1 reviews | Active since Feb 2014
No internet, Constant Tower down and trying to Double bill for 1 month internet access
To all Rain customers, please be aware of the following when dealing with Rain Internet Service Provider. If your tower is down with no internet, you will have to make another plan that cost you money to contact them, like buying data from another service provider to be able to submit a Support ticket to them or having to spend money to buy airtime to phone them to report the problem. Do not expect to get a call to tell you your tower is having problems and that is why your internet is down. You will need to bear the financial costs when reaching out to them. Plus when you do at times phone Support do not be shocked to reach someone in India, this service provider who makes its money from the local South African citizens by providing a service to them, has a business model that support foreign employment systems, probably to reduce their expenses and increase profits. Because why would a company that makes money from their local clients, by providing a service to their local clients, hire only local citizens in a country that has such a high unemployment rate?
Now do not get it wrong the locally employed Support do their work well and those I spoke to do their best to help where they can, but once they escalate a matter to higher management, you might not get your result to have your problem resolved.
So lets look at the situation I was in.
1. First the internet went down and it was for a few hours, so how do I contact Rain? Their App does not work without internet, so you cannot submit a Support Ticket and if you wanted to contact them via Facebook you also need data. So I had to go buy data from a third party to be able to submit a ticket via App and post on Facebook. Now normally just sending a DM does not get their attention, so you have to post a comment to make them aware of the problem and tell them there is a DM they need to look at.
So after this first incident, the local Support team phoned me to look into the matter and they confirmed the reason we were having bad to no internet at all was due to a Tower Error and they cleared it which made the internet work again.
But whilst speaking to Support I mentioned to them a matter that shows up in my account on the App, where my debit goes off on the 25th but my account shows that my payment date is the 1st.
A problem we have had that we contacted them and spoke about when we had other network problems / matters in October, November and December. So Support said, no problem they will sort it out on their end and change things sothat as the system showed in my Account via App that the payment is the 1st.
2. Thinking everything now sorted, two days later the internet goes down again, oh but the fun just started. Again I had to go spend money to buy data from a third party to submit a Support ticket via App (which did not do anything) and back to Facebook to leave a DM and a Comment to one of their posts to get their attention. This time no response, so I had to go spend more money on airtime to phone their Support this time about the NO internet problem.
Phoned them just to be directed to someone in India who handles their support over weekends and probably other times as well.
Whilst in the call I get told the little dance where the fault is on my end and I need to put my router off and on again, which I told them I already did a few times. Also told them about the tower issue from two days prior and they wanted to talk over me and say its not a fault at the tower. Then he wanted the number on the SIM card and said he escalated the matter to the Technical Team. When asking for a timeframe, I get told there is no timeframe basically we have to just wait and see when internet is fixed.
So after internet is restored again (the next day) I get a message on Facebook telling me it was again a fault at tower and internet is now fixed again and working.
3. Then the fun started as internet goes off again. This time it is because of the billing date changed from Support side when I spoke to them days before about the error showing in my account.
Again I left messages, nothing. Spent more money on airtime and phoned, this time reaching another individual from India and as call started after verifying my account details, get cut-off.
No call back, nothing.
So back again to leave Facebook comments and DMs, with local support team contacting me.
First time I explained everything and they said they would call me back, which never happened. Then left more Comments and DMs, and got the call back today.
Individual on the call said he would speak to management and call me back, which he did (Thank you for that).
This is where we are at.
They received their payment in December and originally the next payment would have gone off on the 25th again (which now changed to the first) So I said, if the debit goes off on the first and they charge me the full monthly amount plus a Pro-Rata rate for the days between the 25th to 1st on my next invoice that is 100% with me.
Regardless that it cost me money to keep contacting them when my internet had technical problems, or the fact that I did not have full internet the whole time.
This is what Rain wants:
They want me to pay for two (2) months instalments for 1 month service. Yes they want me to pay for a full month now to get the internet connect again and then on the 1st again another full month instalment.
So please be aware when taking up a Rain contact, first double check all the public comments regarding the internet connection from people in your same area. Then make sure when changing your payment date, even via Support, as they will not tell you a new Invoice would be generated or that you then would get cut off and will pay double.
Even the last call with individual from Support (local) said that their support individual should have informed me by changing the date will cause this problem.
So it seems if their system has a problem and debits you on one date but shows your payment date as another, do not even tell them about it as they might just do the same to you and cut off your services and give you the same excuse.
Overall I was happy with Rain regardless when internet was so slow. I have gone through time with 500KB/sec and even down to 50KB/sec and just left it, still supporting them.
I have had the tower down many times without internet.
If this is how Rain wants to treat its customers, especially from a management level, then they need to be aware that the local public who supports them will not stay with them blindly.
As I mentioned to them via the last call, I will continue to now make public awareness to current and potential new customers about the way they treat their customers from first hand experience on a weekly basis.
Rain you have changed and your PR image you promote to everyone is far apart from how you treat customers and the service they are receiving. A service which at times is terrible.
When your internet is down or not running as per the contracted speed for which you took the service from them, you still have to pay.
So its like buying a bread, paying full price but they only give you half of the bread at the end.
When their internet services goes down, you need to take your own money to buy data from other service providers to reach Rain as well as spend your money to phone Rain to tell them that you dont have internet.
The costs remains on your shoulders and they dont care when you have to take these steps.
When you tell Support that there is problem that shows in your Account which should not be like that regarding your billing, they do NOT inform you how things will change an then they want to leave you with a double bill for a service for the same period.
It seems you dont care about your customers, it seems it is all about how much profits the company can make, and if the service is poor then we as the customers just have to accept it.
Probably why you also as a SA company took the step to have people from India handle parts of your Support as its the cheaper option than to help the local economy and employ locally unemployed individuals within the same country you are selling your services.
Your last response was just to try and point the finger to another direction away from yourself.
Basic logic if my last payment was on the 25th of December and my next one would be 25th January.
If we changed the billing date (via Support before the 1st of january, meaning between 26 December and 1st January, I could have understood if on the 1st of January we received another invoice.
But my next service payment would have been on the 25th of January but we requested next payment to be set for 1 February.
Your support did not mention anything when changing it that new invoice would be generated immediately, plus even if it did, under what Maths does your company work out to justify two full monthly payments for a single months service?
With 30/31 average day in a month, how can you want payments for double those amount of days with a date change?
Its not hard to understand.
At the end you just do not care about your customers and yet your PR image you want to show that you care about your customers, but it does not show.
We will share our concerns with ISPA and other avenues starting tomorrow and continue to voice our concerns to the public on this matter as we believe what you are doing is wrong.
When your internet is down or not running as per the contracted speed for which you took the service from them, you still have to pay.
So its like buying a bread, paying full price but they only give you half of the bread at the end.
When their internet services goes down, you need to take your own money to buy data from other service providers to reach Rain as well as spend your money to phone Rain to tell them that you dont have internet.
The costs remains on your shoulders and they dont care when you have to take these steps.
When you tell Support that there is problem that shows in your Account which should not be like that regarding your billing, they do NOT inform you how things will change an then they want to leave you with a double bill for a service for the same period.
It seems you dont care about your customers, it seems it is all about how much profits the company can make, and if the service is poor then we as the customers just have to accept it.
Probably why you also as a SA company took the step to have people from India handle parts of your Support as its the cheaper option than to help the local economy and employ locally unemployed individuals within the same country you are selling your services.
Your last response was just to try and point the finger to another direction away from yourself.
Basic logic if my last payment was on the 25th of December and my next one would be 25th January.
If we changed the billing date (via Support before the 1st of january, meaning between 26 December and 1st January, I could have understood if on the 1st of January we received another invoice.
But my next service payment would have been on the 25th of January but we requested next payment to be set for 1 February.
Your support did not mention anything when changing it that new invoice would be generated immediately, plus even if it did, under what Maths does your company work out to justify two full monthly payments for a single months service?
With 30/31 average day in a month, how can you want payments for double those amount of days with a date change?
Its not hard to understand.
At the end you just do not care about your customers and yet your PR image you want to show that you care about your customers, but it does not show.
We will share our concerns with ISPA and other avenues starting tomorrow and continue to voice our concerns to the public on this matter as we believe what you are doing is wrong.