OpenWeb - service sucks?!?!

C

cgull

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OpenWeb - service?!?! - not for home users

My wife has had OpenWeb as an ISP for about 6 months now, as she gets an ISP subsidy from her work, and works from home.

The main problem is that I recommend it on the strength of the quality, but...

Since she has subscribed to their service, we haven't had many problems, but when there have been (about 1 or 2 days in a month avg) she/we have always been a bit dismayed to discover that they only do support by phone until 4:30pm, and email support until about 7pm....

Well - I don't know about you, but anyone who trumpets (xcuse the pun - see their website) their excellence in 'price' (a bit more xpensive than the average) and service (well...), should actually offer service to people who need it!

OpenWeb Elephant ad here
found at:
www.openweb.co.za

I'm sure we're not the only domestic customer of theirs, and their flat unwillingness to even offer an after-hours service is pretty dismal...

I have used services of small wireless ISP's (WiSP's) before, and even with the battles I had there, there was always someone available until a reasonable time of around 10 pm or so for home users.
Sometimes we would call the local agent who normally was able to sort out any problem, but here we're stuck to making ourselves available to suit them.

This is not cool....
 
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Mod_Note: You only need to post this thread once ;)
 
sorry - something funny going on here... my mistake :(

please delete any other successful attempts I made - I tried 2 post on another openweb thread.... leave whichever you think is appropriate.

:)
 
Hey cgull

I am so sorry you are finding our service undesirable.

If there are any specific problems, you may direct them to me at: [email protected]
Did you experience anything negative maybe?

We take it very seriously when a client posts a thread on a public forum, as it means something serious must've taken place. I would love to hear from you cgull.

Our telephonic support centre has the office hours of 08:30am to 17:00pm Monday to Friday. This has been the hours we have implemented for the last year. We have trialed many various other hours, and discovered that there simply aren't enough calls to justify the hiring of an extra agent. We prefer to offer cheaper prices (eg 5GB SAIX - R239 and 10GB SAIX - R459) and provide after hours email support.

I trust this reply will answer some of your questions. I look forward to hearing from you.,

Kind regards
MrBEEP
 
I aggree in some way. Some times one really would need phone support and It can get kinda frustrating when you cant get it fixed. But thats not everyday so I dont mind.
 
MrBEEP said:
Hey cgull

I am so sorry you are finding our service undesirable.

If there are any specific problems, you may direct them to me at: [email protected]
Did you experience anything negative maybe?

We take it very seriously when a client posts a thread on a public forum, as it means something serious must've taken place. I would love to hear from you cgull.

Our telephonic support centre has the office hours of 08:30am to 17:00pm Monday to Friday. This has been the hours we have implemented for the last year. We have trialed many various other hours, and discovered that there simply aren't enough calls to justify the hiring of an extra agent. We prefer to offer cheaper prices (eg 5GB SAIX - R239 and 10GB SAIX - R459) and provide after hours email support.

I trust this reply will answer some of your questions. I look forward to hearing from you.,

Kind regards
MrBEEP
Click to expand...


i've used WA's after hours only 3 times in total now since i had my account via their messenger, but it sure is nice it have when you need it thought.
 
TheLoot said:
So because they do not offer 24 hour service you start a thread and complain ?
Click to expand...
Of course! This is supposed to be a 24hr service, but I'm actually asking for a little more than office hours only support! What use is email support after hours if I can't send email?

This has been a very frustrating few days trying to get my service to work, and get turned away each time I try to get some help because either:
a) Support is closed, and I missed the boat
b) Don't have my user name with me, and they can't help me with any other ways of identifying myself.

For a home user, this is extremely frustrating. It means I have to take time off work to troubleshoot my Internet service, which is not really service, and you can be sure OW won't compensate me for the extra cost to myself. Take a look around the forums here and see the lashing other ISP's get for not being available after hours and weekends.

To say
Our telephonic support centre has the office hours of 08:30am to 17:00pm Monday to Friday. This has been the hours we have implemented for the last year. We have trialed many various other hours, and discovered that there simply aren't enough calls to justify the hiring of an extra agent.
Click to expand...
is SUCH a cop-out.

Basically you are saying its not worth your while to support the clients who need it? Its only 'worth it' to support those that fall in line with YOUR working hours? And as far as I have experienced on more than one occasion, telephonic support is already closed by 16:30... also as per the office telephone message too, btw....

I changed from Telkom to try and get better support, but it seems the standard has been set and 'its not worth it' to improve on that standard...
:mad:

Note: I see similar pleas have been made on OW forums. Tell me, is Kyle's cell number on this page available after hours?
http://forums.openweb.co.za/viewtopic.php?t=490&highlight=&sid=44d897b350a9fa9f73742d3e4c44ca5a
 
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Hey friends

Because we offer email support after hours, we have created a guest account available to any OpenWeb client that would need it as a backup.

Drop me a mail, and I will provide you with the details.

I personally close the after hours support line, and it is never closed before 17:05pm. The message needs updating, which we will do as soon as we have found the new voice to fit our new image launching in January.

I really hope we can resolve this problem, and still look forward to receiving your mail.

Have a great Sunday,

Kind Regards
MrBEEP
 
Ok - hypothetically speaking then - and this assumes I have access to a 'backup' system - how long would it typically take for a problem to be resolved via email?

My assessment says that it would take 2-3 days before any issue is solved by this means, and that's assuming the response is prompt.

Try this with Telkom, and it's more than likely 2-3 weeks, assuming the mail actually gets read.

Again I ask, what is the point of after hours email only support when my connection is not working? My problem mysteriously went away, with no assistance or input from OW. Tried everything - resetting the router, re-entering the account details, re-synching the connection etc etc. Line was tested by Telkom & all ok, so it certainly pointed to an issue with the OW account.

The problem is the lack of after-hours support. I also hope we can resolve that.
Please explain how you help customers like us? What options are there?

What does the guest account offer, and what if someone is using it already?
 
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I did the whole OpenWeb thing, learnt my lesson, bad support, phones constantly engaged, e-mail replies take 2/3 days, eventually, gave up.

I've been using WebAfrica ever since, sorry to say but once you use THE BEST, you don't even WANT to use the rest.
 
gdiza said:
I did the whole OpenWeb thing, learnt my lesson, bad support, phones constantly engaged, e-mail replies take 2/3 days, eventually, gave up.

I've been using WebAfrica ever since, sorry to say but once you use THE BEST, you don't even WANT to use the rest.
Click to expand...


Sounds familiar... so good experience with WebAfrica eh? hmmm....
 
No cgull, I think you read wrong... not "good" experience, "amazing / AWESOME" experience"S"

Seriously, whenever I have problems, they don't just get fixed! they sort me out!
Like, I had a 30gb that just stopped working, i was 'offline' for 3 days and had used about 20GB of that account, not only did they fix the problem, they gave me 10GB account to use (new one) and new month they gave me a whole new 30gb account!

They look after their clients, no wait, they go beyond the call of duty for their clients.
 
thanks for the tip... unless MrBEEP can solve the problem of no after-hours telephonic support, sounds like a no-brainer to me.

I'm certainly not loyal to any ISP just because they're friendly on the forum...
 
I think personally, they should spend less time on the forums and more time fixing problems!

Why should they fix problems on the forums?
I bet you, while he is READING this topic, there is 2/3 people trying to phone in with their own problems!
 
cgull said:
thanks for the tip... unless MrBEEP can solve the problem of no after-hours telephonic support, sounds like a no-brainer to me.

I'm certainly not loyal to any ISP just because they're friendly on the forum...
Click to expand...

I can't help thinking you're just screaming Drama just because you can't have your way. I certainly won't keep my business running just to support a hand full of clients that may phone once or twice a month. AS valid as your point is, Mr Beeps is as well. I seriously doubt he'll change his business hours just because you're unhappy!... ;)
 
My personal experience, i've tried, telkom,mweb,webafrica,axxess,openweb.

openweb comes out trumps it hasnt take more thana 2-3 hours for mr beep to rectify any issue I have had, unlike webafrica 2 days and axxess more than like 5 days to just give me my acc I had already payed for via eft and sent pop twice.

Openweb comes up trumps.

J
 
gdiza said:
I think personally, they should spend less time on the forums and more time fixing problems!

Why should they fix problems on the forums?
I bet you, while he is READING this topic, there is 2/3 people trying to phone in with their own problems!
Click to expand...

And if there is no response on the forum then somebody cries about that...they can never win.

What is the point of a thread like this? If you are unhappy and your TELEPHONE conversation with MrBeep didn't turn out well, why not just change to another isp? It is easy.
 
There should be a minimum post count before you are allowed to post complaints...so many people register here just to complain
 
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