Unreasonably slow connection speeds

[Reecius]

Hi,

I have been struggling with really slow interner connection speeds for 3 days now. Every time that I'm in contact with first line support I don't get far. Then it was asked of me to run an hour long traceroute to ping google directly on my ont box. I tried this, but the connection dropped after around 10min of run time. (I will attach that file)

I am at the brink of losing my mind as it feels like I'm getting nowhere each time I'm in contact with support.

Please help, as everything seems to buffer, and when I'm in meetings the only consistent thing there is my connection dropping.

The text file attached is the traceroute ran by winmtr for probably about 10min before my connection dropped. I'm willing to do another one through the router as I could clearly see when connecting directly on my ONT that my internet speed is not better at all.

I am getting so frustrated here, as it seems like paying a premium price at Lightstruck, but getting the worst experience with a infrastructure and ISP. Unfortunately, I am forced to use Lightstruck, but I'm thinking 5G might actually be better. Maybe even 4G

For reference to my ticket number:

#COOL-20230831-1422621​

 

[PBCool]

Hi,

I have been struggling with really slow interner connection speeds for 3 days now. Every time that I'm in contact with first line support I don't get far. Then it was asked of me to run an hour long traceroute to ping google directly on my ont box. I tried this, but the connection dropped after around 10min of run time. (I will attach that file)

I am at the brink of losing my mind as it feels like I'm getting nowhere each time I'm in contact with support.

Please help, as everything seems to buffer, and when I'm in meetings the only consistent thing there is my connection dropping.

The text file attached is the traceroute ran by winmtr for probably about 10min before my connection dropped. I'm willing to do another one through the router as I could clearly see when connecting directly on my ONT that my internet speed is not better at all.

I am getting so frustrated here, as it seems like paying a premium price at Lightstruck, but getting the worst experience with a infrastructure and ISP. Unfortunately, I am forced to use Lightstruck, but I'm thinking 5G might actually be better. Maybe even 4G

For reference to my ticket number:

#COOL-20230831-1422621​

Hi there, looks like packet loss on your line. Is the performance the same all the time, or does it vary?

 

[Reecius]

Thank you for the response.

It does vary, but this last 3 days my internet is just unbelievably bad. And I can see now even when bypassing my router/mesh it's still the same. (bad)

I just ran winmtr for about an hour, except that I ran it while connected to my router.

I have noticed packet loss on the traceroute as well. Attached is the new txt with the latest traceroute results.

 

[Reecius]

I'm honestly going to say that I'm past fed up with this now. My internet got worse over the weekend and I'm starting to think that no-one at Cool Ideas cares at all.

My ticket has been open for 4 days now, and if I don't call the support then I don't get any feedback, and when I do I get told that there is a 24 - 72 hour turn around time. If that is the case I'm just going to say, is this a joke?

At the moment I can't even watch a tiktok... I had no relax time as my outlet is playing games online with friends (which obviously I couldn't do), I'm stressed out as this is now Sunday and I need to work tomorrow, but I won't be able to because my internet is garbage...

Seems to me like Cool Ideas has no respect for their clients or their money. This is completely unacceptable. To what extent will I need to go to get any kind of help?

 

[PBCool]

I'm honestly going to say that I'm past fed up with this now. My internet got worse over the weekend and I'm starting to think that no-one at Cool Ideas cares at all.

My ticket has been open for 4 days now, and if I don't call the support then I don't get any feedback, and when I do I get told that there is a 24 - 72 hour turn around time. If that is the case I'm just going to say, is this a joke?

At the moment I can't even watch a tiktok... I had no relax time as my outlet is playing games online with friends (which obviously I couldn't do), I'm stressed out as this is now Sunday and I need to work tomorrow, but I won't be able to because my internet is garbage...

Seems to me like Cool Ideas has no respect for their clients or their money. This is completely unacceptable. To what extent will I need to go to get any kind of help?

Hi , unfortunately we need to wait on feedback from the FNO in these circumstances. I will try follow up from my side as well.

 

[Reecius]

I would like to know when my earliest cancellation date is possible please. This is just unacceptable. I'm paying a whole lot of money but it just feels like there is absolutely 0 technical support at Cool Ideas. I have also asked on the ticket I created and once again there is no reply.

 

[Tabac]

I would like to know when my earliest cancellation date is possible please. This is just unacceptable. I'm paying a whole lot of money but it just feels like there is absolutely 0 technical support at Cool Ideas. I have also asked on the ticket I created and once again there is no reply.

This is sad news. I recently got fibre and Coolideas is my ISP. Up to now i've had excellent service and fast technical help.

 

[Reecius]

This is sad news. I recently got fibre and Coolideas is my ISP. Up to now i've had excellent service and fast technical help.

I fully agree, this is sad news. Cool Ideas is great when it comes to taking your money no doubt about that, but do yourself a favour and have a look at the last 3 months of reviews on Google. There is absolutely 0 support. Don't even think about after hours support (that is beyond non existent) and dureing office hours it's bad. When I call the 1st line support guys, they have a "not in the mood to help you attitude as well". But hopefully you don't find out yourself.

I can't believe they still claim to be the best voted ISP, if that is not nearly the case. Especially looking at Google reviews.

 

[PBCool]

Hi, as mentioned unfortunately for these sorts of things we are at the mercy of the fibre provider. And in this case they are not great at resolving these sorts of issues in a timeously manner.

 

[Reecius]

Well then take it up with the fibre provider. In all my years of having internet, this is the first time I have waited so long for any help. You can let Lightstruck know that you are losing clients if that makes you feel any better.

Also please respond to my question, seeing that you have enough time to intercept this thread to try and do damage control. Maybe you could rather get back to me with my earliest cancellation date please. Or should I rather call your call center again and again to have "I'm sad to have a job" attitude?

Your customer support is disgusting.

 

[PBCool]

Well then take it up with the fibre provider. In all my years of having internet, this is the first time I have waited so long for any help. You can let Lightstruck know that you are losing clients if that makes you feel any better.

Also please respond to my question, seeing that you have enough time to intercept this thread to try and do damage control. Maybe you could rather get back to me with my earliest cancellation date please. Or should I rather call your call center again and again to have "I'm sad to have a job" attitude?

Your customer support is disgusting.

Hi, feedback from the team: originally the ticket was logged during an outage. Once the outage resolved you still had performance issues, this was logged then with the fibre provider on Sat once all the requested tests were done.

As mentioned this sort of thing can take a bit of time for the FNO to resolve. I will feedback as soon as I can.

Your cancellation terms are dependant on your sign up but typically a calendar month.

I would suggest you rather wait for the FNO to investigate as you will have the same issue with any ISP.

 

[Reecius]

Hi I would just like to update on this post.

Please excuse the long message but it's worth the read to be warned.

After 5 days I can confirm that my internet has been resolved. But I feel like this could have been handled better...

On Thursday 30 August I noticed my internet being slow and unstable. Friday 31 August I logged a ticket on the Cool Ideas ticket system for support. This is where my bad customer experience started...

I know I ended up being an internet crazy person, but I feel like it's my right to, seeing that I'm paying for a service which is pretty expensive by the way, and when support is required I get told off.

Here I get Cool Ideas telling me it is the FNO (Fibre Network Operator) that is at fault here and they are at the mercy of the FNO... And on the Cool Ideas ticket system I get told basically the same. This is where I finally give in and accepting that I will have bad connection going forward...

Now I can say that this is not the case at all. I was blatantly lied to by the Escalations Analyst assigned to my ticket. I got fed lies that the FNO is being defensive and getting annoyed with the Escalations Analyst. So here I'm sitting on day 5 finally a technician from Thinkspeed arrives at my house (Thank you Thinkspeed) with a very friendly and helpful Sir. This technician asks me, what problems am I facing while we waited for load shedding to finish. As to which I reply, I'm supposed to be having a 200Mbps line, but I'm not getting nearly those speeds at around 24-29Mbps max.

The technician says "Wait... No... this cannot be" as to which he shows me that I am currently not on a 200Mbps line but rather a 30Mbps line. So looking into this, we could see that Cool Ideas have requested a downgrade on my line to start on 30 August. This without my consent!! Charging me my full 200Mbps price!

After the technician left, I waited about an hour for a call from the Escalations Analyst (which he said he would do once the technician arrives at my house) but he never phoned (which probably he got busy, I could understand this) where I finally phoned the call center to ask to speak with this person.

When I got through to him, I was once again blatantly lied to, where he claimed that this is purely the FNO's fault (which it was not), this is where I asked to be kept in the loop for the investigation that I would like to be followed up on, to find out what the route cause is, and asked for them to please rectify my line speed back to the 200Mbps that I am paying for. This is where this call ended.

After about 3-4 hours later I decided let me try another speed test and traceroute, where I noticed my internet is back to what I expect it to be where finally I get a call from the Escalations Analyst. Then we had some friendly discussions about my internet being fixed. I then once again gave him the opportunity to tell me what the cause is, where I was lied to again. This is where I finally decided to tell him that I have proof of what happened. I told him I have screenshots of the downgrade that was done without my consent, and that I even know which exact agent requested this downgrade...

This is where he all of a sudden changed his whole story and apologised and accepted that this is a fault on Cool Ideas' side and said that accidents happen.

Well I would just like to say, after this experience I can say that yes I understand that accidents happen sure, but blatantly lying to your customers is just grossly unacceptable, taking 5 days to realise that you requested a downgrade not realising that even when speaking to you about the internet speeds that something doesn't seem right here is just a pure joke.

I must say that finally (after asking/demanding it) I will apparently be getting a refund for the 5 days that I have been downgraded (we'll see if that even happens)

I am so unhappy with this experience and I will be cancelling as soon as I can. I will never recommend Cool Ideas to anyone.

 

[PBCool]

Hi I would just like to update on this post.

Please excuse the long message but it's worth the read to be warned.

After 5 days I can confirm that my internet has been resolved. But I feel like this could have been handled better...

On Thursday 30 August I noticed my internet being slow and unstable. Friday 31 August I logged a ticket on the Cool Ideas ticket system for support. This is where my bad customer experience started...

I know I ended up being an internet crazy person, but I feel like it's my right to, seeing that I'm paying for a service which is pretty expensive by the way, and when support is required I get told off.

Here I get Cool Ideas telling me it is the FNO (Fibre Network Operator) that is at fault here and they are at the mercy of the FNO... And on the Cool Ideas ticket system I get told basically the same. This is where I finally give in and accepting that I will have bad connection going forward...

Now I can say that this is not the case at all. I was blatantly lied to by the Escalations Analyst assigned to my ticket. I got fed lies that the FNO is being defensive and getting annoyed with the Escalations Analyst. So here I'm sitting on day 5 finally a technician from Thinkspeed arrives at my house (Thank you Thinkspeed) with a very friendly and helpful Sir. This technician asks me, what problems am I facing while we waited for load shedding to finish. As to which I reply, I'm supposed to be having a 200Mbps line, but I'm not getting nearly those speeds at around 24-29Mbps max.

The technician says "Wait... No... this cannot be" as to which he shows me that I am currently not on a 200Mbps line but rather a 30Mbps line. So looking into this, we could see that Cool Ideas have requested a downgrade on my line to start on 30 August. This without my consent!! Charging me my full 200Mbps price!

After the technician left, I waited about an hour for a call from the Escalations Analyst (which he said he would do once the technician arrives at my house) but he never phoned (which probably he got busy, I could understand this) where I finally phoned the call center to ask to speak with this person.

When I got through to him, I was once again blatantly lied to, where he claimed that this is purely the FNO's fault (which it was not), this is where I asked to be kept in the loop for the investigation that I would like to be followed up on, to find out what the route cause is, and asked for them to please rectify my line speed back to the 200Mbps that I am paying for. This is where this call ended.

After about 3-4 hours later I decided let me try another speed test and traceroute, where I noticed my internet is back to what I expect it to be where finally I get a call from the Escalations Analyst. Then we had some friendly discussions about my internet being fixed. I then once again gave him the opportunity to tell me what the cause is, where I was lied to again. This is where I finally decided to tell him that I have proof of what happened. I told him I have screenshots of the downgrade that was done without my consent, and that I even know which exact agent requested this downgrade...

This is where he all of a sudden changed his whole story and apologised and accepted that this is a fault on Cool Ideas' side and said that accidents happen.

Well I would just like to say, after this experience I can say that yes I understand that accidents happen sure, but blatantly lying to your customers is just grossly unacceptable, taking 5 days to realise that you requested a downgrade not realising that even when speaking to you about the internet speeds that something doesn't seem right here is just a pure joke.

I must say that finally (after asking/demanding it) I will apparently be getting a refund for the 5 days that I have been downgraded (we'll see if that even happens)

I am so unhappy with this experience and I will be cancelling as soon as I can. I will never recommend Cool Ideas to anyone.

Hi, I will follow up on this. If we did the downgrade at fault then obviously it's completely our fault.

You are welcome to please PM me the screenshots you have as well?

 

[airborne]

Hi, I will follow up on this. If we did the downgrade at fault then obviously it's completely our fault.

You are welcome to please PM me the screenshots you have as well?

Give the man a free month of service if what he says is correct!
I’ve been there before sweating bullets for days only to find it’s the lazy techs that just couldn’t care enough to actually find out what the problem is, no one should have to suffer that.

 

[PBCool]

Give the man a free month of service if what he says is correct!
I’ve been there before sweating bullets for days only to find it’s the lazy techs that just couldn’t care enough to actually find out what the problem is, no one should have to suffer that.

If the line was downgraded in the background at FNO level by pure mistake the technical department would still follow the regular process with the FNO.

Delays introduced here were also from an outage at the same time. As mentioned I would need to investigate myself, but if we are at fault we will happily admit so.

Stating a technician or staff where lying when they weren't aware of something is also rather unfair.

 

[Reecius]

If the line was downgraded in the background at FNO level by pure mistake the technical department would still follow the regular process with the FNO.

Delays introduced here were also from an outage at the same time. As mentioned I would need to investigate myself, but if we are at fault we will happily admit so.

Stating a technician or staff where lying when they weren't aware of something is also rather unfair.

For some reason it seems like I'm not able to send you any screenshots on PM. I can only send links to images in PM's...

I will attach that to this post.

I can't share everything here, as this is in the public eye, but I will share a small snippet of one of the screenshots to try and show as little information as possible without leaking any names/addresses/accountNumbers etc. I do have 2 screenshots in total though, and I'm willing to share it on a private platform.

I'm also attaching screenshots to show that it seems like I cannot attach files from my machine to the private messages.

I would like to add from my side that I do not expect, nor would I ever demand or ask for a month's free internet or free anything. All I am trying to do here is to state my experience. I'm just wondering why someone would need to get harsh and become an internet crazy person before anything is done.

I would also like to say (but I don't have screenshot proof of this) that apparently there were no outages in Paarl, which I could believe tough because my whole complex uses Lightstruck and no-one experienced an outage. (even I didn't, my internet was slow and unstable that's it), there where an outage in Cape Town yes, but not Paarl, even according to the Cool Ideas Announcements page. But hey, I get it mistakes can happen, it's just how it's handled that makes me uncomfortably frustrated.

Please see attached.

 

[Reecius]

And if you don't mind, I'm done fighting over this and trying to prove my side. I just want to carry out the rest of my contract term at Cool Ideas so we can part our ways. My internet is working now, so thanks for that. But I'm sure you can find all the information from my ticket reference number I shared at the beginning of this thread. You are more than welcome to give me a call, or even pop me an email for the screenshots if you need the extra information if your system cannot provide history or if the FNO can't provide you with that information either.

You will be able to get my information from your system using the reference number I shared at the beginning of this thread.

I'm sure Cool Ideas isn't all that bad. I think I probably just had a crazy over the top bad experience.

 

[airborne]

Did cool ideas do the speed downgrade?

 

[CrypticZA]

For some reason it seems like I'm not able to send you any screenshots on PM. I can only send links to images in PM's...

I will attach that to this post.

I can't share everything here, as this is in the public eye, but I will share a small snippet of one of the screenshots to try and show as little information as possible without leaking any names/addresses/accountNumbers etc. I do have 2 screenshots in total though, and I'm willing to share it on a private platform.

I'm also attaching screenshots to show that it seems like I cannot attach files from my machine to the private messages.

I would like to add from my side that I do not expect, nor would I ever demand or ask for a month's free internet or free anything. All I am trying to do here is to state my experience. I'm just wondering why someone would need to get harsh and become an internet crazy person before anything is done.

I would also like to say (but I don't have screenshot proof of this) that apparently there were no outages in Paarl, which I could believe tough because my whole complex uses Lightstruck and no-one experienced an outage. (even I didn't, my internet was slow and unstable that's it), there where an outage in Cape Town yes, but not Paarl, even according to the Cool Ideas Announcements page. But hey, I get it mistakes can happen, it's just how it's handled that makes me uncomfortably frustrated.

Please see attached.

Dump screenshots on imgur and send to PB (he ain't someone low down in the company btw)

We need the saga to continue *grabs popcorn*