ATT: Hot, Bezeq International & Ministry of Communication in Israel

Posted in Internet, Middle East, Personal by caput58 on December 28, 2008

While for months already my Internet connection is unstable and my upload and download speed vary randomly throughout the day both Hot and Bezeq International have done nothing. I have called their telephone support numerous times with no success at all; mostly I listen to Coldplay while being on hold, and that is not a pleasant thing to do…

Moreover, usually between 7 – 9PM almost every day I enjoy, what I call, selective Internet browsing, meaning I can’t reach certain servers although they are online and working fine. (See screen shots below…)

In the meantime, both support teams (verbally ONLY, of course) state that there’s probably something wrong with my computer, since both of their services are 100% operational and there are no known problems with them.

Both Hot and Bezeq refuse to give me their answers in writing. Not even their refusal to refuse giving me their answer in writing, I can’t get in writing (for reasons known only to them)… Basically none of them are prepared to give me (the customer) ANYTHING in writing!

Now I have decided to make this public hoping it may help. Below are screen shots of low speed transfers (at least lower than promised) the moment they happen. Every time I add a screen shot I will let all three involved parties (see title of this post) know there’s a new one. Hopefully someone will take this seriously.

I have told all “organizations” what their problem might be and what to check from the beginning. It means I gave them free consulting already while getting nothing in return and I am the paying customer here…

Here it is, in writing:
Bezeq International: DNS servers and IP switching. Mostly their DNS servers are not up to speed so that is why sometimes I don’t see “all” of the Internet! Especially your NY servers! Chek them out first!
HOT: Infrastructure is not good in my neighborhood and bandwidth “sharing” or “surfing” is wrong because at peak hours (7-9PM) all connections slow down for everybody…
Ministry of Communication: DO YOUR FUCKING JOB AND MAKE THEM WORK!

Thank You: Hot, Bezeq International and Ministry of Communication.

Below is a diary of screenshots, communication attempts (rather lack of them) by all three parties…

May 05, 2009
Major Update!

First of all I must apologize to Roi from Bezeq International, for not writing about this earlier, that put in the time and effort in the last week of April into solving this problem. Thank you very much.

I kid you not, the guy called me 3 times, had Hot people on the line and in an extremely professional and pragmatic manner brought this problem to a 50% solution. At the end of the day ALL the problems I had were a result of HOT faulty infrastructure. They said they are fixing it and I am due to receive a refund for all the problems I had. That was 2 weeks ago.

Now, HOT says, no. No refund, because you spoke to Bezeq International and not us. I am waiting for a HOT management representative to call me back until 14:30 today.

April 21, 2009
And the saga goes on. Today @ 10:12PM (that is when I checked) again I am browsing a “selective” Internet. What does that mean, and finally we know who’s to blame? Bezeq International has a problem. I managed to have both support representatives on the line and Bezeq International guy says “Yes, we have a system problem, sure, you can’t see some sites that are in the U.S.”

He is promising that a representative of theirs is going to call me within 24 hours, so I can demand a refund for all the hours of work I have lost during the past few months…

Lets see what happens…

March 05, 2009
After receiving about 10 emails from Bezeq International stating that “I must talk to them in order for them to help me” and sending them my phone number, I have received no calls yet. Nothing in writing either. Also, no mails from them in the last week to ten days. I guess they know why.

On the other hand, nothing from HOT or The Ministry of Communication. They intend to ignore this, and it will go away. How mature…

Still, my Internet connection does have problems but I must admit about 50% less than before. Maybe they’ve done something without informing me or the problem solved itself (like most problems do, here in Israel).

February 11, 2009
Bezeq International is taking an interest in what’s going on (does the fact that this post is No. 1 on Google have to do anything with that?) Nice!
I will publish their mails here as soon as they stop sending me mails asking for my phone number (I don’t want them to talk to me, I want answers and written ones. I think I deserve that much.)

February 08, 2009
Today, after numerous e-mails and phone calls, Bezeq International writes back to me and they are asking me to provide more details so they can “help” me. I sent them back the link to this post.

Today is February 5th 2009. I had a Hot technician at my place beginning of this week and today, again, my speeds are down 75% (see screenshot below). I called them again and a technician is coming in tomorrow, AGAIN! I mean, all I am asking for is what I was promised to begin with. An Internet connection with a constant speed. On average I call their support once a week and still no results. OMFG! Is ANYBODY in this country going to do anything they promised EVER!!!

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