astraweb

[norman044]

I opened an account with them the other day for the 1mb/s unlimited thinking id be capped at 1000kb/s instead they are using the ISP`s marketing swag so its really 128kb/s. Im not a tech genious so felt unfarely caught out and asked for my money back, 4 days later no reply..... i asked for a refund within a few hours after opening the account, does anyone have any experince with contacting them????

thnx

[hdjunky]

I have experience contacting them on the weekends and it is ultimately one of the reasons that steered me away. Normal support on the weekends does not exist! I suspect the only time you may get comunication from them would be if the news servers burned to the ground...then they might step into the office! :P You may be out of luck though with not reading the definitions of the speeds.

[ElementalLi]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_rate_units

Frankly, they shouldn't have to refund it. The Plans page clearly states "1 Mbit/s". A bit is 1/8th of a byte. Network transfer speeds are always in bits. This isn't marketing deception.

You might try asking for a bump-up to their Unlimited DSL Special, and just pay the difference. It's $11/month.

[norman044]

i read on there website you can cancel within 24 hours if you are not happy, but i have not got a reply from them at all

[dutchmaster420]

yes im sure they will get back to you right away and issue a refund...but their page clearly states everything you need to know about the unlimited plan

http://www.news.astraweb.com/unlimitedplans.html

[SonsOfLiberty]

Aren't all the unlimited plans the same $11? Yes Astraweb will always reply back within' 24 hours.

[Rart]

I think the 11$ plan is their "special" promotion which seems to be pretty permanent. If you just access the site directly that plan is 15$, and the one that the OP got is the 10$ 1mbit plan.

[unoriginal]

When I signed up with Astraweb I picked the $15 plan before I knew about the $11 special. This is what they told me to do back then and they might do the same for you:


"If you would like to upgrade your account, please signup again for your new account on our website for the special:

http://www.news.astraweb.com/specials/kleverig-11.html

When prompted for your username/password, do not proceed. Instead, email us your new order number and username and we will convert your account. A pro-rated refund will be issued on your previous order."

[SonsOfLiberty]

Yeah I think that how-to is in their support section to.

[altoid1234]

Just tell them you need to upgrade to the $11/month plan:
http://www.news.astraweb.com/specials/kleverig-11.pp.html

It's unlimited and they give you a prorated refund.

[oddcat]

From: Astraweb Helpdesk <[email protected]>Add
To: [email protected]


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Pat,

Yes, we are still offering the $96/year plan.

If you would like to upgrade your account, please signup again for your new account on our website for the special:



When prompted for your username/password, do not proceed. Instead, email us your new order number and username and we will convert your account. A pro-rated refund will be issued on your previous order.

You will be billed $96 immediately and a refund will be issued for the unused time on your old account.


Your E-mail is much appreciated.

Best Regards,
DanielThey were still selling the $96 annual sub yesterday. Works out at $8 a month. :happy:

[dutchmaster420]

you signed up for the unlimited $10 a month plan which has the 1mb capped speed...1mb=128kb/s

so your getting what you payed for...follow the link someone posted for unlimted DSL plan which has no speed caps and is only $1 more per month

what is your advertised ISP speed?

[Rart]

From: Astraweb Helpdesk <[email protected]>Add
To: [email protected]


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Pat,

Yes, we are still offering the $96/year plan.

If you would like to upgrade your account, please signup again for your new account on our website for the special:



When prompted for your username/password, do not proceed. Instead, email us your new order number and username and we will convert your account. A pro-rated refund will be issued on your previous order.

You will be billed $96 immediately and a refund will be issued for the unused time on your old account.


Your E-mail is much appreciated.

Best Regards,
DanielThey were still selling the $96 annual sub yesterday. Works out at $8 a month. :happy:

:blink: Is this for real?

[oddcat]

...not a wind up.
I was following this thread - submitted a ticket on Thursday and got the above reply on Friday.

[SonsOfLiberty]

I always say Astraweb reply within 24 hours.

Also, rart, yes it's true.

[unoriginal]

The $96/year was a special that they ran back in June or July. Apparently they are still offering to who are lucky enough to get the special link in their email reply.

[dutchmaster420]

The $96/year was a special that they ran back in June or July. Apparently they are still offering to who are lucky enough to get the special link in their email reply.


all you have to do is send them an email saying another company is offering it...which they are...any they will match it

a yr is a long time in news server time and while astraweb is on top now in all around service/price, who knows in a yr...ill stick with the $11 a month for now

[ericab]

a yr is a long time in news server time and while astraweb is on top now in all around service/price, who knows in a yr...ill stick with the $11 a month for now

same here. im sticking with 11 a month.

[oddcat]

Just to let you know - I got my refund and my a/c upgraded this morning. So, no probs there. With my luck, Astraweb will now proceed to go bankrupt...:rolleyes:

[blong579]

I signed up with them a month ago. glad to here they have good cust service

[xhammer]

Just signed up for $96 deal using link below. No need for emails to customer service or anything.

http://www.news.astraweb.com/specials/voucher.cgi?t=zgufplhxfr2cwsw

Was previously on $11/month which I cancelled a three weeks ago.

[Mutantx]

Honestly I would look into getting the $25 for 180gb, *depending on how much you download*. In 3 months you'll spend $33 for unlimited, but you might not even download 180gb in 3 months.

Also, Tech support for astraweb is exceptional.. I submitted a ticket the other day and within an hour it had been taken care of.

-Mutantx

[Ithian]

That's good to hear they have decent customer service.

On a related note I signed up for the 180GB block 4 days ago and already cleared about half that space, so now I'm deciding between the $96 plan and the $11 plan. Tbh I'm leaning towards the $96 plan. It's hard to beat that bang for the buck, plus Astraweb's service has been top notch so far. :D

Now if only another ISP besides Compost, er, Comcast would come to my area. :P

[Rart]

I really don't actually download that much real stuff either... but I tend to download porn (or HD porn :whistling) and the porno ends up not being what I expected. So I try again. That actually takes a decent amount of dl traffic...

Decisions decisions...

[hdjunky]

if going for block accounts there is better deals out there, usenet-news and blocknews would be the way to go for block accounts.

[c0ld]

anybody else on astraweb getting prolonged timeouts? I know they had an atlantic fibre break, but I can't see that knocking out both server farms.

[Xstation]

@c0ld: Wondering the same thing. Can't connect for shit... thought it was just me.. is anyone able to connect?

[cooldude75ph]

I thought it was just me, I can't connect also...

[EyeBaller]

Yep, down for me too..

[Xstation]

loads of peeps on the nzbmatrix boards can't connect as well..

oh well... i'll try again later

[SonsOfLiberty]

It's fine now, it just farted....

Also, means, no TV post probably for awhile now either, auto posters use Astraweb.

Reason they went down



"There was a problem with the authentication system which caused all connections to be dropped. This lasted for about 1.5 to 2 hours. This has now been fixed.

Steps are being taken to ensure the error does not occur again in the future.

We apologize for any inconvenience."

[EyeBaller]

It's fine now, it just farted....

Also, means, no TV post probably for awhile now either, auto posters use Astraweb.


Yep, running here too, a little slow though. Most of the TV looks good, I'm sure the auto-posters have a backup server or two. Looks like everything is complete so peering must have been unaffected.

[SonsOfLiberty]

Yeah, speeds were normal at first and once everyone realized there were back up, I was getting like 21kb/s, horrible, so everyone was overloading them all at once. So now it's still slow, flucuating big time right now, I can see there servers are clogged right now, I'm sure it will still be a few more hours till everything is completely sorted.

[cola]

A few days ago there was a cable cut in the Atlantic. (http://helpdesk.astraweb.com/index.php?_m=news&_a=viewnews&newsid=37) Earlier they were having an authentication problem. (http://helpdesk.astraweb.com/index.php?_m=news&_a=viewnews&newsid=38)

[oddcat]

Seems fine for me. However, I'm on the European server.

[c0ld]

timeouts again:( Even putting the 1-2 hours from yesterday aside, I seem to be getting more and more timeouts on astraweb.

[SonsOfLiberty]

Been fine for me today, slow this mourning, but back to normal speed....

[EyeBaller]

Been fine for me today, slow this mourning, but back to normal speed....

+1

Full speed ahead here...

[ZenFountain]

Does anyone know how astraweb compares to usenetserver.com? I recently signed up for the $10 / month special on usenetserver, but a few people have told me now that the $11 / month astraweb special is a better deal. The features are pretty much the same, uncapped, 20 connections and SSL but astranet is supposedly more reliable.

[unoriginal]

Usenetserever is a reseller of Highwinds. Which means they don't control their servers in case something goes wrong like what happened with Astraweb earlier this week. Also I believe that they only offer one server, a US based one, for the $10/mo which is great if you are in North America. But if you are in the EU then Astraweb would be a better choice because they have a server farm in AMS which would be much closer and presumably give you better speed and service.