iBurst reviews and complaints

13 August request renewal on existing contract with new modem. I have discussed my situation with regards to proof if address to Thembi Mtshutshwane who said that a a lease agreement would be acceptable as proof of address. On 14 August were the couriers at my workplace to deliver such modem, however refused to accept my proof of address as arranged with Thembi after they have phoned Iburst. With consultation with Thembi via email were it obvious that Iburst does not whish to treat any customer with respect or decency. On the 23rd of the same month, were an Iburst modem delivered at the same address without any proof of adress. When enquirering about this were I just ignored by Themby as well as '[protected]@iburstgroup.co.za'
How is this possible that they would deliver hardware to one person at the same address without proof of address, and for the next person who do have proof of adrress they refuse to deliver the hardware and threat such a person disrespectfully.

In December 2011 I was converted from Iburst Modem to Cell C Modem due to signal problems in my area. Monthly description was R149pm.Since then I paid the following: 01/12/2011 -R257, 15/12/2011 -R711, 19/12/2011 R81.70, 03/01/2012 -R406, 01/02/2012 -R406, 02/02/2012 - R406, 28/02/2012 -R450, 02/05/2012 -R1, 561.97.In the beginning of March, they called me to say they received no payment from me, I had to send proof of payment because it didn’t show on their side.I did & they said they would take it up with their cash office.For the whole of March and April, they gave me no Gigs to use the internet, nor did they deduct my installment.In May they deducted R1561.97.I emailed them to ask what was going on, they said I am in arrears, they have terminated my contract and I still owe them R574.73.I asked them why they terminated my contract as clearly I have paid them over and above what I was supposed to be paying them and they said I am listed as being in bad debt with them.On the 23/05/2012 I received a final letter of demand from them via post stating that I must pay them to avoid legal action against me.They are clearly robbing me and I don’t want their contract anymore.As far as I am concerned they owe me money, I don’t owe them anything. Please help before they debit my account again and take all my money!

On 29 Dec 2010 I send and email to iBurst to cancel my contract with effect end of Jan 2011. In the email I specifically instructed them not to debit my account for the month of Febr 2011. I received confirmation from iBurst on the 6th of Jan 2011 and on the 20th of Jan, that my contract with them will be cancelled on the 31st of Jan 2011. The reference number they gave me was: [protected].
On Monday 31st Jan 2011, iBurst debited an unauthorized amount of R592.00 from my cheque account. I send a written complaint to their Retensions Dept on Friday 4 Febr. I requested that someone phone me to discuss the matter. No-one did. I phoned their Retensions Dept later that day. I explained my situation to the woman I spoke to, she created a credit note and informed me that I have to wait 7-14 working days for a refund. I was shocked and I told her that the waiting period was too long and definitely unacceptable as this was their mistake. She told me that there is nothing that she nor her manager could do to speed up the process. I asked to speak to her manager, but was cut off.
A 7-14 working days is an unacceptable waiting period since it was their mistake!

I purchased a 8 gig contract from iBurst in January 2010 - I purchased an attena to increase my signal as I was living on the edge of the signal in Rustenburg - For the first three days I had a good signal of 70% taking the circumstances in account - I then left over the weekend and the Sunday I returned my signal have dropped to 20-30% and I am disconected several time during a 24hour period. I then complained at iBurst on their website and have written several emails to their Pretoria Branch to a guy by name of Renier Taute and he said he will follow up - When attempting to phone, no-one pick up the phone as if the company is run by a single person! After that I have submitted about five complaints via their website and to date not a single person have come back to me. This is the worst Internet Service provider that I have encountered thus far and I am considering of abandoning my subscription with them due to BAD SERVICE, NO BACK UP, NO INVESTIGATIONS, NO FEEDBACK and after all, JUST POOR RELUCTANCE IGNORANCE TO THEIR CLIENT BASE - Maybe their CEO Mr VAN ZYL is making too much money to care what is happening in his Company!

Over the last few days I tried to contact the call center a number of times. I have been holding on each time for 10 - 15 minutes and then have finally given up. Today I got through after 15 minutes to be told they are there 247. Most of my incoming mail has been going into 'spam' and apparently they have had a problem for a couple of days. How about letting the subscribers know and getting more staff into their call centre, to offer some sort of service? Any decent service providers around, please let me know!

1. After 3 months of faultless connection, my lag times suddenly went through the roof. Reliable internet gaming became all but impossible. Hours of call centre hell to try and rectify the prolem. Best advice I got after 2 days: 'Are you connecting with the correct username?'. After 4 weeks, I was told there was an 'Unconfirmed problem' that they had been working on for some time. And they would get back to me in a week with a report. Not a solution. A report. I have done tests I have spoken to many people and after 6 WEEKS, there is absolutely no progress. The worst part is that runs like an absolute dream for several days, and then it changes to barely usable for several days.
2. Changed account types and the changes were not reflected. Several calls necessary.
3. Ordered an antennae for delivery. Wasn't delivered. When I called back a week later, I was told that they though I was going to collect it. When it was finally delivered, I was told (by the deliverman) that if I didn't have a copy of my ID, they couldn't deliver the antennae. First time I had heard of that.

BTW: All of this was delivered with the friendliest yet completely ineffective service I have ever experienced.

Early this morning, when the Internet is usually faster than daytimes, I tried to surf the net. Using iBurst. The iBurst signal monitor says I have 100% signal. Yet it seemed slow, for the last few weeks it has very very slow. I went to a few online speed test sites. This was the result: an average upload speed of 100-140 kbps. That is slow for a broadband service for which I pay for. And a download average of 40, yes FOURTY, kbps! That is dialup speed! Shocking. What a slow speed. And disgusting, seeing that this is supposed to be broadband, and at a time of night when many users are sleeping and thus not online. No excuse for this. Try download something using iBurst, ha good luck. Rather buy that pigeon. iBurst should be pigeon pie. When my contract is up I am leaving them.

I really think I-burst needs to reconsider who their market is and where they market their devices, and then train their sales people to sell ONLY to people living in this area. I made the mistake (after talking to a sales consultant and he advised me that the Wireless would work for me), I complained then and after a long hastle, they swopped it for a 3G USB device and advised that this would be the solution, not mentioning that I won't have signal in most areas I travel, however I stuck with it for months maybe a year already as I thought that everyone is experiencing this problem. However, sitting with colleages, I have to connect, reconnect, reconnect, reconnect etc etc etc because my 3G card keeps on disconnecting.The call centre just advise that you must download the latest software, from a 3G card that keeps on disconnecting! I did manage to download the software, but to no avail. I-burst, please go and check my itemized billing and see how many times I have to connect and reconnect, can it really just be a bad signal (I just find it strange as my wife sits next to me with he Vodacom 3G and doesn't experience the same problem), service is just getting worse, 15 month of hell.

I sent an email to iburst on Sunday evening and still haven't heard from them. The person in cahrge of paying the iburst account has been doing so via debit order for almost a year now. If I'm not mistaken she was also paying R12 for the internet security software. Kaspersky no longer works and it says, 'Your license key is invalid.Protection is disabled.Your current subscription is not valid or has been cancelled'

I've been trying to find out how to renew the subscription but the iburst website doesn't even show you what package you are on as before as I assumed this is where you could renew it and be sent a new license key.

Okay, here's the thing. I get 1gig bandwith per month. I try to check it everyday, because if I go over that 1gig it goes to pay-per-use. One month I had to pay over R1500 for the bandwith instead of R350 because I went over that 1gig.

Now, here is my problem. Since the beginning of this month I have been unable to check my bandwith usage. I am unable to log in to Iburst's site. A few days ago I phoned their help line and what a disaster that was. I waited for over 30min for the person to tell me that he can't check my bandwith, because their 'system' doesn't allow it. I was told to put my internet's sim card in my phone and check my balance that way. But guess what...That doesn't seem to work either.

So, my problem is that I am probably going to have to pay a very large amount for my bandwith this month. Money that I don't have. I don't want to be liable for their mistakes. I want a refund or I just want to pay the amount which I pay for one gig.

It's extremely frustrating. When will their 'system' problem be solved so that I can check my bandwith usage. And will I really have to pay for the amount of megabites that I exceeded? I have no idea what to do!

I took out an Iburst 36 month contract, the sales rep came to my place of work and installed the modem to my laptop and checked that it worked and it did. When i got home that night it did not get signal, he came over and gave me an aerial and i was able to get a weak signal, i was worried about this and stressed my concern to the rep, we were also looking at moving not to far from where i stayed and the rep promised me that Iburst was putting up 7 new towers in December that year (2006) and that i would get full signal in my present flat and that the whole area would be covered so i would get signal when we moved, December came and went and still my signal got worse and when i moved i got no signal.

I have been phoning and emailing Iburst about this matter and they never respond to my emails or take my details down and never get back to me. I eventually got sick of there lack of help and stopped paying my account. they sent me an email saying that if i did not pay that they would take legal action, i then emailed back explaining the situation got one response from Avril and was again left hanging, so i email the help desk and finally one person faxed me a request to cancel form but told me that it's up to Iburst to cancel or not. I was so frustrated that i vented my anger on helicopter a consumer complaints sight, i never once bad mouthed Iburst, i told my story like i have now.

Last night a Dion Carter from Iburst phoned me, he was rude to me, he lied to me about previously speaking to me last month, i know he did not as i changed my cell number and only gave it out now when i emailed Avril at Iburst. I then explain to him several rime why i was unhappy, he never listened to a word i said, told that i had seven day to have canceled the contract and a year later can't do it, i told him again about the verbal promise from there sales rep and said i took the contract on his assurance that i would get full signal in december ( i signed up in june 2006) and should bear with the poor signal for that short period.

I did not know any better believed him and signed the contract, now i have been fighting them and email info them and no one helps or wants to listen to why i never canceled within the seven day, this Dion Carter also threaten legal action against me for writing on hellopeter as he said i discrete there name, i did no such thing i just told it like it is, and i looked on hellopeter there are over 200 complaints about iburst, so is he going to sue all 200 people as well. I have been paying for a service that i can't use and feel that i was lied to into taking the contract.

Thank you,
Bronwyn