Ultra's Brain dump What would UltraL0rd do?

MWEB, listens and responds positively….

For those of you who are unware of what is going down.
MWEB decided to launch uncapped ADSL last week.
They ran what seemed like a harmless campaign on facebook which allowed 1000 lucky people the opportunity to test out this awesome new idea for 1 month for FREE.

Obviously I jumped straight on board and filled in my details and was quickly informed that I was one of the lucky few.

Monday came along and I received a phone call from MWEB, but instead of leaving me feeling all giddy inside, I was pretty much on a rage because MWEB were trying sucker me into some horrible deal that would require me to cancel my account after the 1 MONTH trial period, and if I didn't they would start charging.

This sent me into a rage of note, and posted one snotty blog post "MWEB are sly fail cakes".

Interestingly enough, MWEB responded explained their reasoning, to which I responded with the following :

Hi MWEB guy,
The problem is as follows :
90% of the 1000 people that signed up for your free 1 month trial period are people with existing ISP’s(who before a couple of months ago did not charge R130 per gig).
We aren’t suddenly going to jump ship just because you come up with some new flavour of internet, but are definitely interested in testing out the waters.
So. we sign up, get all excited by a potential change in SA internet, and eagerly await for “that call”.
The call comes through, and it smacks of bladdy marketing call, making very sure that you know that if you don’t send your cancellation form in by the 20th you will start getting charged.
This is not how you win clients over, this is how you piss people off.
A better way to go about things would have been to give the uncapped accounts to the lucky 1000 people, and then send them an email at the end of the month asking them if they are interested in continuing the service, at which point payment arrangements could be made.
Good news is, you still have 7 days to sort this out (if you choose to do so), cause as I’m sure you know, axxess and other companies are busy rolling out similar deals.

MWEB responded, and to my amazement, they responded positively.

Right, you’ve spoken, we’ve listened (and certainly don’t want to be misleading).
We will now automatically cancel your account at the end of the month. We also will send trial account users an email closer to the end of the month to remind them of this and offer a seemless transfer to the offering should they wish.

I'll now be sending the required documentation through, and will keep you posted on ping times extra for the rest of the month.

With Afrihost, axxess and others announcing uncapped ADSL the price battles are only starting..

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MWEB = Sly fail Cakes…

So yesterday I finally got a phone call from MWEB regarding that 1 month "free" uncapped ADSL account I signed up for..

It started with nice warm welcome blah blah blah, but by the end I was pretty much raging at how quickly a 1 month free test account could turn into such a bundle of failsauce.

Instead of getting a "Congratulations, you have just won a free 1 month uncapped ADSL account" , it was more of a hey, this is a sales call, and we want all your details, including ID document, Telkom bill, proof of residency and something else that I didn't care to take note of.

Not only that, but I have to CANCEL my FREE 1 month account else they will start charging me! I mean, seriously MWEB.... Do it right.. Look at Webafrica and see what they did.

All they wanted was Email Address.. BAM here is your FREE account, no ID books,  no "cancellation forms else we screw you over".. just good old plain FREE!!

MWEB.. I'm not impressed, and looking at your facebook group, seems others feel the same :

Jean-Pierre : Hmm I'm for one disappointed about this one month free promotion. I was under the impression you would be sending 1000 lucky people account details to try the service out. but instead I get a "Sales" call today letting me know I'm eligible for a free month provided I sign up for the account. Not only that but its restricted to 384 and 512K.
Here I was stupid enough to believe Mweb might have been making a bold attempt to change its poor public image as a ISP and service provider.

Chris I read a post somewhere from one of the mweb guys saying that if you had a 4meg line they would give you R299 discount off trialing a 4meg uncapped line.I thought that was bizarre, win a free account, but then have to subsidise it to match your line speed. But from what you have said now that is ludacris, i sincerely hope that it is some kind of mistake. We were only meant to be getting the calls on tuesday though for being in the first 1000. So maybe there is still hope?

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