MWEB - Just ANOTHER Giant South African Ripoff Artist In Action!

I have been a customer with Mweb since they began sometime in the 1990's - (shame I hear you say). They have been my principal (only) ISP since then and we have been through the various technology changes and management upheavals sooo many times over the years; but Mweb have still remained my ISP - so much for my loyalty. This uneasy relationship has now got to a point where I; a loyal customer; just do not count anymore, and it is painfully obvious that Mweb are selling more than they are able to deliver. Whats more; Mweb are expecting customers to be content with what they are getting; albiet that it is blatantly less than what we're paying for. I'm referring specifically to line speeds and data streaming capabilities here - let me explain the problem.

Like most tech-savvy South Africans these days we stream local and overseas content for our TV viewing. During the day the streaming is fine, and it is very seldom that our line has to reset the connection to keep going during the day. HOWEVER; as soon as we reach the bewitching hour of 20.00 (8pm) the line speed and data rate slows down (is throttled?) to such an extent that it is almost impossible to watch an overseas program on TV. Nothing fancy going on here either - NO HD streaming - No huge movie downloads - all the other devices in the house are either off or dormant; so there are no phantom users sucking on the pipe at the same time either..... so what to do?

I have tried for several months now; through many hours of service calls to the Mweb support guys on the phone; to get Mweb to stop throttling our line for overseas streaming after 20.00 hours! The front line support guys have been patient (and at times emphatically sympathetic) but consistently unable to fix the problem - as much as they would like to have seen me go off as another satisfied customer. More recently I have been lucky enough to get 2 front line tech support guys who went that extra mile and tried to escalate my long standing problem to the untouchable (and uncontactable!) Tech Gods above them; only to be told that it would be at least a WEEK before the Gods would be able to even consider helping me - actually that's wrong - the guy said that 'until they would be able to give me a reason why my problem is not happening".....

The bottom line is that MWEB are not delivering what they have promised to me, and they are quite happily continuing to make me pay for a 10mg line and 200 Gig of data every month knowing full well that I will NEVER be able to use what they sold me. In case you weren't aware of it - THAT'S THEFT MWEB; and you can now congratulate yourself as having become the final proverbial 'straw on the camels back" for me and leaving me no choice but to publicly vent my frustrations about your company.

I - (WE - your South African customers) are sick and tired of being ripped-off for services and goods that are over-priced and sub-standard. There is no doubt about it - you can now without a doubt shamefully add MWEB to the ever growing list of other Giant rip-off artists whose company management hide behind a veil of corporate bureaucracy while they bleed this country dry.

Allan Carson - Fish Hoek - South Africa