Web Africa customer service warning!

C

Chewbacca

Member
Joined
Nov 17, 2011
Messages
14
Reaction score
0
Location
Durban
For those of you who are considering moving to Web Africa, please take note of this!
I have been with WA for 4 years and in the first 3 their service and products have been top notch, however this last year has really changed my mind on them.
Constant connectivity issues, with absolute poor excuses have made me decide to change my ISP, and wow, what a nightmare.
Dare I say worse than Telkom? Don’t expect anyone getting back to you on any request that you make and if you get told the supervisor will phone you back in 10 min don’t believe it. She will just go home.

I have been trying to cancel my line for over a month now, and still no progress on it. Really sad how such a good ISP can turn into joke over such a short time.
 
Sadly true - I've been with them about the same amount of time and just the past year or so - every couple weeks there's a new issue. Unfortunately/fortunately I'm on their RedAfrica deal which is just too good value to pass up, but I think unless you're on one of their amazing specials it's just not worth it.

Saying that, when all systems are in fact green, it's still the best for me personally ...latency and throughput wise (I guess it's 'cause I live about 1km away from their data centre).
 
CrazyBob said:
Sadly true - I've been with them about the same amount of time and just the past year or so - every couple weeks there's a new issue. Unfortunately/fortunately I'm on their RedAfrica deal which is just too good value to pass up, but I think unless you're on one of their amazing specials it's just not worth it.
Click to expand...

+1
 
I was on WA capped briefly about 2 years ago. Support was not so great then either. The support guy went home instead of calling back as promised. The so-called FreeZone was racking up bills on my line and they weren't going to fix it, so I walked way.
 
Lounger said:
The support guy went home instead of calling back as promised.
Click to expand...

OMG after the 3rd time calling back today, only to be told that the supervisor went home at 4 after telling me that she will phone me back, I just lost it.
In today’s market where there’s so much choice, it really hard to believe that they just simply don’t care about the customer. Maybe they big enough not to care, i don’t know, but i won’t spend another sent with them!
 
Morning Chewbacca,

I'm shocked to read through this thread. If we promise a call back, we should just call you back! Regarding the slow network issues, I've posted an announcement with what we've identified and what we're doing to fix things. Give the Uncapped Feedback thread a read.

Regardless, I'd still like to arrange for a call back for you. Please drop me a PM with your client code and contact details - I'll have Management give you a shout back.
 
WAJeff said:
Morning Chewbacca.
Click to expand...

Haha. Those are words I never expected to see

So I got my bill today from WebAfrica for R 540.71. Far as I know on the website its listed as R 489.00... not to mention my line only became active on 5th Jan and the sales rep told me I only pay from when my line becomes active. Dodgy stuff this
 
WAJeff said:
Morning Chewbacca,

I'm shocked to read through this thread. If we promise a call back, we should just call you back! Regarding the slow network issues, I've posted an announcement with what we've identified and what we're doing to fix things. Give the Uncapped Feedback thread a read.

Regardless, I'd still like to arrange for a call back for you. Please drop me a PM with your client code and contact details - I'll have Management give you a shout back.
Click to expand...

Hi Jeff
I will pm you after this msg.
As for the feedback on your uncapped: I had a capped account and still had tons of connectivity issues. Now i understand that this is tech and things break and there are tons of points of failure that is out of your control, but tbh i don’t see why your call centre treat the ppl the way they do.

And just to add, my pm will now give you the chance to get your management to phone me and let’s say they do, the point is that I’m still waiting for the original phone call from your so call Internet Line Supervisor. Hey, it’s almost lunch, maybe she has gone out to do some shopping so she will probably only phone me later. No rush, i have been waiting since the 17th.
 
FreddyB said:
Haha. Those are words I never expected to see

So I got my bill today from WebAfrica for R 540.71. Far as I know on the website its listed as R 489.00... not to mention my line only became active on 5th Jan and the sales rep told me I only pay from when my line becomes active. Dodgy stuff this
Click to expand...

same thing happened to me when we went uncapped - i just phoned their billing department and they corrected it.
 
maumau said:
same thing happened to me when we went uncapped
Click to expand...

Not surprised, their web usage monitoring software is broken, their "freezone monitor is broken as thus been removed from uncapped" so assumed their billing software is broken as well.
 
Chewbacca said:
Hi Jeff
I will pm you after this msg.
As for the feedback on your uncapped: I had a capped account and still had tons of connectivity issues. Now i understand that this is tech and things break and there are tons of points of failure that is out of your control, but tbh i don’t see why your call centre treat the ppl the way they do.

And just to add, my pm will now give you the chance to get your management to phone me and let’s say they do, the point is that I’m still waiting for the original phone call from your so call Internet Line Supervisor. Hey, it’s almost lunch, maybe she has gone out to do some shopping so she will probably only phone me later. No rush, i have been waiting since the 17th.
Click to expand...

Thanks, just replied to your PM.
Rupert picked up your thread when you posted it, so it's definitely getting the attention it deserves :)
 
Got someone who phoned me today, and true as nuts, there is an issue with my order. Strange how I was telling the call center the exact same thing for the last 4 days.
I really hope WA takes this opportunity and get their act together! This is not the WA that I know from back in the day!!
 
Chewbacca said:
Got someone who phoned me today, and true as nuts, there is an issue with my order. Strange how I was telling the call center the exact same thing for the last 4 days.
I really hope WA takes this opportunity and get their act together! This is not the WA that I know from back in the day!!
Click to expand...

I believe we gave you a call on the 27th to follow things up but couldn't get hold of you. We did send you an SMS with an update from Telkom and will be trying to give you a call back sometime today too.
 
I must say, my experience with Web Africa has not been to pleasant this month either. I was on a pay as you go deal basicaly just for the wage bot on war3, and when i got DotA2 recently, i was told by most people that Web Africa seems to be the best isp to use with regards the smoothest gaming experience.

At the beggining of the month i upgraded my account with them to a monthly contract. Yes, DotA2 runs smoother, but wow, the billing centre is lacking.

I Firstly got charged double the amount i was supposed to (which they have since fixed after giving them a call), and secondly, they didnt recieve my debit order form, even though i got the fax reciept etc. I only found out about this about 13 days later, so now i have to go through the mission of going to the bank to pay, ( I dont have internet banking) , and also have to go to a shop to fax the form through again ( I Dont have a fax machine either).


So ye, really not impressed with the service.


On a side note, i run the 'ping -t command all day long on my pc, and when im on one of my other isp's they are always constant, eg telkom will always be 9 when i ping saix. Yet when im on my web africa account, the ping jumps constantly from about 10 - 40, which i find strange.
 
I've been with WebAfrica for two months. WAJeff has been a pretty great sport when it comes to complaints on the WA forums and here. The folk I've dealt with via tickets have been incredibly professional, courteous and friendly.

There was the one time where my mega-long ticket was responded to by someone new, asking me to do a tracert and take a screenshot of latency issues I'd been having regardless of the fact that I'd done multiple that revealed nothing, had taken oodles of screenshots, described the problem and still taken a video capture of it. That just ticked me off because it felt like everything I'd been saying for the last few weeks up until that point had been ignored.

But that's the only issue I've had with support. Beyond that, I'm quite happy with them.

Service wise, my latency issues have been resolved but there are some minor niggles. Fortunately they're bearable and bound to get fixed eventually, so I'm fine with that for now.

Just wanted to say that I'm happy with them :p
 
Well on the phone, i didnt have to wait long at all to speak to some one, and they were always fast and helpfull.

I appreciate that, but the mistakes in the billing department are very frustrating.

I had a similar situation with latency on my afrihost connection, but it was quite a bit worse. That lasted for about 3 months and eventually i got fed up and opened a ticket to tell them if its not sorted out, im canceling my contract with them, A few days later, it was all sorted.

The ping issue is hardly noticable, but still a bit of a worry.
 
I have had two stints with WA and left in frustration a good few years ago. I cam back with one of their MYBB specials and for what I get the price is great and as a previous poster said it is a blessing / curse.

When I moved back almost 2 years ago, things were superb. A dream account and for a time all was great. Then things started going wrong and I ended up with senior staff involved. Months later and lots of comings and goings, things seemed ok

Since then it has been a roller coaster. It is certainly not a consistent service.

I have found that generally my initial response from support is quick, but decent follow up is inconsistent. I have had a few times when I phone support and they tell me nothing is wrong and then later to say that yes it is actually wrong and being attended to. On a few issues the matter was resolved, but quite a few I just gave up on as the hassle factor was too high.

Jeff has had support in the past (Candice was one I can remember) but this is short lived. I do appreciate his presence on the forum and Rupert makes the odd appearance especially if it is a bigger issue. On a regular basis big promises are made, and sometimes followed up and other times things just seem to fade away. The last few days there has not been one post from Jeff, even though there are issues outstanding. One that comes to mind is the news server. It is supposed to have been sorted, but this morning was really poor.

For me, things are mixed. There are a lot of really decent folk at WA, but there are also lots of cracks and - I feel - escape phrases.

I do want things to work properly as I have a vested interest in wanting a good service :)
 
In my experience, after all the connectivity issues started(probably shortly after they became tier1 or whatever it's called with their own network) then the service was the only good thing left.... Definitely could never complain about the service... But that's just me anyways.

Sent from a Galaxy SII far far away via Tapatalk
 
maumau said:
same thing happened to me when we went uncapped - i just phoned their billing department and they corrected it.
Click to expand...

BOY WAS I WRONG!!!!!!!! WA quoted R1 399 for a router which i said i wanted but then found elsewhere for R980 so i cancelled the order. i received an invoice and a credit note cancelling the invoice. they sent the router by mistake and i asked them to collect it, which they did. today i received an invoice for the router which is annoying in itself but the cherry on top is the (lack of) service when i phoned to point out the error. Karen (billing) tried to put me through to ADSL line billing, after waiting a while i phoned again and asked Wafieka (billing) to stay on the line until i got a reply from ADSL line billing - which she did not. i phoned again and Alecia (switchboard) tried to put me through, after waiting a while i phoned for a 4th time and asked her to hold on while i got through - she put me through to Tariq in support!!! Jeff i ask you with tears in my eyes what is a customer to do????? i've supported you guys all along buy i'm livid right now. ticket number GUEST4I1019167
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X