Openweb - Be Cautious.

[hj2k_x]

I think he was trying to be funny but failed. Nobody got what he was saying, much like the other posters in this thread!

Dude, common sense has taken a bad knock in this thread. I can't quite believe it.

People don't seem to understand that I/you/anyone will be quick to criticise bad service when it is warranted. But it simply is not in this case. Not as far as the billing cycle confusion goes. I am not sure that even if Openweb could have been contacted, there was much they could do to reverse what had already been done.

 

[bk.ru]

I have a friend who worked for a short time for Openweb. His stories of how support and the company is run would make your hair crawl. Most of the support is done from some young persons house (calls are routed from the number you dial to whatever prepaid phone the new employee has just had installed).

While it is great to work from home, all support still has to be done through Keoma. So if he is out (which he is a lot), the support person becomes a glorified answering machine to a lot (and I mean a lot) of disgrunteled clients.

If there is a problem that needs to be resolved, there is nothing the employee can do but take down the name and number of the person and wait for Keoma to be available.

There is no dedidcated support center and very seldom trained staff. Simple tasks like checking or changing a users password can not be performed.

For my friend it was a complete ballsup. Keoma really needs to sort out his stuff, and actually invest some of his money in creating proper infrastructure.

The reason you have no support, calls not being answered and that kind of thing is because of Keoma`s business practices or rather lack of them.

 

[TheRidDlerX]

It's a long thread but I did learn something from it. Basically it's something like this:

Thriel did make a mistake by not making sure what he was buying. Though it probably could have been fixed if he was able to get through to Openweb support which he couldn't.

I think Sol sums it up quite nicely yea...
I decided to try out one of OW products a while back but if ur like me and do some ISP hopping in the search of the best you have probly filled in numerous application forms and done the procedure countless times. Same as always i just flipped through this one online.

When all was up and done i noticed when i logged into the control panel that i had to activate it - the next window im glad i wasnt in a hurry when i looked cuz it stated : ''Your product will be activated from the 30th to the 30th''.

There wasnt any indication as to the 30th of which month...Not wanting to take chances (and it being the 30th on that day) i assumed they must work it on calendar and waited. Like so many have stated in this thread so far i can see the confusion/error that can arise, especially if this all was done verbally as well and you dont enquire specifically and properly about it.

I always thought that OW customer desk cant be THAT bad, but after just wanting to make a small enquiry about something yesterday, i had to give up after lots of ringing and 3 x "Call Ended". I can imagine how frustrating it must be for someone to have a really important issue to address and this happening... My R0.02... that is all

 

[SPY]

Both parties equally in the wrong, except the one party decided a entire thread was needed to deface the other parties name. I have been dealing with openweb for a long time now, and one thing I have learnt is MrBEEP will go to the end of the earth to try help his clients if it is by any means within his ability to do so. I am willing to bet on the fact, that had you contacted him regarding the matter, prior to drudging openwebs name through the mud, he would have made every attempt at trying to help you, as soon as he possibly could.

As I said, sure you have had issues here, but next time act big boy and take the issue up with the company management. Had you done that, you would have walked away smiling. The bottom line is Openweb have their issues, but are actually one of the extreme few ISP's that give more than half a crap about trying to give their customers the best deal, and trying to find new ways of doing that. They are in no way deserving of an entire thread devoted to trying to lose them customers, cause let me tell you, the exact same would have happened to you with just about any ISP.

Would help if they answered the phone or replied to emails, maybe you should read the WHOLE post before making these statements, mate!

 

[hj2k_x]

Would help if they answered the phone or replied to emails, maybe you should read the WHOLE post before making these statements, mate!

Erm no. That makes no difference in this case.

 

[marine1]

Question, am I missing something?
When you activate your package, it says in BIG red writing when this package will start and expire, and gives you the option to have it start at the next calendar month.

 

[antowan]

The link the signature in the first message does not work. Nobody can easily find out what this thread is about so I am closing it.

 

[thriel]

Openweb continued.

I got flamed yesterday by a few users, and many people seemed to not understand or got information all mixed up. I would like to straighten the record with facts from my perspective, and also how this all has effected me.

I purchased a uncapped 4mb connection from openweb end of june, it went live on the 27th.

I did not fill in forms or anything, i did the EFT transaction while the sales rep was on the phone,I told him i run a non profit forum and my telkom was going off soon, i need to make a plan for a new connection and their uncapped looks interesting, he said soon as i pay they can connect me immediately. I did the EFT while he was on the phone and told him to check his mail. I did not know of any terms and conditions, i was not told that my connection is only valid for 3 days.

the sales guy told me he would forward my email to the apropeiate guy who needs to activate my account, said the guy was not currently in the office.

I waited and waited, nothing happened, i tried to call back but got an engaged tone all day. so i posted on myBB, i was told by users to be patient, mr beep is sure to come along and see the post. however he didnt, instead i think kollby is his nick, he came along and asked for my details, which i sent to him via PM. he PM'd me back a username and password, said he couldnt get hold of MR. BEEP or whoever was suppose to activate my account so he did it quick himself.

I did not need to click anywhere to activate my account, it was done for me, no red or green writting came up, i was given a username and password via PM on mybb which i entered into my router.

I recieved an email stating that it was a reminder for all clients who have not already paid to pay, if you paid ignore email, it also said if you are on debit order please ignore.

Knowing that i paid i did not worry, but the fact i got activate without going through proper channels bothered me, so i sent an email back saying i paid and they must not double debit me.

Everything worked fine until they cut me off.

At first i assumed it might be telkom, mainly because i had major issues with telkom when the line was first put in and the adsl light was flashing, it is not suppose to.

I checked my mailbox, nothing there, so i call telkom, they say everything is working fine, i dont believe them, but in order to prove them wrong i must first establish that it is in fact them and not isp. so i try and call openweb. can't get through, i tried for 2 hours without success, i sent a few emails too.

2 hours after i got cut off an email came through saying i had been disconnected, that is first time anything made sense to me.

I emailed them back demanding to know why they disconnected me knowing i paid the full ammount and knowing i had reciepts. no reply. i tried to phone, engaged tone... I came onto mybb and some users tried to call as well, also couldnt get through.

I tried for the rest of the day, no success. in meantime my forum had been down most of the day. I have a day job and am stuck at work, i cannot just drop everything and run off to sort things out, best i can do is climb on the phone and post on the net. so here i sit like an idiot and cant do anything except wait for replies that never come.

eventualy friday night, i am not sure of the time, i get reconnected with an email saying that they are still waiting for payment, no sorry's or anything. I sent one back wanting to know why they are claiming double payment. i recieve another email the next day saying they work on calender month and not 30 days.

that is the first time i had ever heard anything about the calender month thing.

anyway, a few more emails go up and down and i am starting to get angry, i tried to reason with them, i explained i honestly didnt know about it, cant they make an axception, i paid alot of money and cannot just afford to fork out a whole months payment just like that, i run a non profit organisation.

they tell me the terms are the terms etc ... and rub me off on the legal department.

I did the only thing i could do, i came here and posted about my bad experience here.

The monday morning i call them, took half the morning to get through, i got through just before lunch i think it was. i was ready to cancel my account, i had already made a topic on mybb which i think was already a few pages big. they suddenly offer me half price discount. i tell them i am sorry, but the service has been poor and i already bought prepaid bandwidth from axxess. please cancel my account before you send me another false bill. they dont argue, dont try and change my mind or anything, just said ok and put the phone down, i was not very happy about that.

that is pretty much it.

now what this has cost me so far.

R1299 + R419 for line rental. the very same month i was also billed by telkom for installation costs and pro rata as well as the previous months line rental and internet fees total : R2038. I paid out a hell of alot of money in one month for a non profit forum to be online. i saw it as a long term investment so i bit the bullet and just did it. but openweb offer me reconnection if i pay them a further R649 ?? and after the bad service i recieved ?? i dont think so. They did not even offer me a refund, no sorry or anything. just pointed me to their legal department ( which btw can only be reached via email. )

Now openweb has screwd me over, R1299 loss that i have to recover from somewhere. i am now having to use prepaid bandwidth till month end as i refuse to sign up with anyone before the last day of the month ( yes they made me paranoid as well. )

My forum had to suffer downtime of 7 hours due to poor service, and now i am forced to move it seperate from patch server due to not having the uncapped connection, downtime estimation : 2 days.

What do i tell my users ? i try and explain to them that our Ex isp was full of crap, but no matter how or what i say, i looked and still look unprofessional due this incedent, as well as all the crap i have to go through this week moving forums around etc ...

I still have recieved no apology and no valid reason ( other than terms are terms and i paid for 3 days access, which they cannot prove to me that they provided the terms in any way ).

This is where i am. i have nothing to hide. I am simply a very unhappy client who got taken for a ride at the worst possible time in the worst possible way. and the isp was not willing to comprosmise in any way shape or form, unless i was willing to pay more money to them.

I recieved poor service, false invoices, and on top of that they tried to debit the bank account of the forum after i told them not to in my reply emails, so i have to cover the costs of that unsucessfull transaction out my pocket as well.

that is my story, no more no less, just the truth.

I never was told about the calendar month thing until after i paid and i got the email a day later. i dont see how they can try and throw that in my face.