Neotel - this is a looong story, I don't know if you will even read it all!

Let me start by saying that when it comes to MS Office I am very computer
literate, but my whole life the IT department resolved my hardware and
connection issues so now that I am running my own business, I am a novice in
that department. I used to be on 3G with Vodacom - useless. Virtually the
only signal I could find was in my garden next to the pool. Not pleasant in
winter and there is always the risk of dropping it in the pool. MWEB kindly
checked reception for my area (Woodmead) and told me that there was poor
reception for Vodacom in my area, MTN would be much better.

Somewhere in the 2nd half of last year I walked into Postnet and decided to
try Neotel instead. Neotel turned my application down - apparently there was
a problem with my credit reference. Horrified I made an effort the next day
to get a Trans Union report - it must be those outstanding speeding fines!
My credit reference however was perfect.

I walked into Altech Cellular a few weeks later and saw the Neotel
advertising. I had all the papers in the car and applied - approval the next
day, no problem. I did ask the difference in the pricing of the instruments
- I asked if there was a difference in the speed of the service, etc. I
would receive. According to the Altech sales person - no not at all, you're
paying more for the device and you get free email addresses. And the cost is
8c per MB (not Mb - I read your website!).

I was also told that although my device did not have a message system to
answer calls when I am not in the office, I could forward calls to my cell
phone, so I could publish it on my website as my landline and when I leave
the office, I will receive the calls on my cell. Ja right.

Installing the device according to the instruction book, I was missing a
"card" I had to insert in the device. Not taking a chance with this new
universe of hardware, I called Altech - he will find out. I called him again
the next day - no just connect it, no card required. So why did the
instruction manual say insert the card?? I accept I am dealing with an
Altech person, not Neotel - don't Neotel train their outlets?

The first few days on Neotel were great. The line was much faster than
Vodacom. The connection dropped a few times but a lot less than with Vodacom
3G. I was happy. But the connection dropped more often by the day. Then I
started getting error messages when I try to re-connect. After a week I was
fed up and called Neotel (Altech had decided it's out of their hands now).
Calling Neotel is as bad as calling Telkom - you hold on and on and on and
on. Eventually someone came on the line that had no idea what I was talking
about - she would forward me to someone else. Again I explained my problem -
apparently she knew less about hardware and connectivity issues than what I
did.

The third person I was transferred to could help me - halfway through the
process of resetting and typing "run" etc. we were cut off. Patience... I
called again and went through the same process - this time the second person
I spoke to could help me - an improvement I guess! And I managed not to get
off during the call.

Struggling with poor cell phone quality in my office, I tried to use the
Neotel line to make some phone calls. It was worse than the cell, no one
could hear me. I tried calling Botswana from my Neotel line only to find out
I cannot make international calls on this line without contacting customer
service. I'll stay with my free minutes on my cell phone thank you.

The Neotel line became slower and slower as the weeks went by and by
November the connection was dropped literally every 30 minutes. Downloading
emails were interesting - sometimes a 2MB email will fly into my inbox, at
other times a 67KB email will take 15 minutes to download - it actually says
downloading at 6B per second... I tried downloading a 26MB update from the
Internet last week - after 1hr and 57 minutes I had downloaded 7%. I gave
up...

I often work early in the morning - Neotel seems to be not available at all
before 7am??? And if it is then its slow! So I started using my MTN 3G card
in the mornings until 8am and noticed that MTN is a lot more stable than
Neotel. Unfortunately I had capped my 3G card at 350MB thinking that when I
am away on tour there will be very little time to use 3G.

Most websites I try to get into with Neotel tells me that there is no
connection available - but my Neotel "text box" says it is connected. Then
when I try to disconnect, thinking I'll switch to 3G, it wont disconnect? It
says disconnecting and nothing happens. After about 5 minutes it is finally
disconnected. Once I had to shut down the computer to try and get out of the
connection.

Towards the end of last year I complained again to Neotel about dropping the
calls. The connection hardly lasts longer than 10 minutes. Neotel's answer
was yes, they have been getting a lot of that and they are investigating
what is going on, please can I give them my details. I was cut off again
half way through that conversation - I did supply my name and telephone
numbers but no one called back. I gave up and struggled along.

Two weeks later I called again. No surprise, I was cut off again as I was
explaining my problem. And I am paying for all these calls. I went on
holiday and put Neotel out of my mind. January showed a slight improvement
in the "dropping" of the internet connection. For about a week.

I received a statement from Neotel in January - please pay. For what I
asked, I have completed debit order forms, why must I now pay via EFT?
Apparently I supplied my credit card details for the debit order and they
are not allowed to take it off my credit card - but they supplied a box
where I could fill in my credit card details? And the (Altech) sales man
said it won't be problem? So 3 months of Neotel bills was due in January. I
supplied my cheque account details and the amount was deducted. By now I
wanted out but my contract is for 12 months (or maybe even 24??).

Last weekend I bought a 4-in-one Printer Scanner Copier Fax machine - I
needed the fax capability as Botswana cannot fax me on my 086 fax-number.
Guess what - Neotel does not support fax capabilities??? I climbed on the
Neotel website (slowly - the connection was terrible) and emailed Customer
Care. I'm not going to sit with dropped calls and this time I wanted proof I
contacted them (have attached email). I emailed them 3 times on Sunday the
7th, the reply on Monday the 8th was that the query was escalated to
Technical.

Sometime this week late in the afternoon (I think Tuesday, may have been
Monday) my cell phone rang. I answered within 2 rings - the person hung up
before the call was connected. Checking the missed call number, I saw it was
a Neotel number. The phone started ringing in my hand and I answered
immediately - only to get a dead line again. By now I suspected that Neotel
themselves were trying to contact me but hanging up after 1 or 2 rings
hoping I would call them back?

Lo and behold, the phone starts ringing again and it's the same number. I
ignored it. It rang a few times and then stopped. The 4th time it kept on
ringing and I answered - yes its Neotel about my "query". The "techy" had me
test my line on a website (guess what, I could not get into the first one we
tried) - apparently my upload and download speed is "within the limits" for
the Neoconnect Lite Device. Huh? I thought the speed was the same on all
three options as per my Altech sales man? Nooooo....

So a slow line with permanently dropped internet connections and no fax
capabilities. This is going nowhere. Via telephone we tested which "tower
(??)" I was getting signal from - it turns out I get 3 signals and as the
device switch between the towers, the connection is dropped. The techy was
stumped. He would call me back in 48 hours to let me know what we must do
now. I've not heard from him.

Yesterday I logged on, opened Outlook and clicked Send/Receive - I was told
there is no connection available. Lo and behold, Neotel had disconnected. I
re-connected and went back to Outlook immediately. Same error message -
Neotel had disconnected again. I tried again. Third time lucky. Two minutes
into receiving emails, the connection was lost again. The entire morning I
virtually had to reconnect every 10 minutes.

Today was a miracle. I logged on at about 7am and the connection was stable
until about 1pm! At 1pm I disconnected from Neotel as the line was now so
slow that I could play an entire game of Solitaire before a web page open… 

ADSL South Africa (Broadband South Africa) really hopes that Neotel and other ISPs (Internet Service Providers) learn from the above. If the people you employ are not willing or capable of providing good service, then they need to make room for the thousands out there who are jobless and willing to go the extra mile to make a positive difference.