Jan 20, 2006

Choosing a DSL provider in Jordan

I finally have my DSL in Jordan!! Wooohooo!!

However, to get there, it took me several weeks and many calls. The full story is below. I will start with the summary first:
  1. Subscribing to ADSL Internet in Jordan happens in two steps. First step is to connect to the JTC (Jordan Telecom) for 10JD/month and connection fee of 25JD (usually 60JD)
  2. Step two is to choose an Internet provider to pump internet in the DSL lines. And this is where your options start. (JTC sells internet to the providers in bulk, and they resell it to customers and provide customer support & other services).
  3. Price wise they are all very similar:
    1. ~15JD/month for 128Kbps
    2. ~25JD/month for 512Kbps (5 GB/month bandwidth limit)
    3. ~40JD/month for 1024Kbps (10 GB/month bandwidth limit)
  4. But service wise they are not. Here’s a summary of what I found:
    1. Wanado (5624777): A partner of JTC. They have the largest number of customers, which is their downside. They don’t seem to be scaling up well in terms of customer service & installation times (see my story below).
    2. Cyberia (5515333 cyberia.jo or 079-640-0724): (my choice) I found their sales and tech support extremely helpful and willing to take the extra mile to excel. (See story below) This is a “Hariri-Group” internet company, extending from Saudi and Lebanon.
    3. Batelco (5510101): their minimum subscription is 3 months as opposed to 2 months with other providers. However, at 1-year subscription one gets extra 3 months free as opposed to 2 with other providers.
    4. TEData (5561686 tedata.net.jo): New company on the block. Not well known. However, a friend of mine is very happy with them. They do not impose a monthly bandwidth limit, which is perfect for Torrent-fans out there.
    5. AccessMe (5699990) & Link (5546666): (same provider) cheaper by about 30%/month & 16 GB limit per month. Don’t know anything else about them.
    6. Next (?): JTC can’t find their telephone number. No info.

My Story with Jordanian DSL – American Way of Business

When I first got to Jordan, I called Cyberia and Wanado to get internet connection. Cyberia’s salesperson (Omar Qteishat) offered to come to my apartment to sign me up. However, I decided to go with Wanado because all of my friends where using them. I went down to their building in Jabal Amman and signed up. They said that JTC will come in to install the lines first, and then they will turn on the internet within 48 hours of that.

In 4 days JTC came knocking on our door. Within about 2 hours our phone lines where DSL-friendly and ready to go. The JTC guys said that another person form JTC will come to install the DSL modem. And the next day, surely enough, that person did show up and installed the modem. He said that now Wanado will call me to give me the username and password, and most likely they will send somebody over to set up my connection.

The Whirlpool Begins
  1. Two days passed by and Wanado did not call.
  2. So I called the Wanado customer service. They said that they cannot find my record, and that most likely JTC did not pass it back yet.
  3. I called again, they told me to call mohandes Tareq or mohandeseh Israa to check on the application.
  4. Tareq & Israa’s phones were always busy or did not answer. Their voice mail was full and I couldn’t leave any messages.
  5. I kept calling, and finally was able to reach mohandes Tareq, who checked quickly and said that my file is not there yet. He said let’s check with your salesperson. Who was your salesperson? Since I don’t keep track I couldn’t remember, but eventually found out that it was Ms. X.
  6. Ms. X couldn’t remember me at first, and she didn’t find my application in her file. She asked blaming “why didn’t you call after JTC came in!?” (Well, nobody said anything about calling the salesperson again! And customer service kept giving me bogus answers!)
  7. She remembered that there was a problem with my application. After looking through some papers she found my application and said “ah, yes, your credit card did not go through”! (why she didn’t call me to fix that!? I don’t know)
  8. I told her to read the credit card number, and surely one of the digits was off. She made a point of blaming me for the error (instead of asking for the right number and just trying the credit card again). I kept cool and let it go, again. She said that within 48 hours I’ll have my internet connection.
  9. I went to Syria for a week and told my parents to expect a call from Wanado.
  10. However, I came back to find that Wanado did not call yet. I called again, and got transferred from one customer service to another until I reached Ms. X.
  11. She asked me – trying to blame me again for the delay “did you call us after JTC installed the Modem? Has it been 48 hours yet?” I said “yes, a week ago”. She said “who did you talk to?” I said “you!!”. She said ah, ok, we’ll try to have somebody over soon. Eid was only2 days away. I really did not want to wait another week for my connection.
  12. The day before the Eid I called the customer service again, and they said “A technician is scheduled to come over AFTER THE EID to give you the username and password”.

Game Over Wanado, Welcome Cyberia
  1. At that point I gave up on Wanado. I called Omar Qutaishat from Cyberia, and immediately he offered to come by.
  2. He came at 11:15 sharp (as he promised) and we signed the papers. He was direct with me and promised to do his best to get me internet connection ASAP but it might not be today. I was happy with his frankness. He also made it clear that if I disconnect in 2 months then Cyberia will disconnect but JTC will keep charging us 10JD a month for a year. Something that Wanado never mentioned.
  3. Omar also said that the company policy states that they should send an engineer over, but he will see what can be done (calling in with the username & password is much faster).
  4. At 3pm Mohandeseh Wafaa of Cyberia called to give me username and password and DNS server numbers.
  5. I called again their Tech Support for help with setting up my Wireless Router (although I did not buy it from them). They were very professional and helpful.
  6. And at 3:15pm, after 4 hours of calling Omar & Cyberia, I had my internet connection!!!

I called Wanado and cancelled my subscription. They tried to get me the username & password at that moment, but it was too late. They promised that they will send me a check in the mail in 1 week. Second day of Eid I got a call from an engineer at Wanado who wanted to come and setup my connection. I told him I have cancelled already. I’m waiting for the check now.

Apparently, with the aggressive marketing of DSL in Jordan, Wanado, being JTC’s partners, got many new subscribers all at once. Their staff couldn’t scale up services quickly enough and resulted in many unhappy customers (like myself).

Kudo’s to Omar Qutaishat at Cyberia for being truly helpful and going the extra mile to make his customers happy. I truly felt that he was looking after my own interest.

I also want to say that the American way of business “not happy? go to the next-door competitor” is making its way to Amman nicely!

19 comments:

  1. this's weird you know, cause on Thursday i went to wanadoo and opened an account at 3 PM and I told him i need my username and password today cause its thursday and i dont want to stay without internet until sunday, the salesman gave me his own private mobile number and asked me to call him at 5, i called at 5:15 and he gave me my adsl password and at 8 i could connect using my new adsl account..
    they could give you the instruction to set up the adsl connection on phone, its easy work you know..

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  2. Wanadoo is the largest and the most credable ISP in Jordan, i am very happy withe thier service.

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  3. I am surprised i had an excellent experience with Wanadoo, the sales were so professional and accurate, also i had a change to meet their sales manager Mr. Munjed Akroush, he was so much help to expedite the process in installing my modem from Jordan telecom. All of my partners at the embassy were so happy with the service also,
    Anyway you can not satisfy 100% of your customers, there must be a percentage where you can not just make them happy.


    David Hanks.

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  4. I'm sure Wanadoo must be good most of the time - this explains the big number of subscribers, but unfortunately, I was one of the few unlucky people whom had bad experience - as you can see.

    I've heard recently that the egyptian company TEData has become the largest ISP provider in Jordan, with the most subscribers. Is this right?

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  5. Wanadoo sucks I am a wanadoo user and I am going to switch to Tedata or cyberia.
    Wanadoo is the worst company ever.
    JTC sucks big time too.

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  6. screw the internet in Jordan, ignorants.
    see how the other countries are more advanced & convenient

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  7. I just switched from Cyberia to Wanadoo. I was paying for 512k but getting 150k downloads from Cyberia. For exactly the same subscription rate I get 441k downloads from Wanadoo.

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  8. Hmm...perhaps I'm just suspicious, but some of the relplies to your original blog sounds like it might have been written by Jordan Telecom/ Wanadoo people? David Hanks for example is a name that sounds like it might be a native English speaker, however the reply is at the very least 'broken English'. Anyway, back to your original message - I am very impressed by the way you've written it. It certainly would have helped me if I'd seen it before signing on with Wanadoo and although I''ve been slightly disappointed with the quick timescales promised, other areas have been good so far. Just need to see whether I also have to wait 3 or 4 weeks for the full Wanadoo install. If I do run into trouble (like you even before getting the service installed), I'm going to look into calling your contact at Cyberia. Cheers

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  9. Latest Anon: thanks for the comment. I never noticed the 'David Hanks' comment - good catch.

    I do not expect that all Wanadoo customers have had bad experience with them. Otherwise, they wouldn't have many customers. You'll always have very happy or very angry customers with any company. The "trend" in customer satisfaction is what counts - the probability that this might happen to you - a new customer.

    I wrote this review in January of 2006 - way back. Whatever scaling-up problems Wanadoo would have had, chances are they are over. Now... if they have good management, I'm sure they can resolve any new problems that arise. If they don't... I'd bet that the customers would see these new problems directly.

    I've been hearing much about TEData - supposedly being the best deal. I would check with them before making a choice.

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  10. http://wanadooorangesucks.blogspot.com/

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  11. Thanks for the helpfull info .i was surfing the internet to get phone number for DSL provider in jordan .

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  12. Since coupla months or so, Orange intenret became even worst that it used to be, any person reading this, avoid subscribing with them at all costs, you'll just buy your self headaches.

    They never solve a problem, they keeping blaming you for anything, and pretend like that they're the experts and you're a newbie, I seriously hate this, since I know much more than they do, but I find it silly to brag like that, but I had to in several occasions.

    They're acting as they're invincible, and they don't care anymore, oh well they have the most subscribers, seriously I don't know how anybody can bear their low quality connection or the fools at the customer care.

    Go with any ISP other than Wanadoo/Orange, take my word for it, it sucks big time.

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  13. who ever says that orange sucks then my dear you do not know whar you are talking about ..... AH

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  14. Orange Does Suck big time buddy

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  15. you Mentioned that and I quate you "TEData (5561686 tedata.net.jo): New company on the block. Not well known. However, a friend of mine is very happy with them. They do not impose a monthly bandwidth limit, which is perfect for Torrent-fans out there."s.
    get your facts TEData has a limit on there bandwidth, I am a customer of them and I know. tell it as it is. I am not happy with them they eat up your download fast and you dont know where it goes so you buy more download.

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  16. am using cyberia service for almost a year now , they are not that good
    specially their DNS server , it take a while for it to translate the website , my brother has a MS in computer science and he switch us to a defferent one , but we still face problems , and they are very fast blaming us or jordan telecom

    i will not use their service again

    i used tedata before them , when they did not have a download limit -now they have a download quota -
    and they were perfect , i did not renew with them because at the time they had a 2 gb quota , noe i here they have 8 gb , most likely i will go back to their service

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  17. Hi, i had subscribed with wanadoo for two years. they never appreciate it, all they care about is to 'entrap' new subscribers, and then they dump you with their poor customer care. i left them and started using farah prepayed cards for a while, which sucks. then i subscibed with cyberia. they were, and still are, very happy to give any possible helping hand. they keep me updated with my subscribtion status by SMS. i am very happy with them and don't plan to look for another provider. however their speed sometimes goes down, but i don't care as long as they treat their customers well. Wanadoo needs ages to reach the level of cyberia's after-sale service.

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  18. I have come to the decision that TEData is misleading, disloyal, dishonest and with no credibility towards its customers and assumes that the majority of its customer base is naive or even stupid.

    I subscribed to their 512kb/9GB plan (still on 128kb because orange did not upgrade speed yet), but here is the catch:

    I am a computer engineer myself and know many technical stuff, so after my subscription I installed accurate download monitoring programs which count how many MBs I have downloaded. Here is the trick of TEData, if you download 25 or 30 MB, they subtract 100-130 of your balance, If my connection is idle – that is I am not using the net – they subtract 55-80 MB/hour they trick you and eat up your quota very quickly.

    I have contacted customer support and reported the issue, they said their was a small mistake in my account, they restored 1GB to my remaining download and said everything was OK, but it was not, in less than few hours, they subtracted 600+ MB of my balance, How on earth could a 128kb connection consume that much in less than 4 hours

    I filed a complaint to the manager still waiting for a response!

    People, BE CAUTIOUS and monitor your downloads, use tbbmeter program to monitor how much you REALLY download

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  19. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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