1 reviews | Active since Apr 2020
Vumatel send technicians with police escorts at high risk areas or loss millions in revenue and market share
Hi Vumatel,
I am a loyal Vumatel(WebAfrica) client, I have had the service since 2020. I was one of the first to use and recommend the service provide to friends and family at the time. It was great during the Covid pandemic as it enabled me to work remotely and keep in touch with friends & family.
So I clearly love the brand and product but the treatment I received today left a lot to be desired. I live and work in the Khayelitsha area, life is not easy in the area as we have high unemployment and high violent crimes. We have to navigate ******** activities on a daily basis to go to work/school/mall. With the recent hike in "protection fee/construction mafia" which was highlighted by the president as being a plague impact the previously disadvantage areas the most. Connection to reliable internet(fiber) is our bridge out of our current situation and high risk areas to go to areas where crimes are blue collar and very low levels or violent ******** activities.
Since I live in a high risk area technicians have been targeted, some ******, hijacked and killed. Its terrible to hear such news, it must be tough for the families & friends of those families impacted(sending my deepest condolences). The fiber in my area has been down since Friday evening and does not look likely that the problem is going to be fixed. As I had a chat with the WebAfrica whatsapp line and the customer services rep(Jameel & Zandile) logged a fault(259816) at 9am this morning as per an email I received. At 10am, I received an update to the fault, apparently the case was closed. So I was excited thinking that my fiber services would be restored, however this was not the case. I went back to the whatsapp line to understand how can a fault be closed but the service was not resorted. So long story short( while waiting on the whatsapp line for a response), at 4pm I had a chat with Zandile and I was informed due to the area being high risk technicians will never be deployed to fix the problem. I've offered solutions such as having law enforcement/Armed response or using unmarked vehicles when technicians come into the Khayelitsha area. Or have community leaders informed that a technician will come into the area at a certain time let the local community and law enforcement know.
My potential solution is downgrading to LTE as an option that I was made aware off which has the same price as my current fiber package R399pm(20MB uncapped) but this package increases from R399pm to R549pm(10MB uncapped). To switch to LTE will take 3 to 5 business days. I need internet now as I have paid for the whole month. This has negative implications as I have to buy LTE data for fiber which doesn't want to be fixed. And the LTE network is not a reliable as the throttle(bandwidth) is horrible on team calls and opening large files on a server. I am not able to work from home due to the VPN connection always tripping on the LTE network.
I plead with Vumatel to think about alternative methods which have the client and technicians in mind. I am sure that there is heavy knock on your revenue streams as more people are selecting alternative network provides who send technicians to fix bugs.
Regards, Madoda Nyamza***) ***
Thanks for the response. It's unfortunate that we do not have fiber in the area. I suspect it's a man made outage by the ******** syndicates which are targeting your fiber infrastructure. This is predominantly in the Cape Flats areas in the Western Cape and needs urgent national & provincial state assistance.
How can us as customers assist in getting a solution for Vuma? What have the outcomes with the police/state been with Vuma? There has been articles that I've read on News24 about this matter. It's getting the spotlight in public but solutions have not been implemented. We vote for DA in the Western Cape as it's a business friendly party, has Vuma reached out to the party to find solutions for this issue?
We as customers are also responsible for the solutions to this matter. Access to reliable and cheap internet is a basic need to advance the Western Cape local economy. Since the government took a stance on the Construction mafia could that energy also be redirected to ******ion activities.
Regards,
Madoda
Thanks for the response. It's unfortunate that we do not have fiber in the area. I suspect it's a man made outage by the ******** syndicates which are targeting your fiber infrastructure. This is predominantly in the Cape Flats areas in the Western Cape and needs urgent national & provincial state assistance.
How can us as customers assist in getting a solution for Vuma? What have the outcomes with the police/state been with Vuma? There has been articles that I've read on News24 about this matter. It's getting the spotlight in public but solutions have not been implemented. We vote for DA in the Western Cape as it's a business friendly party, has Vuma reached out to the party to find solutions for this issue?
We as customers are also responsible for the solutions to this matter. Access to reliable and cheap internet is a basic need to advance the Western Cape local economy. Since the government took a stance on the Construction mafia could that energy also be redirected to ******ion activities.
Regards,
Madoda