Webafrica - appalling level of service

[Grant]

Whilst this is partially fibre related, the matter at hand is more an ISP problem.

A friend has a 100meg line (octotel) & Webafrica as ISP.
International speeds have never been above 40megs - local is always good - around 95megs.

about 3 weeks back, international dropped to between 4 to 7megs - and remains that way,
Octotel have been to do tests, all is well on their side and categorically state the problem is ISP related.

Endless speed tests have been done over the last couple of weeks with Webafrica's upstream provider being involved.
Endless empty promises of getting back to their client.

Webafrica's rep here has always been quick to try get things moving but is constantly let down by the technical team.
Seems nobody has a clue as to what is going on at this point or how to resolve the issue, which is now approaching a month.
I have to ask, what is "looking into the problem" for 3 weeks actually supposed to mean ?
It takes 2 weeks to go by ship from cape town to london, but Webafrica are "still investigating"

Time for him to jump ship

 

[harties]

Loads of complaints about poor/lack of service on the facebook community pages (Ocotel/Cape Town) relating to WebAfrica. I suspect they are understaffed. A colleague of mine waited 3 weeks for a response on a fiber order before cancelling and went with another ISP. The other ISP got him set up in a few days.

 

[air]

I have been trying to get hold of them for over 30 minutes - looks like nobody works there on a Saturday.

make that 60 minutes... have tried various support channels.

 

[maumau]

Loads of complaints about poor/lack of service on the facebook community pages (Ocotel/Cape Town) relating to WebAfrica. I suspect they are understaffed. A colleague of mine waited 3 weeks for a response on a fiber order before cancelling and went with another ISP. The other ISP got him set up in a few days.

Precisely what happened to a colleague of mine too.

 

[stroebs]

I ordered Web Africa fibre early last year with OpenServe, they indicated a 7-week wait. After a month of zero feedback I got gatvol and ordered with another ISP, they got me installed in 3 weeks. A month after I was up and running, a WA rep phoned me and said "Sorry, but you can't get fibre in your area"...

No thanks.

 

[air]

Currently use WA, would not be advising them to anybody.
Did a speedtest to UK this morning, got .15Mbs download and .61Mpbs upload (this is one a fibre 50/50 connection)

 

[diegoa]

Cancelled with them this month, I have now moved to Axxess. Been a customer of WA for many many years, its a shame really.

 

[maumau]

Cancelled with them this month, I have now moved to Axxess. Been a customer of WA for many many years, its a shame really.

It is actually, they used to be good.

 

[ProfA]

Shame? Do you guys have shares in the business?

 

[Grant]

here it is folks - a 100meg line
webafrica (and thier upstream provider) are still "looking into the problem - as they have been for the last month

 

[jdido87]

geez and here i was considering switching to them from CW

 

[UrBaN963]

You should link them to this page on FB/Twitter.

 

[air]

here it is folks - a 100meg line
webafrica (and thier upstream provider) are still "looking into the problem - as they have been for the last month

View attachment 434990

hell, that is swak, my Web Africa 50Mb last night was horrendous(like all other previous 18 evenings or so...) - getting on average approx. 10% of what I pay for.
WA will still not say why I get better performance in the morning than the evening.

 

[Geoff.D]

No one should move from one ISP to another without first understanding what the problem is.
So you need to break down the network into Access, local national and international. Then determine the performance in each of these legs first.

And no, speedtests are not the be all and all of suitable tests.

Every one should be aware of the Seacom failure that has been an issues for weeks now. This was/is probably at the route cause of most international issues at the moment. ( everyone is trying to use backup routes that may or may not be sized correctly).

And have some patience!

 

[Grant]

And have some patience!

and if you took your can to the dealership for repairs & they endlessly fiddled about achieving nothing for over a month whilst you could drive at only 20km/h - would you be saying the same thing

 

[Geoff.D]

Don't take my [-]can[/-] car to a dealer, I fix it myself

 

[maumau]

Shame? Do you guys have shares in the business?

Shame for me, not for WA. Good ISPs are hard to find.

 

[Grant]

And . . . .a further 3 weeks have passed, and they are still "looking into it"

 

[Zoopy]

No one should move from one ISP to another without first understanding what the problem is.
So you need to break down the network into Access, local national and international. Then determine the performance in each of these legs first.

And no, speedtests are not the be all and all of suitable tests.

Every one should be aware of the Seacom failure that has been an issues for weeks now. This was/is probably at the route cause of most international issues at the moment. ( everyone is trying to use backup routes that may or may not be sized correctly).

And have some patience!

Absolutely no excuse for poor support from WA.

People like you are why ISPs take advantage of us.

 

[Zoopy]

And . . . .a further 3 weeks have passed, and they are still "looking into it"

I would stop paying, tbh. Also, log a complaint with ASASA and/or the CPA and then send WA the reference numbers.

That usually spurs them into action. If you paid by cc, do a chargeback for last month too. Or tell them you want a refund for last month. They take things very seriously when it starts to hit their wallets.