Chain of Incompetence

<p>For years we had our ADSL Internet services with Telkom. We paid what we had to pay and endured the generally excepted bad service Telkom was known for, like high costs, staff members not 100% s****ed for their tasks and long queues on their Customer Services line (at least it was Toll-Free).</p> <p> </p> <p>Then one day, for some reason (still questioning myself on that one), we decided to move our ADSL services to Afrihost, because they advertise lower costs, better service (?) and (here's the big deal-clincher) remove the pain of dealing with Telkom by managing your ADSL line for you.</p> <p> </p> <p>All said and done, with some minor initial growing pains, we ported to Afrihost. Two months ago I enquired about upgrading our 4MBS ADSL Bundle (line and account for R595 pm) to 8Mbs. A consultant (sales consultant to be exact) contacted me and informed me with great joy that we indeed qualify for an upgrade and that our area exchange (I presume Telkom exchange) does support 8Mbs speeds.</p> <p> </p> <p>So I happily initiated the upgrade on their website, and then proceeded to (still) happily pay all the costs involved to process the upgrade of R845 which would come down to R695 pm once the new 8Mbs ADSL line is ready and the line and account is Bundled.</p> <p> </p> <p>Well to my surprise, nearly a month later I see a notice on their website in my account that the upgrade was unsuccessful because Telkom said it is not feasible because the exchange does not support 8Mbs and there is not enough clients interested in 8Mbs to upgrade the exchange. No-one at Afrihost bothered to inform me of this, and would just happily continue to take the extra R250 from me. So basically I still have a 4Mbs ADSL, which they charge me R279.00 + R597.00 for an 8Mbs ADSL Account (go figure that one out) for a grand total of R876.00 pm. This would have continued every month until a less *********** client noticed that something is wrong with the LineSpeed = MonthlyBill equation.</p> <p> </p> <p>I sent them a message asking to reset my ADSL Bundle back to what it was before this circus of incompetence at Afrihost started. I was sent replies of apologies and promises (via Support Tickets) that everything will be sorted and restored to what it was by the Powers of Incompetence higher up in the Chain of Incompetence (the manager).</p> <p> </p> <p>It is now the end of the month, and bills are due, including the Bill for Incompetence from Afrihost. I got my R200 credit (only because I threatened to go to Hello Peter), but they just accidentally on purpose (or should I say Incompetence?) forgot to re-Bundle my ADSL Line and Account. So instead of ripping me off for R250.00 pm they are now ripping me off for only R100.00. R100 is better than R250 right?</p> <p> </p> <p>I wrote the following to their Accounts Department via support ticket, which by the I learned is the only way with Afrihost to prove the "he-said-she-said" scenario. Oh and I went and re-bundled my account myself on their website, which I suppose can be used as an argument from their side for the extra R100 I am billed for. (please excuse bad grammar, punctuation and spelling - was wrote with high blood pressure)</p> <p> </p> <p>================ AFRIHOST SUPPORT TICKET START ==========================</p> <p> </p> <p>Sent: Sat, 27 Aug 2016 at 10:16</p> <p>Subject: ClientZone - Support Request : Uncapped ADSL</p> <p>Ticket: OGO- ********** 9</p> <p>Is there anyone working at Afrihost that is competent enough to explain to me what is happening on my account. If so, please contact me urgently. I am in the process of deciding if I should immediately CANCEL ALL services with Afrihost.</p> <p>I don't even have the energy to explain everything that is wrong with my account. So if whomever reads this have any level of competence, common sense and any trace of reasonable intelligence in them, then please, for the love of God, READ my previous Support Tickets, Invoices and Account Statement before contacting me.</p> <p>First, Afrihost consultants totally ****ed-up my request for upgrading my ADSL Bundle from 4Mbs to 8Mbs. Advised me that I can upgrade, which I did on advice. paid the extra money (which Afrihost happily took from me).</p> <p>End of last month I am told that the upgrade cannot be done, because (passing the blame) Telkom says it is not feasible. Ok, so then I asked that my 4Mbs BUNDLE be restored and that I get a credit for a service that I never got. According to your consultants this was apparently done.</p> <p>Yet, I get an invoice for MORE than I used to pay with my old BUNDLE (***!!!), and there are no sign of a credit being reflected on the invoice amount. But the credit on the last Account Statement is clearly shown. So, if you compare the last Invoice - IN ********** 9 (due for payment 1 Sept 2016) for an amount of R705.00, with the amount due on the latest Account Statement - of R505.00, then I would assume I have to pay the amount on the statement. So I am assuming that I will have a debit order from Afrihost on 1 Sept 2016 for the amount of R505.00. If not, consider this my notice of termination of ALL my services.</p> <p>So here is what really gets me. On the invoice you are billing me SEPERATELY for my 4Mbs ADSL Line and 4Mbs ADSL Account. That was NOT how it was before Afrihost *****ed up the ADSL Bundle upgrade. Seriously?! So I have to do this myself to get this to a bundle again(???), and this AFTER I ASKED you restore my 4mbs ADSL BUNDLE as it was before.</p> <p> </p> <p>Here is a newsflash Afrihost. Your clients are for the most part up Grown-Up Adults, with real-world responsibilities. We make use of your services to remove the pain-in-the-ass process and bad service of dealing with Telkom. Why do we have to sit and babysit and scrutinize everything Afrihost consultants and staff members do in terms of the service they are supposed to provide.</p> <p>I will now go and fix your mess myself by re-bundling my adsl line and account - God knows Afrihost will gladly continue to rip me off the extra R100 if I don't. You can thank me later for this service I provide of doing your *********** staff members work for them.</p> <p>I sincerely hope this message will make it higher up in your "chain of incompetence", because I can only hope that a manager or supervisor can put two-and-two together of what I am about to say. I work for BrandsEye, and this whole support message was just posted as-is on Hello Peter. Figure that one out.</p> <p> </p> <p>================ AFRIHOST SUPPORT TICKET END ==========================</p> <p> </p> <p>The point of this review, and my biggest beef with South African businesses in general, is that we as consumers should NEVER have to go through these frustrations because businesses are either ******** to the blatant lack of competence and s****-set to deal with consumers complaints, or fail to train their staff members to THINK and MAKE SURE that they have satisfied the query or complaint of their client.</p> <p> </p> <p>In my view it should be of the UTMOST IMPORTANCE to make sure that the product and services you give your client warrants the costs thereof. In light of the economic climate in SA and world-wide for that matter, we all have to think carefully before we spend money on anything. The last thing we want to deal with is the stress and frustration of not getting what we paid for, and not having our legitimate complaints taken care of immediately and correctly.</p> <p> </p> <p>In conclusion, I just like to say to the management of Afrihost and other companies in SA for that matter. You can have best product in the world, but it would absolutely NOTHING if your staff are unable to cope with the "Best Service Levels in the world" that should accompany that product of yours. Invest in your staff, get your service levels up, and you may even sell your ****pier products to smiling customers.</p>