VIVA, Y U NO HONEST!?

I have a VIVA 3G data USB thingy that connects me to the intertubes. I’ve been downloading things happily and considered myself as a happily satisfied VIVA customer. Until yesterday…

Yesterday, a friend of mine called telling me that he’s facing some sort of bandwidth cap and his speed drops from crazy to 32KBps (256Kbps) if he exceeded 2GB worth of downloads a day. I yelled blasphemy in my head and told him I’ll try myself.

I did, and he’s right (For a change):

So I did what everyone else would do, call their helpdesk\customer care and check it out.

An agent picked up my call (And I think he’s unlucky… I’m not the usual and common customer)… So the interesting part goes like this (Short version):

Me: Do you have any sort of bandwidth limit?

Him: No, we’re unlimited?

Me: Are you sure? Then explain to me how, after passing my 2GB download today, the speed dropped from 500KBps ~ 700KBps to 30KBps~40KBps. And that’s not just me, a friend of mine went through this with 3 different SIM cards!

Him: This is weird, we don’t have a limit. But you know, it’s the end of the month and the majority are accessing websites to pay bills and stuff. So it’s probably some temporary stress.

*Oh no he didn’t*

Me: I’m not your average customer. accessing websites to pay bills can’t cause this stress; the data transferred is TEXT which doesn’t cause such stress… If more, images!

Him: I don’t know really, but I’m not informed of any sort of limit. Try restarting the laptop, should work.

*Oh no he didn’t. I use that back in FASTtelco days xD*

Me: Classic. Fine, I’ll restart my laptop, replug the USB thingy and replace it with a better one I have laying around. But what if that didn’t work?

Him: We’ll walk through few steps and submit a ticket if it didn’t work.

I understand how they have to go through a procedure and I’m really fine with that… So I restarted my laptop, replugged my USB thing, replaced it with another. Same shit, different situations.

Called back, someone answered, asked for the guy who handled my last call (Gave’em the agent’s name). Offered if he can help, I told him I’m already dealing with that guy so it’s pointless to start things all over again. He agreed and he put me on hold.

Another guy answered and he’s not the guy I asked for. I told him to transfer me to the guy, he asked if he can help, I explained how pointless his question is, he agreed and put me on hold.

Another guy picked up and Phew, it’s the guy… And apparently he has 15 minutes memory span because he didn’t remember me (Even though I was sort of a pain in the patooti)…

As I go on, I explained to him that the classic restarts and replaces didn’t work. The conversation went like this:

Me: So yea, I restarted my laptop, replugged my stick and replaced it with a better one, didn’t work.

Him: OK, can you try VIVA’s speed test page? If you get the right speed there, it means that VIVA has no issues and its a problem with who you’re downloading from.

*Hey! I give that bullshit to customers back in FASTtelco days xD … Let’s see if he gets outta this question that locked me few times*

Me: I subscribed to VIVA data plan to have good download speed constantly (According to network coverage of course), not to have good speed when I check your speed test page only.

*HAH! IN YO FACE!!*

Him: Huh? Y’see, When you

Me: Hold on, I’m beginning the test… It’s giving me 0.62Mbsp…

Him: This is wrong, I’ll submit a request right away

Exchanging details such as name and stuff… Then he requested my address and the convo went like this:

Him: So can you give me the address you’re having issues with?

Me: Address, why does that matter? I use it for urgent and mobile connectivity; I have good DSL connection at home and crazy speed at work

Him: Wait, you don’t use your VIVA thing at home neither work?

Me: No.

Him: Then why did you subscribe for VIVA if you don’t use it?

*يخرب بيت الظالم انت شكو؟*

Me: Ummm, as I said earlier, I use it for urgent and mobile access.

Him: Oh ok, so which address should I give?

Me: *sigh* Fine, my home address

Him: Your home?

Me: Yes, for the support’s sake, yes.

Then he explained to me that an IT guy would call and check things out within 48 hours and I should check back if I didn’t receive any call after that 48 hours. Maybe he’ll have to try it out where I’m at and all.

By common sense, if the speed dropped in such way, it’s not a coverage or a station issue; it’s an obvious bandwidth cap issue. Just say that and I would’ve saved both of us wasting 45 minutes of our lives over this useless convo (And canceled my subscription to find an alternative solution)…

I still didn’t hang my gloves on VIVA, I have hope… Let the waiting game begins…

Is there anyone else experiencing this issue with VIVA?

22 thoughts on “VIVA, Y U NO HONEST!?

      1. it’s not only viva, zain has data caps too. i think it’s a standard for wireless carriers. they can’t have everyone download there anime on a cellular network, now can they 🙂

        Gulfnet, on the other hand…

        1. VIVA had the limited package and an unlimited package. I choose the unlimited and was so damn unlimited.

          It just happened so suddenly.

          I know ZAIN has cap which is why I haven’t subscribed >_>

  1. I noticed the same last night. Was trying to download supernatural from torrent. The speed would go 0 and then will go to 270 kbps plus. I have KEMS and i think they dont have a cap. And a friend of mine, having Gulfnet had the same issue. But as we know Gulfnet is screwing with that God forsaken Fair Usage Policy, we can ignore them. But KEMS definitely had a problem last night.

    1. Now that you mention it, I never had any problems with caps when I was with KEMS (or at least, I never noticed it).

      They have a lot of problems, but they still respect there paying (and non-paying) customers.

  2. There is an cable damage, but that doesn’t explain the sudden drop in that graph y’know (And my friend’s issue with 2GB of fine internet a day)

  3. Yup, that issue is there. Dont know y Viva is lying about it. When gulfnet capped the bandwidth, whoever called them, they told about it, they are thieves, but they were honest about it, dont know y Viva is trying to hide it …….

  4. Any update? what did the tech guy say?

    I never really realized but I too am the victim of capping downloads, I start downloading at 7 in the morn and at noon ( presumably at where my DL hits 2GB) my internet has a stroke and then curls up and dies.

  5. You can add me as another victim as well. I subscribed to VIVA 21.6 Mbps service with the promise that it’s *UNLIMITED* and all. That was on 1st of April (obviously April’s fool joke!!). I went home and started my utorrent and pooof .. everything was seriously fast I mean super fast something like 12-14Mbps. So I was like great .. then I started downloading a few movies and tv shows. Came back the next day and everything was crawling! did the viva speedtest and could only get like 0.2-0.4 Mbps. The thing kept like this for the next 24 hours. Then suddenly started going back to fast speed. So started downloading again … and guess what.. came back after a while and same thing. The rest of my story with the Call Center is exactly the same as you. No one calls back and I keep asking for an explanation without any answers!
    So what do u think guys, Should I just go ahead and cancel my subscription (I believe I have to pay 100KD to cancel since I took the 2 years contract). Any advice??

  6. I’d recommend you abuse it for these two years since you’re paying for them anyway… Which what I’m going to do until this month is done.

  7. I used to download at like 1.0 MBPS download speed with my 21.6 mbps connection until the 16th of march, When I called helpdesk they told me it was due to a cable cut and they asked me to wait and only after 25 days they came to knot itis not due to cable it is due to FUP,
    Then after calling viva like 100 times od so they told me to go to their head office and make a complain with the legal department if i want unlimited net, So i will go to the head office tomorrow and check what happen then i’ll let you know.

      1. They still do not agree on capping the download speed, when we ask them they say it is unlimited and they have only applied a fair usage policy

        1. it is unlimited and they have only applied a fair usage policy

          I’m sorry, i know it’s is not a laughing matter, but i find that reasoning hilarious!

          I hope someone teaches them (and every other company that likes to leave out important details like caps) a lesson about honesty.

  8. Viva Is Shit Their Service Is A big F**king Lie ! their helpdesk\customer care is not helping at all , Their Main Job is only lying and Keep Lying And Saying Shit To Their Customers ! They Said “Enjoy Viva 21 Mbps Speed With Unlimited Downloads ” , I,m Only F**king Suffering 224 kbps With F**king 30 kbps Limited Download , They Are Cheating , Lying , Not Honest
    At All , What kind Of People Are Their !!!!

    1. viva and friends (isps in general) do this because they knows that they can get away with it. we need to make a stand. I’ve had enough of these lies.

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