to get things sorted out.
For formalities sake, I've also created an escalation from my end for tracking purposes so we can keep looking into this and implement any possible improvements going forward.
 
WAJeff said:
Hi Fulton,

I believe that you've been in contact with a few people here in an effort to get things sorted out.
For formalities sake, I've also created an escalation from my end for tracking purposes so we can keep looking into this and implement any possible improvements going forward.
Click to expand...

Thanks Jeff - I certainly have been in contact with people. In fact far too much :)

I hope this matter can be sorted out quickly now and would appreciate some feedback on the road ahead. Thanks
 
Well, had a clear run this afternoon :) Tried 3 stations and all streamed fine. So, I am cautiously optimistic that the changes made by the engineers have done the trick. Let's see how the next few days go
 
Fulton17 said:
Well, had a clear run this afternoon :) Tried 3 stations and all streamed fine. So, I am cautiously optimistic that the changes made by the engineers have done the trick. Let's see how the next few days go
Click to expand...

Good to hear, keep us updated on things!
 
Thanks for the feedback Fulton. I'm terribly sorry about all the issues you've experienced.

Please keep the communication channels open and let us know if you notice any recurrences, or if there is anything else that you feel we can improve.
 
waroop said:
Thanks for the feedback Fulton. I'm terribly sorry about all the issues you've experienced.

Please keep the communication channels open and let us know if you notice any recurrences, or if there is anything else that you feel we can improve.
Click to expand...

Thanks WARoop. I have had another hassle free afternoon of streaming so it seems like all is good again.

I do appreciate the service from Vaughan and Treslan who have been in contact and helped with this
 
Way too many words Fulton. Think of people trying to read your post on their phones...
 
BigAl-sa said:
Way too many words Fulton. Think of people trying to read your post on their phones...
Click to expand...

Thanks BigAl - fair point. I wanted people to see the process I had already tried to resolve the issue and to be as detailed as possible. Did not think about the phone side though :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X