AstraWeb Account Setup

[macmike]

Signed up with Astraweb yesterday via Paypal and I haven't received my Account-Access info - does it take this long ?

[UsenetGuy]

If I remember correctly, when I signed up for Astraweb I entered a username and password straight after payment. Did you?

If you did enter a username and password, go to http://www.news.astraweb.com/members_v2.cgi and login. You can find all the information there.

[macmike]

If I remember correctly, when I signed up for Astraweb I entered a username and password straight after payment. Did you?

If you did enter a username and password, go to http://www.news.astraweb.com/members_v2.cgi and login. You can find all the information there.


Thanks for the response. No, there wasn't an option to continue after payment. Anyway got an email today saying that the account will be opened shortly. Can't wait...........

[executioner]

Did you pay using an E-Cheque, if so you have to wait until it has cleared. Useualy 7 days.
I made that mistake coz i hadn't registered my credit card with PayPal.

If you have wait until you see the payment has gone through on PayPal and send them am e-mail and they will send you your loggin details.

[KFlint]

Got it in an hour with Paypal a few days ago

[macmike]

They emailed me yesterday morning saying my account will be setup shortly - this was in response to a ticket I logged regarding the account.
Payment was made through Paypal and the payment has been debited out of my account.

It's Tuesday and I still haven't received anything from them.
It's certainly hasn't been a good start with Astraweb........

[zot]

Astraweb's one glaring weak spot is its customer service. Most NSPs have 24/7 support. But Not Astraweb. They don't work at all on weekends (when most people sign up or use newsgroups, and actually need help) and no doubt Mondays are backlogged with all the support tickets that piled up. If you make the mistake of signing up on a Saturday, don't expect to get up and running any sooner than Monday or Tuesday.

This handicap of very limited support hours is by far the most common issue I've seen regarding Astraweb. I doubt that they will change anything unless more people start complaining to them, because apparently they don't even see it as a problem.

[unoriginal]

I agree with the others about the lack of a quick response from Astraweb on support tickets. I have only had to contact them a couple times but I dont think I got a response any sooner than 2 or 3 days after the initial contact. However once I got everything sorted the service itself has been fantastic.

[dutchmaster420]

they should have instant 1 on 1 chat service...when i had newsdemon they had this it only took a min until someone answered my chat request and helped me out with my problem usually by resetting my account...i would like to see astraweb do something like this

[macmike]

Thanks for the comments guys. I finally got a response today after re-issuing another ticket - complaining about their service and asking for a refund, and they responded with my account information and a refund of £2.00 for the delay (how kind.........).

Clearly, there is a problem with Astraweb's support but I will give it a go (simple because it's a decent affordable package) and see how things work out. In the time being I will have to keep my usenext account until I am convinced with Astraweb's overall service.

[UsenetGuy]

Astraweb is more of a budget NSP, so it's no surprise their support ain't that fast. Their actual news service is excellent though, worth the price atleast. It's much like when you're choosing an internet provider, if you pick the cheap one then you're going to have crap support. If you choose the expensive one, you'll get good support.

[zot]

In the time being I will have to keep my usenext account until I am convinced with Astraweb's overall service.
What's been your experience with Usenext?

I've seen more complaints about Usenext than all others put together. Be sure to carefully read all the fine print about canceling your contract before you try to cancel with Usenext. It seems they still make it extremely hard for customers to ever leave, and a lot of people have had to contact their credit card company to reverse charges because Usenext refused to let them cancel. Good luck.


Astraweb is more of a budget NSP, so it's no surprise their support ain't that fast. Their actual news service is excellent though, worth the price atleast. It's much like when you're choosing an internet provider, if you pick the cheap one then you're going to have crap support. If you choose the expensive one, you'll get good support.

When it comes to usenet providers, I've seen little correlation between price and quality of service. Some NSPs like Usenext are among the most expensive AND have the most complaints. Conversely, some budget NSPs like Ngroups.net/Usenet-news.net have extremely good and very fast 24/7 tech support AND among the lowest prices to be found.

So the old saying "you get what you pay for" has had little meaning in my experience.

[Barty001]

Thx for all the info and help

[dutchmaster420]

Just b/c astraweb is one of if not the chepeast unlimited provider out there they are by no means a "budget NSP"...there overall service without even weighing in the price is on par or better than giganews on some aspects...but by no means does price determine service