Captain Awesome’s Opinion: MWEB Sucks
With the good news for the South African Internet market over the last few weeks, we highlighted the many uncapped ADSL options that providers are bringing to the table.
This is my story of using uncapped ADSL so far.
I initially was very skeptical as there were previously uncapped options already available, and they were all much more expensive than the latest offerings. I wanted to know why there was such a difference and how come, all of a sudden, uncapped Internet was affordable.
Chris over at iMod had been set up with an account from Mweb, and he seemed very happy. They were an option I thought. I was currently with Afrihost and was extremely happy with their service, and therefore was seriously considering them. I had used OpenWeb in the past and therefore I decided not to rule them out.
I did the normal thing when one is about to spend a fair amount of money or change a service provider: research. This lead me to discover that Afrihost had thresholds and essentially meant that their service would not be truly uncapped. This service with its great pricing would be sufficient for someone using around 60-100GB a month. I was looking for more.
My next step was to try Mweb as Chris seemed very happy with them. I automatically assumed that a “top” company like Mweb would have a simple sign up process, and I would be online in minutes. Boy oh boy was I wrong. The sign up process after about 10 minutes lead me to a hanging server error. It appears that my request was just simply not being picked up. There was no notification to say there was an error, or if it was successful. I was left with the worst situation possible: was my money being deducted with no product, but I had no idea as there simply was no information provided.
I tweeted this problem to the MwebConnect account as it was over the long weekend, and I felt that I could wait a few days. I was very impressed when I received a reply a few days later on the Sunday giving me a bit more information about the product. The only problem was that they didn’t answer my question on whether or not there was indeed a problem with the sign up process. This really started to annoy me now and I had tried many times to sign up again, and just to try find out some more info, but to no avail.
Eventually I was told on the public holiday Monday, through the MwebConnect twitter account that it would it would take three working days for my account to become active once I had signed up. Once again there was no mention of there being a problem with the sign up process, and it just appeared to be a standard response. This was not good enough for me, and I went to investigate OpenWeb.
I then got a phone call the next day from Mweb. They wanted to know if they could help me with the sign up process as “it appeared that I did not complete the process correctly.” What the hell! If I can’t do it properly, then very limited number of people would be able to. I told them that there was an error with the process and the operator went along and just sort of ignored that.
I told them not to bother as I had already signed up with OpenWeb, and told them my reasons for not going with Mweb. They don’t bother to find out more info on the problem or try persuade me to go with them. It was simply poor salesmanship.
I thought that would be the end of them. On the Wednesday I then got a tweet from them acknowledging my problem, and that they were trying to attend to it. Too little too late. I then also got a call from their sales department asking if someone could help me with the sign up process, making it appear as if it was my fault once again. Now I was starting to get pissed. I told them not to contact me again as I was not interested in going with them after their mess, as well as I had signed up with OpenWeb. Clearly the first person I spoke with didn’t mark my name down correctly in the system, and neither did the second idiot. Neither did the third or the fourth!
Yes, I got FOUR calls from Mweb asking me the same thing, and each and every time it was made out to be that I had not filled in the form correctly. I found that kind of insulting as I work in the internet industry! I eventually got a little bit rude with the fourth guy and told him that after four calls, and me telling them EVERY TIME that I was not interested, that they could work it out that they should stop calling me?
I just can’t believe that Mweb’s service could suck so much for a company that is meant to be at the top of the Internet industry in South Africa. It appears that many people are also having connectivity issues with Mweb. I have been connected for almost two weeks solidly with OpenWeb and my line has not dropped ONCE! It took me two minutes to sign up, and I was off. Not only that, but the CEO was replying to my support email questions on a Saturday and Sunday.
Mweb take note – that is how you provide not just good, but bloody fantastic customer support!
MWEB, YOU SUCK!
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Comments
Alarming? It just shows how pathetic their company is. How can you call someone FOUR times and have them tell you the same thing all four times, but you don’t actually bother listening.
Hey there Captain Awesome ;)
I’m surprised you had so much hassles. Look, I’m no fan of MWEB having left them because they were expensive and their support staff are generally useless.
When they launched their uncapped account I was lucky to get one of those free 30-day accounts to test-run it … at 384kbps. Sorry mates, I run at 4Mbit.
I decided to sign up online – finished the form in about 10 mins and had a support guy call me to ask if he needed to talk me through the process of changing settings on my router.
I have learnt, the hard way, that MWEB support is never consistent – moments of brilliance interspersed with heaps of apathy and general uselessness.
Hi Tony. Thanks for leaving a comment! I can understand them not wanting to give out 4Mb test accounts as that could be a very expensive trial. Companies need to learn that the only way they are going to continue to grow their company and keep everyone happy is to have good customer support. The two providers that I use for my internet only have my business because of the excellent customer service that they gave me.
Mweb will only grab hold of the market properly if they can fix these errors that are damaging their image and causing people like you and I to become infuriated!
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by James MacDonald. James MacDonald said: Why @MWEBConnect Sucks in my opinion! http://bit.ly/aXp7Km [...]
Hey there Captain Awesome
I got the afrihost 4MB Uncapped Account this month and after having downloaded 70GB the account turned pretty useless, they throttled my download speed down to 15kbps. It’s insane!
No that you have been with openweb, can you perhaps tell me if I can expect better service and download speeds from them?
I am looking at downloading +/- 130GB per month.
@Ben Thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment! I must say I have been blown away by OpenWeb and their service as well as the quality of their uncapped product. I am only on the 384kb account but I have moved 60gb already this month and there has not been a single glitch. The owner was answering my emails personally over a weekend, and the sign up process took not even two minutes. I am extremely happy with their service and would recommend them to you. I confirmed with the CEO that there is NO CAPS, NO THROTTLING, NO THRESHOLDS. Pure uncapped awesomeness is what you get at a great price.
Feel free to ask any other questions you might have!
Well i have been openweb for a month now. Using it on a sunday now its just to throttling my torrents. All web traffic is at usal speed. Only done 10gig so far. According to them 1% of my cap of 1tb huh. General speed after hours and weekends is good maybe its just today.
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by jbigmac: Why @MWEBConnect Sucks in my opinion! http://bit.ly/aXp7Km...
great work guys for new users i just want to take afrihost today but now i decides to go with openweb i hope its better for me thankssssssss
[...] still maintain that MWeb suck! What are your thoughts on all of the happenings in the broadband/bandwidth arena in South Africa? [...]
I agree with you Mweb sucks, their attitude, customer service, their broadband speed and also trying to get into my account is some times difficult. I had problems with billing in July and in May of this year. My moden was faulty and it I kept using up megs without even getting into my account, their technicians as well as vodacom had accepted that it was their problem, Their accounts department did not even bother to help and I had spent more than the subscription amount for the 2months….It cost me an extra R800,00 they just said that it was tough and they wer en’t prepared to do anything…. I would advise any person wanting to deal with them to look else where first before they even consider MWEB as a service provider….THEY SUCK BIG TIME……
@Gavin – thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment! It is really unfortunate that companies are not even bothered to help a customer out, and what is even more concerning is that they don’t seem bothered that it has cost you loads of money extra because of their inability to actually have a decent product or service. Consumers like yourself need to take a stand and not stand for the pathetic service that local companies seem to think they can offer. Drop me a line on the contact page and I am sure I can help you find an ISP that will look after you and your wallet :)
Hi C. Why do you say it is crap? If you could justify and give some reasoning then I am sure MWEB would be glad to try sort things out for you. Also what are you mainly using the line for and during what times? Could you possibly do a speedtest at speedtest.net?
I have carefully read about different ADSL options. I’m not very clued up when it comes to this staff, would therefore rely on people experiences for the start. I strongly believe that many people have issues about mWeb which was my initial consideration. I now feel that I should try openweb and hope not to be disappointed. Thanks guys!!!
Hi Captain Awesome,
I see you are affiliated with Quirk who at the time of your blog post are MWEB’s digital agency.
Conflict of interests me thinks?
Hi Su
Thanks for the comment. I can understand your thinking, but I don’t agree with you. I had a deal with Quirk, and only Quirk – not any of their clients. The issues that I mention are all with MWEB and are all in house. They don’t have to do with any work that Quirk is doing, albeit possible ORM. Although Quirk might be their digital agency, it is up to the quality of service that MWEB provides me that will shape my opinion. MWEB is more than welcome to try to prove to me that this post was unjustified and incorrect, but up until then, my view still stands.
So after a little bit more investigation:
At the time of you writing this blog post @MWEBConnect was managed in-agency with Quirk. I see where your beef comes from, the lack of communication between the online sign-up process team, agency running social media channels and sales call centre to offer you an explanation as to why your sign up did not work and to keep on calling you even though you had informed them numerous times that you had signed up elsewhere.
So at the time of your writing this blog, I feel you may have indeed been justified. However as we are nearly 9 months on, perhaps it would be great for you to know how we have developed to resolve these types of issues.
Indeed at the time of this original post there was a problem with the new online sign-up, that coupled with a massive influx of new sign-ups for uncapped, a few potential customers like yourself may have been left by the wayside with a bitter taste in your mouth. This is something that should never happen, no excuses!
What is important however is to learn from these mistakes going forward and to implement better service options for exiting and potential customers.
The online sign-up process has since been better streamlined and a focus on UX (user experience) came out as most important. The site was also equipped to better handle mass influx’s of traffic but since the launch of uncapped, we have yet been unable to really test whether she will be able to handle that amount of traffic again.
All social media support channels have moved in-house and are managed by MWEB Guy from the tech support team (which is straight to the source). MWEB Guy offers real time online support on Facebook and Twitter, so during any outage, it is easy to use your smart phone to access these channels to ask for assistance and save costs to the call centre.
Through these social media channels we are able to engage one to one with our customers to elicit their feedback and constructive criticism to better our services going forward. This feedback is then distributed to each department within the business. So in your case, you tweets about your negative experience, would have been swiftly delivered to online sign-up and MWEB Guy would have solved your query immediately.
Rudi Jansen and Derek Hershaw our CEO’s are also regulars on these channels, engaging with the customers one on one and answering their questions directly. They love Facebook, sometimes I can’t get them off! ;-)
Yours in better MWEB Service
Suzanne Stokes
Hi Su
Thanks for updating me on how things are now done. Sounds like much improvement has been made. I also see that MWEB has also released its own mall. Sounds exciting!
[...] I like to moan, rant and especially rave about companies or brands that have failed me or just messed me around. With it being the festive [...]
Past Post: : Captain Awesome’s Opinion: MWEB Sucks http://www.cptawesome.co.za/2010/04/12/c... #myblog
via Twitoaster
@jbigmac is there anything I can assist your with?
via Twitoaster
@ Captain Awesome – Hey, What Openweb package are you using currently, Or have you tested? Im looking for a cost effective 384 uncapped account. Im currently using the 384 MWEB one @ 219 p/m and i want to change to Open web but really only because im looking for cheaper opions. (currently moving about 60G average a month with mweb)
Thanks!
Hi Captain Awesome!
I have been with openweb for about 4months now and have always used 384k lite uncapped. I am very pleased with their customer support I must admit, but yet I personally do not believe the package is unshaped (or can be) when it comes to torrents. I carefully read the terms and conditions when I was about to choose them, whereby the FUP is explained. My download speed has always been affected whenever I downloaded the torrents. Please do not get me wrong I am very pleased to be with openweb and definitely would recommend them to my fellows.
I spend about R1 000 a month on my 3g account. Every day from 14h00 I am lucky if I get speeds faster than 10kbps. I have been unable to use my 3g in the afternoons for the last month now as they just dont have any service. As a business on the road this is unacceptable, but I am still bound to their contract and just have to grin and bare it!!!!
Thanks for the comment @GM – That pricing is outragous! R1000 a month!? How many gigs do you normally use a month? I can understand that price if you are using loads of data, but that is a seriously high 3G bill! In terms of accessibility, that is just unacceptable! I take it that you are with Mweb (look at the post name) with this or are you with another provider? I really hope that things get sorted out and quickly!
Upgrading always means worse
After months of being promised faster service – it is slower
In placing text from a file :
1.It now takes three operations instead of one
2.The final “Insert” bears no resemblance to the original in draft form
3.Often the whole text is not visible
4 More difficult to edit text once placed
5. There is no longer a “Close Tab” -so that the whole site closes down when exiting.
It’s rather alarming indeed.