Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Terrible Internet, Never-Ending Noise, never-ending unhappiness

Morning,

I have a few complaints and queries regarding the balls up that is the UES block!

These events that they are holding on Thursdays… What is the cut off time for excessive noise (when it becomes noise pollution).
The Cosmo fashion show, the event last night (as nice as it is to hold a charity event), the fact that the base comes flying up from the foyer into the apartments on the mountain facing side, one being mine, is unbearable.
I cannot understand how they did not sound proof the foyer, if they were planning to hold events there. To my knowledge that is illegal in a residential area??

And also a massive issue with internet. I have been in contact with Swish for over a year, trying to sort out internet in the apartment, as I refuse to use VGS who are heavily overpriced.
I have been told that a wireless network is being tested, but nothing has come from that, and I have been told I am unable to connect a Telkom line in the apartment.
Below is an email sent by me to Justin Betts, Michel Lanfranchi (developer), and Mariaan du Plessis from Swish:

…Even if you had a monthly line rental of R131 with Telkom, plus one Gig bandwidth with Axxess DSL… It comes to a total of R150 per month.

With VGS it is a monthly 1 Gig cost of R199. Now that is not a massive difference, R49, and quite acceptable.

BUT…

What if there is a need to use more than 1 Gig, which to be honest is extremely easy, and a probability. What if we use 5 Gigs in a month…

Now for those 5 Gigs, VGS will charge R382.

While Axess DSL stays at R19 per extra gig. A MERE R95 FOR 5 GIGABYTES.

Add that to the Telkom line rental, it is R226!!!!
With that difference of R156 we could get an EXTRA 8 GIGS FROM AXXESS.

A WHOPPING TOTAL OF 13 GIGABYTES IN COMPARISON TO VGS'S MEASLY 5 GIGS FOR THAT SAME PRICE!

Therefore still substantially cheaper than VGS.

And in reference to the line speeds etc, it is a poor reason/excuse to use VGS due to the fact that Axxess lines are just as fast and reliable.
That is no reason whatsoever for VGS to have such high prices, especially in our modern times when internet costs are down, and still coming down everywhere in the world except for them it seems!
I find it quite hard to believe that in such a “modern” block, that we are actually FORCED to utilize a single provider if we want to connect, without any cheaper options… As almost every other provider IS cheaper than VGS!!
It would be the same comparison as if I went to open up a new cell phone account with Cell C, and upon signing the contract the only phone available to me would be a Nokia 5110 from the year 1998… Outdated!

And lastly, what kind of fool has the same entrance for visitors and residents (Pickwick street)… It may seem petty, but the amount of times I have sat behind a row of cars filling out the sign in sheet is pathetic. And then the security guards will still somehow direct them into my private bay, (marked), just up from the booms.

There seemed to be absolutely no planning involved when it came to constructing UES!

Kind regards,

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

typical of them, I'm not shocked at all. It's as if the Developers got together and said, how can we do this the worst way, and did it!

Anonymous said...

Please let us know if you hear anything regarding the Internet. Generally very happy hear at UES (although not living on the same floor than you so cannot comment on the disturbances you have there) but that Internet thing is a serious issue. The current product offered by Vodacom is far too expensive for high bandwith requirements and I might be mistaken but everyone has a right to a land line should they contact Telkom,

Anonymous said...

I'm also checking back at this blog constantly for more news on the Telkom issue. No Telkom is a deal breaker for me, so until I have some clarity regarding the future of ADSL in the building, I wont be buying.

Thanks

Anonymous said...

You have a wireless option as well.

With your wireless, on your notebook, look for a wireless with the name UES-Internet, and connect to that network.
Then open a web browser and a web page will open and direct you to put in your login credentials or buy the service online.

Prices are R68.00 per gig including Vat.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately I cannot the UES Network in my Apartment, only in the Lobby but it makes no sense to go down there always to work. Id much rather just have a normal Telkom line and the rest I can chose :)

Anonymous said...

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/business/19707-Vodacom-rid-itself-Vodacom-Gated-Services.html

Any idea how this will affect internet access at UES?