Thinking of going to Neotel

[Priapus]

So after my new line from Telkom was installed, three week ago. It worked fine for a few days and then died. I've been fighting with Telkom ever since to have it sorted without much joy. Always empty promises.

This has lead me to look at alternatives. I'm thinking of going with Neotels Broadband wifi option. Their 4mb package doesn't seem too bad and it's slightly more than my ADSL package.

The only thing that puts me off is there two year contract. Other than that it looks like a good solution. I don't do much gaining online. Only downloading and streaming.

Does anyone have any experience with this product from them and any advice / thoughts on the matter?

 

[BCR]

I remember seeing a negative thread on this forum not long ago, but cannot find it in the first 6 pages of each of the 2 main ADSL / ISP sub-forums.

Lots here (recently), though :
http://boardreader.com/s/neotel.html?f=18060842&extended_search=1

... probably one I saw is in one of those threads, which is also on this forum ...
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/forumdisplay.php/169-Neotel-NeoConnect-NeoFlex-and-NeoBroadband

EDIT : think it was this, to do with customer service, that stuck out in my mind :
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/814146-Worst-Customer-Service

I strongly urge anybody considering Neotel to use an alternate provider.

Yes their technical support sucks, you will be lucky if they respond to your support tickets. I have multiple tickets open with them and only received one call from them after complaining on their twitter account. Still waiting for them to sort out the issues 3 months later. I would recommend everyone stay far away from Neotel.

 

[Priapus]

Thanks for that. Seems there are a lot of issues at the moment with them. I guess I am going to have to carry on waiting for Telkom to maybe sort out my line sometime this year.

 

[BCR]

Try and find out from Telkom if they're busy in your suburb with upgrades. I had endless issues last year until mid-December, until they finished putting in a new DSLAM & since then, the connection's been solid 99% of the time. Until they finished, I'd regularly have the internet light go from green to red whenever I did (freely available tech) video downloads in particular .. but also at other times, for seemingly no reason as all.

Assuming that above is not the case, ask any techie you get through to (next time you speak) to rebuild the profile & do a port reset, as a matter of course, if not done so already.

 

[Priapus]

Try and find out from Telkom if they're busy in your suburb with upgrades. I had endless issues last year until mid-December, until they finished putting in a new DSLAM & since then, the connection's been solid 99% of the time. Until they finished, I'd regularly have the internet light go from green to red whenever I did (freely available tech) video downloads in particular .. but also at other times, for seemingly no reason as all.

Assuming that above is not the case, ask any techie you get through to (next time you speak) to rebuild the profile & do a port reset, as a matter of course, if not done so already.

Thanks for the info.

They have done a port reset and all the normal troubleshooting stuff. The line would constantly drop connection to the exchange. Until it dropped it again three weeks ago. Ever since then, I have had no internet. I found out that it was only this week that they finally managed to assign a technician to the fault. Was promised on Tuesday he would call to make an appointment. Still nothing. I'm not sure where else to go now. I'll call them again in the morning but I fear it will be a waste of time!

 

[BCR]

A possibility that if you send a Private Message with your home tel. no., any ref. no/s received from Telkom over the last few weeks, and link to this thread (or summary in your PM) to ranger and/or MickeyD, that they might be able to help speed things up / get them resolved .. can't promise, but worth a try :

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/member.php/30133-ranger

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/member.php/104237-MickeyD

Hope I'm not out of turn for suggesting so

or here : http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/member.php/258937-TelkomZA

Related, but don't know if place being filled by someone else
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/816990-Goodbye-Charl-(TelkomZA)/page5

 

[Priapus]

A possibility that if you send a Private Message with your home tel. no., any ref. no/s received from Telkom over the last few weeks, and link to this thread (or summary in your PM) to ranger and/or MickeyD, that they might be able to help speed things up / get them resolved .. can't promise, but worth a try :

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/member.php/30133-ranger

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/member.php/104237-MickeyD

Hope I'm not out of turn for suggesting so

or here : http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/member.php/258937-TelkomZA

Related, but don't know if place being filled by someone else
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/816990-Goodbye-Charl-(TelkomZA)/page5

Great, I'll PM MickyD and Ranger. Appreciate the help!

 

[spikegv]

Before you sign up with neotel find out if anyone in your area is using it and what QOS they are getting. I signed up about a year ago and the service was great but it has just deteriorated over the last 3 months or so and those around me connected to the same base station have the same issues.

 

[Johanoo8]

NEOTEL advertised download speed of 3Mbs. Every month it has been getting slower with latest NEOTEL speedtest results of 0.7 Mbs. I can see the tower from my house.

 

[KoolDaffy]

I'm also contemplating getting Neotel. Mainly because I've been dealing with telkom for 6 weeks now. They can't supply me with adsl because they say the ports on dslam at the exchange are full and they don't know when they going to upgrade the exchange and if or when they do it might take up to 21 working days for me to get my adsl. Then an extra week for isp to take over the line.

Already been without internet for 6 weeks. Beyond frustrating and mobile data too costly. Neotel seems like the next best option.

I only need it for 3 months too since I'm moving away after that.

If anyone knows of any better options Id certainly consider it.