DV
Darren V

1 reviews | Active since Mar 2012

11 Mar 2023, 21:45

******* and *****. No customer support.

Non existent support. I have contacted Rain multiple times about the speed I receive on my Premium 5G package. I don't even get half the speed of the lowest 5G package. I have tested all the equipment, everything I have is gigabit compliant and the signal to the tower is perfect, I have checked this with professional equipment. Tonight my speed is wavering between 5 and 10meg at best with constant drops to the bottom end, I can't even stream a single episode of something in HD without constant buffering. I haven't seen a speed of over 15meg in more than a year. From a company that brags about "Ultra fast speeds" this is a blatant lie.

The first time I complained about speed I wrote a long mail explaining all the equipment testing, noting that everything is compliant, working and that the speed issue is on their side. I waited more than a week for an email reply stating "Try rebooting the router." Yes folks, this is how useless these people are. I wasted my time explaining everything only to receive the generic read from a script reply. They reply to people like they are idiots, when in actual fact they are dealing with someone that is quite educated on networking. Their fall back support scripts will try to blame your equipment or signal, yet since these have all been tested, it's a lie.

I have called, emailed and used their website for support and all they do is blatantly ignore you. I called their helpline recently and was promised a call back at 5pm, they never called. They clearly do not care. You can never speak to anyone that is actually smart enough to know how networks work. They hide under a layer of support staff and claims you can't talk to anyone with a brain.

The simple answer must be that they have oversold their tower and it is so congested I never get anything near to what they advertise and I pay for. When I just installed the router I was getting speeds of over 300meg. 300 down to 10 at best, that's a rather large drop, that's a drop of 96.6%. I have a router ups and have noticed that when load shedding kicks in I get slightly better speeds, so clearly congestion issues. Yet I'm still limited to a max of around 10-15meg. So they've clearly throttled the service.

I also got a 4G package for when I'm roaming around near work and the speed is lower than 2 meg at best. If you use a VPN they throttle the speed to kb's. You might be able to send a whatsapp over a VPN if you are patient, nothing else. I have to connect to VPN's for work purposes, so the service is basically useless. They've clearly throttled this into oblivion to keep streaming limited to a certain resolution.

Thankfully fiber is being installed in my neighborhood, so I can get rid of this useless and ********* service in a few weeks.

Avoid then at all costs. This company only cares about profit.

0
Replies (11)
Rain
Rain's reply12 Mar 2023, 08:17
Official
Hi Darren.

We're really sorry your rain experience hasn't been as good as you expected. We're going to get on this asap. Thank you.rain. 
DV
Darren V's update12 Mar 2023, 17:40
Reviewer Update
It's worse now. Well done...

No idea how you claim to have changed towers from a far away tower. The receiving signal strength is still exactly the same. The signal is perfectly strong enough for a good speed.

Can you please sort this out?
DV
Darren V's update12 Mar 2023, 18:54
Reviewer Update
Why are we still going down this road? When I installed the router the signal was perfect. The signal is still great. The router is outdoors yes. It is on the highest point of my roof with a full 360 degree view. It has perfect line of sight to the tower in town.

The built in signal tester section of the router gives me a score of 100/100.

The issue is not signal.
DV
Darren V's update12 Mar 2023, 19:29
Reviewer Update
I'm consistently getting less than 10 meg all day. It has been really bad for a week already, so I don't think we need to wait longer. What are you saying? I'm getting poor speed because of congestion?
DV
Darren V's update15 Mar 2023, 20:54
Reviewer Update
Days later and the speeds I'm getting during the afternoon / evening are still pathetic. I'm trying to run an update and I'm getting maybe 1mb. This is really ridiculous now. Is anything going to be done?
DV
Darren V's update16 Mar 2023, 11:06
Reviewer Update
Yes, the tech and I went through everything. Issue seems to be isolated to the tower and congestion possibly.
DV
Darren V's update16 Mar 2023, 19:28
Reviewer Update
Another night of 1MB download speed. Asking me to reboot my router is redundant at this point, it's the first thing I always do. Still not working. R1000 for your "ultrafast" 1MB download speed. It will stay like this till around 11pm when people go to bed. Congestion.

What are we trying next?
DV
Darren V's update20 Mar 2023, 21:07
Reviewer Update
Still getting terrible speeds, tonight below 1MB dl. Is this ever going to be resolved?
DV
Darren V's update23 Mar 2023, 09:07
Reviewer Update
Seriously? I'm not even using wifi, I'm on a direct connection to the router using Cat 6A ethernet cable, yet the router refuses to sync at anything over 100mb despite all my infrastructure being gigabit compliant.

Firstly your reply doesn't even align to the routers menu structure or terminology, average Joe wouldn't even know where to go to attempt this, you seem to be reading from the incorrect script. Secondly your reply shows you think I'm an idiot, or you don't know what you are doing. This has nothing to do with the wifi. There is an issue at your tower which nobody seems to want to fix. Today the signal is so bad it has taken me 10 minutes just to login here and write this. The upload is non existent and the download is well below 4mb. The best I've managed all morning on a test has been 7.6Mbps dl, and upload is just non existent. 0.00, it flatlines, the net is unusable. SA/NSA/Frequency lock, cell lock none of it does anything. The tower is kaput.

I'm not going away, I pay for a service and expect a service, so how many back and forth messages are we going to have here before the issue is resolved by someone competent? We are on day 12 of this.
DV
Darren V's update23 Mar 2023, 09:14
Reviewer Update
I finally got an upload speed to register. 0.09Mbps. Completely and utterly unusable.
DV
Darren V's update23 Mar 2023, 14:26
Reviewer Update
Perhaps now in the afternoon you may have seen a better speed. This is the issue, it fluctuates greatly and downwards to the point of not being usable. The stability for the last weeks has been a major issue.

Suggesting I have an issue with regards to cookies and cache is laughable. I've tested this on a freshly run virtual machine, and actual fresh install on a 3500mb/s ssd running Linux with a fully tested and working gigabit network adapter, CAT 6A to router and had the same issue, multiple machines tested, multiple browsers etc. Please do not suggest the issue is on the machine side. I can assure you it is not.

This is either a hardware fault on your supp**** router or an issue on the tower side. Both myself and the tech that helped me have confirmed this is likely tower side and congestion. During peak hours in the evenings the speeds are becoming terrible.

What is the route forwards? Shall we try replace the router next?

Perhaps actually having a tech come out and test and confirm that the equipment is functioning properly might be an idea?