Enticed by Screamer's pricing, I thought I might sign up and give it a shot. So I did the online sign-up on Monday, and was presented with an authorization form to sign and fax. Not having a printer handy at the time, and being incredibly lazy, I never got around to printing, signing or faxing the authorization form.
So, by the time I got home, I had already figured that cancelling my 5gb afrihost to switch over to a 5gb screamer was probably more trouble than it was worth and wasn't going to bother sending in the authorization. Nevertheless, Screamer presented me with an invoice on Monday, which I assumed was some sort of automated thing and didn't pay too much attention to it. Imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning to an SMS from FNB telling me my account had been debited for R115 despite not having sent through the authorization form that Screamer claimed they required in order to debit my account. Since I had never bothered trying to connect with the access details, I figured I might be able to cancel this account, so I sent them this email:
Hi Debbie
I completed the online application but didn't actually sign and fax the
application form so I'm surprised that the debit order actually went through
last night.
Can you let me know if this was correct procedure, and if not, can you
please arrange to refund the debit order and cancel my subscription? You
should be able to confirm that I haven't attempted to login to the system or
use any data.
Thanks
Now, don't get me wrong, I agree that I did complete the online application, and accepted the T&C's, so I wasn't going to be entirely fussed about it if they didn't refund the money. At the worst, I'd have a bunch of extra bandwidth to play around with.
So I receive this reply:
Good day,
By agreeing to the terms and conditions you authorise Screamer to deduct from your bank account. Please unpay the debit order at your bank.
If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact us.
Best regards
Fair enough, I've authorised Screamer to debit my account via my online submission. However, this response doesn't make any sense. What exactly does unpay mean? Is Screamer telling me to get my bank to reverse the transaction? Are they telling me to block their debit orders? Wouldn't it be simpler to just stop billing me on their system, rather than incur the hassle of blocked debit orders?
So anyways, I contacted the bank to find out how to block a debit order, but in the mean time, I figured that since I've paid for the service for this month, I might as well make use of it. So I created a connection to Screamer on my laptop and logged on, and decided to start making use of the bandwith at my disposal by downloading Office 2010 beta off technet... who knows, if it was fast enough, I might be tempted to stick with them after all.
I have a 4mb/s line (which only synchs at 2mb/s, but anyways, its definitely capable of doing better than 3kb/s.
So, overall, there has been nothing enjoyable about my screamer experience. I've emailed them and asked them to terminate my account at the end of the current billing cycle. Let's hope they at least get that right and don't cut me off immediately.
Comments
Any news on their services or the lack there of?
Nothing really - I emailed their sales@ address and told them to cancel my account, and I haven't received an invoice for December so I'm guessing they've done it - they didn't bother to reply to the mail to say they received it or had cancelled it, so I'll have to wait and see if they actually try to debit my account again.
I decided to try and use up the rest of the 5gb over the weekend, which was an exercise in frustration. Pages timed out, and the download I was trying to complete was chugging along at around 20KB/s. Eventually I got fed up and finished the last 500mb or so at around 100KB/s with afrihost.
Stay away from screamer!
had the same issue with them, they are a bunch of thieves that offer a pathetic service.
They really really suck and they lie about having technical problems...
I have a similar experience in that i purchased uncapped adsl, and guess what, after a few days it stops working and you can never get them on the phone for either technical or sales. The time i used it, it was absolutely useless. Don't go the screamer way.
Digichilli & screamer and all the others are useless.
Tried and tested them all. Wasted alot of money doing so.
Please take my advice:
The best is Axxess for R999.
its not for nothing that they're called screamer. I'd like to scream down the phone line. Not enough space here to vent my rage!
I have a similar experience in that i purchased uncapped adsl, and guess what, after a few days it stops working reboot try reboot I am sick.
since january this year screamer has been 100%
i think you mean they are 100% useless
It took Screamer almost 3 weeks to send my user name and password for the R799 512 uncapped. Finally I logged on and decided to do some speed testing.. http://speedtest.neotel.co.za/
During the day 18 Feb 2010 1:03PM
Last Result:
Download Speed: 417 kbps (52.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 160 kbps (20 KB/sec transfer rate)
During the day 18 Feb 2010 1:05PM
Last Result:
Download Speed: 401 kbps (50.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 175 kbps (21.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
During the day 18 Feb 2010 1:06PM
Last Result:
Download Speed: 423 kbps (52.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 183 kbps (22.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
http://www.speedtest.net/result/720732370.png
http://www.speedtest.net/result/720733584.png
During the day 18 Feb 2010 5:36PM
Last Result:
Download Speed: 504 kbps (63 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 54 kbps (6.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
During the day 25 Feb 2010 2:36PM
http://www.speedtest.net/result/728677368.png
Last Result:
Download Speed: 205 kbps (25.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 74 kbps (9.3 KB/sec transfer rate)
However these speeds are not consistent
This test I did will posting this message.
Last Result:
Download Speed: 136 kbps (17 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 77 kbps (9.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Why are my speeds so crap now!! I have phoned to complain but sofar no one has done anything. Look at my upload speeds. I have decided to give screamer a week to correct this problem otherwise I will have to cancel.
Luckly I still have an uncapped account with Datapro which does throttle during business hours but at night and weekends I get
During the night 11 Feb 2010 9:58PM
Last Result:
Download Speed: 502 kbps (62.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 213 kbps (26.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
During the night 11 Feb 2010 9:59PM
Last Result:
Download Speed: 456 kbps (57 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 210 kbps (26.3 KB/sec transfer rate)
http://www.speedtest.net/result/713756563.png
http://www.pingtest.net/result/10197854.png
My advice spend a bit more go with a better ISP. I think Screamer only has 2 or three people who work there. Hellkom should let people know that screamer is not value for money.
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