Openweb Gold Shaping Policy 2

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Some good points raised.

We will have to try and introduce an all inclusive chart. One that perhaps allows a user to click on Gold and see what the editions are about.

We will continue to improve on this, especially once our new website launches, which will allow an easier flow between packages, and charts explaining why a user would choose Gold opposed to Silver etc.

Our main focus in the next while is to launch our Telkomless broadband

Gibson said:
Compared to the original Gold uncapped?



Just think this could all be avoided by a chart comparing Gold services, like the one you have that compares Vanilla, Gold, Diamond etc.

Edit: After looking around your site a bit, I'm pretty impressed by the way you try to individualize your products based on the clients interest, it just needs to highlight the differences (Leon only shows on the promotion page, but if I was looking for gaming DSL, your Gold page only lists Orange Edition)
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MrBEEP said:
You are still using a Gold Uncapped service.

You receive a Gold priority, with Gold benefits (Free Wifi), and you are on the Gold profile.

During guaranteed unshaped periods, Gold, irrelevant of edition, will be unshaped before any of the lower service levels.

ALL Gold editions have priority over any of the lower service levels.

The reason why there are more affordable Gold versions is purely to allow more folks to take advantage of one of South Africa's most loved uncapped service levels.

It is unfortunate that a few individuals have taken this and created 3 x threads about the same topic.
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Fair enough, but now what is the difference? You said "tweaks" earlier and I can understand no-one publishes contention ratios or shaping rules etc but now there will forever be that bit of doubt in my mind whenever the internet isn't quite as good as it should be that maybe it would be better if i was on "Real Gold" as opposed to the "tweaked" one. (Which generally does give me very good speeds on torrents but isn't so good for streaming/youtube - maybe that's what the tweaks affected?)
 
There are priority items that Gold offer that do not differ from edition to edition. Eg Youtube, Facebook, Browsing, Gmail etc is no different between Gold Original and Gold Leon for example.

The main difference is contention ratio. Eg, Gold Leon has an 8% higher contention ratio than Gold Orange.

rorz0r said:
Fair enough, but now what is the difference? You said "tweaks" earlier and I can understand no-one publishes contention ratios or shaping rules etc but now there will forever be that bit of doubt in my mind whenever the internet isn't quite as good as it should be that maybe it would be better if i was on "Real Gold" as opposed to the "tweaked" one. (Which generally does give me very good speeds on torrents but isn't so good for streaming/youtube - maybe that's what the tweaks affected?)
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I look forward to the chart comparing gold editions (and I think you have several vanilla editions as well).
 
Garyvdh said:
I'm happy with what I use.
If you are not happy, you are of course welcome to go and find another provider.
Nobody is forcing you to stay here or to use this account.
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I'm quite happy where I am thanks. My internet actually works fine during business hours and I'm not on Gold of any kind, Original or Flavoured :D
If you having internet means having to need a "day time" account to make between 8am and 5pm and you happy with that, all good and well for you.

I'm not siding with anyone here, having used OW before and having had no problems, I'd say they a decent ISP.

But I see the OP's point and can see why he's frustrated, he bought a BMW M3, got home to found that it was 320i with M3 rims.....
 
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Gboss said:
If you having internet means having to need a "day time" account to make between 8am and 5pm and you happy with that, all good and well for you.
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But you don't need an additional account between 8am and 5pm. The shaping between those periods on a Gold account is minimal so I have no idea why Garyvdh feels the need to use another account in that period. Most of the time everything runs full speed in that period.
 
Zewp said:
But you don't need an additional account between 8am and 5pm. The shaping between those periods on a Gold account is minimal so I have no idea why Garyvdh feels the need to use another account in that period. Most of the time everything runs full speed in that period.
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Minimal ,, MINIMAL??????

OMFG dude, u have no idea what u talking about. Like is said getting 20k/s on openweb gold EVERY DAY for a month during business hours on 2mb is not minimal
 
I am sorry you had a bad experience with your account. As has been made clear by many of our clients, this is indeed not the norm. When did you have a Gold account out of interest sake?

rakabos3 said:
Minimal ,, MINIMAL??????

OMFG dude, u have no idea what u talking about. Like is said getting 20k/s on openweb gold EVERY DAY for a month during business hours on 2mb is not minimal
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I do agree that we could've had a better description of the product (as discussed earlier with Gibson). We have however since done this.

Gold is still Gold. He did not buy a Gold product and received a Vanilla product. He is still receiving the same priority as Gold Original users.

We have improved the descriptions and are currently working on making it even simpler to understand the difference between our service levels.

Perhaps we should introduce a questionnaire that a client can complete on our website which will then produce a suggested package as the result? Would this work?

Gboss said:
I'm quite happy where I am thanks. My internet actually works fine during business hours and I'm not on Gold of any kind, Original or Flavoured :D
If you having internet means having to need a "day time" account to make between 8am and 5pm and you happy with that, all good and well for you.

I'm not siding with anyone here, having used OW before and having had no problems, I'd say they a decent ISP.

But I see the OP's point and can see why he's frustrated, he bought a BMW M3, got home to found that it was 320i with M3 rims.....
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So i got the silver 2 for 1 special promotion. Does that mean i have a higher contention ration than the 'Original' silver uncapped??
 
No. This promotion is no different to the normal Silver

nakedpeanut said:
So i got the silver 2 for 1 special promotion. Does that mean i have a higher contention ration than the 'Original' silver uncapped??
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rakabos3 said:
Minimal ,, MINIMAL??????

OMFG dude, u have no idea what u talking about. Like is said getting 20k/s on openweb gold EVERY DAY for a month during business hours on 2mb is not minimal
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Once again, exception, not the rule. My daytime shaping has never been as low as 20kb/s and I'm willing to bet that you'd be hard pressed to find another OW client with an experience like that. Even one of my friends who is on standard uncapped does not experience such harsh shaping.

It seems the only person who seems to lack a bit of knowledge about what they're talking about is, in fact, you.
 
I do agree that we could've had a better description of the product (as discussed earlier with Gibson). We have however since done this.

Gold is still Gold. He did not buy a Gold product and received a Vanilla product. He is still receiving the same priority as Gold Original users.

We have improved the descriptions and are currently working on making it even simpler to understand the difference between our service levels.

Perhaps we should introduce a questionnaire that a client can complete on our website which will then produce a suggested package as the result? Would this work?
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Regardless of the updates you've done (and no insult to the company or the work you've put into the site) you've made a very dangerous move by making all your product so similar. After some research i ran across:

http://www.ellipsis.co.za/consumer-protection-act-compliance-for-isps/

Which means you may be liable under the CPA, and that the products you have are not distinct enough on your website to exclude the possibility that it was some form of false marketing:

"Goods or services must not be promoted in a misleading, fraudulent or deceptive manner. Thus, the nature and the use of the goods or services cannot be distorted, let alone the conditions on which the goods or services may be acquired."

http://www.roylaw.co.za/home/article/the-consumer-protection-act-a-summary/pageid/consumer-law

Anyway, just my 2c, but I still am pretty impressed by your products

Edit: Also don't mean to imply the above was done by OW to deceive the customer or new subscribers, sure if it did happen it was unintentional.

Maybe the best way to handle it would be PM between the affected and Mr Beep, maybe then there could be some resolution that couldn't happen on a public forum
 
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The products are each blessed with their own edition, to differentiate the one from the other in order to prevent confusion.

In the past, they were marked as 'Promotion' or 'Promotional' to make it clear that it is not identical to the original.

Gibson said:
Regardless of the updates you've done (and no insult to the company or the work you've put into the site) you've made a very dangerous move by making all your product so similar. After some research i ran across:

http://www.ellipsis.co.za/consumer-protection-act-compliance-for-isps/

Which means you may be liable under the CPA, and that the products you have are not distinct enough on your website to exclude the possibility that it was some form of false marketing:

"Goods or services must not be promoted in a misleading, fraudulent or deceptive manner. Thus, the nature and the use of the goods or services cannot be distorted, let alone the conditions on which the goods or services may be acquired."

http://www.roylaw.co.za/home/article/the-consumer-protection-act-a-summary/pageid/consumer-law

Anyway, just my 2c, but I still am pretty impressed by your products

Edit: Also don't mean to imply the above was done by OW to deceive the customer or new subscribers, sure if it did happen it was unintentional.

Maybe the best way to handle it would be PM between the affected and Mr Beep, maybe then there could be some resolution that couldn't happen on a public forum
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To add to this, my door has always been open for private discussions via email: [email protected]


MrBEEP said:
The products are each blessed with their own edition, to differentiate the one from the other in order to prevent confusion.

In the past, they were marked as 'Promotion' or 'Promotional' to make it clear that it is not identical to the original.
Click to expand...
 
The products are each blessed with their own edition, to differentiate the one from the other in order to prevent confusion.

In the past, they were marked as 'Promotion' or 'Promotional' to make it clear that it is not identical to the original.
Click to expand...

But by not explaining the editions and the differences its very easy for a subscriber to become confused. The current layout of your Gold Uncapped has barely any information on the product, while the Leon version has vastly more information, potentially leading a new user to think its a superior product.

At no time do you say the overall experience (compared to Gold Orange) would differ. In fact they appear identical with the lower contention and priority for gaming.

Edit:

In the past, they were marked as 'Promotion' or 'Promotional' to make it clear that it is not identical to the original.
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Not a really good argument, the definition of promotion has commonly been held to be the

"In sales, promotion refers to a different sort of advancement. A sales promotion entails the features - via advertising and/or a discounted price - of a particular product or service."

Not a separate form of product. And if you like you can try arguing that your promotions are separate products, but that almost never the case, If the toy's r us promotion had handed 'sort of' Wii U's, there would have been drama.

Edit 2: No offense Mr Beep, but from your responses and they way you made the comment about promotional, this is starting to sound quite dodgy, a lot like fraud. I have huge respect from what your happy customers are saying, but whoever thought up these ideas really should have a sharp talking to
 
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