OpenWeb threads getting locked

[HavocXphere]

True. Perhaps threads could be merged into the big thread after the problem has been addressed?

Sounds like an OK solution (def better than locking). It'll def disrupt the big thread a bit though. Merged threads always make me feel a bit sea sick trying to understand what happened.

Personally I feel locking of OW threads for any reason whatsoever does OW a disservice image wise. Locked threads are only marginally better than deleted threads - they both have a vibe of "undemocratic-ness" about them if that makes sense (not that a forum is a democracy). And worse they trigger the Streisand effect. Lock or delete anything & mybb members will scream bloody murder regardless of whether it was justified or not.

I think (speculate) that its better for OW to risk multiple threads & losing track of stuff than the above. Risk repeating info. Risk confusion. Doesn't matter...all of those are preferable to locking. This thread is proof of that.

Never been a secret that their service sucks...

It does? Personally with Mr Beep accessible here I've never had issues on that front.

Have noticed this too, seems the mybroadband moderators are in the pocket of mrbeep.

mybb mods make concessions to company reps that make a point of being active on the forums & I fully support that as long as its about helping the company rep rather than influencing the user base. Dealing with forum users isn't easy or pleasant & few companies stick around for as long as OW has.

Besides hell hath no furry like mybb members pissed about something (as demonstrated recently) & mods have little power against a united userbase. So if something serious is wrong then it will be heard.

 

[Bona Botse]

What's this behemoth about?

I get what you're saying but from the viewpoint of an openweb rep trying to keep abreast of problems having one thread makes a certain amount of sense, doesn't it?

Other reps seem to be handling the multiple threads fine though, which is why I commented on perceived "special treatment".

True. Perhaps threads could be merged into the big thread after the problem has been addressed?

After the problem is resolved the thread will die a natural death IMHO, no need for any moderation. One of the threads in question was just locked with no resolution having being reached, which spawned the second thread where the debate continued.

My Openweb account has been wonderful and aside from the odd hiccup I've had absolutely no complaints for more than a year now. However, when we point this out, we're labelled fanatics.

You're labelled fanatics because it seems as if the only reason for mentioning your trouble-free account is to defend OpenWeb. What other purpose does it serve to point out your flawless connection when the complainant is clearly having issues?

 

[Aquadyne]

You're labelled fanatics because it seems as if the only reason for mentioning your trouble-free account is to defend OpenWeb. What other purpose does it serve to point out your flawless connection when the complainant is clearly having issues?

This...

Although I steer away from the use of the word fanatic so liberally, it does seem apparent that there are quite a few that always and vigorously jump in to say their service is splendid.

Nobody is disputing that, but it doesn't help the process of identification and discussion of a very real problem being experienced by a few people.

At the same time, there are those that consistently jump in to bash Openweb as ex-clients. That also doesn't help.

There are problems, not insurmountable ones.. Let's just work together to get them solved.

I gave also left Openweb in the past due to their methods of troubleshooting and just handing out new logins. I've tried many ISP's and came back prepared to accept their methods. Nothing is perfect, just choose your tolerance levels.

 

[HavocXphere]

the only reason for mentioning your trouble-free account is to defend OpenWeb.

Thats a bit harsh. Its normal at mybb for others with identical accounts to chip in. It provides limited but real info for troubleshooting purposes. Sometimes if you post about issues you get 10 ppl saying "Me too" & then you know its not an issue with your a/c.

 

[Bona Botse]

Thats a bit harsh. Its normal at mybb for others with identical accounts to chip in. It provides limited but real info for troubleshooting purposes. Sometimes if you post about issues you get 10 ppl saying "Me too" & then you know its not an issue with your a/c.

It does sound a bit harsh when you quote mine me like that . Reason why I said it seems like they're defending OW is because of the aforementioned vigour with which they proclaim that their accounts are flawless. Like they're questioning the audacity of the OP creating a thread that brings OW under scrutiny instead of trying to be helpful.

It's happened before where the above encourages equally outspoken disgruntled former subscribers to add their 2c and the thread deteriorates to a point where it gets locked.

Contentious OW threads always seem to end up being locked or deleted, but there's been a myriad of threads complaining about various aspects of Mweb, WebAfrica, Afrihost, Axxess, you name it, that die naturally.

 

[Zewp]

You're labelled fanatics because it seems as if the only reason for mentioning your trouble-free account is to defend OpenWeb. What other purpose does it serve to point out your flawless connection when the complainant is clearly having issues?

To indicate that the problem isn't affecting everyone and also to ensure the impression isn't given that OpenWeb accounts all give issues. In other ISP threads people don't compliment the service when it's good, so all you ever hear is complaints, giving the impression that it's a shyte ISP. Now on Openweb some of us compliment the service or say that we're not having issues and we're labelled fanatics. Because for some reason, it's 'wrong' to defend an ISP.

But I understand. Some people don't like to see the positive side of things. Some people would rather the people who get good service shut up so that the negativity can drown out the positivity. Some men just want to watch the world burn.

Openweb has always spawned fanatics on both sides of the fence. Doubt that will ever change.

 

[km2]

I understand how the mega threads start, where it makes it just that much easier for a rep to look in a single place for all the things they need to reply to.

Is there a reason why when they get sufficiently popular they don't just get broken off into a subforum for individual ISPs? Even though I may want to talk about my experience with Afrihost or OpenWeb, it's not great wading through a 10 000+ post thread, especially when there are people discussing a range of things related to the ISP but which may not be of interest to me. It's much easier to avoid these things when it's presented in a regular sub forum format.

 

[Chevron]

I understand how the mega threads start, where it makes it just that much easier for a rep to look in a single place for all the things they need to reply to.

Is there a reason why when they get sufficiently popular they don't just get broken off into a subforum for individual ISPs? Even though I may want to talk about my experience with Afrihost or OpenWeb, it's not great wading through a 10 000+ post thread, especially when there are people discussing a range of things related to the ISP but which may not be of interest to me. It's much easier to avoid these things when it's presented in a regular sub forum format.

Because it would be totally crap for forumites. If I want to research different having all the feedback in 1 sub forum is much easier.

 

[km2]

Because it would be totally crap for forumites. If I want to research different having all the feedback in 1 sub forum is much easier.

I don't see why, you would at least be able to follow each persons complaint or complement to see if it was satisfactorily resolved rather than this mass of issues that just kinds of weaves around in the current mega thread.

 

[MickeyD]

So will all ISP threads be treated like this in future?

In theory then, we only need a single thread per ISP...

 

[Paul Hjul]

I get the idea of wanting company reps to have a single thread which they have to check, but surely the flow of discussions and there being separate issues etc ... makes a single feedback thread plain daft. My suggestion is that ISPs participating maintain a "service feedback thread" and a general practice be followed that if you discuss the service or products of your provider outside of that thread you post a link in that thread. If you fail to make a link then no expectation of a response can arise and the ISP is assumed to be unaware. So if you start a bitch thread and you fail to post a link in the feedback thread you are pissing in the wind. If a thread is nothing other than a massive set of complaints and an incoherent bitch fest as soon as the company rep posts an indicator that the complaints are noted and a link into the feedback thread noting x number of serious complaints then the thread can be locked - normally the threads will die a natural death and the "lock message" will be a noting of feedback; this allows people to actually monitor how well ISPs are actually doing.

 

[zll]

My 2c? Contact OW support via email instead of coming and creating a thread here. The couple of times I've had problems I've sent e-mails and gotten a fairly quick response back.

 

[Gboss]

been on OW Gold for 1 1/2 years now. No major problems except for seacom breakages.

Pls move this to, http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/469168-OpenWeb-ADSL-Feedback-Thread, we will not be replying to comments about OW unless posted in the OFFICIAL thread LOL

 

[Bona Botse]

My 2c? Contact OW support via email instead of coming and creating a thread here. The couple of times I've had problems I've sent e-mails and gotten a fairly quick response back.

As I said, when threads are created here, more often than not it is a result of support not being helpful in sorting out the issue. I can relate to the threads because I was also in a situation where support didn't do anything about my issue until I created a thread. Which makes me wonder if the issue would have been resolved at all had I not made it public. And, that was really the whole point of creating the thread, to apply pressure.

For your enjoyment, here's the transcript of the communication between support and myself:

I signed up for OpenWeb Gold due to the positive feedback that can be found on this here forum, but my experience with this product has left a lot to be desired.

Initially I was on a WebAfrica backbone, which worked fine for a little while, but then I started noticing that my downloads from usenet were being throttled to about 100KBps during off peak periods. I emailed support and they eventually put me on the IS backbone.

And this is where the fun started. From the get go, daytime speeds were throttled to 20Kbps (I'm talking normal browsing here, and HTTP downloads like drivers and Windows updates), but the off peak downloads from usenet where pretty much maxing out my line so I figured I'd just let it be.

But then I needed to use the connection during the day, and the throttling really made it unusable, I mean, speed tests were timing out! So I decided to contact support again. In the interest of full disclosure, I'll reproduce the entire email conversation below.

On Mar 7, 2012 11:47 AM, "efitol" <efitol> wrote:
Hi,

My account username is [email protected] and I'm the Gold Uncapped 4mbps.

My normal browsing is very sluggish and feels as though the speeds are being throttled. This only happens between 8am and 5pm. This seems to mostly affect international services like YouTube, Facebook and other internationally hosted sites while browsing and performing HTTP downloads, all of which should not be shaped as far as I understand. Please assist?

Regards,
efitol

From: efitol
Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2012 10:03 AM
To: OpenWeb Support
Subject: Re: Sluggish browsing

Hi,

I sent the below email yesterday and haven't received a response. Please assist as my browsing has once again become throttled and unusable.

On Mar 8, 2012 1:53 PM, "OpenWeb Support" <[email protected]> wrote:
Hello

I appreciate your email!
You have used 130GB’s in a few days. I would suggest you upgrade to the After Hours Uncapped Unshaped package for R899. This will suit your usage needs better


Kind regards,
Keoma Wright
Founder,
OpenWeb.co.za

From: efitol
Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2012 4:50 PM
To: OpenWeb Support
Subject: Re: Sluggish browsing

Hi,

I'm not so sure what the 130 gigs have to do with being throttled on HTTP browsing and downloads during the day, or how moving to an after hours uncapped account will address my issues.

This IS account has always been throttled during peak periods, even before I downloaded the 130 gigs. It has never bothered me until now, as I now occasionally have to use it during the day. The aforementioned 130 gigs were only ever downloaded during off peak periods using Usenet.

If being throttled during the day on all protocols is part of this product then I was mislead because all the literature pertaining to this product only ever mention shaping, which I am sure you know is quite different to throttling.

In this case I would then like to request that my account be immediately terminated and that I get refunded a prorated amount for the remainder of the month. If it is not possible for the cancellation to be done with a refund, then please accept this correspondence as official notice of termination of my account, as March will be my last month.

I look forward to your response in which I hope you'll address all the points and issues that I've raised above.

Regards,
efitol

On Mar 8, 2012 5:18 PM, "OpenWeb Support" <[email protected]> wrote:
Hello,

You are not being throttled, you are being shaped.

You are using a shaped service.

Unfortunately, we cannot provide a 24 / 7 unshaped experience on a shaped package.


Kind regards,
Mandy

On Thu, Mar 8, 2012 at 5:32 PM, efitol <efitol> wrote:
What does shaped mean, and what is the difference between shaped and throttled?

If a try and download a driver from www.ati.com and the maximum speed I can get is 20KBps, am I shaped or throttled?

If I browse the web (normal websites like Digg.com, Facebook.com etc.) and the maximum speed I get is 20KBps, am I being shaped or throttled?

If I download Windows updates and the maximum speed I get is 20KBps, am I being shaped or throttled?

My maximum speed on ALL INTERNATIONAL SERVICES is 20KBps, are you seriously telling me that that is the speed that I should expect on a premium Gold account, and that I'm not being throttled?

My understanding of shaped is that certain services must give way for higher priority services when the network is busy. Is browsing a low priority service?

efitol
1:44 PM (19 hours ago)

to Keoma, OpenWeb
Hi,

I'm still experiencing being throttled on HTTP during peak hours. Please assist as this is getting more frustrating now. International speed tests report my speed as 10KBps, and that's if they don't time out due to the throttling.

Here's a speed test that didn't time out and is indicative of this account's daytime performance:

I have a few issues with the way that this is being handled:
1) They pick and choose which emails to respond to.
2) When they do eventually respond, they pick and choose which queries to address.
3) When they do address a query, they don't really solve the issue.
I say I'm throttled, they say I've used 130GB so far and suggest after hours uncapped. So I'm complaining that my account behaves like an after hours uncapped and their response is that I should get after hours uncapped? WTF?
They say I'm not throttled and that I'm shaped, even though this is not consistent with feedback from the OpenWeb feedback thread. Surely then EVERYONE would be "shaped" to 20KBps during daytime?

I'm very disappointed with the OpenWeb support. MrBeep always comes on here saying that it's no use complaining on the forum and that we should rather email them, but as you can see above, that too is also useless at times. I suggest that if you want a product with proper support and daytime performance, rather look elsewhere.

Oh, look, here come the fanbois

 

[Klokies]

Same problem here. I can understand the account or web traffic running at 50% or even 30% during business hours but NOT being able to browse and having to hit refresh 10 times before being lucky enough to get a page to open is total BS. Support throw you the normal bs without reading the complaint properly almost as if scripted. I think Openweb are having technical troubles atm and don't want to become clean. To add injury to insult when I requested to have my account canceled vie email ( witch sort of worked) I was give a link to a web page for cancelation... I cant open a damn webpage you moron!!!!

 

[Necuno]

Isn't it strange that the users of other ISPs mostly if not all the time keep to their respected feedback threads? Just an observation