Just as a bit of a comparison - here's the timeline of how things happened with AH vs CI
CoolIdeas:
Thursday 21 Feb (14:00)
Send mail with query regarding the interactive map or their order page.
Friday 22 Feb
8:25 Get an answer on query and put in order
10:25 Get an e-mail with my online login details
14:15 Get an e-mail with the Vumatel order number (They say it will take 3 - 5 workdays for them to get to me)
Monday 25 Feb
10:00 Get a phonecall from Vuma confirming installation time for Wednesday
Wednesday 27 Feb
Vuma's appointment is for 13:00. They arrive at 12:55
At 14:00 they are done and I mail the setup reference to Cool Ideas
They let me know it can take up to 72 hours to initialize
Thursday 28 Feb
Get home, plug in my Mikrotic router and everything is working.
In contrast with Afrihost:
Friday 18th of Jan:
Put in order and get confirmation at 16:00.
Get told Vumatel will get to me in 3 - 5 days
About 4 days later I do get the router delivered to my home (the only thing apart from the billing department that worked)
24 Jan - ask them for a reference number for Vuma installation so I can follow up myself (e-mail)
Get a reply on 26 Jan:
'Your order is currently with the installers, as soon as the a technician is available,you will be connected to arrange time and date for the installation'
Still no Vuma reference number. From this time onwards all my communication to them was to try and get that ref number from them
31 Jan I ask again for the ref number so I can follow up myself (this was still on the initial order ticket)
4 Feb - send a new support request to support@afrihost
5 Feb
After hearing nothing on the online system I decide to mail
[email protected] to try and get a response from someone who could maybe care.
That also goes into the automated call system
6 Feb I went to the call system and asked again for the ref number
Later on the 6th I go to their Facebook page and publicly ask for an update
I also sent them a PM with the reference numbers
This is a direct quote from what I got from them:
"I have also had a look at your ticket and I think I have found why you have had no response. The way that the systems are designed is that every time you send a new mail without receiving a response your ticket gets sent to the bottom of the queue; which takes the teams longer to get to it"
And also:
"Our system at social media works the same. If multiple messages are sent they keep being sent to the bottom"
The Facebook drones promise high focus on this
The 7th I ask again (I would assume that by now if things have been escalated it would take less than a day to respond)
They respond to this saying it looks like there was a duplicate order at Vuma but that it is now sorted.
Still no reference number
On the same day one of their guys (H) sent me this:
"I am tagging you under my profile now so you will only be dealing with me going forward"
This is important to note as I will reference this further down
Every time I manage to beg a response out of them I get told that a supervisor has been involved and this will be sorted.
Remember - I am still trying to only get a reference number for Vuma
9 Feb I get a message with a Vumatel reference number (again with the 3 - 7 day message)
Things at work become a bit hectic so I don't follow up (I also got a reference number so I feel slightly better about it)
The 20th of Feb (1 and a half week later) I decide to phone Vuma with the reference number.
They have the correct address, number and other details, but the order has been cancelled by Afrihost.
So off to Facebook again.
In PM I ask them about this and tell them they must cancel the order.
As so many times before I got "I was really hoping that you'd give us a chance to correct this mistake"
On the public post I comment about this and then out of the blue the same 'H' pipes up: "We will always do our best to help out" This is the guy I mentioned earlier that on the 7th made the promise that he will now personally be involved 'going forward'. The 1st I heard from him again was this comment on the 20th.
They also instructed the courier to come and pick up the router - promise to pick it up on Friday the 22nd (They eventually arrived on Tuesday the 26th) (At this point is should also be noted that I had to confirm my address 3 times. In the same private chat).
So on the 21st of Feb I got a mail from Afrihost and Vumatel congratulating me on an approved application through Afrihost.
I contact them again only to hear that I never cancelled my order.
After I quoted the previous day's conversation with them they tell me they can't cancel on my behalf.
Needless to say that would have been info I would have liked to know the previous day.
Turns out that the 'cancel' button on the pending service screen on their portal is actually offscreen.
You can see the edge of the frame around the button at the bottom of the screen.
So I do that.
That same day I get sent an invoice for R1000 for the router.
After flipping my lid they tell me it will get reversed when they get the router (and they meant to tell me)
The 27th of Feb the debit order goes off for the router (that was surprising as their debit orders usually go off either the 1st or 2nd of each month)
Contact them again and get told that they tried to reverse it but the reversal didn't work (no surprise really)
It does look like they have credited me on the money though.
So I'm not saying Cool Ideas is better than Afrihost.
I'll leave that for you to decide.
;-)
