Launching our live streaming webcasting service at Rick's Cafe was an exciting project. Issam found some great software in Lahaina, Maui of all places, and with that we had a wide range of servers, cameras and other electronic equipment in Casablanca - from well-stocked equipment vendors to the sprawling maze of Derb Ghallef where Chinese wireless cameras were located. Maroc Telecom introduced broadband more than 3 years ago, and our service had been very reliable. Our new webcasting required upgrading, and fortunately Maroc Telecom began marketing 20 mg service, which we determined we needed to allow the maximum number of viewers at one time. We were confident that when our webcasting system was up an running Maroc Telecom would be a great source of publicity for us, as it would show how advanced Morocco was technologically, and our site would have a positive image of Casablanca as well. With software purchased, server, computers and cameras bought and installed, in mid-April we upgraded our broadband to 20 mg...and the nightmare began. With the installation of the "router" for 20 mg suddenly we were losing internet capability and found that the speed was closer to our old 512k. Calls to "customer service" brought automatic replies to get a technician on it within 72 hours. Someone at the restaurant had a family member working at Maroc Telecom, he called and suddenly we had a real person - Hamid - who has become, for better or worse, just like one of the family. He determined fairly quickly that our existing line's cable did not have the capacity for 20 mg(!) and they would have to move the connection and lay new cable...this would take a matter of days, he said. Three weeks went by - with internet patched in, but no webcasting possibility - and nothing had been done. I sent 2 faxes to the President of Maroc Telecom, and as soon as I mentioned this to the supervisor of the construction crew they went to work! When the cable was completed it then took a few days to get it coordinated with the central unit, and subsequent tests showed we had at best 5 mg. In the meantime a bill came for 1.5 months of 20 mg - from the day we'd subscribed! I screamed on the phone and they said to send a letter of complaint with the payment and it would be adjusted on a later bill. Instead we received a form letter advising they could find no problem with our service, and if we had not paid our bill we'd better do so by the due date! Of course we've since received (and paid with another letter) a subsequent bill for the full service. The worst is yet to come - Issam left in early June on a 1 week vacation. Two days after he left there's no internet - a general problem. Then when service is "restored" we find they have changed the internet protocols for Casablanca without telling anyone they're doing so. Our router cuts out frequently and I have to re-boot it. It is slow beyond belief sometimes, other times it's "normal" but because I'm doing the speed tests I see we are no better than 2 mg. Then service goes out again - general - this time for two days, and unfortunately when it comes back up we have NO service - and it's Saturday morning. The call center cheerfully tells me they'll get a technician on it 72 hours from Monday! By this time through restaurant clients I had a number in Rabat, called him last Monday and he said he'd get someone on it. At the same time called Hamid our "family" technician and he came. In fact he visited us three times that Monday...and still couldn't find the problem. He said he thought it was our router and changed it. As soon as he left, our service stopped! I called him back. He fixed it again, said he was sure it was ok (but at the same time asked our operations manager if he had a ladder!), I tried and got internet. It was 7:30pm and I went upstairs to prepare for evening service. When I came down at 9 we had no internet. The next morning, Hamid again...and he says now he thinks it's the cable, and he's going to take the cable and connect it from outside directly into the server (which called for the ladder, drilling, running cable over our entrance and down the other side into the server - i.e. the night before he'd known the problem was not the router!). Ok, we had internet. Unfortunately when Issam checked to see if our webcasting could be accessed he found it couldn't! More calls, and this worse - Hamid says he's only on the technical side. We'd be given names of people at the Call Center to ask for - they were NEVER there. Finally on Thursday night the internet stopped working too! In the only time I've ever seen Issam mad, he called our guy in Rabat again, spoke to him in Arabic and even though it was Saturday he finally got a technician to come - at 7:30pm! He worked with Issam and finally got the router programmed correctly. Issam then was able to make the necessary settings so our webcasting works. My screaming stopped when the streaming started! The technician told Issam these problems were due to Maroc Telecom changing the protocols without notifying or ensuring support for their 20mg high speed users - obviously their biggest customers!!!! As I pointed out to the President of Maroc Telecom in a fax earlier this week it seems they need to get their infrastructure and customer service in place before they let the marketing department loose on a new product.
I just had to share this with you - I feel better now. Happy viewing!!! |
