Thirdrail? Methinks they a rail short
Well my first blog from Accra, and posted from my little desk in the home office. That means… We finally have internet access from Accra. And boy was it an issue.
Thirdrail, our service provider of (dubious) choice was the ISP blessed with setting up the access and will be providing our VPN bandwidth between the offices in Ghana. Three weeks ago, I gave them the go ahead to install the wireless at the home office in Accra. It took the buggers two weeks to note that there was an upfront payment which was duly made and the installation was to be complete last Friday.
I toddled through to Accra on Saturday safe with the knowledge that due to them not responding to my emails during the week, there was no way in hell we would have connectivity. I was not disappointed.
Now what makes me boil a tad is when I can never get hold of anyone. I mean this is Ghana! If I work seven days a week, my suppliers better work the same hours. What then transpired was a snotty SMS to both sales people that they best refund me the money and I can go to another ISP. (Goodness how I love competition). I was rewarded with a phone call on Sunday (see they can increase their working hours); advising me that by 9am Monday morning they will be doing the installation.
True to form, at 9am I got a phone call that the installation team has been delayed and will be there later. True to form three lads arrived later and commenced installation of the radio mast on the water tank. In true Ghana form when I wandered around the back of the house, two of the lads were lying on the lawn and nothing was happening. The reason? The clamps they had brought along were too small.
Finally we had a signal of sorts and the lads packed up. When I casually mentioned that although there were these nice panels installed and a wire and box on the desk, I did not have connectivity, they happily mentioned that they were the RF team and they did the panel installation. There was a Digital Team that installed the router and connects us up.
Loving the concept of job creation, I could then phone the Thirdrail offices once again and happily ask when the DIGITAL TEAM would be passing by to complete the installation.
“They are leaving now” was the response. This was 3:30pm. Their offices are 10 mins away – even in Accra traffic and I expected them before 4. Come 4.30 they not around and methinks it was time for a small amount of toy throwing.
That was achieved by a drive to their offices, and a quiet word in their ear that they can come and take their equipment down as I will find someone else who does not have the vast store of bullshit that they have at their disposal.
Needless to say – by 6:30 pm I had a connection, and although the connection is foul (it appears there is a cell phone tower in line of sight that requires my antennae to be lifted), I was at least able to access email and jde.
Would I recommend Thirdrail as an ISP. The jury remains out on that!
Thirdrail, our service provider of (dubious) choice was the ISP blessed with setting up the access and will be providing our VPN bandwidth between the offices in Ghana. Three weeks ago, I gave them the go ahead to install the wireless at the home office in Accra. It took the buggers two weeks to note that there was an upfront payment which was duly made and the installation was to be complete last Friday.
I toddled through to Accra on Saturday safe with the knowledge that due to them not responding to my emails during the week, there was no way in hell we would have connectivity. I was not disappointed.
Now what makes me boil a tad is when I can never get hold of anyone. I mean this is Ghana! If I work seven days a week, my suppliers better work the same hours. What then transpired was a snotty SMS to both sales people that they best refund me the money and I can go to another ISP. (Goodness how I love competition). I was rewarded with a phone call on Sunday (see they can increase their working hours); advising me that by 9am Monday morning they will be doing the installation.
True to form, at 9am I got a phone call that the installation team has been delayed and will be there later. True to form three lads arrived later and commenced installation of the radio mast on the water tank. In true Ghana form when I wandered around the back of the house, two of the lads were lying on the lawn and nothing was happening. The reason? The clamps they had brought along were too small.
Finally we had a signal of sorts and the lads packed up. When I casually mentioned that although there were these nice panels installed and a wire and box on the desk, I did not have connectivity, they happily mentioned that they were the RF team and they did the panel installation. There was a Digital Team that installed the router and connects us up.
Loving the concept of job creation, I could then phone the Thirdrail offices once again and happily ask when the DIGITAL TEAM would be passing by to complete the installation.
“They are leaving now” was the response. This was 3:30pm. Their offices are 10 mins away – even in Accra traffic and I expected them before 4. Come 4.30 they not around and methinks it was time for a small amount of toy throwing.
That was achieved by a drive to their offices, and a quiet word in their ear that they can come and take their equipment down as I will find someone else who does not have the vast store of bullshit that they have at their disposal.
Needless to say – by 6:30 pm I had a connection, and although the connection is foul (it appears there is a cell phone tower in line of sight that requires my antennae to be lifted), I was at least able to access email and jde.
Would I recommend Thirdrail as an ISP. The jury remains out on that!
1 Comments:
:lol: A "quiet" word in their ear? yeah right
This sounds almost like the saga u had with sentech .... ;)
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