OpenWeb - service sucks?!?!

[medicnick83]

True eh PearlJam, many people think myADSL is the next Hello Peter.

 

[TheLoot]

There should be a minimum post count before you are allowed to post complaints...so many people register here just to complain

Damn straight, this thread is a joke ! cgull, do your homework, find an ISP that has what you personally need (not everyone requires customer care after hours) and then everything will be sorted

 

[cgull]

Damn straight, this thread is a joke !

hmpf - looks like you all work for or have shares in OpenWeb. You've all definitely got the typical South African attitude of 'Don't complain, don't make an issue - you might get your head taken off'

Well I'm sorry my furry lemming friends, but I'm not one of you. I DO make a noise, however small my complaint is. And mine is a worthwhile one..

There should be a minimum post count before you are allowed to post complaints...so many people register here just to complain

So tell me then - what is this forum for? What about prospective clients wanting to research other people's experiences before they make a choice?

If, as you so wisely say, there should be a minimum post count before posting complaints, and that this is 'not hello peter', WHY is this forum here? So you can all pat each other on the back how you manage to not provide comprehensive support?
I bet you if I do a search on the forums I'll find at least one complaint or smarmy comment from each one of you about Telkom and the contempt they treat their customers with... Sheesh - with your defensive stance, you'd swear you all come from that background.

Is OpenWeb that small that they can't afford to be comprehensive?

edit:
Here's a groundbreaking tip - have someone on standby that support calls get forwarded to a cell and have remote access to the NOC... oh hang on - forwarded calls cost money too... guess that'll also go against OW work ethics...

 

[proff]

cgull, I personally think you are over reacting. I stand to be corrected but, Mr.Beep did respond to you after you voiced your original concern – I would suggest that you take him up on it and resolve the situation that way. In as far as your statement that we have shares in Openweb? No, I certainly don’t but I do believe that there are much worse ISP’s out there who according to the latest figures leads the pack in numbers but boy do their support suck.

Openweb is a growing company and any recommendations I'm sure is welcomed – I too have had problems and even though I weren’t always happy with the turn-around time, they were resolved none the less. I like the fact that they have a voice on this forum, I can always look forward to a reply from Openweb irrespective of whether a complaint or compliment was passed about their service on this forum.

Proff

 

[PearlJam]

hmpf - looks like you all work for or have shares in OpenWeb. You've all definitely got the typical South African attitude of 'Don't complain, don't make an issue - you might get your head taken off'

Well I'm sorry my furry lemming friends, but I'm not one of you. I DO make a noise, however small my complaint is. And mine is a worthwhile one..



So tell me then - what is this forum for? What about prospective clients wanting to research other people's experiences before they make a choice?

If, as you so wisely say, there should be a minimum post count before posting complaints, and that this is 'not hello peter', WHY is this forum here? So you can all pat each other on the back how you manage to not provide comprehensive support?
I bet you if I do a search on the forums I'll find at least one complaint or smarmy comment from each one of you about Telkom and the contempt they treat their customers with... Sheesh - with your defensive stance, you'd swear you all come from that background.

Is OpenWeb that small that they can't afford to be comprehensive?

edit:
Here's a groundbreaking tip - have someone on standby that support calls get forwarded to a cell and have remote access to the NOC... oh hang on - forwarded calls cost money too... guess that'll also go against OW work ethics...

Mr Cgull, please take some time and read through the forums then you will see what the forums are all about.

And please do a search on my name and find one post of me complaining about telkom. It would be interesting to see it again

The point is that we also complain about service when necessary, but we do it at the right place. Your complaint was firstly on this forum without even speaking to the guys at Openweb. If however you did speak to them and they still gave you the run around it would've seemed a bit different already.

When you first did your homework before acquiring the services of Openweb you surely saw that their support hours are not 24 hours, why did you still go ahead and join them knowing that your needs require the availability of 24 hour assistance?

 

[Gatecrasher]

I use Openweb because they a) they are represented on this forum, b) they offer the best value for money. I have never phoned an ISP. Ever. Emails to Openweb and any problems I have had, have always been answered and fixed prompty.

Given a choice of Openweb's prices or WebAfrica's support... well, I've already made that choice.

 

[Cloud]

I went for WebAfrica due the ability to switch backbones on the prepaid unshaped account.

What I feel I need to highlight here is their truly excellent service. I host with them, and I spent a few hours with one of the techies on their online chat program and he went the extra mile to get my PHP enabled and just generally help me get it up and running.

On the prepaid accounts I receive SMS alerts when my bandwidth is running out. This weekend I received an SMS stating my bandwidth had been exceeded, and then an hour later another SMS saying that there was an error and my bandwidth had been restored. I have had nothing but professional support from them and would wholly recommend them to anyone.

Having said that, I have ordered a connection with another ISP for uncapped services, but will still use WebAfrica for services I need outside this connection. At the end of the day, you go for what is most useful to you, but in WebAfrica's case, their support reputation is really excellent.

 

[cgull]

Mr Cgull, please take some time and read through the forums then you will see what the forums are all about.

PearlJam - take some of your own advice my friend... I have read PLENTY here, and have read many posts like my own over about 4 years here.
I also 'lurk' here under another nick, but seeing as I'm moaning on my wife's behalf, I thought it appropriate to re-register. (her English is not that good...)

And please do a search on my name and find one post of me complaining about telkom. It would be interesting to see it again

Comin' right up...

The point is that we also complain about service when necessary, but we do it at the right place. Your complaint was firstly on this forum without even speaking to the guys at Openweb.

Not true - after banging our head at missing the deadline, we tried again during office hours and were snookered cos we didn't have the login username at work where the phone call had to be made from. Then the weekend was upon us...
Surely an ID number/phone number/ address/ email address is a good enough alternative to trace a username?

If however you did speak to them and they still gave you the run around it would've seemed a bit different already.

well - not quite a runaround, but frustrating enough to come here and voice my displeasure.

When you first did your homework before acquiring the services of Openweb you surely saw that their support hours are not 24 hours, why did you still go ahead and join them knowing that your needs require the availability of 24 hour assistance?

Right - you've snookered me there... it's quite clearly my fault for not doing my homework thoroughly enough and making the assumption that most reputable ISP's have after-hours support. I didn't even expect 24/7, just enough for me to get home in time before they close and do some troubleshooting...
But hey - I guess we should all read the fine print VERY closely before signing up for anything?

Which brings me to my last point - even now when I'm looking for support hours (which will be a deciding criteria for my next ISP choice) on OW's website, I can't see anything... would you be so kind as to direct me to this fine print?

From the search engine results on their site:

Your search - site: openweb.co.za support hours - did not match any documents.

I do have one good thing to say about OW though - and agree with proff on the point that they responded to my post here pretty quickly... kudos for that. Is that 2 points for + 2 points against?

 

[JoseQuervo]

I'm with OpenWeb too and I am very happy with the service I get from them. While 24 hour support may be nice to have as a safety net, I do not think of it as one of my personal major requirements and thus I will not insist on it as others before me have.

Mr.Beep the one thing you do need to improve on your support side is your website. Aside from your website advertising and selling the packages you have to offer, there is no client area. I've noticed that other ISP's have tutorials on how to set up routers, email, news clients, etc etc. Many ISP's have a client area where a client can log in and check their account balances and/or remaining bandwidth, as well as facilities to change their password, etc. It would also be niceto have a news section relative to your services, so we can know in advance the next time IS wants to screw over uncapped users with some sort of threshhold rule. Another nice touch would be a page with thats frequently updated with the current status of the IS and/or SAIX networks. Thus my biggest support gripe with OpenWeb is the lack of online interactive support.

All of the above are merely suggestions for improvement, as stated earlier, I am generally happy with the telephonic support that I receive from OpenWeb.

 

[PearlJam]

Which brings me to my last point - even now when I'm looking for support hours (which will be a deciding criteria for my next ISP choice) on OW's website, I can't see anything... would you be so kind as to direct me to this fine print?

i never visit their site, so i don't know where it would be...but if it was me and it was important to me i would've phoned them upfront to enquire.

Just btw there are more to the forum than just this section about ISP's that is what i meant, why not join us and discuss other stuff aswell? The more the merier

 

[.geek]

There should be a minimum post count before you are allowed to post complaints...so many people register here just to complain

I see nothing wrong with that. If that's what it takes to get something resolved, then so be it.

 

[cgull]

i never visit their site, so i don't know where it would be...but if it was me and it was important to me i would've phoned them upfront to enquire.

I guess we all have to learn by our experiences and burn our fingers every now and then to build up an arsenal of 'will I be satisfied with this service' questions...

Just btw there are more to the forum than just this section about ISP's that is what i meant, why not join us and discuss other stuff aswell? The more the merier

trust me - I do... 600+ posts and counting on about 15 threads... read my last post...

 

[knobshine]

Just because someones service isn't ideally suited to you doesn't mean they suck.
It's pretty harsh to just flat out say their service sucks just because it's not 24hr.

The only time I ever needed support from OW was over a weekend. I didn't want to phone as I don't have a phone connected to my land line and had no time on my cell.

What i did have though was email and using that I got my problem sorted out within a couple of hours. On a Sunday nog al.

So for me who uses them as a supplementary account their service is great. Maybe for you who, I assume, uses only one account they're not the right isp for you.

It's like buying XP Home and then complaining that you can't join a domain.

-edit: sorry to get sarcy at the end there but I was slightly annoyed... and no I am in now way affiliated with OW

 

[TheLoot]

hmpf - looks like you all work for or have shares in OpenWeb...

Well,

Damn straight, this thread is a joke ! cgull, do your homework, find an ISP that has what you personally need (not everyone requires customer care after hours) and then everything will be sorted

Ja, me telling you to (possibly) leave OpenWeb would be a definite sign that I had shares at OpenWeb, because then OpenWeb would have less customers, less revenue and pay me, the shareholder, smaller dividends. Now how does that make any sense at all ?

...You've all definitely got the typical South African attitude of 'Don't complain, don't make an issue - you might get your head taken off'...

No, it's "don't complain if you are too lazy to sit down and work out which service provider actually suits your needs"

If OpenWeb had actually advertised 24 hour customer care and then not delivered, believe me I would not be opposing you on the issue

 

[cgull]

Sure - I'll admit that my thread title was a tad harsh, and *tried* to make it less so by putting the !? on the end... signifying my questioning my own statement.

By all you guys' arguments, you should have picked up on that, as I supposedly should have picked up that the lack of a/h support was 'not the right choice of ISP'.

The lack of what I consider an integral component of a good ISP can't be justified by the comments given by you guys who are obviously all experienced at this sort of thing; and thereby saying that everyone should question these things as a matter of course. What about inexperienced users?

It's for them that I'm posting this, and some future prospective home user will hopefully stumble on this thread and realise that this service is not for them because they'll always be using it after hours because it's not explicitly stated by OW until after the fact, and only discovered when you need it...

My wife is a brilliant programmer, but an absolute klutz when it comes to her Internet connection. She works from home, and works mainly in the evenings, when I am home and can help her through most problems. She has had many issues that I have been able to fix in a click, but if I weren't there, she'd be screwed & not able to work! It's so presumptuous to think that everyone is a 9 to 5er and not cater for them in some economically efficient manner as an ISP.


Edit:
And does nobody actually read what I've been saying here from the word go? Not once did I say they're hopeless because of no 24/7 support (take special note, TheLoot). Please read my previous paragraph for further clarification... and read my post about there being no information on their website regarding this. and this post http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showpost.php?p=1351753&postcount=28
Why have a website when I have to call for clarification??

It's always hidden in the fine print...

 

[TheLoot]

...Edit:
And does nobody actually read what I've been saying here from the word go? Not once did I say they're hopeless because of no 24/7 support (take special note, TheLoot)...

I just re-read your first post and all subsequent ones by you, and I stick by what I've said.

This thread will serve to warn home users who are not as clued up about the internet as you intend from your contributions, and it will serve to deliver a balanced point of view from all contributions.

I do not think your point is invalid, it stands. OpenWeb do not offer adequate after hours customer support.

Had you not been provoked by me and a few other formites, this thread would have maintained an unnecessary negative slant (that there "service sucks") but as you said in your last post, you feel it might have been a bit harsh. Where would you last post have come from if everyone had just agreed with you ?

 

[Necuno]

carefull with openweb heresy here hehe

well i also had an openweb issue this past sunday and was sorted by mrBeep in 2Hrs (even though i am no openweb client) - i have to wonder sometimes, does he sleep and even take some time off from this jungle of ISP business.

but i do agree with cgull on the AH support, rather then go to some other ISP that does give them, mostly i will be doing AH programming too/web work and then need the AH support.

if your connection is down and you loose money, trust me you will sing a different tune to VS 'brats' who just need the internet now and then and not actually your living off it...

 

[Xyler]

Mr Cgull, just close the fkin OW account and join WebAfrica or like me stick with TelkomSA, a month back I was in the same boat as you with OW.
Do you think staying with OW after all this drama is worth it? (I for one don't)
You choose a SP that suites you, if they lose a(nother) client... It's totally their own problem!!...
And this forum is there to help other people not make bad choices! Duh!

<<Peace out>>

 

[cgull]

I just re-read your first post and all subsequent ones by you, and I stick by what I've said.

This thread will serve to warn home users who are not as clued up about the internet as you intend from your contributions, and it will serve to deliver a balanced point of view from all contributions.

I do not think your point is invalid, it stands. OpenWeb do not offer adequate after hours customer support.

Had you not been provoked by me and a few other formites, this thread would have maintained an unnecessary negative slant (that there "service sucks") but as you said in your last post, you feel it might have been a bit harsh. Where would you last post have come from if everyone had just agreed with you ?

Now there's a reasonable response, and I have reciprocated by amending the thread title...

No hard feelings to all, and thanks for the WA tip - we've opened an account with them. Nice thing there is that on their pre-paid option, unused Gb never expire... Took about 20 minutes to have activated, and that was at 7pm...

My work here is done....

 

[TheLoot]

Now there's a reasonable response, and I have reciprocated by amending the thread title...

No hard feelings to all, and thanks for the WA tip - we've opened an account with them. Nice thing there is that on their pre-paid option, unused Gb never expire... Took about 20 minutes to have activated, and that was at 7pm...

My work here is done....

Good to hear