Warning: Mweb will slow down heavy Internet users

gdiza said:
I reckon we just all cancel our uncapped packages and goto other places who don't screw us over like MWEB does, then when enough people cancel and MWEB start seeing it on their bank balances and have to let staff go because they can't afford to pay them anymore, they might realize that screwing us over was the worst thing they can do.

I had this same discussion with so many people and it seems they are all changing over to other ISP's.

There is abuse and there is ABUSE.

I've only done 30GB this month and they are already nailing me.

Screw them! :mad:

I'm just giving them time to realize and change their stupid setup, if not, I'll go spend my money elsewhere - the power of competition and CHANGE!
Click to expand...

I'v already spoken to those I referred [And will be passing the word in IT / IS on Monday]...

As I said they should really take a page out of what happened to xbox one and E3.
 
Last edited:
This whole 'Uncapped' consumer scamming business have been the accepted practice in countries like the US and some in Europe many years ago. In most of them you will not find this anymore. It is only in few countries where this consumer scamming is still acceptable.

In order to protect their networks, these companies started implementing the AUP (Acceptable Use Policy) in their contracts' fine print. This in effect allows the company to decide when and where to limit a person's bandwidth as they please. I remember a few years back there were some companies who pulled the AUP out of the hat when some users used 10GB of data in a month and limited their usage.

South African businesses is just following this trend now raking in billions from it - from stupid consumers who believe that they will really get 'Unlimited' bandwidth.

I think it is time that consumers take this up with the advertising authorities.

An honest company will rather not make use of 'Unlimited' advertising for deals and rather develop and offer realistic packages, e.g:

1TB B/W @ R1000 p/m
2TB B/W @ R1500 p/m
10TB B/W @ R3000p/m

etc...

I will rather deal with such company as I know what I will get for my money. I will know what I can do with my bandwidth and use it optimally without being limited to speeds of 50kb/s in the middle of the month.
 
Pada said:
I've already received MWEB's Email containing the subject "We may have to slow down your Internet speeds" which is exactly what this thread is about, and the worst part is I've only downloaded 109GB last month, with the previous months all being below 40GB.

I currently have the non-premium 4Mbps account. Perhaps I should just move to Afrihost 10Mbps, which doesn't even cost that much more (and actually less than MWEB's Premium Uncapped 4Mbps) !

A few months ago, I was on MWEB's Premium Uncapped 2Mbps, and it was really awesome in terms of latencies in game and HTTP downloads. Like I never noticed poor speeds during the day, however Torrents were shaped (which I never use).

Lately MWEB hasn't impressed me at all, especially after they've managed to screw up my upgrade to 4Mbps, where they upgraded the line to 4Mbps but not the ISP account.
Click to expand...

The non-premium product is throttled heavily. I tried the 2meg option once and hit the cap in 10 days, once I spoke to them I realised that the package wasn't for me and moved back to the premium offering.
 
I have used MWEB uncapped since they launched the "cheap" offerings. Originally it was 356k then it was 1 meg and for a brief period this year I had 2 meg. Here is the data usage of my account for the last 12 months, the periods where the usage is low is because I moved and only reconnected my line part of the way through the month.

Ue3soRS.png

I have had great service from MWEB but I must stress this, if they send me a letter then I will cancel my account on the same day and move to Afrihost or another provider. Moving from a Tier 1 ISP will make me sad but when I have my account throttled while trying to play BF3 just because I hit some unspoken cap then I will be willing to move. This did happen when I went with the 2-meg uncapped lite package that they offer but that is a throttled packaged so I realised that it was not for me.
 
Zenthrax said:
Careful about praising/jumping to Afrish*t before doing research. I jumped to a 4mb uncapped account 4 months ago and was throttled once i hit 80Gb on a 4mb uncapped account. Went back to openweb prompty and had no issues, even after doing over 200gb. Even did a 120gb nonstop in less than 10days and still they didnt throttle.
Click to expand...

I'm on 4meg uncapped.
I jumped the M-Web ship at the end of June. Ok, I was a heavy user, but the tone of their letters I found impersonal, threatening and unspecific. (I'm not mentioning numbers as this is not about M-Web, but about Afrihost!)

1 July I moved to AH, and have had no issues so far.
July : downloaded ~220GB @ AH, no complaints, no issues.
August so far: just over 90GB, also no issues.

Downloads happen sporadically, and never at full line speed.
 
A spokesperson for Mweb said that they could unfortunately not provide users with a numeric limit on the amount of data they may use before it is considered a violation of the AUP.

“Please understand that this was the first question we anticipated when deciding on this change and its probably the one question that we can’t answer,” Mweb said, adding that no ISP publishes a fixed limit for their uncapped fair usage policies.
Click to expand...
Erm... No that is not the truth, please only speak for yourselves as other ISPs do define their Acceptable use policies.

For example, Neotel has a very clearly defined AUP when it comes to Neobroadband where they state the user gets 150Gb data per 1Mbps of speed provided by the ISP, where after access speed is halved for the remainder of the month.

This is published and made very clear to all clients, not that we've ever reached 750Gb on our 5Mbps link, there's just not enough stuff out there to reach our limit and we would certainly be seen as heavy users by Mweb.
 
I think what every Mweb user should realise that Mweb is not going to change their MO - it is clear from the communication that Mweb is not happy with "high-usage users" (whatever that exactly means) as the "low-end-users" (that's easy - anyone just doing email and Facebook) now need to subsidise a larger chunk of revenue.

Waiting for Mweb to revert is not going to happen, even if the company decides to release a statement in the coming week "Oh no, it was just a joke muahahaha" nothing prevents them from still instituting those throttled / capped services. I would suggest that bundled users move the line back to Telkom and don't pay Mweb beyond August. You will have plenty of alternative options and with the line at Telkom you can then chop and change as you wish.

Don't expect that anything more meaningful is going to come out from this thread or feedback from Mweb.
 
This is how Neotel publishes it (http://downloads.neotel.co.za/pdf/FUP - Neo Broadband_final-clean.pdf) - how difficult can it be Mweb?

“excessive usage” means usage in excess of the maximum possible usage for the particular
Broadband access service multiplied by a factor. Such factor shall initially be 50%. Such
factor may be changed (upwards or downwards) from time to time and any such change will
be publicised, including by publication on Neotel’s Internet web site. Maximum possible
usage shall be the maximum download speed multiplied by the period of use to derive a
maximum possible download capacity per month and the maximum upload speed multiplied
by the period of use to derive a maximum possible upload capacity per month;
Click to expand...
 
MagicDude4Eva said:
Don't expect that anything more meaningful is going to come out from this thread or feedback from Mweb.
Click to expand...

+1

Things in this country will only change once consumers have learned how to vote with their feet. Consumers in this country are way to complacent and just accept things as it is. In my opinion less than 10% of MWeb users will move to another ISP due to this event.

The only language MWeb will understand is if a large portion of their clients vote with their feet i.e. say 20 to 30% or more of current clients cancel their service. That will give them a serious wake up call. But as said, I expect less than 10%, if that many, to do so.
 
If they send me even one letter then I'll have no hesitation to move IMMEDIATELY.

ATM I'm doing between 200-250Gb a month on 4M premium uncapped and there is almost no downloads, 90% of this is online video streaming.
 
Publishes as fact, only 3% exceed the threshold.

Won't publish the threshold.

I feel the only 3% is a blatant lie.
 
The beauty of that statement is that there will always be a top 3%. If they do not publish the numbers then they can lower user averages significantly by threatening you with an invincible limit. Mark this day, within a short while people going near 100Gb on a 4M line will be called abusers.
 
MKFrost said:
+1

Things in this country will only change once consumers have learned how to vote with their feet. Consumers in this country are way to complacent and just accept things as it is. In my opinion less than 10% of MWeb users will move to another ISP due to this event.

The only language MWeb will understand is if a large portion of their clients vote with their feet i.e. say 20 to 30% or more of current clients cancel their service. That will give them a serious wake up call. But as said, I expect less than 10%, if that many, to do so.
Click to expand...

I think it will make zero difference to Mweb - remember it's Naspers which enjoys (thanks to Tencent investment) huge amounts of cash. As such nothing will come out of it and you are right, SA consumers will remain complacent and not move. If Mweb was a UK or German company pulling a stunt like this, they would be already answering to a consumer council and face heavy fines. Something neither ICASA or ISPA will enforce in SA.
 
hambone said:
Whilst I haven't received a warning I intend cancelling on principle - no longer worth spending the extra money.
Click to expand...

Spot on. Did exactly the same thing. If MWeb are going to be like every other ISP there's really no point paying the premium.
 
Cancellation and downgrade done - Bye MWEB and Premier 4Mbps uncapped. Not hanging around until 1st September to know whether my speed is dropped or not if you do not give us the parameters.
 
I have cancelled on principal. Not because I may get better service elsewhere. I have been a huge fan of Mweb since their 4Meg uncapped offering started. I've stuck with them through seacom downtime after downtime. I have enjoyed the excellent customer service from Mweb guy. But I will not stand by and pay a premium for a service which I don't understand the details of.

My usage is not excessive however it may be excessive one day as decided by Mweb. I'm rather be buying a cheaper uncapped offering and buying packages on demand when I need that extra speed. PPPOE as annoying as it is to implement will be my friend.

Mweb I'm sorry to say goodbye, don't treat your customers like mushrooms and we may stick around next time.
 
On Button said:
I have cancelled on principal. Not because I may get better service elsewhere. I have been a huge fan of Mweb since their 4Meg uncapped offering started. I've stuck with them through seacom downtime after downtime. I have enjoyed the excellent customer service from Mweb guy. But I will not stand by and pay a premium for a service which I don't understand the details of.

My usage is not excessive however it may be excessive one day as decided by Mweb. I'm rather be buying a cheaper uncapped offering and buying packages on demand when I need that extra speed. PPPOE as annoying as it is to implement will be my friend.

Mweb I'm sorry to say goodbye, don't treat your customers like mushrooms and we may stick around next time.
Click to expand...

I am with you on this. MWEB Guy has been a star, but was fed to the lions on this one. If I knew the rules, I might have stayed too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X