Openweb Marketing and "Promotional Offerings".

[Totempole]

I've brought this up before, but saw a banner advert on MyBB, so decided to start a thread about it. Openweb offers promotional accounts such as "Standard Uncapped (Love Edition)" at discounted prices, whose performance are inferior to their full-priced counterparts due to higher contention.

Quotes from MrBEEP:

There is absolutely no doubt about the fact that the less you pay, the higher your contention ratio (the more people you share with). We have never denied this, we in fact have discussed this many times before on this very thread and forum.

We offer cheap packages, because there is a massive demand for it, and most folks do not care if their downloads slow down during peak.

We then offer more expensive packages which offer a better all round experience, eg Gold Uncapped Original or Platinum.

We are also currently working on a middle of the range unshaped product which will fill a gap in the market.

It is marketed as Standard Uncapped (Love Edition). It is not marketed as Standard.

It has the same values as Standard with a slightly higher contention ratio.

It is a Standard Uncapped (Promotion). Your edition is a Promotion, which is one of the older editions.

It has an identical profile to Standard Uncapped, with the relevant priorities that Standard offers with a higher contention. This is why we do not call it Standard Uncapped.

So as I understand it, Although these Standard Uncapped (Love Edition) accounts carry the Standard Uncapped name, because you're paying less for them, your performance won't be as good due to higher contention. The same applies to Promotional Gold accounts such as "Gold Uncapped (Leon Edition)", while it carries the "Gold Uncapped name", it doesn't offer the same low contention ratio.

Now I can understand the fact that "the less you pay, higher your contention ratio", what I don't get is why they don't mention this beforehand in the fine print.

Take the below advert as an example:

STANDARD UNCAPPED ON SALE! SAVE OVER R100 PER MONTH!

First of all, nowhere does the banner indicate that they're offering anything other than a Standard Uncapped account. When you click the banner it'll take you to the Standard Uncapped (Love Edition) accounts.

Second of all, nowhere does it indicate that the "Love Edition" accounts have higher contention ratios, thus inferior performance to full-priced Standard Uncapped accounts.

These are the account-specific terms provided by Openweb:

* Accounts allow 1 concurrent ADSL connection
* We require a calendar months cancellation notice
* Special is subject to activating a debit order or credit card auto billing.
* Current clients cannot downgrade or cancel an account in favour of the promotional package, they can however add it as an additional package.
* FREE access to Wifi at 1400 locations nationwide!

There's even a tab at the top right corner which allows you to "Compare Uncapped Service Levels". If you click on it, it will list Vanilla, Standard, Gold and Platinum service levels, but nowhere will it show how these Promotional packages such as Standard Uncapped (Love Edition) and Gold Uncapped (Leon Edition).

This of course leads people to believe that the promotional packages are simply on special, and perform exactly the same as the full-priced offerings, since Openweb has given them absolutely no indication to the contrary. In fact, it would seem, they're doing everything they can to let people believe they're getting the same service as the full-priced offering at a discounted price.

So in conclusion, there is no doubt that Openweb is misleading consumers through deceptive advertising tactics.


It should be noted that as an Openweb client I'm not writing this because I'm unhappy with the quality of service I'm getting, in fact, as of now I'm very happy. I just feel that prospective Openweb clients should be aware of this to be able to help them make an informed decision when choosing an ISP.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Rivin]

Also an Openweb client (pretty happy for the most part), and also 100% agree with OP. The advertising is misleading.

 

[Necuno]

Take it up with the [-]ISPA and or[/-] ASA?

 

[MrBEEP]

We have made some changes as per your suggestions.

I've brought this up before, but saw a banner advert on MyBB, so decided to start a thread about it. Openweb offers promotional accounts such as "Standard Uncapped (Love Edition)" at discounted prices, whose performance are inferior to their full-priced counterparts due to higher contention.

Quotes from MrBEEP:





So as I understand it, Although these Standard Uncapped (Love Edition) accounts carry the Standard Uncapped name, because you're paying less for them, your performance won't be as good due to higher contention. The same applies to Promotional Gold accounts such as "Gold Uncapped (Leon Edition)", while it carries the "Gold Uncapped name", it doesn't offer the same low contention ratio.

Now I can understand the fact that "the less you pay, higher your contention ratio", what I don't get is why they don't mention this beforehand in the fine print.

Take the below advert as an example:
View attachment 71119



First of all, nowhere does the banner indicate that they're offering anything other than a Standard Uncapped account. When you click the banner it'll take you to the Standard Uncapped (Love Edition) accounts.

Second of all, nowhere does it indicate that the "Love Edition" accounts have higher contention ratios, thus inferior performance to full-priced Standard Uncapped accounts.

These are the account-specific terms provided by Openweb:


There's even a tab at the top right corner which allows you to "Compare Uncapped Service Levels". If you click on it, it will list Vanilla, Standard, Gold and Platinum service levels, but nowhere will it show how these Promotional packages such as Standard Uncapped (Love Edition) and Gold Uncapped (Leon Edition).

This of course leads people to believe that the promotional packages are simply on special, and perform exactly the same as the full-priced offerings, since Openweb has given them absolutely no indication to the contrary. In fact, it would seem, they're doing everything they can to let people believe they're getting the same service as the full-priced offering at a discounted price.

So in conclusion, there is no doubt that Openweb is misleading consumers through deceptive advertising tactics.


It should be noted that as an Openweb client I'm not writing this because I'm unhappy with the quality of service I'm getting, in fact, as of now I'm very happy. I just feel that prospective Openweb clients should be aware of this to be able to help them make an informed decision when choosing an ISP.

Thanks for reading.

 

[mister]

I had no idea the specials had higher contention. How can I switch to to the higher priced option?

 

[MrBEEP]

It depends on how long you have been with OpenWeb. Most clients that signed up more than a few months ago are on par with the higher priced options due to the loyalty bonuses. Drop us a mail to check: admin@openweb.co.za

I had no idea the specials had higher contention. How can I switch to to the higher priced option?

 

[Totempole]

We have made some changes as per your suggestions.

Glad to hear it. I see you added the relevant info about the contention ratio in the terms below each promotion. So now it's up to the consumer to read the fine print and make a more informed decision.

Perhaps you could also help us understand the differences between the following:

1. Vanilla Uncapped vs Standard Uncapped (Love Edition)
2. Silver Uncapped vs Gold Uncapped (Leon Edition)

Which of the above accounts have higher contention ratios, and what (if any) are the differences in the shaping rules?

 

[MrBEEP]

The shaping rules are identical.

Gold Orange and Gold Leon for example have the same shaping rules. The difference is, the contention ratio is slightly higher to allow us to get to the more affordable price point.

The client still has all the Gold benefits

Glad to hear it. I see you added the relevant info about the contention ratio in the terms below each promotion. So now it's up to the consumer to read the fine print and make a more informed decision.

Perhaps you could also help us understand the differences between the following:

1. Vanilla Uncapped vs Standard Uncapped (Love Edition)
2. Silver Uncapped vs Gold Uncapped (Leon Edition)

Which of the above accounts have higher contention ratios, and what (if any) are the differences in the shaping rules?

 

[bgotapen]

I was going to start a thread, but as this is now "resolved" I will just post here.

I jumped ship from MWEB during the month long seacom break to openweb. They gave me a silver uncapped to try, I liked it and they announced the gold uncapped special and I jumped on that cause of all the rave reviews.

About a day goes by and I start having issues, slow speeds during the day even on local sites much slower than the trail account.

So I email them, long and inexcusable amount of emails later I finally decide to try a trail gold "premium" account and lo and behold it works. I say upgrade and they did but it was still slow. So they changed the "routing profile" to the trail accounts and it works now.

Under the gold leon uncapped browsing during the day could just die, like gmail would just not load. Games would have latency issues. Youtube would not work even after hours. They blamed telkom, but afrihost free 1gb was fine so it was not my line. I even got and paid for a technician to look at my line and he checked it for a WEEK no problems while I could barely use my openweb account during the day.

I however blame myself, I should have canceled and roasted them on this site the end of may. I will continue to monitor my account but if I get another day where I can not even access my email I will be gone for good.

I would not recommend the gold leon to anyone, in fact seeing of what a damn farce this all was I just can't recommend openweb even if their special was 1/2 price you just can't call it good value for money.

 

[MrBEEP]

Hi bgotapen

I am so sorry to read about your experience.

Would you mind PMing me with your ADSL username and the registered name and surname of the account holder and I will see what went wrong.

I am glad to hear things are working now.

It is sad to read that you will not recommend OpenWeb to anyone. I do hope we can change this view in the future.

I was going to start a thread, but as this is now "resolved" I will just post here.

I jumped ship from MWEB during the month long seacom break to openweb. They gave me a silver uncapped to try, I liked it and they announced the gold uncapped special and I jumped on that cause of all the rave reviews.

About a day goes by and I start having issues, slow speeds during the day even on local sites much slower than the trail account.

So I email them, long and inexcusable amount of emails later I finally decide to try a trail gold "premium" account and lo and behold it works. I say upgrade and they did but it was still slow. So they changed the "routing profile" to the trail accounts and it works now.

Under the gold leon uncapped browsing during the day could just die, like gmail would just not load. Games would have latency issues. Youtube would not work even after hours. They blamed telkom, but afrihost free 1gb was fine so it was not my line. I even got and paid for a technician to look at my line and he checked it for a WEEK no problems while I could barely use my openweb account during the day.

I however blame myself, I should have canceled and roasted them on this site the end of may. I will continue to monitor my account but if I get another day where I can not even access my email I will be gone for good.

I would not recommend the gold leon to anyone, in fact seeing of what a damn farce this all was I just can't recommend openweb even if their special was 1/2 price you just can't call it good value for money.

 

[Rivin]

Just following up to say thanks Openweb for updating the wording on the specials to clear up the confusion.