Sentech, in my opinion, are totally incompetent.

[bb_matt]

Haven't posted here in a while - been busy and I've had reasonable service up until Sunday and it's sucked since then.

I got a call from Sentech today indicating that they had my bank details wrong and I owe them R2900 - I hadn't been checking my statement properly and sure enough, they hadn't charged me since I signed up.
I asked if I could settle that amount over 6 months. The accounts lady I was speaking to spoke to her boss, short answer, NO.
Ok, but I could pay it over 3 months but during that time my connection would be put on hold - eh ?
I asked to speak to her manager - sorry, she's on a call, I'll leave a message. I phoned again 1 hour later, still on a call but she'll phone you later. Well, it's been 3 hours and I haven't heard from this manager.

I think Sentech must be out to alienate it's existing clients as much as possible.

The payment issue was thier mess-up - they got the wrong account number written down, I didn't give them the wrong number otherwise how would they be able to do a credit check ?

So, the policy is basically "Tough luck, we're not prepared to negotiate a mistake we've made"

So there we go, my budget is fUxored for this month. I should've kept a closer eye on my account, but the bottom line is I'm now paying for a mistake by Sentech and they are not prepared to assist.


I've been making it my personal mission to tell everyone I know to steer clear of Sentech. So far, I've influenced a good 20 people not to consider Sentech - all of them were seriously considering signing up.

<b>Well done Sentech !</b>


I'm going to continue to <b>tell people how bad </b>Sentech's service is every chance I get - In fact, I'm seriously considering a bulk email campaign to over 2000 email addresses indicating what sort of poor service Sentech provides.


They say word of mouth is the best advertising, well, in Sentechs case, it's going to be the worst, that's for sure !

 

[noswal]

I just logged into my account, I've got two invoices for May and June, both for zero Rands and I agree with that figure, no doubt - for the service I've had its worth every cent.

My account info has Birth Date 2036/02/06 so therefore I haven't been born to be able to have this service!



_________________________________________________________________________
Finished my 750g Ricoffy, cut a hole in it, stuck it to the modem; 3 lights and 42% BER! []

 

[playkiller no.2]

I said it before I say it again thank g-d for myadsl forums,for showing that Sentech is not the way to go for broadband happiness.

 

[passif]

bb_matt, also raise this at http://www.hellopeter.com. A lot of people check HelloPeter re companies and the service that they offer, and Sentech is building up a bit od a rep there as a 'company that does not care'.

---
Sentech and Telkom: The pupil surpassing the master

 

[noswal]

Added my 2cents to http://www.hellopeter.com currently at 3 for, 20 against. 2 of those 3 is the same person who also lists himself in the against as well.



_________________________________________________________________________
Finished my 750g Ricoffy, cut a hole in it, stuck it to the modem; 3 lights and 42% BER! []

 

[kickass72za]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by noswal</i>
<br />Added my 2cents to http://www.hellopeter.com currently at 3 for, 20 against. 2 of those 3 is the same person who also lists himself in the against as well.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Probably a "confused" undercover operative from HQ.....thinking they can blow smoke up their own "BUTTS"

Just a thought????

 

[Pumba]

From where I stand, I cannot see any blame in Sentech's handling.

Yes,it was their fault, and for that they do not charge you intrest. But the fact that you do not have the cash now is not their fault. By implication you admit had they deduct the money there would not be sufficient funds in anycase.

Bad financial control from your side. But that is only my opinion.

 

[regardtv]

As an aside, Sentech over billed me this month and have acknowledged the fault ... not instead of re-imbursing me they are trying to "credit" my account... Its not a big amount but it's a principle issue. What they did is steal my money and now I must suffer till next month ... uhm ... think not.

bb_matt - if you push hard enough I believe they'll back off and let you spread it over a couple of months.

 

[Scarface]

tough bb-matt...Pumba, deal with those damn tickets instead of loitering on the forum.

How's this...we live in the age of Electronic Communication. Sentech IS an ISP and a player in the IT arena (yes Marcel, you guys are an ISP, in fact go look at your own website). Now, I don't even know where to go log in to check my account. Now if I was Sentech (seeing that all my clients have e-mail addresses) I would gladly e-mail them a statement each month in HTML or PDF format, one click and that's all. A monthly newsletter telling us what Sentech is doing to improve in-house skills might also help and a "Call Centre Agent of the month" column would be nice.

Point is Pumba and Sentech...any decent professional company will send their customers a statement at least once a month - like MTN & Vodacom - geez, even Telkom can do that. so bb_matt, some of us are not always inclined to scrutinise our bank statements. You are legally responsible but Sentech with their Amateur setup also is to blame.

-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;

Remove the rock from your shoe rather than learn to limp comfortably.
Stephen C. Paul / Gary Max Collins

 

[noswal]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Scarface</i>

Now, I don't even know where to go log in to check my account.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Here:
https://reg.mywireless.sentech.co.za/register/index.jsp



_________________________________________________________________________
Finished my 750g Ricoffy, cut a hole in it, stuck it to the modem; 3 lights and 42% BER! []

 

[TheRoDent]

Well, considering the fiasco that is Infranet (their billing system) none of this surprises me whatsoever. Remember people, in future if you're ever involved in any IT project concerning "Infranet", steer clear. And uh, no, I'm not going to start infranetsucks.co.za, but honestly the product is overpriced, featureless, slow, and generally useless.

It also has a PER ACCOUNT annual software maintenance royalty "feature" of between $5 and $10 per "account", on top of the initial $50 per account (only purchasable in 10000 account blocks) which is probably why Sentech is so hard-ass about giving us refunds.

This is over and above the base product cost (which is frightening) the Oracle database license, and the extortional rates of the "product specialists".

This is typically the kind of software that the Pointy-Haired-Boss buys on one of his international "IT Infrastructure" junkets, and received a nice car, or hunting trip for, as 'incentive'.

I find it appaling that a software company can charge per "database row". Pah...

<i>Disclaimer: The pricing is generalised, and does not reflect current market prices. These are just more-or-less what I worked with when I dealt with the product. Actual results may vary. All rights reserved. All rights disclaimed, etc...</i>

<center><h6> MyWireless <s>Hacks</s> Tweaks & Tech Info || Have you checked the fawking FAQ? <br /> <font color="red">Tired of bad Service? Want to compare speeds? We at least listen...</font id="red"></h6></center>

 

[LordyHaHa]

bb_mat - chalk up another for the stay away team!
Thanks to you guys and the forum, I'm staying well away from Sentech, oh, and ADSL.

Been reading scary stories about both of them, but at least when I started I knew telkom was the devil [] I've also been telling everyone I kow to stick clear due to what I've read.
To all of you out there with the problems, keep pushing Sentech and keep fighting cos at the end of the day it should make the company and their service better if they at some stage actually start listening and sorting things out and LEARN FROM THIER MISTAKES. If they don't, then its all f**ked.

Now I'm gonna go check out the pricing on ISDN as it seems best for gaming (is this correct?) and general costs appear low..
later and good luck.

 

[bb_matt]

I'm going to get hold of someone higher up today (if possible) to sort this out.
I'll admit minor negligence on my side for not following up my account properly, so long as Sentech admit they messed up.

It's not a huge issue, it's a minor niggly that can happen to any company but the problem is that Sentech already have such a bad name that nobody is suprised when they mess up on billing too.

I fail to understand the logic of Sentech - they have become thier own worst enemy by not "coming to the party" with thier clients. If this continues, they'll be lucky to have any more clients six months from now.

I, for one, am going to be eyeing out the competition near years end with a view to getting out of this one sided contract with Sentech.

Having read what I've seen on this forum, a decent laywer would be able to get you out of a contract due to Sentech's negligence.

If push comes to shove, we could gather together 20 users who all put stop orders on thier accounts and hire a laywer to cancel the contracts - if it gets done "en mass" then the legal costs can be shared.

I don't want to go that far unless I really have to - I've got enough on my plate as it is.

Why oh Why don't Sentech simply come clean and get someone highup to post on this forum or make a press statement apologising for all the service problems and indicating what Sentech intend to do about it ?

It's really that simple. An honest statement and an indication of when things will be back on track regarding service - that's all they need to do.

I can only conclude that thier is a hefty amount of sheer arrogance in high level management - possibly a few "gravy trains" zipping about up there ...

 

[ConDamage]

Well I can't wait for them to put up a forum on their site, they'll probly moderate each post 1st and nuke all the ones we make but there's always a chance we can reveal their crappy additude on their own site.

LordyHaHa, isdn is pretty good for gaming and provided you get the right package for what you need it won't be that costly. You'll get good pings dailing up on 64 and close to adsl pings when dailing 128. Isp's charge a lot for 128k dail-up though, thats the only prob, I'm not sure how much cuz mine is a special arangement consting less than a 56k dail-up []

 

[gripen]

Whats up with this Bulletin Board as announced by Ms. Potgieter? I wonder what kind of stuff they will post there. It will be useless if its the same BS we get by mass-mailing

 

[passif]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by LordyHaHa</i>
Now I'm gonna go check out the pricing on ISDN as it seems best for gaming (is this correct?) and general costs appear low..
later and good luck.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Try Imaginet (http://www.imaginet.co.za) for a company that provides a good service wrt customers, and their ISDN pricing is reasonable. You can get cheaper, but their service is very good, and they have a special 'gamers number' as well. 64k ISDN is R119 a month, 128K ISDN is R199. I would get 10K - 14K consistently on the 128k connection, and maxing out fairly often.

---
Sentech and Telkom: The pupil surpassing the master

 

[regardtv]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by greedyflyza</i>
<br />Whats up with this Bulletin Board as announced by Ms. Potgieter? I wonder what kind of stuff they will post there. It will be useless if its the same BS we get by mass-mailing
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

What concerns me is that for those that actually post there.... It will be moderated and controlled by Sentech ... NUF SAID ...

probably wont work half the time then []

 

[Jhbgirl]

What's interesting is when we complained about connection drops etc, they told us if we want to they'd cancel the contract. Just like that. We didn't want to cancel, it's GREAT when it's working. But then your hands are kinda tied when that's their solution

 

[bb_matt]

Well, you know, in South Africa, we get used to bad service and so many people don't complain, which ends up with the service never improving.

I tend not to be like that - if I don't like the way I've been treated or the service I'm receiving, I like to stand up and say something about it.

Fact is, I've had decent service up till now from Sentech and just one small thing has set me off - thier attitude toward thier customers.

If the manager of the lady I spoke to had phoned me and said "I'm sorry Mr.bb_matt, but unfortunately due to abc we cannot debit the amount over x months" I'm reasonable enough to understand.

But no, Sentech do not work like that. They insist on aggravating a simple customer issue by not responding. It's silly of them. I phoned about 4 times today to number I was given and got through to a "please record your message"
I left a polite message asking for someone to call me, but so far, nothing.

My connection service is going well again today - I've had 4 days bad connectivity and now it's steaming along.

So what, there's no customer loyalty left in me after this stupid issue over payment. Sentech have shown thier true colours. Essentially, in my opinion, there appears to be incompetence at all levels of the company.

There's only one place that can originate from - management.

In my opinion, I honestly don't see anything improving with Sentech until upper management are replaced, which of course will never happen. In my imagination and opinion, there's some fat cats up there with absolutely no concept or will to run a business properly - it's all about board "meetings" and flash cars.

If you have management that are like that, there's no hope for a company as it filters down to all levels.

The bottom line is the corniest cliche of them all :-

"Customer is King"

 

[bb_matt]

I'm now a happier customer - Sentech are prepared to assist me in what was obviously thier mistake :-

http://www.myadsl.co.za/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3783

Kudos where it is due folks - ...