InTheCube

Umhlanga Sands Lifestyle Resort - Room Layout

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 05:07:00 +0200

During the 2012/13 holiday season, like the majority of Gautengers, I made the annual trek to Durban to enjoy the sun, sea, sights, sounds and taste of Durban. I made bookings for 2 weeks (1 week in November, and 1 week in January) at the Umhlanga Sands Lifestyle Resort, currently my favourite holiday destination in Umhlanga, and in Durban as a whole.

After my stay, I was sent an email by the resort, asking for feedback on my stay. While Umhlanga Sands is definitely my favourite resort along the Umhlanga coast line, the room layout leaves much to be desired. Here is what I had to say:

I stayed in room 4**. I found it very awkward to have the kitchen area sharing the same room with 2 single beds, which is where my 2 year old daughter slept. The kitchen draws and cupboards contain knives and other sharp instruments, a kettle to boil water, as well as crockery and glasses. These are very dangerous items that should be kept far away from children. However, the single beds, which are almost always occupied by kids, are directly in front of all these dangerous items. Besides this, the kids beds are right next to the room door, which means that kids can easily sneak out during the night, or somebody could enter the room (either via an access card, or by the kids letting them in knowingly, unknowingly, or by being tricked into it) and have access to the kids without parents knowing about it.

This is very bad room design, and doesn't bode well for the resort to market itself as being family- and kid-friendly.

Having this situation leaves one stressed and constantly on edge. A holiday is supposed to be relaxing. The kitchen area should be separate, closed off with its own door for safety reasons, and the kids beds should be in a separate room.

I believe the rooms on the first 4 floors are all the same, or very similar. I am not sure if the rooms higher up have a different layout, as I have not stayed in those rooms because they don't have a balcony. A holiday at the seaside is not the same if you don't have a balcony to relax on, and gaze at the ocean and (in the case of Durban) the sunrise.

I doubt that anything will or can be done about the above, as it will involve some major renovations to a large number of rooms in the resort. Hopefully the Tsogo Sun group can take this information into account for future renovations both at Umhlanga Sands and other resorts, existing as well as planned.

Other than the above problems with the room layout, I have very little to complain about the resort. The staff and entertainment team (Vivian in particular), are very friendly and helpful. The kids activities at the family pool are a major hit with my 2 year old daughter, and overall the resort provides for a very relaxing holiday with peace of mind, and lots to do for both adults and kids.

Telecoms, talk, cancer and insanity

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 15:12:00 +0200

South Africa has amongst the highest telecoms and broadband prices in the world, coupled with amongst the slowest speeds and least reliable services. Yes, I said "world". Not just Africa. We are already being surpassed by other countries in Africa, including Egypt, Morocco, Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria. This is no rumour, speculation, or wild estimate. It is fact.

So who is to blame for our beloved country's woes?

All talk...

Between ICASA and the Department of Communications, two government bodies (the I in ICASA doesn't stand for independant, but rather incompetent), we have more than 10 years of pussyfooting around, deadlines passing by as if they never existed, broken promises, talk shops, indabas, colloquiums, workshops, breakfast discussions, conferences, round table discussions, studies, surveys and much more, what have we achieved? Almost nothing.

We are still stuck with

a single company, Telkom, controlling the lion's share of the country's fixed line infrastructure, which was built with taxpayer money
government with all its fingers in the telecoms pie (government owns/controls Telkom, Sentech, SABC, Broadband Infraco)
no unbundling of the local loop (LLU), not even a glimpse of it on the horizon
double line rentals for ADSL subscribers (i.e. no naked ADSL)
no carrier pre-select
a ridiculously expensive IPC product for ADSL ISPs to reach end users
no Bitstream product for ADSL ISPs to offer cost effective and innovative services to end users
lack of sufficient LTE spectrum, with no glimpse of getting it any time soon, due to ICASA's failure to meet deadlines relating to the migration to DTT

The little that has been achieved, has been achieved not because of government, but despite it:

an open market where all telecoms licenses are equal
more international submarine cables
the lowering of mobile interconnect rates

Copy, paste

Countless models for a successful telecoms industry, which include all the above-mentioned points, have been implemented the world over, including in Africa. Kenya is one shining example of this. Yet our government insists on re-inventing the wheel, even though it knows very little about wheels, or how they function, and they refuse to employ those who actually do know about them. The result is that consumers, business, industry, and the whole country, are forced to use an expensive, awkward, and dysfunctional hexagonal wheel. Government simply doesn't know how to copy and paste, or rather, does not want to.

It seems that they are happy with the status quo, and any change to better the lives of the average citizen, is a bad thing.

Cancer

So who is to blame for this? The blame lies squarely on the shoulders of our government, specifically the ruling party of the last 18 years - the ANC, or rather, the cANCer as I like to put it. South Africa is crumbling around us, while a select few who sit in the most important positions in our democracy, are embroiled in fraud, corruption and countless scandals. Key positions in government, including that of the president, are filled by politicians without the (1) skills, (2) qualifications, (3) experience and (4) foresight required to make the important decisions. Yes they lack ALL four of these important traits.

Some might argue that

a person with good experience does not need qualifications to be successful
a person with the right skills, even if it is not backed up by the right qualifications, can be successful
a person with a clear vision and goals for the future, can be successful even if he has nothing else

So what do you make of a person, who has not a single one of the above? Our government is filled to the brim with these types of people. They are put in important positions, not because of their skills, qualifications, or experience, but because of who they are, who they know, and how politically connected they are. They are put in these positions to rub each others backs, and fill each others pockets, and hide this from the public eye.

Worse still, these unqualified, unskilled and inexperienced people refuse to accept the advice of skilled, qualified and experienced advisors appointed to assist them. They also refuse to listen to the plights of the consumer and the poor. They refuse to listen to local telecoms bodies, international telecoms bodies, local businesses and enterprises, and even some of the brightest minds of our time. The education and health systems are crumbling around us, roads are neglected, and the prices of electricity, water, food, and fuel continue to soar, with no end in sight. The only government department that is operating successfully is, you guessed it, SARS.

The ANC is a cancer to our society and our country, destroying so much, and spreading fast. If we do not stop it from spreading further, it will soon be too late.

Insanity

Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results each time.

Remember this the next time you step into a voting station.

How Telkom can improve and make me a happier customer

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 11:00:00 +0200

Today Mybroadband, my favourite South African website and online community, sent me an email with the announcement quoted below. It seems they are running another one of their surveys, and rewarding users through a competition for providing their input.

Tell your broadband provider how they can improve and make you a happier customer, and stand a chance to win a Sony 10’’ Android tablet: http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/476028-How-can-your-broadband-provider-improve

I decided to respond to the announcement, by providing my views on how Telkom can improve, and make me a happier customer, in the hope that Telkom might get my message (and that I could win the Sony 10" tablet in the process, but only as a secondary goal. I promise. *wink*). After completing my entry, I decided that it would make a rather good blog post, that I could perhaps drive some publicity around, and perhaps get someone high up in Telkom to read. It's a long shot, but what the heck.

How Telkom Can Improve and make me a happier customer

Telkom needs to get with the times!

It's support channels really suck.

If Afrihost, a 3rd party reseller, can allow you to perform a port reset on your line, through the online Client Zone and smartphone app, then why can't Telkom allow it, the actual provider and wholesaler of the ADSL line?

Telkom's ADSL Checker is also grossly inaccurate. This needs to be fixed.

Telkom also needs to start innovating, and providing intelligent systems that will allow you to manage your own ADSL line online, submit and track support tickets, and do other innovative things, without the need to phone the support number.

I was also going to mention Telkom's poor Usage Tracker and Topup Portal, but then realised that this is actually TelkomInternet, the ISP, which is slightly different. Also, I haven't seen the inside of those 2 portals in years, so I'm not sure if anything has changed since then.

I won't forget to mention the monotonous but obligatory call for:

Naked ADSL. I don't need or want a fixed voice service.
Reduced IPC rates for ISPs, so that end-users can benefit from lower prices.
Bitstream access for ISPs, so that ISPs can innovate further, have more control and flexilbility, and hopefully reduce costs.
reduction in ADSL line rental costs

Telkom also needs to become active in the social media space. We want and need:

a presence on the MyBroadband forums
a presence on Facebook and Twitter

Not just a presence, but an active presence, with active engagement with the public on these social media channels.

To sum it up, my message to Telkom: It's the frikken 21st Century, 2012 (almost 2013!), yet we're still sitting with ancient systems, ancient pricing, ancient products and technologies, inaccurate information, and poor online channels. Get with the times already! We're falling way behind, and not just behind the rest of the first world, but behind the rest of Africa.

In the mid to late 90's, I was actually proud of Telkom. South Africa had some of the best telecoms infrastructure in the world, and some of the cheapest telecoms services. I used to boast about Telkom. I'd like to do that again, the way I boast about Cell C, and FNB. Instead, I am now quite embarrased of and furious with Telkom. We are now amongst the least innovative and most expensive in the world.

A simple intro to electronic cigarettes

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 12:30:00 +0200

Smoking is a terrible habit, and is one of the most addictive to give up. It is dangerous to your health as well as those around you, disgusting, and expensive. If you're a smoker, you already know this. I'm not going to talk about the dangers of smoking, or why you should quit. Instead, this blog post is going to introduce you to the world of e-cigarettes, in an easy and pratical way. By the end of this blog post, you should be ready to go out and purchase your first e-cigarette kit with confidence.

KISS

Now there are literally hundreds of different e-cig products out there, and deciding which to go for can be daunting. Choosing the wrong one could also put you off e-cigs for good, and set you back a pretty penny. Understanding all the e-cig jargon and terminology used on online forums and web sites is also a small hurdle to overcome.

This blog post seeks to address these issues, and to make it easy for people interested in e-cigs to get started, by following the KISS Principle: Keep it Simple, Stupid!

The basics

A few important things to know about e-cigarettes:

they are alternatives or replacements for smoking
they may or may not help you to quit tobacco and nicotine products altogether
they are healthier and less harmful to your body and those around you
they are not necesaarily harmless, but are less harmful to your body and those around you than regular cigarettes
they contain nicotine, the addictive chemical found in tobacco products, which is known to be harmful to the human body
the benefits or risks of e-cigarette use are a subject of uncertainty and debate among health organizations

There are 4 basic pieces of equipment in an e-cig kit:

a battery to provide power
liquid containing nicotine and flavourants, which is vapourised and then inhaled
an atomiser to vapourise the liquid
a charger to charge your battery

Terminology

e-cig - the short hand version of "electronic cigarette"
PV - personal vapouriser, another name for an e-cig
analog – the name given to traditional tobacco cigarettes by those who now use an electronic cigarette. If the e-cig is the electronic version…..the tobacco version is the analog
atty - atomiser, which is the equipment that vapourises the liquid
e-liquid / e-juice - the liquid used in electronic cigarettes
Propylene Glycol (PG) – Propylene Glycol is used as a base carrier for the nicotine and flavoring. Propylene Glycol has been deemed generally safe to be used in medical products as well as food products for general consumption.
Vegetable Glycerin (VG) – Vegetable Glycerin is an alternative to Propylene Glycol and is sometimes used as the majority base in the E-Liquid. Vegetable Glycerin comes from the production of palm or coconut oils and is suitable to be used in sweeteners and in skin care products.

If you switch to e-cigs, eventually, you can reduce the amount of nicotine, until you get to 0%. Then all you'll be smoking is the flavour, and that should be easy to quit. Chances are though that you'll enjoy e-cigs too much to want to quit.

eCiggies.co.za

The trick to e-cigs is to buy the right gear. If you buy the wrong e-cig device and wrong liquid, you'll hate it. I've been through 3 different types of e-cigs, and the current one I am using is brilliant.

As a starter kit, I recommend the following from eCiggies.co.za:

- Standard eGo Battery (650mAh) - R200
- Pleco Clearomizer - R80
- Pleco Replacement Coil - R40
- Liqua Italian Liquids - 30ml - R120
- USB Charger cable - R100
- Wall Adaptor for USB cable - R60
- Delivery via courier - R50 (avaliable on their Checkout page)

Total: R650

I've been using eCiggies.co.za for all my e-cig needs over the last 4 months, and I am extremely happy. Don't be put off by the poor design choices used for their website and online shop. That's about the only gripe have with them. The website and online shop works, and works well. Deliveries are always on time (at least for courier deliveries which is all I've used). The service provided by the owner, Walter, is excellent. He has provided me with advice many times, exchanged faulty hardware, and thrown in some free gifts every now and then. Their online shop also has a rewards programme in place, which has covered a fair portion of my delivery charges. Mentioning his website on my blog is just a small way of giving back for the great service he's given me.

A whole world of e-cigs

Once you've purchased your first kit, and started getting familiar with the concept of e-cigs, you'll want to do more investigation into the different types of hardware, liquids and tricks available.

Remember that there are several liquid suppliers, and many different flavours. If you can afford it, buy 2 bottles of liquid, each a different flavour. It will take some experimentation in order to find the liquid which best suits you. Don't be put off completely if you don't like the taste of a liquid you've purchased. There are some you will like, and some you won't. This is part of the experience.

A whole world of e-cigs will open up to you, if you allow it. For now, don't allow yourself to be overwhelmed. Just dive in, get started with the basics, and in no time you'll understand everything, trying out new things, and advising others. When you've reached this stage, you might want go further, and become an expert. I recommend browsing through, or even joining the E-Cigarette Forum (ECF) - the largest e-cigarette website in the world.

Happy vaping!

Dead calls & crossed lines between MTN & Cell C subscribers

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 09:00:00 +0200

I recently ported my MTN number over to the Cell C 99c for Real prepaid package, in order to test their network coverage and stability, as well as data speeds. This is in preparation of moving our company's cellular account away from MTN the more affordable, flexible and simple products available from Cell C.

For the first 3 weeks, the Cell C service worked brilliantly, and I was just about ready to start signing documents to move our account from MTN to Cell C. However, a few days later, I started picking up strange problems.

Dead calls and crossed lines

After about 1-2 weeks of monitoring as well as listening to reports from friends and colleagues experiencing similar issues, I narrowed the problems down to calls between MTN and Cell C numbers, mostly dead calls and cross lines, as follows:

Dead call on both ends: MTN phone dials Cell C phone. Call rings on Cell C phone, but remains dead or silent on the MTN phone. When the call is answered on the Cell C phone, the call timer starts ticking on both phones, but is completely dead on both ends.
Dead call on MTN side: MTN phone dials Cell C phone. Call rings on Cell C phone, but remains dead or silent on the MTN phone. When the call is answered on the Cell C phone, the call timer starts ticking on both phones, and the Cell C phone can hear the MTN phone, but the MTN phone cannot hear anything.
Dead call on Cell C side: MTN phone dials Cell C phone. Call rings on Cell C phone, and rings on MTN phone. When the call is answered on the Cell C phone, the call timer starts ticking on both phones, but is completely dead on the Cell C phone. The MTN phone can hear the Cell C phone.
Crossed line on Cell C side: MTN phone dials Cell C phone. Call rings on Cell C phone, and sometimes rings on the MTN phone, and sometimes it is completely dead. When the call is answered on the Cell C phone, the call timer starts ticking over on both sides, but the call is completely dead on the MTN phone. On the Cell C phone, the call is crossed into another conversation with 2 other parties. Sometimes the 2 other parties can hear the Cell C phone, and sometimes not.
Crossed line on MTN side: MTN phone dials Cell C phone. Call rings on Cell C phone, and sometimes rings on the MTN phone, and sometimes it is completely dead. When the call is answered on the Cell C phone, the call timer starts ticking over on both sides, but the call is completely dead on the Cell C phone. On the MTN phone, the call is crossed into another conversation with 2 other parties. Sometimes the 2 other parties can hear the MTN phone, and sometimes not.

Timeline of events

I then decided to take the issue up with Cell C, and later MTN. Here is a timeline of all the events that took place:

30/06/2012 - I went to the Cell C shop with my MTN prepaid SIM card (previously on an MTN contract) to port over to Cell C.

03/07/2012 - My number was activated on the Cell C network after several delays and technical issues with the porting process (why is porting never a smooth process?)

23/07/2012 - Problems started occurring with dead calls and crossed lines. I began monitoring the situation and logging details.

04/08/2012 - I logged a call with Cell C support via the call center on 140. They could not pick up any network issues, or any porting issues. They suspected that the SIM card could be faulty, and recommended doing a SIM swap.

06/08/2012 - I went to the Cell C shop to do a SIM swap. I monitored calls and logged details for the next week or so, but it did not make a difference.

12/08/2012 - I logged another call with Cell C support via the call center. They reset the porting and routing on my SIM card. I monitored calls and logged details for a few days, but again, it did not make a difference.

14/08/2012 - I logged a fault via Twitter with @CellC_Support, and received a call from a support agent the next day with regards to my query. They said that they could not pick up any problems on their side, but promised a call back after further investigations. This call never came.

22/08/2012 - I sent an email to a Cell C account manager for business customers (the one I've been speaking to about migrating our account from MTN to Cell C) with the details of my problem. I did not receive any feedback, even after several follow up emails.

2012/09/10 - After further monitoring, and more reports from friends and colleagues, I came to the conclusion that the problem had to lie on MTN's side, as Cell C could not pick up any issues on their side. Calls from all networks (Vodacom, Telkom, Virgin Mobile, Cell C and ECN VoiP) except MTN to my Cell C number were coming through with no problems. Only calls from MTN subscribers were problematic. So I decided to send an email to some high profile people at MTN, including the CTO of MTN SA, Lambo Kanagaratnam (who I've dealt with before when 3 MTN base stations in surrounding our company in Lenasia went down).

2012/09/11 - I received a call from an MTN consultant, acknowledging receipt of the email, and asking about the problem. I gave him details of the problems, including example telephone numbers and timestamps of problematic calls. He promised to investigate and escalate the issues to be resolved timeously. I also received a telephone call from Lambo, the MTN SA CTO, giving me a commitment that the issues would be resolved. I had lots of back and forth communications via email with MTN that day, as they attempted to diagnose and resolve the problem.

2012/09/12 - The problem finally seems to be resolved. Initial indications (from what I could gather) are that MTN had some faulty links on their network which were causing the problems. Several of these links had to be "blocked" which now seem to have resolved the problem. I am not sure what exactly this means, or if it is a temporary or permanent solution.

MTN to blame for Problems

After almost 2 months of headaches and frustration, for both myself and those trying to call me, I can confidently say that MTN is to blame for these problems. I might even go so far as to suspect sabotage on MTN's part, as competition in the cellular industry heats up and they battle it out with Cell C on all fronts, including voice rates, data rates, international call rates, as well as in the marketing space.

However, the speedy resolution of the problems by MTN have washed away most of my suspicions. It seems that the problems I've been experiencing were not country-wide, and may have been isolated to several base stations and/or links in the Johannesburg area. I'm sure the technical details of the problem would reveal the exact cause of the problem, but without these available to me, it is difficult to speculate. I have asked for further details, and will post them here if and when they are made available to me.

Thumbs up for MTN, thumbs down for Cell C support

I'd like to give MTN a big thumbs up for resolving my problem speedily, and providing me with constant feedback via telephone and email. I guess though that this is to be expected when the CTO of MTN is breathing down the backs of the support and technical teams.

I am rather disappointed with Cell C, that they could not pick up the problems, and could not assist me. However, the problem might have been out of their hands, as the issues were on MTN's network, and I suppose they could be forgiven somewhat for this. However, I am mostly disappointed with the account manager at Cell C I was dealing with. He failed to escalate my problem higher up in Cell C, and did not return any of my emails or provide any from of feedback.

Switch to Cell C?

Will the events that occurred over the last 2 months sway me from moving our company account over to Cell C? While I am highly disappointed with them, I probably will not be swayed. However, I am definitely going to be looking for another Cell C account manager to deal with. Besides the dead calls and crossed lines I experienced above, for which MTN are to blame, as well as the mediocre to poor support from Cell C, I have been extremely happy with the network, stability, voice coverage, data coverage, data speeds, and most of all: the pricing, flexibility, simplicity and value added services from Cell C.

I will give it another week of monitoring, before migrating our account to Cell C.

How to diagnose ADSL line, speed & stability problems.

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 17:48:00 +0200

ADSL - we love it when it works, and throw hissy fits when it doesn't. For good reason. Trying to figure out why your ADSL connection is misbehaving is nothing short of rocket science for the average consumer. Even self-proclaimed geeks (like myself) are left completely stumped at times.

Luckily, you've come to the right place for help. So if you're experiencing any sort of problems with your ADSL service, this is a good starting guide to help you get things back in order. This guide will help you to diagnose and (hopefully) resolve the following types of problems:

Slow transfer speeds.
Unstable/erratic service.
Non-existent connection.

Assumptions & Rockets

Before we begin, this guide makes the assumption that you understand at least the basics of computer networking. If you don't, then I recommend doing a free online crash course in computer networking - there are many good ones available, which can be find by doing a simple Google search. After all, you can't try to fix a rocket, if you don't even know what a rocket is, what it looks like, what it does, or the basics of how it works.

This blog post also assumes that you're in South Africa, and you're using ADSL services from the incumbent monopoly, Telkom, or one of the numerous ISPs that resell their ADSL services. While this guide is specific to South Africa, it is also generally applicable to ADSL services anywhere in the world.

I also highly recommend reading this guide in its entirety, before attempting to diagnose and resolve your problems, and to follow this guide in the sequence laid out below.

Captain Obvious Says

First up, the most obvious yet often missed item, is to ensure that all your cables are plugged in correctly and securely. Check the following obvious culprits:

Power cords are plugged in
Network cables are plugged in. You can confirm this by checking that the activity lights on your network ports and on your modem are on and flickering.
Telephone cable is plugged into the modem into the correct port (an often missed mistake is to plug the telephone line into a network port on your modem)
Telephone cable is plugged into your telephone jack and/or ADSL POTS filters if you make use of them.

Issues with your ISP's network, or your uncapped account

Your ISP could be having issues on their network. As with all computer systems and devices, things can go pear-shaped. Visit your ISP's website and browse to their Network Status page to see for any known issues currently affecting their network. Things like equipment failure, downtime on local or international fibre links, interconnect/peering issues, and high traffic volumes are often the culprits.
If you are on an uncapped account and a very high bandwidth user (i.e. a bandwidth hog) it could be that your speed is being throttled and/or your transfers shaped. Check with your ISP if your usage is within fair and acceptable thresholds.
The easiest way to test if the issue is with your ISP, is to try a different ISP. It is useful to have at least 1 or 2 extra "backup" accounts from different ISPs, with at least 1GB of data. These can be used as backup if your primary ISP is down or having issues, or simply to test speeds. These accounts are cheap and won't break the bank (starting from free, to R19 per GB, and upwards). Afrihost, my favourite ISP, offers a free 1GB ADSL account, with no catches, and certain qualifying FNB customers can get up to 5GB of free ADSL data. If trying a different ISP account fixes your problem, then the problem is with your primary ISP.

Check your PC or local area network

Get a bandwidth monitor for your computer, so that you can see your download and upload speeds. I use DUMeter (for $22 or R150, it is worth it, or use the demo version). This will tell you if your PC is transferring data when it shouldn't. Also great to have so that you can constantly monitor what is happening with your internet and network connection. There are other good bandwidth monitors out there, but I find DUMeter to be sufficient for most people.
Run an anti-virus on your PC if you don't have one. Do a full system scan - very often there are viruses and malware that will eat your bandwidth.
Check that Windows and other software updates are not eating away at your data.
If you are running a network at home (wired or wireless) it could be another device on your network that is downloading stuff, and causing the slow down.
If you are sharing your internet connection over WiFi, ensure that your WiFi connection is secure - use WPA or WPA2 encryption, and not WEP, as WEP can be cracked easily in under 1 minute using free tools available on the internet. It could be that a neighbour or someone has hacked into your network and is using your ADSL line without your permission.
Ensure that you have changed the default username and password on your ADSL modem.

ADSL Modem, POTS Filters, Telephones and Fax Machines

You will only require ADSL POTS filters if you are using your Telkom line for ADSL as well as other services like telephone and fax services. You will require an ADSL POTS filter on every device connected to your telephone line, except your ADSL modem (it has it's own built in filter). Ensure that you plug the telephone lines into the correct ports on the ADSL filter as well. Swapping them around will cause your service to be non-functional
Check all your ADSL filters - a faulty filter can cause speed and stability problems. Swap with a friend for a day or 2. If it fixes your problem and causes problems for your friend, then replace the filter.
Alternatively, disconnect all devices (telephones, fax machines, alarm systems, etc) from your telephone line, including the ADSL filter, and run a cable directly from the Telkom jack on the wall, into your modem. If this fixes the problem, then you probably have a faulty filter, or another device connected to your telephone could be faulty, in which case you should try reconnecting these devices one at a time, to find the culprit.
Check that your ADSL modem is not faulty - a faulty modem is very often the culprit, but Telkom and the ISPs get blamed. Again swap with a friend for a few days. If it fixes your problem and causes problems for your friend, then replace the modem. Get a Netgear modem, they are very stable, work well with poor quality copper connections, and are amongst the most user-friendly to administer yourself.
Read the following excellent but lengthy technical explanation of how ADSL and POTS filters work, and how ADSL and voice services are able to co-exist on the same copper line, at the same time: ADSL filters explained.

ADSL filters explained

Read more at: http://www.epanorama.net/documents/telecom/adsl_filter.html

Electrial interference within your home

Another possibility, as that electrical interference from one of your home appliances could be causing stability issues with your telephone line, especially if you experience stability issues only at certain times of the day. Potentially problematic appliances include washing machines, hair-dryers, tumble-dryers, microwave ovens, regular ovens, dish washers, stoves, electric kettles and more. If your telephone line runs past any of these or similar appliances, you should keep a log of when your line becomes unstable, and see if it correlates with usage of any of these appliances. It could happen when the washing machine is switched on every morning, or the microwave oven is used to warm up supper. Usage of these items can lead to a drop in your sync rate, or an unstable line, as electrical or other interference increases the attenuation rate (see below) on the line. If you are successful in identifying the culprit, ask Telkom to move your line to a different place in your house, or simply re-do the wiring yourself.

If your ADSL modem shares an electrical plug point or multiplug with any of the above appliances, you should also try to separate them. Faulty multiplugs can also lead to stability issues, and should be swapped out with new ones or ones known to be working with no issues.

The Telkom side of things

One of the last things things to look out for, are issues with the actual physical copper line that carries all your precious bits and bytes. This is often the hardest part to resolve, because you will have to deal with Telkom (and we all know how much fun that is) and things can get a bit technical:

Check that your ADSL modem is syncing correctly, at the right speed, with the Telkom exchange. If you have a 4mbps line that is only syncing at 2mbps, or you are getting constant disconnects, or you need to reboot your modem often, then you have a problem, and you may need to take it up with Telkom.
Check that your ADSL line stats are in order. You can get these by logging into the web interface of your ADSL modem and going to the status page. You need to ensure that stats like Noise Margin, SNR, Attenuation and Sync rate are within the correct parameters for your particular line speed. Most important though, is to ensure that your attenuation is not too high. I won't got into a detailed technical explanation, but basically put - anything close to or above 60 is catastrophic, 50-60 is really bad, 30-40 is decent, 20-30 is very good, and anything below 20 is spectacular. The greater your attenuation, the greater the distance between your modem and the Telkom Exchange, or the worse off the quality of your copper cable is.
Phone Telkom on 10210 - ask them to do a line test and a port reset. A port reset means that they reset the ADSL port that your line is connected to at the Telkom Exchange. This often resolves some ADSL problems. Sometimes if the port is faulty, Telkom will despatch a technician to the exchange, who will then connect your line to a different port.
Another major problem that is out of our control, is that the Telkom Exchange your are connected to could be congested. This is a fairly common problem. You could have excellent line stats and live close to the exchange, but still experience poor speeds, no matter which ISP you use. Check with your neighbours, friends and family living in the same area as you. You are all most likely to be connected to the same exchange. If they are also experiencing poor ADSL performance, then the problem is most likely with your exchange.

In Conclusion

There could be many reasons causing an unsatisfactory ADSL connection, and if you don't have a bit of technical knowledge, it can be daunting to try and resolve. Hopefully, this guide will prove useful to you. If it does help you, please leave a comment below as a token of appreciation. If all else fails, ask a friend or colleague with technical know-how to assist you.

Good luck!

Telemasters found to be in breach of it's own contract

Sun, 15 Jul 2012 20:44:00 +0200

I previously wrote about Telemasters and their Draconian Terms and Conditions which they've tried to use to hold our company (Koogan Plastics) to ransom with a 24 month notice period for cancellation of their outdated telecoms services. I am glad to say that we have found them to be in breach of contract, and that it should be simple (from a legal standpoint, not from a Telemasters-being-reasonable standpoint) for any Telemasters client with a similar contract to do the same.

Herewith my analysis and explanation of how we found Telemasters to be in breach of 2 clauses of the agreement we signed with them. I will tackle each clause seperately.

Breach of clause 2.2 of the agreement

Clause 2.2 of the agreement provides that:

TeleMasters warrants that the Subscriber will realise a saving with the system installed versus Telkom cost and undertakes to calculate this saving and to present it as per 1.2. In the event of there being no saving for two consecutive months either party may terminate this agreement by giving 1 month’s notice within 30 days. The Agreement may not be cancelled should there be wilful interference or hindrance of the working of the Service or through failure of Subscriber’s equipment.

We found that Telemasters were in breach of the above clause, by not providing us with a saving versus Telkom call costs, for 2 consecutive months. Please see below for the calculation and analysis.

Telkom has reduced their call rates to cellular numbers for subscribers of their Supreme Call packages, as follows:

R1.40 per minute incl. VAT for Supreme Call R200 up to Supreme Call R2500 subscribers
R1.36 per minute incl. VAT for Supreme Call R4000 up to Supreme Call R8000 subscribers
Calls are charged at pure per second billing, from the first second, with no minimum call charges
Unused Supreme Call airtime is carried over to the next month, for up to 6 months.
Source: http://business.telkom.co.za/enterprise/voice-services/calling-plans/supremecall/supreme-8000.html
Source: http://business.telkom.co.za/enterprise/voice-services/calling-plans/supremecall/supreme-2500.html

November 2011 Invoice – Overpaid R1548.23 compared to Telkom rates

As per our November 2011 invoice and executive report from TeleMasters, we used a total of 2638.67 minutes at a total cost of R5046.82 incl. VAT, which equates to an average cost of R1.91 per minute incl. VAT.

Based on Telkom’s Supreme Call R4000 rate of R1.36 per minute incl. VAT, we would have been charged R3588.59 for 2638.67 minutes.

We have therefore overpaid TeleMasters by an amount of R1548.23 compared to Telkom rates.

October 2011 Invoice – Overpaid R760.20 compared to Telkom rates

As per the October 2011 invoice and executive report from TeleMasters, we used a total of 3273.66 minutes at a total cost of R5212.37 incl. VAT, which equates to an average cost of R1.59 per minute incl. VAT.

Based on Telkom’s Supreme Call R4000 rate of R1.36 per minute incl. VAT, we would have been charged R4452.17 for 3273.66 minutes.

We have therefore overpaid TeleMasters by an amount of R760.20 compared to Telkom rates.

Breach of clause 1.2 of the agreement

Clause 1.2 of the agreement which provides that:

TeleMasters will, at the end of each month render to the Subscriber personalised, itemised reports showing such saving and the calculation thereof.

We found that Telemasters were in breach of the above clause since the savings reflected on the executive report is grossly inaccurate at best, and potentially downright dishonest at worst. Additionally, the executive report fails to provide information on how the Telkom call cost estimate is arrived at, when it should have done so according to clause 1.2.

Cancellation notice was sent

In light of the above breaches, we served Telemasters with a 1 calendar month notice to cancel our premi-cells and close our account. The cancellation notice was sent to Telemasters via email and fax, and we contacted them telephonicaly as well. This was done on 28 February 2012. All correspondence with Telemasters was through a consultant in their accounts/cancellations department, by the name of Dewald Meyer.

Weak response from Telemasters - Allegations of wilful interference

The next day I received a response from Telemasters to our cancellation notice and analysis. It was sent via email as a PDF attachment, and looked rather generic, almost as if it was their standard response to customers wanting out of the agreement.

Dear Sir/Madam

TeleMasters draws your attention to Clause 2.2 pertaining to any willful interference with our
service in terms of Standard TeleMasters agreement.

“The Agreement may not be cancelled should there be willful interference or
hindrance of the working of the Service or through failure of Subscriber’s equipment.”

Since inception to date, TeleMasters has realised Naeem Food Industry T/A Koogan Plastics
a savings of R 81 785.46 , thereby meeting and exceeding our guaranteed savings commitment.

Thus should you wish to proceed with cancellation, Naeem Food Industry T/A Koogan
Plastics is required to give and serve a 24 month notice period, as per the signed Savings
Agreement.

From the above response, I am almost certain that either they did not bother to read and verify my analysis, or they were so stumped that they did not know how else to respond. Either way, their response was very poor, and did not even attempt to tackle my arguments against them, which found them to be in breach of contract.

Our response to allegations of wilful interference

Herewith our response to Telemasters, sent the next day (01 March 2012):

We state categorically that there has been no interference, wilful or otherwise, with the equipment. These allegations are made without any supporting proof or evidence being presented by TeleMasters. In fact, Koogan Plastics was relying on this service for its daily telecoms needs and operations in order to stay in contact with customers, suppliers, staff and many other parties. You are welcome to inspect. However, we require a neutral inspector to be present at your inspection, as, frankly speaking, we believe this will be in our interest to prevent any tampering.

Further, TeleMasters makes the following claim, which has no relevance to the terms of the agreement:

Since inception to date, TeleMasters has realised Naeem Food Industry T/A Koogan Plastics
a savings of R 81 785.46 , thereby meeting and exceeding our guaranteed savings commitment

The agreement between TeleMasters and Koogan Plastics makes no provision for historical savings to be used as substantiation to prevent cancellation of the agreement with 1 calendar month notice. The only determining factor is whether TeleMasters was able to provide Koogan Plastics with a monthly saving for 2 consecutive months or not, as per Clause 2.2 of the agreement:

"TeleMasters warrants that the Subscriber will realise a saving with the system installed versus Telkom cost and undertakes to calculate this saving and to present it as per 1.2. In the event of there being no saving for two consecutive months either party may terminate this agreement by giving 1 month’s notice within 30 days. The Agreement may not be cancelled should there be wilful interference or hindrance of the working of the Service or through failure of Subscriber’s equipment."

As per the letter sent by Koogan Plastics, it was demonstrated very clearly and transparently that TeleMasters did not present a saving to Koogan Plastics over using Telkom services, for 2 consecutive months, viz. October and November 2011. During October and November 2011, the equipment and service was in full use, and 100% working. There was no wilful interference or hindrance to the working of the equipment, nor was there any failure on the equipment.

This can be clearly seen by the 2 invoices dated October 2011 and November 2011, and the voice minutes which Koogan Plastics was billed for by TeleMasters, as detailed in the Executive Report presented by TeleMasters on a monthly basis.

Furthermore, TeleMasters has failed to address the breach of Clause 1.2 by TeleMasters, which provides that:

"TeleMasters will, at the end of each month render to the Subscriber personalised, itemised reports showing such saving and the calculation thereof."

In light of the above, as well as the analysis and explanation presented in our cancellation notice, our notice to cancel still stands on a sound legal footing. The last invoice that will be settled will be for the month-ended March 2012. We expect our account with TeleMasters to be closed and all debit orders against the Koogan Plastics bank account to be cancelled.

Telemasters refuses to close our account, and continues billing us

After the above response to Telemasters allegations of wilful interference, we did not hear back from them. They billed us for the month of March 2012 correctly, as this was the month which served as our one calendar month notice. Thereafter, they continued to illegally debit our bank account on a monthly basis, for the months of April, May and June. We have reversed these debit orders, and will not be paying Telemasters any more.

We've since learnt that Dewald Meyer, the consultant in their cancellations department who we were dealing with, has left Telemasters. We've received 1 telephone call from his replacement, Moira, who wasn't very helpful either. She was supposed to go back and study the correspondence between myself and Dewald, and get back to me. I have not heard anything since then.

Telemasters finally responds to my HelloPeter.com complaint

On 2nd July 2012, Telemasters finally responded to my complaint on HelloPeter.com, almost 7 months later. My initial complaint was posted on 20th December 2011. Their response just makes me angry. They are again side-stepping the issue, and arguing for something which has no bearing on our agreement, though I have to concede that the complaint does not contain all the information in this blog post.

The next step - criminal charges

Our next step in getting rid of Telemasters, will be to lay criminal charges against them and their CEO, for theft and fraud. They are illegally debiting our bank account, and being completely uncooperative and unreasonable, even though we have clearly demonstrated that they are in breach of contract.

To keep updated on this issue, keep an eye out on this blog, my Facebook page, and Twitter profile. I will post further updates as they happen.

Why is it so hard to get an affordable 10mbps ADSL line from MWEB?!

Fri, 18 May 2012 14:34:00 +0200

As most ADSL users already know, MWEB has for a long time been the best choice, in fact, the only choice, for affordable, reliable no-nonsense uncapped ADSL data in South Africa.

I've been enjoying MWEB's 4mbps uncapped ADSL account for the last 6 months, after signing up for the promotion available to DSTV subscribers which gives you the first 3 months free on a 6 month contract. The promotion was for an uncapped data package only, and didn't include ADSL line rental. So my 4mbps ADSL line remained with Telkom. The service performed really well, achieving good speeds both during the day and at night on all the standard protocols including Torrent downloads. I don't consider myself a heavy user though - my average usage is about 80-100GB of data per month.

The Juciy Bait

After the end of this contract, which was about 2 weeks ago, MWEB phoned me up, and offered to migrate my ADSL line over to them, by dangling a juicy morsel in front of me:

I would save R53 per month by migrating my line. Telkom 4mbps ADSL line rental usually costs R413 per month, and MWEB's 4mbps uncapped account is R539 per month, giving a total of R952 per month. The all-in-one package from MWEB would cost R899 per month (a R53 saving), but required that you migrate your ADSL line from Telkom over to MWEB.
I wouldn't need to deal with Telkom anymore for any ADSL issues. If I had any problems on the line, I would report it to MWEB, who would then do all the dirty work behind the scenes by dealing with Telkom on my behalf.
Migrating your ADSL line is simply an administrative process, involving some paper work. My ADSL line would not be disconnected or affected, in anyway.

The Rule

Now I've always had this long-standing rule to never migrate your ADSL line away from Telkom to another ISP, for 3 reasons:

To allow for maximum flexibility in changing ADSL providers, as the standard pricing on ADSL has seen a downward trend since 2009
To allow yourself to take advantage of limited promotions and special offers on ADSL data and all-in-packages that are just too good to be true (especially to MyBroadband members like myself)
Telkom might be bad, but rather the devil that you know, than the one you don't

The Catch

Long story short, after contemplating the idea for a few days, I broke my own rule and took the bait, and was hooked. I filled in the documentation, sent it to MWEB, and a few days later I was informed that my line had been migrated. MWEB reeled me in and threw me into their pond.

2 miracles and disappointment

So last week, after Afrihost stunned the market by launching an uncapped 10mbps ADSL account for R997 per month (miracle 1), I decided to check with Telkom if by some chance the Telkom exchange in Lenasia had been upgraded to support 10mbps lines. After phoning Telkom 3 times, and being put on hold for a total of 30 minutes, to my delight, they said that the exchange supported 10mbps lines (miracle 2), and that I could upgrade my line to 10mbps, or rather to the most stable speed as close to 10mbps that the copper connection will allow. I asked them to go ahead and do it immediately, but the consultant informed me that I had to contact MWEB in order to upgrade, as my ADSL line had been migrated to them.

I then contacted MWEB, who informed me that in order to upgrade to 10mbps, I would have to upgrade my entire package to the 10mbps all-in-one package which costs a whopping R2359. They refused to upgrade just the line to 10mbps (so that I can use a capped account from another ISP to utilize the full 10mbps speed), and leave the data package at 4mbps uncapped, even though the upgrade to 10mbps costs them nothing, except some paperwork to be sent to Telkom. They also refuse to upgrade the line to 10mbps and move me onto a capped package.

So if you migrated your ADSL line to MWEB, then the only way to get 10mbps, is to upgrade to a 10mbps uncapped all-in-one account at a mind-blowing ridiculous price of R2359 per month. Either that or cancel your MWEB account, which requires a 1 calendar month notice. I sent my cancellation notice through yesterday, and I will only be able to appreciate the speed of 10mbps from the 1 June onwards, even though Telkom says I can have it now.

The Bottom line

For the few rands saving you might achieve each month, it is not worth migrating your line to another ISP. I should never have broken my own rule. Now I have to suffer for it. Lesson learnt:

Don't ever migrate your ADSL line to another ISP. Keep it with Telkom.

If you've already migrated your line to MWEB or another ISP, I suggest you start the process of migrating your line back to Telkom.

Some hope

After the frustration I suffered, I decided to to escalate this issue with MWEB, to see if there is anything that they could do about it. I sent a PM (private message) to MWEB Guy on the MyBroadband Forums, who is the official MWEB representative on the forums, to voice my frustration:

Hi.

I require some assistance. Hopefully MWEB will still be able to keep me as a happy customer after the frustration I've been through. And if not, I hope that MWEB will release me so that I can be a happy non-customer.

Here's the story:

I phoned Telkom to check if my exchange supports 10mbps, and to my delight they said it did. I asked them to upgrade my 4mbps to 10mbps, but they said they couldn't, because my line was migrated to MWEB. So I then called MWEB requesting that my line by upgraded to 10mbps.

However, MWEB refused to upgrade just the line to 10mbps, and leave the data package at 4mbps uncapped, even though the upgrade to 10mbps costs MWEB nothing, except some paperwork. My idea was to keep 4mbps uncapped for everyday use, and change to a capped package on an ad-hoc basis, from another ISP, when I want to download at full 10mbps speeds. However, MWEB said that this wasn't possible.

So I then ask if I can be put onto a capped MWEB package, so that I can upgrade my line to 10mbps and be able to enjoy the faster speeds. However, I was refused again.

I was told that if I migrated my ADSL line to MWEB, then the only way to enjoy 10mbps speed (aside from the Telkom limitations), is to upgrade to a 10mbps uncapped all-in-one account at a mind-blowing ridiculous price of R2359 per month. Either that or cancel your MWEB account, which requires a 1 calendar month notice. I sent my cancellation notice through yesterday, which means that I will only be able to appreciate the speed of 10mbps from the 1 July onwards, even though Telkom says I can have it NOW.

Bottom line: I REGRET MIGRATING MY ADSL LINE TO MWEB, and will be advising everyone I know not to do this.

What I would like? One of the following options:

- To be allowed to cancel my account at the end of this month, instead of the end of next month, and have my line migrated back to Telkom by the 1st of June. This will make me happy because I can then upgrade to 10mbps and use an ISP that has more sane pricing on uncapped 10mbps (like Afrihost - R997!) or perhaps use an ISP that offers high cap accounts that allow full 10mbps speed (WebAfrica - 50GB for R399).

- To have just the physical line upgraded to 10mbps. This is a free upgrade from Telkom, and costs MWEB nothing, except perhaps some paperwork. Leave my 4mbps uncapped account as is.

- Move me over onto a capped account from MWEB

BTW: I will be blogging about my MWEB experience on my personal blog: www.inthecube.co.za. I hope to that I will be able to write good things about the ISP that I respect so much, the one that revolutionized the internet in RSA, by making uncapped affordable, against all odds.

Kind regards
Saajid Ismail

MWEB Guy replied back quite promptly saying that he will escalate the issue to the "specialists" at MWEB. I hope that they will be able to allow me to cancel my line by the end of this month (May) instead of having to wait until the end of June. I want to start enjoying 10mbps speeds NOW.

There is some further glimmer of hope - MWEB today announced that they will be reviewing their 10mbps uncapped account pricing. But even if they reduce pricing from R2359 to R1359 (which would bring their all-one pricing in line with Afrihost's data-only package), it is still a huge amount of money to spend each month.

So now I wait on MWEB..... I will post updates on this issue through this blog, my Facebook page, and Twitter profile, for anyone interested in the outcome.

Warning: Scary one-sided e-toll Terms & Conditions

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 12:45:00 +0200

Much has been said about how bad e-tolling will be for Gauteng road users, the average South African citizen, and the South African economy as a whole. However, very few have delved deep into the Terms & Conditions that you will be bound should you choose to purchase an e-Tag device.

I was forwarded an email which originated from a lawyer, Deon Botha of Botha Attorneys, who provides his own opinion and comment after analysing the Terms & Conditions of the e-toll agreement that road users will be forced to sign if they choose to purchase an e-tag.

I have reproduced the analysis document created by Mr. Botha in it's entirety below. The document can also be downloaded here: e-tolls Terms & Conditions Analysis.doc (52.50 kb)

11th April 2012

E-TOLLING – GENERAL COMMENTS

This communication is not a legal opinion in any way whatsoever and only forwarded to yourselves for comment and for further discussion.

As you are all aware, motorist in Gauteng will be paying “toll fees” for the use of the new upgraded Gauteng freeways, to fund the Gauteng freeway development project.

Instead of motorist being billed monthly and receiving a statement for the usage of the E-Toll roads and which usage is linked to your motor vehicle license plate number (VLN), Sanral is currently pushing and encouraging motorist to rather purchase an E-Tag and to register as an E-Tag user, or to register as a VLN user.

In return for purchasing and registering as a E-Tag user / VLN user they promise that motorists may then qualify and be entitled to discounts, be categorized as either a E-Tag user or a registered VLN user to be entitled to discounted tolls. Should you elect not to register with Sanral, you will however not be entitled to any discounts or lower tariffs.

At first glace and when comparing the normal toll rates, to that of the discounted toll rates when you elect to register, the normal and reasonable uninformed motorist would be guided only by the discounts when signing up for registration.

After perusal of Sanral Terms & Conditions however, and which must be signed prior to registration, you will immediately note that the advantages of registering as an E-Toll user is very limited and comes with various onerous and one sided terms and obligations favoring only Sanral. Many clauses in their terms and conditions are being viewed by ourselves as well as other institutions as being either unlawful or in contravention of the Consumer Protection Act.

DISADVANTAGES FOR MOTORISTS WHO ELECT TO REGISTER AS AN E-TAG OR VLN USER

The discounts promised, and categorization as a registered E Tag user will not apply to all toll roads.
The onus is placed on the registered E-Toll user to establish their user categorization and/or the tolls applicable to a specific E-Toll road. The motorist can obtain the information from Sanral website.
A motorist who registers and thereafter fails to comply with any of Sanral’s prescribed terms and conditions, will be deemed to be an E-Road violator and their account can be referred to a collection agency called “Violations Processing Centre” which is a division of Sanral itself. (See paragraph 2 of Sanral terms & conditions).
Motorist who register will be billed and will be liable for toll transactions recorded according to the user VLN or E-Tag.
Motorist who register agree and understand that their liability to incur toll when the motor vehicle passes a tolling point and that the amount of toll is calculated with reference to the tolling point and not with reference to the KM traveled before the user reaches the tolling point.
Motorist who register are given 3 payment options for topping up their E Toll accounts namely, Pre-Paid Accounts, Manual Top Up Payments, Automatic Top Up Payments, all associated with the risk taking into account that you are contracting with a wholly owned State Company where corruption is at the order of the day.
Motorists who register further agrees and undertakes to ensure at all times that there is sufficient funds in the E-Toll account and should you fail to make sufficient payments into your E-Toll account will give Sanral the right to hand over your account to VPC for collection purposes.
Motorists who register and who elect to link their E-Toll account to a credit card bank account, debit card further authorizes Sanral to:

debit the motorists account to fund the E-Toll account for Toll fees incurred when raised;
undertakes to ensure that sufficient funds are available in the account;
places the duty on the motorist to notify Sanral of bank account detail changes.

A registered motorist undertakes and agrees to settle all E-Toll transactions within any period required by Sanral.
Should the registered motorist fail to make payments when required to do so, Sanral will have the right without notice to the motorists to suspend the motorist account, to red list the E-Tag and to hand the account over for collection to VPC.
The registered motorist further agrees that failure to make payment in respect of an E-Toll transaction in terms of the terms & conditions may result in criminal proceedings against themselves.
By registering the motorist agrees and understands that a statement of charges will be available on the E-Toll website for download and that should hardcopies be requested, that Sanral will have the right to charge for furnishing such copies.
Registered motorists agree that any payment made to Sanral will be utilized against the oldest charge to the most recent.
Registered motorist E-Toll account will be suspended if not used for a period of 12 months and will have to be reactivated. (at a charge).
Registered motorist agrees further that Sanral will not be held responsible for any loss or damage a motorist may suffer as a result of incorrect banking details being provided by the user and captured by Sanral except for instances where Sanral or its agent acted with gross negligence.
Registered motorists agree to be liable for additional fees and attorney charges which may be incurred by Sanral in the collection of outstanding E-Toll amounts.
Registered motorists further consent to the onerous provision that it will be deemed that the fees charged by Sanral are correct and the onus is placed on the motorist to prove that such charges are incorrect.
Registered motorists will not be provided with a receipt when they proceed through the tolling point. A tax invoice may however be requested but then at the expense of the motorist.
By registering for an E Tag account the onus is placed on the motorist to change the motor vehicle details linked to the E Toll account when you lose possession of the vehicle or where ownership in respect of the vehicle is transferred to a third party. Failure to do so will mean that the motorist will remain liable for any E-Toll charges incurred.
By registering the motorist acknowledges and accepts that by purchasing an E Tag and registering same does not in itself necessary result in a valid passage on an E Toll Road and that you may be prevented by Sanral to continue driving on the E Road.
By registering, the motorist agrees and accepts that Sanral will be entitled and without notice to the motorist to suspend an E Toll account and to Red List an E Tag, for failure of any of Sanral terms & conditions. Should the motorist later prove that there was no transgression of Sanral terms & conditions, they will have no claim against Sanral as in terms of the agreement such claims are waived by the motorist in favor of Sanral.
Whilst ownership in the E Tag and E Tag holder remains the property of Sanral the risk of loss, theft or damage passes to you upon delivery.
By registering, the motorist irrevocably authorizes Sanral or its duly authorized agents to obtain from any institutions where they may have an account or any credit bureau any information concerning themselves.
By registering the motorist further acknowledge and accepts that Sanral may unilaterally update and amend their terms & conditions and that the motorist has consented to such amendments and has agreed to abide by such amended terms & conditions.
By registering for an E Tag, the motorist is affording Sanral a blanket indemnity for any wrong doing, loss or damage that the motorist may have suffered by using the E road.
A registered motorist further agrees to an unlawful provision in consenting to the jurisdiction of the Magistrate’s Court of Pretoria in respect of all matters arising out of the terms & conditions.

A copy of Sanral terms and conditions is attached hereto for your ease of reference.

ADVANTAGES FOR MOTORIST WHO ELECTS NOT TO REGISTER AND RATHER PAY THE NORMAL TOLL RATE TARIFFS

Motorist will be billed for the use of the E Toll, without automatically being liable for such use, in the event of receiving incorrect readings from Sanral, theft, cloning of number plates, or the cloning of a motorist personal information etc
The onus will be on Sanral to prove that it was the motorist’s vehicle that traveled the recorded distances.
Payments will be made and effected by the motorist into a Sanral bank account.
Sanral’s collection division (VPC) will have no jurisdiction over non registered motorists.
Motorists will be entitled to monthly statements without any charge.
Motorists would be entitled to dictate how payments be allocated in respect of Toll road usage.
Motorists who do not register would not automatically be liable for additional fees or attorney charges.
The onus remains on Sanral to prove that the fees charged and for which the motorist is debited are correct.
Until an exemption notice is published motorist will be entitled to a receipt when paying for E Toll road usage.
In the event of a dispute with Sanral regarding outstanding charges, Sanral will not have the right to prevent the non registered motorist from continued use of the E Toll road.
Losses suffered by non registered motorist can be recovered by way of civil action.
Sanral will not have the right to have access to any private information of a non registered motorist.
Sanral will not have the right to amend any terms & conditions without the motorist agreeing to such amendments.
In the event of litigation, Sanral will have to issue a civil Summons or proceed criminally against the motorist in terms of the Criminal Procedure Act and will be forced to litigate against the motorist in a Magistrate’s Court who has jurisdiction over that motorist. (It is unlawful to consent to the jurisdiction of a specific Magistrate’s Court).

The above comment is made and must be read in conjunction with various sections of the National Credit Act, and the Consumer Protection Act. Should you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact writer hereof.

Yours faithfully

Deon Botha

As can be seen from the analysis by Mr. Botha, the Terms & Conditions set out by Sanral are very draconian, one-sided, scary, and gives Sanral almost blanket authority to do as they please. This is just another reason among the countless others not to register for the e-Toll system.

Remember, if you have read the above, and you still choose to register for e-toll, you only have yourself to blame.

Telemasters - Draconian Terms and Conditions

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 23:12:00 +0200

Replacing our Telecoms equipment

As IT Manager at Koogan Plastics, one of the first major projects I was tasked with, was to replace our aging and problematic PABX system. The system in place was an analogue Panasonic PBX which made use of Least Cost Routing (LCR) services provided by local telecommunications company - Telemasters.

The LCR service routed all cellular-bound outgoing calls through the cellular networks via 2 premi-cells (hardware devices with GSM radios similar to cellphones) which contained a Vodacom SIM card in each.

LCR - a dying business model

Since the recent changes in the Telecoms industry which resulted in lower interconnect rates, the business case for LCR operators has been greatly eroded, forcing LCR operators to seek new business opportunities, in the form of Voice over IP (VoIP) services. VoIP operators are currently able to provide the lowest calls costs in the country, to both fixed line and mobile destinations. Thus, the natural and logical business choice was to upgrade our telecoms equipment to make full use of VoIP services, instead of the traditional analogue services of fixed lines (Telkom) and cellular LCR services.

So after much investigation and meetings with several Telecoms providers, we decided to replace our current PABX with a modern Samsung Full-IP PABX which makes use of VoIP for external calls as well as internal calls. The cost-savings from using VoIP services instead of the traditional model were so good, that it would pay for the PABX upgrade over our finance period for the deal. Almost a free upgrade.

Draconian Terms and Conditions

After the new system was put in place and was running smoothly, the first thing I had to do was cancel all Telkom and LCR services. Upon investigating and attempting to cancel our account with our LCR provider - Telemasters - I was shocked to find that the Terms and Conditions of the agreement we signed with them required a 24 month notice period in order to cancel. Very draconian indeed.

Why anybody would agree to such terms and conditions is beyond me. Perhaps it was laziness, or failure to read and analyse the fine print. More likely though it was a lack of understanding and foresight of the Telecoms industry by management, and most likely it was under poor advisement from the previous telecoms service provider. I've decided to simply write it off to bad luck - there's no changing the past, but there's definitely a lesson to be learnt, albeit the hard way. Irrespective, as the new IT Manager at Koogan Plastics, it now became my problem.

Below are the critical clauses of the agreement that make it (almost) impossible to cancel the agreement without providing a 24 month notice, or paying for 24 months subscription fees all at once. You can download the full Telemasters agreement in PDF format here - Telemasters Standard Contract & Agreement.pdf (55.45 kb).

2. DURATION
2.1 This Agreement will commence on the date of actual connection (“the Connection Date”) and will be ongoing subject to clause 2.2

2.2 TeleMasters warrants that the Subscriber will realise a saving with the system installed versus Telkom cost and undertakes to calculate this saving and to present it as per 1.2. In the event of there being no saving for two consecutive months either party may terminate this agreement by giving 1 month’s notice within 30 days. The Agreement may not be cancelled should there be wilful interference or hindrance of the working of the Service or through failure of Subscriber’s equipment.

18. CANCELLATION
Should the Subscriber cancel the Agreement for any reason other than breach as per 8.2 or termination as per cl 2.2 or should TeleMasters terminate this Agreement because of the Subscriber's non-payment or breach, the full subscription charges for twenty four months from termination date becomes due and payable immediately.

What this means, in a nutshell, is that you are not allowed to cancel the agreement unless you are able to prove that you did not receive a saving from Telemasters on your telecommunications cost, compared to if you had used Telkom services instead. You are not allowed to switch off, disconnect or tamper with the equipment in any way.

Upon querying this with Telemasters, they stated that these are their standard Terms and Conditions, which applies to all of their customers, and that there is no way around it, unless you provide a 24 month cancellation notice. They were pretty hard up about it, refusing to entertain any pleas of reason and fairness.

And so it began

Thus, began my little journey to find a way to cancel this agreement legally. My first leg along this journey was to find out if the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) could assist me in any way. Unfortunately, this was not the case, since the CPA only applies to agreements signed after the act came into place, and does not apply to business clients who have an annual turnover of R2 million or more. The cancellations department at Telemasters were kind enough to point this out to me, which I verified upon the advice of a good lawyer, my trusted cousin - Ismail Vally - who runs his own law practice named Ismail Vally Attorneys.

My next step was to seek advice on the internet, and so I posted about my problem on the MyBroadband Forums (24 month notice period for cancellation!? Help! Is this legal? CPA?) attempting to seek advice from like-minded professionals and geeks. There was some very useful information, and some interesting takes on how to solve the problem (you can always trust members of the MyBroadband community to be creative), but nothing concrete that would solve my problem.

I then decided to file a complaint against Telemasters on HelloPeter.com, knowing that it would not help much, but at the same time thinking that "hey, it wouldn't hurt to try and wouldn't cost anything". To date, I have not received a response to the HelloPeter complaint. At least it serves as a publicly visible account of my problems with Telemasters, and their refusal to respond on a public forum.

(Update: Telemasters have since responded to the complaint, with a rather poorly-thought out response, having no legal merit.)

My next step, was to try to find some sort of loophole in the agreement that I could use as a basis to cancel it. Unfortunately, the agreement seemed pretty water-tight, especially in terms of my inadequate and unqualified legal skills.

A way out?

The only other thing I could think of (which, in hindsight, should probably have been my first step) was to focus on Clause 2.2 of the agreement - the critical clause which held us hostage - to see if somehow Telemasters were in breach of this clause. After lots of Googling, trawling the Telkom website, analysing invoices and call costs, and enlisting the advice of a very helpful technician from our new Telecoms Service Provider, I found that Telemasters was in fact in breach of the contract. Telkom had dropped its call rates on their SupremeCall packages in August 2011, which made them significantly cheaper than Telemasters.

With this information, I have taken the first steps to cancel our account and the agreement we have with Telemasters. I will post the complete details and full analysis in a future blog post, once everything has been finalised and our account and the agreement has been cancelled. I believe I have very strong legal grounds to allow us to cancel the agreement.

Update: I written a follow up blog post on this issue. Please check it out here: Telemasters found to be in breach of it's own contract