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Thread ID: 74462	2006-11-23 11:01:00	My unhappy affair with ihug	qazwsxokmijn (102)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
501573	2006-11-23 11:01:00	So, after all the hell and frustration ihug have put me through, I guess it's time for me to finally let my fellow NZers know what ihug is truly capable of doing - piss us off. So, as a victim of ihug, please read what I've got to write. :) It all started nearly 4 months ago. I was on ihug's old 2Mbit/20GB data plan. I had been with them for a total of around 1 year and 9 months. For the first 1 year and 6 months, I was extremely happy with my fast speed, I was downloading torrents and everything else using P2P at a satisfying speed. However, for the last 3 months with ihug, it was a battle for me to see my P2P speeds crawl at 2kBps. RARELY will I ever get back to my normal speeds - up to 60kBps. At first, I had no idea what the hell was going on. I was frustrated for the first 2 weeks of my 3-month ordeal. So, I joined the LimeWire forum and asked the knowledgeable members about my dilemma. They suggested I try downloading a 'test-file' where I should be downloading the file in LimeWire itself and should get my usual fast P2P speed. Howeverm instead of the normal 40kBps I expected, I barely got 129BYTES/s. And so, I told them what the speeds were, and they told me that it may be my LimeWire settings. By then, I was skeptical. It couldn't have been my LimeWire settings, or my Azureus settings (another P2P app I use). Why? Because the very last month before all this happened, the settings were UNTOUCHED and the speeds were usual. So I told the LimeWire members that, and they suggested that my ISP, ihug, may be traffic/port shaping. At first, I didn't know what that meant. So I looked around google, and found out what it was. Limiting the bandwidth allocated for P2P, or blocking ports used by P2P applications. Not believing what ihug was doing to me, I called the helpline. The very first time I have ever called ihug helpline. I had to wait for 38 minutes to have a 'customer representative' to ATTEMPT to explain my problem. Annoyed, I told the guy my problem, and even told him LimeWire forum members have concluded to traffic shaping. Still, the geezer denied it. Wether the helpdesk people weren' told by their bastards-of-seniors, OR they were told to deny any claims of traffic/port shaping. Either way, in total, I probably have called ihug literally about 15 times to get a worthy answer in the period of 2.5 months. Nearly EVERYTIME, about 13 out of the 15 calls, I had to wait for AGES to have someone pick up my call, with 1 hour and 22 minutes being the longest. Furthermore, all the ihug helpdesk people I talked to denied they were traffic shaping, etc. In fact, they blamed my torrent health, my public tracker, my P2P settings, my firewall settings, my phone, my modem, all which have been left UNTOUCHED before all this happen, and although my torrents were healthy, had good numbers of seeders, sources, and functional public trackers. Fed up with their lies, denials, and much bullcrap, I finally to drop it. On October 27, 2006, I saw Xtra with their Go Large advertisment as I surfed the web to look for another ISP. Of course, I was attracted to Xtra. Hey, it was love at first sight. And so, I joined Xtra's Go Large. And guess what? On the first day I was connected to Xtra, I got a whopping 120kBps speed on a file downloading on Azureus, whereareas I only got a crawling 1.8kBps the day before while I was still with ihug. Now, tell me that's a solid evidence of ihug REALLY, traffic shaping my plan. I have evidence now. I took a screenshot of both speeds (although I foolishly deleted them later on). :( Anyways, yes, my Xtra 'heaven' didn't last very long - as many of you may know about Go Large's notorious problem. In fact, my Xtra 'heaven' only lasted for 5 days, until I noticed a certain slow speed and fluctuating speeds. HOWEVER. I called Xtra's helpline after going through this slow period with Xtra for 3 days. Hey, it only took them 3 seconds to pick up my call, as opposed to the 1 hour and 22 minutes with ihug. Instead of being like ihug and denying my claims of traffic shaping or problematic networks, Xtra spat out the TRUTH. They told me, Go Large plan IS HAVING PROBLEMS, and THEY ARE forced to traffic shape a lot. Funnily, I wasn't pissed at all. Yes, I was annoyed, but I wasn't angry at Xtra AT ALL. They were honest. Mate, I was happy, in fact, knowing that such big business can be so honest. And so, up until today, I am still with Xtra, happily downloading 2GB a day. (don't look at me - I'm only 16 and my free-loading 22-year old brother downloads all his anime, hentai, and bukkake porn to his heart's desire.) However, my hell with ihug didn't end there. The moment I disconnected ihug on October 30 2006, I sent them my DSL-502T modem, to avoid the $99.99 fee of keeping it. I had the tracking number, and so did they. The parcel arrived safely and was signed by some guy named Kevin. THEY HAVE MY DSL-502T, MEANING THEY HAVE NO RIGHT TO CHARGE MY BANK ACCOUNT (well, my mother's) $100. However, yes, those bastards charged me $102.25. Yes, I owed them $2.25 for the phone bill. But they Charged me $102.25. Bastards!!! So, I had to call them, in anger, frustration, and vengeance all boiling in my heart. HOWEVER, they still haven't fixed their 'helpline' problem - the problem being the lack of educated, multiple helpdesk people to answer customers' queries. I had to wait for 48 minutes until I finally gave up, and had to wait for the next day to try calling the bastards again. The very next day (today) at 10:00am, I called them again, hoping this time there will be more 'customer representatives'. No, I was wrong. I had to wait for 27 minutes, through hell of annoying music. Once I got a hold of one of the miscreants, I screamed (not literally) out THEIR problem and inconsistency, having to charge me for the modem that I have returned. However, halfway, I was 'accidentally' disconnected. Bastard! So, in fury, I waited for another 15 minutes to get back on the line. I had to re-explain to another miscreant the problem. Finally, after a further 6 minutes of waiting, the miscreant confirmed that YES, MY MODEM HAS ARRIVED 20 DAYS BEFORE TODAY!! More to the point, I remember VIVIDLY I wrote down my ACCOUNT NAME on the box of the modem, so they can tell whose modem it is. They said I should see the money appear in my account within one week. Now, if they don't do this one right, I certainly am going to take legal action, and tell the whole NZ through NZHerald if need be. I am truly sick and tired of ihug's secrecy, denials, bull****s, inconsistency, and extreme lack of customer service. Please, people, take my words into account and consider ihug once more. I truly hope for them to go bankrupt and burn to the ground!	qazwsxokmijn (102)
501574	2006-11-23 12:12:00	Excellent post there! It amazes me how such a good ISP like ihug (with all the ISP awards and whatnot) can turn into utter crap in such a short timeframe. I was with them in May and June '06 and they were excellent then, but thank goodness, I quit them before I had to endure all the rubbish they're putting their customers through.	bonkiebonks (7249)
501575	2006-11-23 12:53:00	Gee I hope your brother doesn't read this ... :D Yeah they have gone to the dogs - torrent speed seemed to slow to maybe 40 kB/s at the most around the time of "unleashing". Hard to know if it is the exchange/backhaul in my case but even HTTP is slower on international sites so I suspect they are traffic shaping like crazy to cut costs. I don't know why they don't own up to it, they had (maybe they are still there) web pages with pie graphs of traffic type etc and admitted they do layer 7 traffic shaping (every ISP has to shape somewhat). Xtra tell you all about it in their Go Large plan because they don't want the hardcore P2P downloaders as there is no $$ in such plans but they want to tell the Commerce Commission "look we have unlimited, full speed ADSL"... The effective outage of their mail server for days was a shocker too. Oh well I'm moving houses shortly so then I'll get to ditch them... I would never bother to ring them..	gibler (49)
501576	2006-11-23 18:43:00	Yes...save your sanity and never attempt to ring them lol.	qazwsxokmijn (102)
501577	2006-11-23 19:40:00	Well I would have to say the exact opposite of everything you have said about iHug. I have been with iHug for about 7-8 years now. Started with dial-up then went to their sattelite service then onto various different broadband plans until now where I am on the broadband 4 plan (full speed up & down with 20GB). Whenever I have had problems with the internet I have either sent off an email or called and every time got quick and helpful responses. Just recently, when I changed to the new broadband 4 plan, they even called me back about 3 times just to let me know what was happening about the change over and where they were at. When using torrents, depending on what I am downloading, I get speeds of anywhere between 30-400kB/s so no traffic shaping going on here.	CYaBro (73)
501578	2006-11-23 19:48:00	They don't even answer e-mails any more. Since Vodaphone took over they've changed into a bunch of no-hopers. I e-mailed them a week ago to tell them I no longer had a connection to them. No reply. I e-mailed their accounts dept. and I advised them I was gone. And told them that nothing more was to be charged to my credit card. No reply. Luckily I didn't want their "free" modem. I check my credit card every day and I'm watching for any more charges from them. I'm now with Watchdog.net. Downloading at 2.5 . And Happy	JJJJJ (528)
501579	2006-11-23 22:48:00	Well I would have to say the exact opposite of everything you have said about iHug. I have been with iHug for about 7-8 years now. Started with dial-up then went to their sattelite service then onto various different broadband plans until now where I am on the broadband 4 plan (full speed up & down with 20GB). Whenever I have had problems with the internet I have either sent off an email or called and every time got quick and helpful responses. Just recently, when I changed to the new broadband 4 plan, they even called me back about 3 times just to let me know what was happening about the change over and where they were at. When using torrents, depending on what I am downloading, I get speeds of anywhere between 30-400kB/s so no traffic shaping going on here. Mate, it was my old plan, 2Mbit/20GB. Maybe they're not traffic shaping your plan YET. It just takes time when they may traffic shape everything. Then I guess you're a lucky one-in-a-hundred guy to get quick responses. But mark my words, I will never even THINK of ihug to be my ISP EVER AGAIN, even if they have free broadband. EDIT: JJJJJ, yes, it is wise for you too keep watch on your money. Them 'bastards take your money when you least expect it.	qazwsxokmijn (102)
501580	2006-11-23 23:35:00	I was downloading torrents and everything else using P2P it was a battle for me to see my P2P speeds crawl at 2kBps . It couldn't have been my LimeWire settings, or my Azureus settings (another P2P app I use) . Not believing what ihug was doing to me, I called the helpline . (don't look at me - I'm only 16 and my free-loading 22-year old brother downloads all his anime, hentai, and bukkake porn to his heart's desire . ) Oh dear, poor little software thief, it went too slow for you and your brother did it . Funny, I can't seem to work up any sympathy for your plight .	pctek (84)
501581	2006-11-24 00:03:00	Oh dear, poor little software thief, it went too slow for you and your brother did it. Funny, I can't seem to work up any sympathy for your plight. Funny, I can't seem to care for your opinion.	qazwsxokmijn (102)
501582	2006-11-24 00:54:00	My opinion is clear and direct: If you as a consumer sign up for an Internet Plan in good faith and with the expectation of reasonable* speed and competent customer service,then that's exactly what you are entitled too receive . ;) So what if your "smoking" your connection downloading Games,Warez,Pr0n,mp3's and anime 24/7 . . . . that is what humans do! . The onus is on your ISP to purchase more bandwidth from Telecom . Sure! this is expensive . . . . . . but then your ISP also has the right to "reconfigure" its pricing plan and to charge you more . It is not there right to restrict certain P2P apps and to throttle connections that are being "hammered" 24/7 . It is your connection and you are entitled to use it in any way you so choose . Of course there will be heavy users and light users all paying the same price for the same speed plan . That is life . If you as an ISP cannot provide enuff bandwidth without data shaping and other draconian measures . . . then don't run a commercial Internet service . Simple! . :groan: Reasonable* = What is fair based on what you have received from other ISP's in the past and/or what your copper line is capable of giving you from your nearest Exchange . It's a user pays world out there - "And that's the bottom line"!! . . . . . "cause Stone Cold said so!!	Utopia (7787)
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