ASA nails iBurst; Ideate smiles.
by Fred Roed on 29/07/07 at 10:26 pm
10 comments
Michael van Dijk, we salute you. You have felled the mighty iBurst with a single swoop of your axe. We, at Ideate have been crowing, crying and throwing our toys from our respective cots without one single bone being thrown back in our direction. We have written reams of content about how terrible their service is (even though we used to be their biggest advocates). Shane and Andrew have phoned and written to them. I have personally pleaded for recompense; I have hurled down gauntlets. I’ve even threatened to burn my iBurst card and put it on YouTube*.
I expected at least a small refund, but sadly iBurst have not phoned, emailed or sent as much as a carrier pigeon in my direction.
So, I was pretty surprised to come across this IOL article about Mr van Dijk bringing iBurst to their knees over false advertising. Apparently Van Dijk lives in an area of perfect conditions, nearby an iBurst tower, and when he tested iBurst’s claims of being ‘17 times faster than normal internet’, they fell woefully short. Van Dijk went to the Advertising Standards Authority and they ordered iBurst to cease their advertising.
I read the article and had one of those ‘I wish I had thought of that‘ moments. It reminds me of the story of Al Capone who was brought to justice, not through all the heinous crimes he committed, but through the eventual mundane charge of tax evasion.
Ok, so it’s not exactly the downfall of iBurst, but at least they get to know that the truth will always out.
Pass me that cigar, please. It’ll go nicely with this champagne.
*We decided to can the idea, mainly because we thought it was a bit too ‘online terrorist’ for our liking.
Fred Roed is the marketing guy in the Ideate crew. Fred is the CEO of web marketing company World Wide Creative and the co-founder of online learning portal Heavy Chef. Fred loves writing about people out there doing marketing right. Follow Fred on Twitter here. View more articles by Fred Roed.
Michael van Dijk
Jul 31st, 2007
Well, I had similar frustrating iBurst experience to those mentioned. The only thing that was worse is – that I recommended iBurst to several of my clients, since about two years ago their service was excellent (cost & service delivery) compared to other ISP’s, however that soon changed.
I contacted iBurst management / network engineers and RF engineers in Johannesburg and Cape Town on many occasions and explained to them that I and many of the subscribers are no longer receiving what was advertised and what we are paying for. They did send a technician out several times, however nothing changed.
I therefore lodged a case with ICASA – they never responded. So I decided to contact the ASASA, because I felt that iBurst’s advertising was misleading others into signing contracts and then not receiving the benefits as was advertised by iBurst.
Although, the ASASA upheld my complaint on the grounds that iBurst’s claims are currently unsubstantiated, iBurst is still using the same advert on their website, SABC TV and radio channels and brochures that are prominently displayed in Vodacom’s stores.
I have recently submitted a “breach allegation� to the ASASA, but as yet have not had a response from them, soon I hope.
Will keep you updated.
Regards
Michael
Shane
Jul 31st, 2007
…And their Ad appears right next to the article. Classic!
Fred
Jul 31st, 2007
Michael, we’ve also spent the last year removing egg from our faces because of all the people we’ve recommended iBurst to. Good luck with your progress, and let us know when something happens.
Shane, dude. The irony kills me. These guys are unbelievable. You wonder when they realise it may be a good idea to allocate some of their advertising budget towards service delivery.
Michael van Dijk
Aug 2nd, 2007
Well, it seems another user of the iBurst service has lodged a complaint with the ASA regarding iBurst speed claims and once again the ASA has ruled in the favour of the complainant.
My Adsl
http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Wireless/842.html
Actual Ruling
http://www.asasa.org.za/ResultDetail.aspx?Ruling=3801
I am still waiting on the ASA to rule on the “breach allegation�.
Regards
Michael
Eb Stenvert
Aug 2nd, 2007
Hello Michael,
I’ve had iBurst for the past eighteen months, and until about three weeks ago had reasonable speeds. Suddenly however the speeds have dropped dramatically, especially during the day, to the extent sometimes that the service is quite literally unavailable (website timeouts or even no logon to the iBurst system). My modem has line of sight of one thousand metres to the Northcliff tower, and the signal strength indication is always 100 percent.
iBurst says that the capacity of the Northcliff base station(s) is far from fully utilised. What’s the problem then? They don’t know, and recommend trying an external antenna, perhaps pointing it at another base station and seeing if there’s an improvement! I’m not going to pay them six hundred rands a month for the privilege of taking part in experiments to get my service back however. Seems to me that they’ve taken a leaf out of the Telkom book of Business Ethics.
Fortunately I still have a dial-up connection, so I can at do do my e-mails when I need to.
Anyone for a heavily discounted iBurst modem in good condition?
Regards,
Eb Stenvert.
Michael van Dijk
Aug 13th, 2007
Dear Eb
I have tried the antenna solution and in most cases there is some improvement, provided that it is correctly installed and pointed at a tower that is not overloaded. The loss in access speeds, etc. is caused by the addition of more users than the tower can handle. The more users utilising a tower the poorer the access becomes.
The deterioration usual starts on the edge of the signal coverage area and draws closer to the tower as more users are added to the system. Usually it is quite prevalent during office hours, when most users are active.
In May of this year it was announced on MyADSL that the Northcliff tower was the second busiest tower in the country http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Wireless/89.html.
If you require more information head over to the iBurst forum http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=97 there is a wealth of information available on iBurst.
It seems the installation of an antenna is the only interim solution or to wait until WiMax is commercially launched, if ADSL is not available in your area.
Regards
Michael
Andrew
Aug 13th, 2007
Hi Michael
Thanks for the advice. Sadly, it sounds like installing an antenna just moves you up the pecking-order for the tower you connect to, and presumably bumps someone else off. It doesn’t really solve the bigger issue for iBurst, which is the number of unhappy customers they are creating.
Andrew
Fred
Aug 13th, 2007
…and it goes on: http://www.hellburst.co.za/ and also http://www.ioltechnology.co.za/article_page.php?iSectionId=2884&iArticleId=3976962
I think Shane actually checked availability of this domain last year sometime. This site was inevitable.
Greg
Aug 21st, 2007
Check out my local connection speed survey on http://www.baudmap.com With more participants, a true picture of the local broadband services can be created.
Cheers,
Greg
Michael van Dijk
Oct 8th, 2007
Further to the above, iBurst has disregarded the ASASA ruling.
iBurst advertising “breach allegation� upheld by ASA…
See link to document, below: (5 Pages – 136 KB)
http://www.michaelvandijk.co.za/iburst.pdf