Cool Ideas - not cool man, not cool

I reported intermittent connectivity issues since the beginning of the year. The standard response was that they were experiencing widespread network issues. The problem persisted and when I asked for support was handed very technical tests to run and the blame was shifted to my internal home infrastructure. I related to the COOL Ideas technical support person that I did not have the skills to execute the tests and requested on the call for onsite support. The call was closed without any onsite support forthcoming. Both my wife and I work from home and our primary aoeuce of media entertainment is streaming.

After many weeks of fruitless efforts to revive the request I turned to ASG Computers in Kempton Park and requested them tk assist me in running the tests required. On arrival the ASG Network Engineer spoke to the Cool Ideas technical support person and after consulting also indicated that the tests were too technical for a reasonable home owner to be executing.

On running thr tests the ASG Computers Network Engineer isolated the problem to the ESP (a big black box that the Fibre line connects into). This device is part of the Fibre network and does not form part of my home infrastructure. On sending the technical report to Cool Ideas they finally picked up the phone to Vumatel and a Vumatel support technician was on site within 24hrs to replace the ESP.

The services of ASG Computers were billed to me personally to the amount of R3.7k. When I asked Cool Ideas for a credit on my account I was met with stonewalled after stonewalled replies, quoting various sections from their policy to me. When I pointed out the facts and supp**** Brett Sinclair with the facts (including logged requests for support and the technical report from ASG Computers) I again received no récompense for my effort. I referred the matter to Vumatel and have not received feedback from them but instead recieved the same regurgitated reply from Brett Sinclair (whom I copied in on my request to Vumatel) that Vumatel gad similar policies.

I am now putting this on HelloPeter as I have exhausted all avenues to secure recompense for the expense I incurred to resolve an issue that could have been resolved by Cool Ideas many months ago if they had responded to my request for onsite investigation.

I trust that Cool Ideas will take into consideration the extreme frustration at firstly resolving the issue promptly, secondly the frustration and impact on our home and work, and thirdly considering that I incurred personal expenditure to isolate an issue on their side.