False advertsing & poor service

I have been an Afrihost ADSL user for 10 years and switched to fibre in May 2021 as it finally became available in my area. I subscribed to a ‘pure fibre’ 100Mb upload & 50Mb download, unshaped, unthrottled, uncapped package with Afrihost as ISP, and Openserve (the only choice I have) as the fibre provider. I have been noticing the last couple of weeks that internet sometimes is unstable and as a result started doing speed tests on my line, all done connected straight to the router via LAN cable and discovered that my download speed seems to be throttled during peak times. This I reported to Afrihost support and on several occasions, they did a port reset and things returned to normal for a while. On TUE 22 June 2021 I got a download speeds as low as 10Mb around 18:15 in the evening. I contacted Afrihost support with screenshots of my case. The port again was reset. On THU 24 June I took various screenshots between 19:00 – 20:43 with download speeds as low as 3Mb and again reported this to Afrihost via email, in an irritable tone I must add. By Friday afternoon (25 Jun) I have not had a reply and contacted Afrihost telephonically and asked to speak to a manager. I was informed that the manager is unavailable, which seems to be the case every time I ask incidentally. Upon returning from work I had an email asking me to keep doing speed tests. During the period from Thu evening 24 June until Monday morning I did 77 (seventy-seven) speed tests. (I am full time employed and can only do tests when at work, this will be before 08:00 and after 18:00) The results from my 77 tests, ran from Thu 24 June, until, Monday morning 28 June, proved that during peak times, my line is being throttled/shaped. I get speeds close to 100Mb (late 90’s) before I leave for work, around 8am and in the afternoon before 18:00. The moment 18:00 hits, weekdays (weekends seem to be longer as more people are home) I am throttled/shaped as low as 3Mb. Note that during all tests, up to current date, the upload speed is consistent around the 48Mb, which very good on a 50Mb upload speed. This proves that nothing is wrong with the fibre line. The high download speeds (which I am paying for) during off-peak times also verify that the fibre line is perfect. I logged all my screenshots as well as an Excel document of the 77 tests, listing date, time, upload & download speed for easy readability and submitted my email on Monday morning, 28 June. By Monday afternoon I still had no reply and contacted support telephonically, again the manager was unavailable. I afterwards I got sent another mail requesting me to bypass the Afrihost router and connect straight to the Openserve router and do more speed tests. I battled to this process and the resetting of my password, seemed to only take affect the following day. I finally managed to succeed with this test on Tue evening, 29 June and submitted my findings, again confirming the shaping/throttling during peak times, via mail on the same evening.

By WED 30 June I had no reply and contacted support telephonically, again the manager was unavailable. This time a very helpful lady assisted me telephonically and logged a fault with Openserve as Afrihost does not throttle or shape their lines, as I was informed. On WED evening a Telkom/Openserve agent contacted me and asked me to do tests using a test account. Using the test account, I managed to get download speeds as low as 1.91Mb connected straight to the Openserve router and submitted this to Afrihost support. I incidentally did speed tests using the test account through both the Openserve and Afrihost router and all was under 10Mb. By Friday I had submitted a follow up mail requesting feedback but had no response and again contacted Afrihost telephonically but no feedback could be provided. As to date no response, nor feedback.

I ran tests over the weekend, running speed tests as normal, ie: the test being done from the Afrihost router, which I presume is in JHB, to whichever server “Speedtest” selects for the test in your city. During peak times my download speed again dropped to under 10Mb. Connecting to the net via a VPN and running tests, thus VPN incognito router, instead of the above mentioned Afrihost router, got me speeds 50Mb or above. Now considering the extra paths being used when using a VPN this is to be expected as its commonly known that using a VPN reduces speed, although all tests got me on average 45Mb and above on upload speeds using the VPN. The conclusion drawn from the speed tests done using a VPN is that I get a hugely faster download speed as compared to using the Afrihost server, or bypassing the VPN, which is not normal. This is even more baffling as the question is now is it Afrihost or Openserve that is throttling/shaping my download speed during peak times?

At this point I am irate at the poor service and response I have received from Afrihost, being a client for over 10 years. The only time I get any kind of help is when I phone. It just seems they are not interested in my problem and the ‘buck is passed’ backwards and forwards between Afrihost & Openserve.

I am paying for a 100Mb (download speed), unshaped, unthrottled, uncapped fibre line but is clearly being shaped/throttled during peak times. I have provided more than adequate proof supporting my argument and after nearly 2 weeks, my problem has still not been resolved.