Zero services!

Where to begin. Joined Smart Village from May last year on a 12 month contract as they are the only ISP with fibre in Midstream Ridge. First 4 months was great. Then in September last year all the issues started, internet connection is constantly down, the line speed is much slower than at the beginning, as if it is being throttled constantly. So Monday morning 22 Jan our connection is down again. Wait 2 hours, as this is now standard procedure with the connection constantly being down. Wife calls SV to log a query at around 13h00, she is told that SV will check and someone will phone back. By 17h00 no one has phoned back, wife has phoned twice since to only be told someone will call back. Wife phones again at 17h00, auto message repeatedly says that the call centre is experiencing high call volumes (not surprising with the terrible service that SV provides) so she leaves a message on the voice messaging service that states that "someone will reply to your call promptly"... no one phones -- they are probably trying to call on the VOIP phone which does not work because their connection is down! I phone and speak to a lady named Edith: "Sir, the query has been raised to the standby technician, who has just left, and SV will attend to the issue within 24hrs." No use in aurguing with this it is already after 18h00 in the evening. Tuesday 23 Jan, I phone again at 11h21, now that connection has been down for 24hrs. "Yes sir, they have assessed it to be hardware issue. The [insert acronym here] has to be replaced." So this is a Smart Village hardware issue? "Yes, sir." So when is this going to be resolved? "The technician has been booked for 11h00 tomorrow." Why the hell should I wait until tomorrow for you to fix your own problem? That is more than 48hr down time, are you going to reimburse me for the 2 days? "Sir, that is the technician that has been booked and no you will not be reimbursed, that is not how the contract works." Apparently SV only has one technician that can attend to my problem, or otherwise I do not know why they can not change the time / date or technician.

Anyway, so I want to cancel my contract and is told by the call centre operator (Thabang) that I can do so by giving 1 months notice and will only then be liable for that 1 months standard contract fee. Send a mail to confirm this, with a Annari Bonthys replying within 10 min saying that 1 month notice is required to cancel, but that I will still be liable for all monthly contract fees to the end of April when the 12 month contract expires. So I check my contract as this does not sound correct. Contract states that 1 month notice for cancellation applies, I am liable for that 1 month standard monthly fee and then a pro-rated amount to the end of my contract for the value of the hardware (router, phone, etc.) Snip this from the contract send it back to Annari... radio silence.

To get back to the internet connection still being down, today 24 Jan at 11h00, wife is anxiously waiting for the only technician from SV to arrive, but by 11h30 looses all hope. I phone, only to be told that the technician supposedly has car problems (thanks for letting us know), but a miracle happened, they found another technician who will be at my house at 13h00 -- not holding my breath.

Back to the contract cancellation. Send a follow-up e-mail this morning to Annari, asking to respond to my last mail and to confirm the pro-rated amount for the cancellation. At least get a response 20 min. later "This was sent to our finance department to respond"...

Still waiting