Very poor service

Hi Rain

I am connected to a far away tower because both towers close to me was reported as being down after the power failure on Sunday (2 Nov) night. I have still not received feedback on the restore of the towers and I am not getting support / feedback from Rain. I work from home and at this moment I am very irritated with the poor service.

Seeing that my router are connected to its own UPS, I even walked around in my yard to see if I can get a better connection..... but nothing.

This is the first response after complaining on all platforms (Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Email and HelloPeter)

The connection seems to have been restored with an upload of 7.4 and a download of 11.9. I am however still not happy with the level of service seeing that I have been a client for a very long time and do not understand that it takes almost 2 days to restore two towers back into production after a power failure.

Good day

2 weeks later since the above was escalated and I sit with the same issue again.
Power went out in our are. The power came back on and then suddenly no internet connection.
My guess is that the towers are down again.

What I do not understand is..... does Rain not have monitoring on their towers to be alerted when towers are down and why does it take this long to restore services?

I cannot sit two days without internet again....

Rain phoned me, but did not help me.

They gave me a workaround which did not make any difference as I am still struggling without internet.

Someone from Rain needs to escalate the tower issue to whomever is responsible so that towers can be restored as quick as possible after power interruptions.

I cannot believe that it takes this long just to restore a tower....

This is the second time this month that this happens.

Thanks for the 2nd call.

I have tried whatever I was given as options on the phone and none of it made anything better as I am still without internet.

Other than sitting without internet, my main concern is that this now happens with every power outage we have in our area. Each time ths happens I sit without internet for 2 to 3 days and it is getting VERY frustrating.

Not sure why this remains to be an ongoing issue. Why can the upstream provider not be escalated so they can find a permanent fix?

33 Hours.... and still no internet. Turnaround time should not be in Rain's vocabulary.

Just a reminder.... this is the second time this month. Around the 5th of November, I was without internet for 2 days+

Does not make a difference. I get less than 25% signal strength and the speed test website comes back with an error.... No Internet...

working from home, I have now used up the data on the two rain sims, the work Telkom sim and my personal MTN sim meaning I will now have to buy more data to be able to continue working.

Should you be pointing me to 5G towers if I am using a 4G connection. Is the 5G towers backwards compatible meaning will they accept 4G connections?

Either this made a difference or the tower is back up... please confirm.

Rain speed test 11.9 down and 7.9 up (no packet loss data)

Ookla speed test 11.1 down and 7.5 up with a 24.3% packet loss

I just rebooted the router facing that direction. I did Not do the factory reset.....

Thanks, but I need to know what the plan is going forward.
I CANNOT go through this every time there is a power outage in our area.
If there is no plan to get this resolved permanently, I will unfortunately have to start looking for something else as I work from home and cannot be disconnected.

I am also still concerned about the package loss ranging between 17 and 30% which is a lot.

".. While we strive to provide you with uninterrupted service..... to maintain the stability and continuity of our service …" - Which has proven that stability and continuity are both very questionable terms in the Rain network, especially in my area.

Outages and infrastructure failure I understand as I have been in the IT support and customer service world since 1996. You will always have outages and failures.

The issue however is the recovery time after and outage or failure as well as the follow-up and escalation with the aim to keep the customer as happy as possible and informed. Having to revert to escalation on such a public forum as HelloPeter just to get assistance and feedback from a big service provider like Rain is both disappointing and damaging.

Taking 2+ days to restore a service and only supplying feedback after the customer has taken measures to go public is unacceptable, especially considering that this is not the 1st time. I have been a Rain customer for a very long time with lots of ups and downs while still remaining loyal, and would love to remain a Rain customer but considering that I work from home relying on a stable connection which unfortunately results in downtime for 2+ days twice in one month, I need to start looking for something else.

The internet speeds, as long as the network is fully operational and stable with no packet loss, on 4G is more than enough for my requirement. I would like to go 5G but my wife does not like 5G and I also do not have the extra funds to pay for 5G.

Even with a "good" internet connection from Rain I cannot even play an online Minecraft game with my son over weekends as it glitches due to the amount of packet loss on the network. So both work and fun is limited and broken down as a result of poor support from my "preferred" internet service provider...


SAD!!

Even with service restored, the connection is currently very unstable.

Speed when restored (9:49 19/11/2024) - Rain speed test 11.9 down and 7.9 up (no packet loss data)
Speed now (12:46 19/11/2024) - Rain speed test 5.2 down and 0,4 up

So...... still not stabilized...

Internet is down again... why??

I have 75 to 100% signal strength, but no internet.....

I do not get a reply on the DM on Facebook messenger and also no reply after reporting it on the bot on your website.

And your contact center number is down??

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Good day dear Rain

Another day in Paradise....

Our power went of last night at 18:10. About 2.5 hours later, the internet connection dropped and up till now it has not been restored and I am left without internet service and the only reply I get from rain is that as soon as the tower is back up the connection will be restored back to normal. This is old news and I know this by now. The power was restored at about 21:20 last night.

My issue is the lack of urgency and escalation of this matter. This is the 3rd time in a month and a bit as it happened 2 times in November and again last night. The two times in November left me without internet for 2 days each. In total 4 days in November that I could not work seeing that I work from home. Today is the 5th day and counting.

With previous escalations, what has been done by Rain support between the 1st outage in November and today to ensure better service and higher urgency on this problematic tower? The fact that the tower goes down should by now be a known error in your database with defined remediation steps to ensure quick resolution. This is however not the case as it seems that Rain is still "Just waiting" for a 3rd party vendor to restore the tower whenever they feel like it which is clearly a best effort service with no real urgency or escalation.

This just once again shows the lack of importance of your loyal customers.

As expected...

No response...

The issue was the tower that was down and not my router and this has been proven more than once. A general response from your support team is to reset, reconfigure and reboot routers. In extreme scenarios where an issue persists even after towers have been confirmed to be up this is understandable.

However, by now you should have on your records that when my connection is down, it is most probably the tower and this should be your 1st check.

I understand support, troubleshooting and everything else that goes with client support and issue identification as I have been in the client support business since 1996 and still am.

It is just mind blowing how bad the response and feedback is from rain and this together with the lack of urgency and escalation.

Client support is all about resolving the issue and restoring services as quick as possible while keeping the client informed and updated.

maybe write this into your client support policies and procedures.

I had to revert, once again, to HelloPeter, Facebook messenger and the Rain website by escalating and dragging feedback out of your support and I did not even get the required feedback.

So you also don't read what the customer replies.... ?

Let me reiterate my complaint....

My internet is working as confirmed yesterday evening already (lack of communication on your side resulting in what you are replying now).

My complaint is the lack of feedback to the customer and the urgency of restoring services when issues do occur. And when I do get responses it is always that I need to reset my router and reconfigure my router which was not the issue on any pf the last 3 outages.

Ending this chain by saying.... IT IS WORKING AGAIN, but Rain client services lacks important key features that needs to be looked at.

Dear Rain

Once again, I am without internet.... you could not even keep me connected over the festive season...

two and a half days without internet. I got a call earlier today ( 27/12/2024 @ 11:26) saying that my issue have been escalated and that I must restart my device after an hour and test.
At 13:00 I did a reset on my router and reconfigured it. I tried both an Auto and a manual APN setting and no luck.
I did a restart of the device at 13:30 and no luck.
I have a small UPS on the router, so I took it for a walk around the house and around the yard doing random reboots and no luck.... still stuck without internet.

4 days in November without internet.
3 days, including today.... without internet in December.

I am tired of hearing that it has been escalated to the senior network team, because that is usually where everything goes dead and I do not hear from Rain again.

Hos is it that someone that has been a loyal customer for so long must struggle with service this much and sit without internet so frequently....?

In the two and a half days without internet, I have done the following so please do not tell me that this is the issue.

Rebooted my device numerous times
Reset my device 2 times
Tried different locations in my home
Tried different locations in my yard
Tried the SIM in a cellphone
Reconfigured my router numerous times
Tried manual APN settings
Tried Auto APN settings

And..... AGAIN

We had a power outage which was restored last night at 7pm, but internet is still down.
logged a ticket online but I did not even get a ticket number.
Inboxed Rain on FB every hour this morning (total of 4).... No reply.
I work from home and need my connection.

It is not my router. I did n shut down, several restarts and and.... It is the tower that is down which has been the cause for a very long time every time we have power outages. All they need to do is to ensure that the tower is brought back online and into production, but as usual the customer service is non-existent.

The other towers are to far away or something, so when I connect to any other tower, the connection is so slow that I rather use another connection (My personal MTN data).

I have now app**** for fiber at another provider. The disconnects (from 24 hours to sometimes 3 days without connection) and slow internet (sometimes as bad as 2MB download and 4MB upload) has been too much over the last 4 months, especially considering that I work from home and rely on a stable connection.

I have been with Rain for many years (Since March 2020) and each time decide to fight it through and remain a loyal customer, but this did not win me any favor and caused me a lot of frustration over the years. As I am typing this, I cannot even connect to Rain's website due to an extremely slow connection. I can only hope that I do not have to go through the same pains with the replacement service provider.

If the customer service was at least at a better / higher level, it would have been different.

It is to no surprise that it is now 17:58 on Saturday 8 March (2 days without internet and I did pay) and I am still sitting with no internet and not getting any feedback on the restoration of my connection, but you are very quick to respond to ask me if I want to cancell... this after 5 years of being a loyal customer.... wow, this says a lot about your commitment to customer service.

What is i the status on restoring my connection???..

Day 3 without connection.....

Day 4 - Pathetic Internet connection. So bad that I cannot work. On the Rain speed test I get a 0,8Mbps download and a 0,0 Mbps upload.

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What is happening with the outage? Any news yet on restoring my connection?

Anything from anyone????

I have now used up my data on my MTN contract and need to buy data because the service provider I pay to have internet access cannot restore my connection.

So now it is touching my pocket...!!!

Hopefully this is the last I write about Rain. I moved over to fiber and am finally rid of Rain.
I have had some good coverage and some ups and downs, but the main thing that I was extremely frustrated with is the lack of customer service.... or rather next to no customer service received from Rain support. Rain also have very poor to no communication skills.

Sad that after being a loyal customer for 5 years, I still could not get the needed support, feedback and communication.

Even the cancellation process does not work. I logged 3 tickets and a 4th one was logged by an agent this morning just to get the services cancelled and I still have not received a call from Rain to finalize the cancellation.

I can only hope that my complaints have helped other Rain customer get better service so they do not experience the same frustration and disappointment I did.

Good day

2 Months after I asked for the cancellation....... now you want to assist with the cancellation... wow. By the way.... I never received a call from Rain w.r.t my cancellation requests (4 of them).

Why do you require a pick up address? What do you want to pick up?.... the sim cards?

Get in contact with me by phone so we can discuss and finalize so that Rain can stop harassing me.