Atrocious Call Centre Servive

Item: Afrihost.com
Rating: 1

I am writing to report an extraordinarily awful experience that I had yesterday. This is the context: • I use two email addresses linked to two different sites hosted by Afrihost: • My laptop is a MacBook Air • I have set up my Mac Mail App to access both these accounts • I do not generally log onto Clientzone to access my email because I find the the interface inconvenient to use and I also prefer to receive emails from all my accounts in one place. • Over the past few months I have had a recurrent problem. This is the problem: • Every 3 to 5 weeks I am unable to use the email addresses. • When I try to send an email, I get a password request, when I try the current password, it is not recognised. • When I try to use the password to get onto Clientzone, it is also rejected. • I then telephone the Afrihost support line. • This happened a few times before I began to record the dates of the occurrence. The last three times were: ◦ 1 September 2016 ◦ 26 September 2016 ◦ 21 October 2016 • On previous occasions it took me between 1 and 3 hours to get the problem resolved with the Call Centre Technician accessing my computer remotely. Not including the usual 15 to 45 minute wait to get through to your Call Centre. • The process has been quicker when the Call Centre Technician I happened to speak to was conversant with Apple Mac products and significantly longer when he/she is not fami**** with Mac or the problem, but tries to help anyway. • Yesterday it took 11 hours. My first call was logged at 09h31 and the issue was apparently resolved at 20h18. • Today I went online at 17h00 to do some work and although it had appeared to be working last night, it is now (Saturday 22 October 17h51) not able to send email. • This is what I understand the Call Centre Technicians usually do to solve the problem: • The Call Centre Technician checks the ‘connection doctor’ on my computer • The Call Centre Technician changes the settings in my MacMail account using remote access. • The Call Centre Technician changes my password • The Call Centre Technician does something on the back-end of Afrihost / Clientzone • In the last situation the Call Centre Technician told me he had put a ‘flag’ on both accounts to alert future technicians to the fact that I am a Mac user and my setting are not to be changed or my accounts moved • Usually email then works until the next time These are some of the reasons for the problem given to me by various Call Centre Technicians: • "Apple Mac is the problem - its 'doesn’t like' our (Afrihost) systems” • "Apple Mac was designed to use with the Cloud, so doesn’t work very well with 'old fashioned' email systems" • "Every few weeks we (Afrihost) move clients’ accounts around to different servers to give our clients the best service, your settings get scrambled when we do this” • “You must have changed your settings” ( I never do) • “When the option ‘Automatically detect and maintain account settings’ is ticked in Mac Mail it sometimes goes crazy and just re-sets itself” (I have never ticked this option) • “We (Afrihost) have recently changed our servers” • "We (Afrihost) were recently affected by an outage” • They all tell me there is nothing they or I can do to prevent this from happening. Most of the Afrihost Call Centre Technicians remain calm and try to be helpful. This is what happened yesterday: • The process took 11 hours and is not yet resolved. • My first call was logged at 09h31 and the issue was finally “resolved" at 20h18, but my email is still not sending • Several attempts were made to resolve the problem 09h35 (27 minutes); 11h49 (21 minutes); 13h33 (34 minutes) despite me imploring to be transferred to a Call Centre Technician who had worked with Apple Mac products or had dealt with this issue before. • I kept trying • I finally got through to a Call Centre Technician who seemed to have experience assisting clients who use Apple Mac. 13h52 (15 minutes) ◦ He made several attempts, then said the problem was ‘almost solved’ and we needed to wait for the server to come back on line and he would call me back in 10 minutes. I requested he call me back at 15h30 as I had some urgent business to attend to. ◦ The Call Centre Technician did not attempt to call me back, I tried several times to call him and requested that I be transferred to Call Centre Technician or that they pass on a message for him to call me. ◦ I was finally told that he had left because his shift was over. • Several times I requested to speak to someone with more authority - a manager or supervisor. I was told several times that the supervisor was: "on lunch" or "not here today" or "busy on another call." • Eventually when I requested to speak to a manager, saying, rather desperately, that I would hold the line until a manger was free to speak to me, I was put through a manager. • I was on the phone with a manager. 17h01(80 minutes) Initially he helped me. ◦ He informed me that the Clientzone Remote was off-line and so he asked me me to download the app, Anydesk which did not work and then the app, Team Viewer which did work ◦ He changed settings remotely on my desktop for a while ◦ Then he asked to put my call on hold. I agreed and waited as he worked on my desktop. ◦ After about 25 minutes, I realised that the remote user (the manager) had stopped moving my cursor ◦ Then the remote app,Team Viewer, was disconnected ◦ I remained on hold on the telephone, hoping that the manager was trying something else and would get back to me • After an hour, I called the support line again using another cell phone, while still holding on to the original call just in case the manager got back to me. • I waited 40 minutes in the Call Centre queue until a Call Centre Technician answered my call. When she had heard my story and realised how upset I was, she told me not to worry, that someone would be working on my problem; she had heard the manager tell another Call Centre Technician to call me before he (the manager) left work. • The Call Centre Technician said that no Call Centre Technicians could call out until after 8 because of the high volume of incoming calls. By this time I was in tears, so she eventually persuaded the supervisor, Ronny M, to make an exception and he instructed the Call Centre Technician to call me. • This Call Centre Technician appeared to have resolved the problem using remote access Team Viewer in 58 minutes. • It appeared to be working last night, but is now not able to send email. (Saturday 22 October 17h51) What the consequences for me are: • I am working of a time sensitive project and current deadlines need me to be conducting a great deal of email correspondence • I lost a full day’s work not only because I was unable to send emails all day but also because I spent almost the entire day except for two meetings (10 to 11and 14h30 to 15h30) trying to resolve this problem with Afrihost. (Cost to employer: approximately R3 500.00) • I had intended to catch up with this delayed correspondence on the weekend. (personal cost to me in terms of loss of scheduled family activities as well and plans to exercise and rest) • I am unable to work on the weekend, because the system is not working and Afrihost’s Call Centre is Closed. I will now need to catch up with my correspondence first thing on Monday, losing even more time on the project • I URGENTLY need the service to be reinstated. • I used a total of 205 airtime minutes on my phone and exceeded my contract minutes. (cost approx R 164.00 Cell Phone contract minutes 80c/minute) What I would like Afrihost to do: • Correct the problem so that I am able to send and receive email AS SOON AS POSSIBLE on Monday morning. • Assure me that they will do whatever needs to be done to prevent this problem in the future, • Assure me and that they can reasonably guarantee they are able to provide me with an uninterrupted service in the future while I continue to work on a MacBook, using the Mac Mail App • Give me a clear and transparent explanation of the possible causes of the problem and suggested solutions so that I can either fix it myself or explain it to a Call Centre Technician accurately if it occurs again. • OR • Tell me honestly if there is nothing that can be done to provide me with an uninterrupted service because your hosting service does not effectively work with Apple products so that I can initiate the migration of both websites to another service provider. • Either way I would like an explanation regarding the manager’s decision to leave work while the client he had been dealing with, was left on hold on the phone line. I experienced it as extremely rude and upsetting particularly since I had specifically asked to speak to a supervisor only after struggling for several hours and had explained to the manager my already frustrating dealings with the call centre all day. In Conclusion: I would prefer not to migrate the domains because of the time and trouble it would take, but I do need to have a reliable service provider. Yesterday was absolutely ridiculous, but if I can be up and running first thing on Monday, none of the damage done to client relations is permanent. However, during the cycle of my current project, there will be some days on which the loss of ability to receive and send email as well as the loss of work hours could have far more serious consequences to my ability to perform my job.

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