Don't go to Cytanet

[Veronica]

Well at last after 10 days in the dark we are back online. Cytanet threw their teddy out of the pram because we were changing to Primetel as we were fed up with the poor service and slow speeds. It take 3 weeks for Cytanet to hand over the line to Primetel and we unfortunately got a fault on our line last Wednesday and Cytanet decided that as we were leaving them they would not repair it despite the fact that we still had a contract with them and were still paying for the service. We tried everything we couldto persuade them to put us back on to no avail. Eventually our lawyer spoke to them andthey admitted that in fact there was no fault on our line, they had just cut us off out of spite. They refused point blank to reinstate us even though our lawyer pointed out that what they were doing was illegal.

Primetel also tried everthing they could and eventually managed to get the hand over brought forward to today.
Their engineer arrived as promised and he was wonderful. He was here for over 2 hours, checking our line, tweaking things here and there to improve our reception etc. We now have a much faster internet for a lot less than we were paying Cytanet.
Recently they have lost so many customer to Primetel that they are being petty and causing as many problems as they can so I recommend anyone who is coming here to go straight to Primetel.
Now we know that any problems will be fixed by Primetel whose engineers seem to know what they are doing unlike Cytanet muppets. They guarantee to have you back on in 48 hours if anything goes wrong, unlike Cytanet who say 'maybe we will get you back on in 3 days'

Hopefully we will now be able to stream films etc to our TV without them constantly breaking up.

[DH59]

That's good to know, Veronica. What muppets indeed! Can't believe that a company would behave like that. Incredible.

[Veronica]

Originally Posted by DH59

That's good to know, Veronica. What muppets indeed! Can't believe that a company would behave like that. Incredible.

Dennis and I have been going crackers this past 10 days. No telephone, no internet, no TV apart from Sky news and a couple of very corny film channels

[anski]

Originally Posted by Veronica

Dennis and I have been going crackers this past 10 days. No telephone, no internet, no TV apart from Sky news and a couple of very corny film channels

Yes Cyta are a bunch of rogues, When we left Cyprus in September 2010 we visited their office in Paphos to finalize out account, all was very friendly until we were told how much we owed which was far less than the deposit they were holding,

I said take it out of that & deposit the balance in our Bank of Cyprus account, the woman suddenly became very hostile insisting I pay the account & THEN later they would refund the deposit.

I simply stood my ground told her there was NO WAY I would pay the bill when they were holding a far greater amount than I owed & simply left the building.

Months later when the balance had not been deposited to my account I sent an email to the Director (name I forget) I received a letter of apology & the balance was transferred into my account within a couple of days.

So it pays to go to the top,


And Veronica I can sympathize in your position, your situation must have been so frustrating, That is Cyprus it can be charming & at other times you feel like throttling them! They often seem to have the upper hand when it comes to expats.

[Pam n Dave]

Welcome back Veronica, I'm glad that it's all sorted now for you.

[PeteandSylv]

We moved from CYTA to Primetel some months ago and the whole changeover could not have gone smoother taking less than the 15 days they suggested it would take.

Primetel responded to some initial problems with streaming and we enjoyed their service until a recent fault lost our internet for 4 days. Primetel insisted on sending an engineer to change our router/modem which made no difference. They then said they had to visit a cabinet in the exchange as many other customers had the same problem, but could not visit until after the weekend. Sure enough on the Monday the service returned after they cured whatever they had cocked up to lose it in the first place. Of course they offered a refund and we got nearly 5€!

So my impression of Primetel has been dented and I sincerely hope they are not getting too many customers to cope with problems.

I am pleased to see that they are doubling speeds on 12 August. No doubt CYTA will follow.

Pete

[Veronica]

Originally Posted by PeteandSylv

We moved from CYTA to Primetel some months ago and the whole changeover could not have gone smoother taking less than the 15 days they suggested it would take.

Primetel responded to some initial problems with streaming and we enjoyed their service until a recent fault lost our internet for 4 days. Primetel insisted on sending an engineer to change our router/modem which made no difference. They then said they had to visit a cabinet in the exchange as many other customers had the same problem, but could not visit until after the weekend. Sure enough on the Monday the service returned after they cured whatever they had cocked up to lose it in the first place. Of course they offered a refund and we got nearly 5€!

So my impression of Primetel has been dented and I sincerely hope they are not getting too many customers to cope with problems.

I am pleased to see that they are doubling speeds on 12 August. No doubt CYTA will follow.

Pete

Our handover would have gone smoothly if we had not got a fault on the line.
Because Primetel had already put in the request for transfer Cyta decided they would punish us for having the cheek to leave them for another provider.
They as much as said so to us on the phone and when our lawyer challenged them they admitted that they cut off rather than repair the fault as we were changing.
We have already got much faster speeds for a lot less money than we were paying Cyta and the engineer told us there are some problems with our line which they will sort out in the next few days and then our speed will be even better.
One thing that must be born in mind that is Primetel have to use Cytanet lines as do all the other providers in Cyprus. Why can Primetel and other providers give so much more bandwidth when they are using the same lines as Cytanet?
Cytanet say 3 working to be back on, Primetel say 2. Weekends don't count in that so if you get a problem on Thursday then might not get back online till Monday with Primetel but it could be Tuesday with Cytanet.
Also I am impressed that Primetel gave you a refund. Cytanet are insisting that we pay them up to today even though they left us without any service at all since the 11th.

[PeteandSylv]

Originally Posted by Veronica

Why can Primetel and other providers give so much more bandwidth when they are using the same lines as Cytanet?.

Clearly you have had a bad experience with CYTA and although I have moved from them I had no complaints regarding their service. I moved because Primetel offered a faster service at lower cost.

This relates to your question above and you need to cast your mind back to the UK when the same situation existed when BT was the sole supplier of telephone lines which the other ISPs had to use. BT had a monopoly and therefore the largest customer base with established prices. When the monopoly was broken the new ISPs had to offer more for less cost otherwise no-one would have moved to them. It is the same here now with CYTA and Primetel and whatever other players may appear.

The competition can only be good for consumers pricewise but I do hope that your story is unique and that CYTA does not abuse it's customers the same way as a matter of policy. Sadly I have little faith in any regulation of these organisations over here.

Pete

[DH59]

Has anyone heard of or used Cosmonet? We had a flyer on our car while we were there and wondered if they were a viable alternative.

It says on the flyer that you don't need a phone line, and it seems that you have a 'nano station' located on your roof. The most expensive option is a 4096/1024 kbps connection which is €44 per month.

[PeteandSylv]

Originally Posted by DH59

Has anyone heard of or used Cosmonet? We had a flyer on our car while we were there and wondered if they were a viable alternative.

It says on the flyer that you don't need a phone line, and it seems that you have a 'nano station' located on your roof. The most expensive option is a 4096/1024 kbps connection which is €44 per month.

There are several services that beam by line of sight to a receiver at your house. Holitec is the most well known and seems to have satisfied customers. I do not know anyone using Cosmonet but a quick look at their website has a disclaimer to the speed of service which would worry me.

These services are most useful for those who do not have or cannot have a fixed line. Don't forget to factor in their installation charge when thinking about them.

Primetel are shortly doubling their service speeds at no charge. No doubt CYTA will follow. I wonder if this will force the line of sight suppliers to follow suit?

As a comparison I am currently paying Primetel €40 per month for 4Mb service which includes the line and telephone service.


Pete