LH
Lianne H

1 reviews | Active since Nov 2019

01 Oct 2020, 17:02

Choose Cool Ideas if you want shoddy Internet service and customer service

Appalling service and false advertising. Our landlord pays for unshaped 20mbps up and down speed with Cool Ideas, and we get less than 5mbps (often even lower than 1mbps). My husband was helping our landlord, who is visually impaired, to get the Internet fixed as he cannot create emails on his own and he isn't very tech savvy. Our landlord specifically asked my husband to help get everything fixed for all these reasons. First, Cool Ideas told us that my husband was not allowed to get involved (even if it is with the permission and on the behalf of our landlord), and insisted that our landlord had to correspond with them via email (even though we had all the relevant information needed to get everything sorted). How can anyone expect a visually impaired, elderly gentleman to correspond with them via email if he cannot see?! It's as if Cool Ideas was insisting to work through our landlord only because they wanted to **** an elderly gentleman into a poor Internet deal due to his lack of technological savviness. Absolutely shoddy, suspicious and insensitive service! My husband and I called multiple times over the span of a few days. The first time we called, we were told to just unplug and plug back in the modem. When we told them that we'd already done that (as my husband is in the IT business and knows how to troubleshoot everything from our side), they sounded as if they didn't know what else to say. We were given a ticket number and told that they'd do everything they could to fix everything. When nothing happened, we called them again the next day and they told us "We're remedying everything now". Why only then? We'd already called them the day before. Another time, we were told that someone would call us back, and they never did. Also, when we asked for the technician's phone number, Cool Ideas refused to give it to us. We were told that they'd call the technician and tell her to call us. We are still waiting for the call from the technician. Awful Internet service, awful customer service, and overall awful experience. Choose Cool Ideas if you want terrible Internet service and customer service.

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Replies (7)
Cool Ideas Service Provider
Cool Ideas Service Provider's reply05 Oct 2020, 10:46
Official
Hi Lianne

we apologize for the experience, we can assist you as long as the account holder provides permission, this is due to ********** experiences in the past.

with regards to the line speeds, we can guarantee speeds to our customers routes, however we cannot guarantee speeds over wireless which is mentioned upon signing up with us. we will have a supervisor contact you to get the full story and assist in resolving. 

thank you for your patience during this time 

the Cool Team 
LH
Lianne H's update05 Oct 2020, 15:20
Reviewer Update
We expressed to Cool Ideas right in the beginning (and to multiple employees that we dealt with) that we had the account holder's permission. That did not stop Cool Ideas from continuing to harass the account holder who had requested to not be involved due to Cool Ideas employees being rude to him and even he had stated to them that my husband was to be contacted for all things related to the Internet. We have contacted dozens of people who work at Cool Ideas (wasting over R200 in airtime) and nothing has been sorted out. The majority of the employees we dealt with were very rude, speaking in demeaning tones and talking over us repeatedly. We also were told only today that we cannot use the normal Internet speed test as proof of Internet problems, and that we must use the Vumatel speed test instead. It feels like just another ploy to buy time so that we have to, once again, gather all the proof of our Internet speed being slow.
Cool Ideas Service Provider
Cool Ideas Service Provider's reply05 Oct 2020, 16:06
Official
Hi Lianne

we will be happy to review the phone calls and interaction and take action against any staff member that was rude towards you or your husband. we do have processes in place and we must ask that they are followed in order to provide you with the best resolution. 

it appears that the line issue is wireless relative and hence why we have requested the speedtest be conducted to speedtest. co .za to our randburg server so that we can submit the results to the fibre line provider for further investigation.

thank you for your assistance in this regard. 

The Cool team

LH
Lianne H's update05 Oct 2020, 16:23
Reviewer Update
You seem to insist that it is a wireless related problem. However, we have cabled connections everywhere. The router is also less than two years old, and we have used numerous new routers to test whether the router is the actual problem. It has shown that it is not a fault on our side. Please do review the phone calls, especially the one that was with the account holder, as he was very upset with how he was being spoken to. I would also like to add that when my husband contacted Cool Ideas earlier today, he requested to speak with general manager. His request was promptly rejected with the excuse that the general manager does not speak to customers.
Cool Ideas Service Provider
Cool Ideas Service Provider's reply05 Oct 2020, 16:26
Official
Hi there 

thank you for your reply, 

the GM does indeed speak with customers and is awaiting feedback regarding the Vumatel findings in order to best address this with your husband which is why the speedtest on the correct website was requested. please do conduct one and submit that to the ticket. 

we are keen to have this resolved 

The Cool Team 
LH
Lianne H's update05 Oct 2020, 17:02
Reviewer Update
Everyone on IT support that we dealt with (Alex Hlapa and David Makhutle) has stipulated to us to use the Vumatel speed test (https://shop.vumatel.co.za/), not the one that you stipulated above. We were also told that any other Internet speeds tests would not be accepted as proof of a slow Internet speed.
Cool Ideas Service Provider
Cool Ideas Service Provider's reply06 Oct 2020, 09:32
Official
Thanks Lianne 

someone will be in touch with your husband today 

The cool team