*** speeds today?

Scarface · Jun 27, 2004

MaD...many of us had great speeds for long periods - ask noone. Then all of a sudden, whap.

Have a bit of compassion for us...or are you an Orc at the Help Desk?

-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<

When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail.
Abraham Maslow

Kaptain Khaos · Jun 28, 2004

speed is way down today 5k a sec everywhere GRRRRR SlothTech sucks !![}

]

in chaos all things are harmonious
Tower 82 14% Signal 512k package

Scarface · Jun 29, 2004

Same here - I wonder when it is Mintek's turn to fly again...there must be some pattern to it.

-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<

The true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we don't know what to do.
John Holt

Kai · Jun 29, 2004

um. no. Mintek will be doing no flying... it'll crawl... maybe walk a bit... but there'll be no flying. it's slow as... well... a sentech connection!

ack.

spent almost half an hour talking to an Orc last night about my ticket that i opened on the 14th of this month - and no one (no, not p0rn king) has even bothered to phone me back in two weeks. I kinda lost it and told the Orc that this connection is CRAP and I'm tired of being ripped off. I told him in no uncertain terms that I want it fixed... yesterday...

yeah... right. as if that's gonna happen!

<hr noshade size="1"><div align="right">i haven't lost my mind, it's backed up on disk somewhere...
tower82.randparkridge.jhb|13% signal|256k package</div id="right">

passif · Jun 29, 2004

I'm on the 'daily notification to Orc and Dark Lord by supplying speed graphs and comments' approach. Yesterday I got the good news that ...

"Thank you for your feedback. I will be sure to update <Replace random selected name from Sentech telephone list with these brackets to protect the innocent> with regards to the speed issue your are still experiencing."

To which my reply (based on past Sentech performance) was...

"I am sure if I knew who <Replace name> was, it might actually make a difference. To be honest <Dark Lord with whom I am communicating>, the way I currently feel about Sentech, their service, their approach to the problems and their (perceived) customer atitude, I have very, very little belief that my speeds are going to improve. I believe that it will stay on the same, pathetic rollercoaster of totally sucky and below even contented speeds to barely usable.

To be honest - the reason why I am bugging you and the helldesk in the form of <Insert favourite helldesk Orc name here> is not because I have this naive belief that 'tomorrow everything will be fixed', but that in five weeks time I can approach Sentech and exercise clause 11.4.2 of my contract. I am thus providing Sentech with my proof of (lack of) bandwidth. Which is also why I am harping on Sentech's official definition of the terms 'acceptable use' and 'contention ratio application'."

---

If they phoned me up tomorrow and gave me the chance to cancel, I would. A friend of mine in the UK is on a 50:1 contention ratio 512/128 package, and he consistently gets 90%+ of his bandwidth. Doesn't even notice the contention. Until such time as I actually do get my bandwidth, they will hear from me at least once a day.

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

Sliver · Jun 29, 2004

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by passif
 
To be honest - the reason why I am bugging you and the helldesk in the form of <Insert favourite helldesk Orc name here> is not because I have this naive belief that 'tomorrow everything will be fixed', but that in five weeks time I can approach Sentech and exercise clause 11.4.2 of my contract. I am thus providing Sentech with my proof of (lack of) bandwidth. Which is also why I am harping on Sentech's official definition of the terms 'acceptable use' and 'contention ratio application'."
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Has anyone queried if we will be able to get out of the contract due to clause 11.4.2 . The way I feel at the moment i would rather move over to ISDN or ADSL now that telkom are almost up and running in my area.

Inevitable · Jun 29, 2004

yip cant go faster than 5kb/s

Glory Glory Man United!

LoneGunman · Jun 29, 2004

phone their accounts department, point to your open job ticket number, and scare them senseless by requesting a month's credit - if profits start falling because of their absence of bandwidth->client ratio, they'll 'fix' it (ie: buy more bandwidth)
Be friendly, firm, and - if your job ticket's been open longer than a couple of weeks, request credit for a month, and hurt their minds

Scarface · Jun 29, 2004

Has anyone actually received a Credit up to now???

-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<

The true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we don't know what to do.
John Holt

SINTech · Jun 29, 2004

It’s been almost a week now and my Sentech is not sorted out. Below are today’s speed test results.

Speed Test
Your speed is: 4.18 KBps, or 33.43 Kbps
The test took 245.016 seconds to complete

What the hell is going on? Sentech has phoned me today regarding the performance but I was at the office, luckily, otherwise they would’ve probably asked me to close the ticket.

If you guys don’t know what’s going on with my Sentech, then just tell me and say to me that you don’t know but it will take a week or two to sort out but don’t keep me in the dark.

The worst of all is that I’m still paying for this 33.6 “Broadband” connection for almost a week now.

DO YOU REALLY CALL THIS BROADBAND AND GOOD SERVICE?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good Day,

Please can you check pricing information for MyWireless on
the Sentech website. There you see information indicating
that the bandwidth is shared.

This means that you will share your 256Kbps connection with
other users on the Sentech network, it is not a guaranteed
throughput. The amount of 32.3Kbps that you are currently
achieving is within the limitation of the bandwidth sharing
on the MyWireless 256Kbps package.

In terms of a resolution, Sentech is still working at
resolving the bandwidth issues, however, as I mentioned
above, your current throughput is within the limitations
currently.

Regards
Tristan
Sentech Support
0860 736 832

------------------------------------------------------------------------

I Wrote:

> Please find attached a copy in my last email, my latest
> ipconfig results and resolve asap. Herewith is also my
> latest speedtest results:
>
>
> Speed Test
>
> Your speed is: 4.04 KBps
> <http://www.dslreports.com/faq/2388> , or 32.3 Kbps
> <http://www.dslreports.com/faq/2388>
> The test took 253.594 seconds to complete
>
>
>
> Theo
>
> In case you didn't understand the impact that Sentech has
> on my work and on me here’s a explanation regarding my
> issues.
>
> I’ve phoned the helpdesk approx 30+ times by now in the
> last 3 months, phoned Leon Joubert twice(apparently the
> Helpdesk manager) and for Dr Sebiletso Mokone-Matabane,
> the MD, on 011-691-7000(talking to her PA called Sue)
> once. Sentech needs to resolve this ASAP in 24 hours
> otherwise I’ll escalate it again.
>
>
>
> I’m quite disgusted with this service by now and for
> paying for a service that I don’t really get makes me
> even more frustrated. Sentech keeps on debiting my bank
> account each month which I’m corned into a 24 month
> contract without delivering “Broadband” with rather a 28k
> modem’s performance as indicated on their website.
>
> If this is not resolved by tomorrow due to the fact that
> it is like this for the last few days, I’ll escalate this
> email to a senior management level as well as the
> www.myadsl.co.za web site.
>
> Tell the technical personnel to please not to tell me to
> reset the modem and to reboot the PC as I’ve done it a
> few times by now. I would also like an explanation for
> this and I won’t close the ticket until all my
> requirements is met within the next 24 hours.
>
> Package: 256
>
> Tower: 66 (Pretoria ; Menlopark)
>
> Signal: 13%
>
> It feels as if I’m repeating myself each time since the
> last 3 months.
>
> Regards,
>

noswal · Jun 29, 2004

In response to Silver and FWIW before I had telkom's 64K, which far worse than the 64k (steady 56k) I was getting from my orignal ISP, I thought I'd try telkoms 128K but that was only marginally above 64k and twice the price. The advantage (and this is a compliment to Sintech) is that I can be online during the day and not pay extra phone costs, phone use has dropped dramatically for June.

Does anyone else use dslreports.com ?

http://www.dslreports.com/archive/sentechsa.net?s=29&r=245
my speed currently
2004-06-29 13:16:52 EST: 29 / 37
Your download speed : 30540 bps, or 29 kbps.
A 3.7 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 38424 bps, or 37 kbps.

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

]

Robone · Jun 29, 2004

I am downloading Mozilla now and the speed is fantastic...all of 3.5KB/sec. Now that is rocking.

This is the worst 2 weeks ever. Maybe Sentech's bandwidth is been restricted until they pay their bills at the end of the month when all the debit orders go through. Wouldn't suprise me at all. Probably their bandwidth supplier has seen what s**t service they are providing and said, hang on , better not let them get into debt, just now they go bust and owe us money, so lets only give them the bandwidth that they can afford.

And, it could also be that it is the end of the financial year for a lot of companies, and what you do is not pay for the bandwidth, get as many customers as possible, and then show a healthy profit. It's called fudging the books. All big corporates do it.

So either way, on the 1st July things will improve...watch this space.

hArTh · Jun 29, 2004

From some talk going on behind the scenes it appears that the root cause of the problem is that ST rolled out an uncapped broadband service with totally inadaquate bandwidth management facilities. With virtually no bandwidth management facilities in their network the MY network prior to peering is quite naturally a disaster.

This also explains the feast or famine scenario which so many are experiancing. God knows when ST are going to put in decent bandwidth management infrastructure, if ever. They will have to eventually though, if they want this product to gain market share.

And, laughably, the problem cant just be solved by shaping the traffic ... they dont yet have the *facilities* to manage or shape bandwidth properly [

]

Only interim "solution" is to keep hounding ST and making their life hell. PS The new protest sites are launching this week ... stay tj00ned

PS: For those expecting a 100% solution to the problem "any day now" ... don't torture yourself. Anything from a week (1 July) to several months!

-Professional information anarchist-
I support:
www.hellkom.co.za

Scarface · Jun 29, 2004

I would just like to blow off some steam so French, Italian, Portuguese, German and Spanish, please hit your "Back" button before reading any further:

merde lente de publicité mensongère d'escroquerie inutile
mierda lenta de la publicidad engañosa de la estafa inútil
langsame Scheiße der irreführenden Werbung der Gaunerei unbrauchbar
merda lenta di pubblicità menzognera di imbroglio inutile
merda lenta anunciar enganador do ripoff inútil

Hmmm, now I feel better...

-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<

The true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we don't know what to do.
John Holt

passif · Jun 29, 2004

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Sliver
 <blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by passif
 
To be honest - the reason why I am bugging you and the helldesk in the form of <Insert favourite helldesk Orc name here> is not because I have this naive belief that 'tomorrow everything will be fixed', but that in five weeks time I can approach Sentech and exercise clause 11.4.2 of my contract. I am thus providing Sentech with my proof of (lack of) bandwidth. Which is also why I am harping on Sentech's official definition of the terms 'acceptable use' and 'contention ratio application'."
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Has anyone queried if we will be able to get out of the contract due to clause 11.4.2 . The way I feel at the moment i would rather move over to ISDN or ADSL now that telkom are almost up and running in my area.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Yes, I have - several times. And today I queried it with Casper Cassidy (apparently very senior up the food chain at Sentech). He said to me "Undoubdtedly - there will be no question if the 'service' continues as it is that I will be able to cancel and my money refunded as I am not getting the service that Sentech should be providing."

So, I am going to continue to provide them with daily reports showing bandwidth on a 24-hour basis as this is proof that there are very little service.

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

regardtv · Jun 29, 2004

Refund ? Uhm ... for all your months use usage ? ... this should be interesting

R

passif · Jun 29, 2004

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by SINTech
 
It’s been almost a week now and my Sentech is not sorted out. Below are today’s speed test results.

What the hell is going on? Sentech has phoned me today regarding the performance but I was at the office, luckily, otherwise they would’ve probably asked me to close the ticket.

If you guys don’t know what’s going on with my Sentech, then just tell me and say to me that you don’t know but it will take a week or two to sort out but don’t keep me in the dark.

The worst of all is that I’m still paying for this 33.6 “Broadband” connection for almost a week now.

DO YOU REALLY CALL THIS BROADBAND AND GOOD SERVICE?

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Don't let them close the ticket, and keep on hammering them. Consistency is key - they are consistently providing sub-par speeds, which is unacceptable. Having been tracking my usage since the 11th June (and dthe daily graphs to prove it, it is very difficult for the helldesk to get away with the 'contention ratio' excuse. I would think it impossible that I am always on a channel with 29 other people, all of them always trying to outdo no-one and download the most pr0n.

If you can, find something that monitors - continually - your throughput. It will make you unhappy, but it is an eye-opener. Take your complaint to Clinton Smith and Casper Cassidy (and raise the helldesk issue. I see young Tristan is a favourite when it comes to the contention issue nonsense). Give them a call tomorrow - Clinton is very friendly and at least has more people skills than the helldesk Orcs.

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

kickass72za · Jun 29, 2004

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by hArTh
 From some talk going on behind the scenes it appears that the root cause of the problem is that ST rolled out an uncapped broadband service with totally inadaquate bandwidth management facilities. With virtually no bandwidth management facilities in their network the MY network prior to peering is quite naturally a disaster. 
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
<hr noshade size="1">

This amazes me completely....when launched and info that has come out the following has been stated

1) R800 million Rand Investment by Sentech
2) R300 million on BACK OFFICE systems.........

What systems are those...... the only thing i can think of is the Call centre "MANAGED" PABX..... who ever put that in is smiling on the Beach in "Jamaica Man!!!!"

This is my five cents enjoy broad band ... I have ummm wait a spike ....0.5kB YEHAAA

Ditch · Jun 30, 2004

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Kai
 spent almost half an hour talking to an Orc last night about my ticket that i opened on the 14th of this month - and no one (no, not p0rn king) has even bothered to phone me back in two weeks.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Same here, opened a ticket +/- 17th or 18th, and noone bothered to phone me back either. But I'm not really surprised because what would they say anyway? Maybe "hey, we're calling you back about those speed problems. Well guess what, we haven't fixed them. Cheers."

Maybe LoneGunman is right, we should all start asking for refunds for the time we've had open tickets.

Ditch · Jun 30, 2004

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by hArTh
 From some talk going on behind the scenes it appears that the root cause of the problem is that ST rolled out an uncapped broadband service with totally inadaquate bandwidth management facilities.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Is it "with totally inadequate bandwidth management facilities" or is it "with totally inadequate bandwidth"?

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