Wateen WiMAX – Unforgettable Experience

Wateen Telecom launched its WiMAX services almost 10 days ago for public and announced different packages for home and business users. I was waiting for it from a long time and was really exited when I saw its opening.

I visited their franchise on Mall Road opposite to Lahore High Court. I observed that the staff has very limited knowledge about their own services and they were asking each other for details. I was told that WiMAX service covers whole Lahore and there will not be any signals problem.

I selected a suitable plan for my home and presented my Visa debit card for payment, but I was told that “machine is not working” ( Which is still not working after 5 days, I came to know today on my second visit ). I arranged Cash and finally purchased the connection.

Now I needed username and password for my connection for which I had to call Wateen’s call center several times. Average time of waiting for call to be answered by Wateen call center is almost 8 minutes. During this I came to know that the device provided with connection ( Motorola CPEi600 ) is not functioning due to signals problem in my area. I should get jupiter (antenna) from franchise to solve the signal’s issue, support staff told. Username and Password was finally received on 5th day after buying the connection. 🙂

Today on Monday Dec 24th, I visited the franchise again for antena and they have asked me to “wait till dec 26th .. then call us again and then we will see this matter.”

Very very poor and slow support which has made my first experience with wateen unforgettable. So far I am struggling to get my connection working.

I’ll keep this post updated while the matter progresses.

— Updates December 26, 07 —

I called Mr Rauf Malik, Manager Wateen Telecom, Mall Road Lahore Franchise today as he promissed to resolve the issue today on my last visit. He has told me that “Please wait till 30th December, when Wateen is going to extend its coverage and hopefully the problem will get resolved” … Frustration continues.

— Updates December 31, 07 —

Late Benazir Bhutto, like many other departments of pakistan, caused delay for Wateen aswell, latest excuse from Mr. Rauf Malik … yet another time I am promissed that technical staff will visit and install jupiter ( antena ) tomorrow … will the sun of this “tomorrow” rise?

— Updates January 3, 08 —
Today I was contacted by Mr. Shahid Qureshi, Head of Support Team in Lahore, in response to my email to wateen support. He has told me that my area is not covered by wateen at the moment but hopefully wateen will extend its coverage to my area in one to two months.
According to Support head, Franchises are provided Maps highlighting the areas which have the coverage. If this is correct, why did they sell me the connection? On the time of purchase, I asked the franchise staff several times about coverage in my area. Why they didn’t give the correct information? These are few questions which need attention of Wateen Management.
Very disappointing. I’ll return the connection tomorrow. 🙁

43 Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 2, 2008

    Dear Riz,

    I have also purchased Wateen WiMAX Rs. 19500 for a year, 512kbps, 10GB package but signal strength is very bad. Please do inform us what type of antenna you’ll get install with CPEi600. Will Wateen provide that antenna for free or for any charges?

    I shall check your blog for updates for your Wateen WiMAX experience.

    Allah Hafiz

  • R i z
    January 2, 2008

    Dear Friend,

    I have signed up for the same package (unluckily :)). You are lucky that you have atleast few signals than compared to me where no signals are received.

    The Jupiter (antenna) is provided free in same package, I was told by a support representative. I am trying to get that from last two weeks but they are making excuses.

    You should contact them on phone or by visiting the franchise and try your luck.

    best wishes

  • DAMN WATEEN
    January 3, 2008

    I got my connection two days before eid and username and password in three hours but no signal at first the device wasnt registered properly then my area was out of coverage then was in coverage but needed a jupiter then there was no stock of devices now they replaced my existing cpe but still no service

    WATEEN SUCKS

    by calling their help line i now know almost everybody at the callcenter and at the franchise

    they just lack customer care completely i think that if they cant handle one city they shouldnt brag about 22 city coverage and all that bull

    even now the new cpe device is on for the past two days and no signal

    The irony is I live less than 1km arial distance from thokar niaz baig lahore their main broadcasting hub!

    my advice is that avoid wateen at all costs unless u like swearing at people because thats what you will be reduced to

  • Sarfaraz Ahmed Soomro
    January 4, 2008

    Hey, I live in Karachi, Gulshan e Iqbal, I Just bought the same package yesterday and i am getting full signals at my home. My account has yet to be activated, i will keep bugging them periodically. I Hope that your problem be resolved soon.
    TC

  • R i z
    January 4, 2008

    Dear Sarfraz,

    We all expect similar service from big name like wateen. But this is unfortunate that many areas in Lahore have no or bad signals.

    Yesterday I was contacted by Mr. Shahid Qureshi, Head of Support Team in Lahore, in response to my email to wateen support. He has told me that my area is not covered by wateen at the moment but hopefully wateen will extend its coverage to my area in one to two months.

    So, I’ll return the connection tomorrow. 🙁

  • Fiz Dosani
    January 18, 2008

    Dear Riz,
    i had also signed up for a corporate account some four month back. and you can not believe an outer CPE is installed at out premises and we did not pay a single penny to wateen since last four month, because their SMTP maintenance in progress, as far as browsing is concern , no doublt wateen has edge on all ISP’s.
    my office is situated at Shahrah-e-faisal karachi as we have three flavors ,DSL,CABLE(BroadBand)& Wateen Wimax
    but my vote is always in favor of next generation telecom giant Wateen!

  • R i z
    January 18, 2008

    Dear Fiz Dosani,

    Thanks for sharing your experience. So far I have not found any happy user outside Karachi. It seems they have invested their best in Karachi so far. As I know several unhappy clients in Lahore.

    Hopefully they provide their best services outside Karachi soon aswell.

  • aaho
    January 22, 2008

    what a junk ISP with HQ in Lahore. Everything they test, they test it first in Lahore and then they release it. Like now the Multimedia stuff. How come “Fiz Dosani” is getting it worked so fine? 😀 Luck or Favourism =)

    though I have posted my expierience at other blog place. RIZ know it.

    PS: I am still hanging with Wateen till they can plug their best at my home. I mean their so called JUPITER.

  • Ahmad
    January 27, 2008

    Dear All,
    I would love to share my experience with you guys too.I bought Wimax connection on 24th dec.Franchise told me that they will provide username/pass in 24hour time. 8 days passed , no body provided me any credentials.I grabbed a test credential and starting using service.on 2nd jan, my internet was working but phone service was no way near working. Wateen’s assistant engineer(AE) came to my home, took GPS co-ordinates and after examining CPE, he came to conclusion that my CPE had hardware/software problem so,unit needs to be replaced.

    I was happy that problem will get resolved . BUT…..i forgot its Wateen’s technical staff which is highly UNTECHNICAL. I waited 2 days for new CPE.After 2 days, when i got CPE , my jubilation was at peak.I hoped that phone service along with internet will be working fine now.BUT…..

    Nothing worked.I got even my Internet service down which was working previously. I called franchise and they told me that “On behalf of Wateen Telecom, we are sorry to say that your area is marked as RED in our map, meaning you are out of coverage “

    What a bullshit this was ! I could not believe that an Associate Engineer who had seen my Internet working previously(with very good signal strenght) told me that I was out of coverage!

    I had to call franchise,get my old CPE back.I configured it myself and Internet was working as before.

    Moral of story is Don’t believe in what franchise or technical support says.They are highly non-technical as i said earlier.They even don’t know that every Customer is allowed to use default username/pass : router on CPE. Can you believe this ? AE even didn’t bother to read user manual.He told me that “Sir, you are not authorized to you username/password on device”

    I went hothead with AE . Finally, he admitted and excused that he didn’t know that username/pass was allowed.What a crap!

    I sent an email to higher-ups and support in Wateen same day.Finally, my phone and internet are working now since 15th jan(too late though).

    Now, can somebody in Wateen’s So-Called technical team tell me how my phone and internet is working now when i am in Out-Of-Coverage area?huh!

    There have been too many mistakes by Wateen on launch of WiMaX and i think biggest was their non-technical staff.

    I could only wish that they improve their service OR they will be out of market when their competitors come into play.

  • Anonymous
    March 27, 2008

    I am Omer Ahmed from gulshan e iqbal Karachi. I have also purchased the same pakage but my cp is placed on the roof of my house as there is no signal inside the house … i will suggest u guys also to put the cp on the roof… JUPITOR is not the solution untill they increase to camp more towers… try to put Cp on the roof… but as in such a position that sunlight does not reach the cp directly as it will reflect the incomming signals…. i have very much great experience with this wimax device CpEi600… any questions regarding service of wateen u can ask me …and also tips and tricks to get unlimited volume…. call me or email me ..
    [email protected]
    03332611823

  • Anonymous
    May 28, 2008

    i am probably the latest to fall victim to Wateen’s inducements.

    I paid money for a connection near Raiwind after many weeks of visitation by field engineers of Wateen.

    Today I am told that my area is not even under coverage.

    If you disgruntled Wateen users wish to lodge a complaint before the Consumer Courts, let us get together and file a class action law suit.

    Any takers should contact me on halgazel(-AT-)gmail.com

  • shehzie
    August 24, 2008

    i m considering myself as a victom too.. i live here in north nazimabad karachi, and got my special wateen prepaid package of rs 650 last month.. with the problem that they expired my account 9 days earlier and told me to recharge again to continue to have their services, i however got my package changed to special package 2 with this i applied for lenovo laptop as well as the internet, after almost two weeks it was approved and as they gave me the new p/w my telephony went dead and its been like three weeks now since then that it is dead.. as well i have been told that since you have paid twice for the same month’s amount your excess amount will added to your telephony, but since then my telephony has been dead and my selfcare portal is showing no values.. i have mailed almost everyday with replies like… oh sory for inconvinience i m forwarding your complaint… i got like 3-4 people call me with same reply and then they stopped calling.. i m so fired up now as i know that they will expire my account again and ask me to recharge again as my telephony still is not showing the right amount that i have deposited..

    we had hoped so much from wateen and now they are putting us down as we are nothing.. i wonder if they give a link on thier site for people who want to unregister, so as to see how many of those 10,000 they have disappointed.

  • Farukh
    August 25, 2008

    Dear All,

    I would like to share my experience with you guys, I intented to buy 512kbps connection. I contacted marketing person of Wateen to visit my area to provide a connection, he contacted me the other day and identified my home area though GPRS and checked from his system/server that availability of wateen signal there, also he brought Motorolla device to give me a demo. Signals at my area were very powerfull and it was giving nice speed. I purchased and using this right now. Wateen connection only work for specific areas in lahore and my location includes in that.

    As for as their services are concerned, I am not sure how they deal with ordinary customer. I was special customer as wateen marketing person is my friend 🙂

  • Banoori
    September 3, 2008

    I’d agree with Riz. I’m dealing with Wateen for the SIP accounts for my office but they have really limited knowledge for their own SIP gateway. However i still appreciate their continuous efforts.

  • Dishurted
    September 4, 2008

    I am facing a problem since last two month but no response from wateen support , even no buddy know that who will solve my issue , wateen Head say go to franchise , franchise says call head office.

    i am very much dishurted
    my contact is 0300-2524753

  • Banoori
    September 4, 2008

    Dishurted, what’s your problem?

  • Dishurted
    September 4, 2008

    Banoori! my telephone is not active in my device

  • shehzie
    September 4, 2008

    same here.. my phone is also dead and giving busy tone, but this is since they changed my package and as soon as i logged in with my new p/w telephony stopped working..when i call they admit that its a problem that they are trying to solve at their end so i was relaxed but now its been a month now and it is still dead (giving busy tone). i heard in a forum that a person had the same problem and he had a “jugar” in wateen and he got it fixed rather earlier.. i wonder when they are going to fix mine.. i have a “jugar” too but i m not pushing it..

  • AntiWateen
    September 6, 2008

    Hello and Assalam-Walikum 🙂

    Found this post very useful – some what similar to my expereince with wateen but i was in Karachi 🙂 currently i’m not having much difficulties..

    The only problem i’ve been recently having is to keep logging into my Wateen Account after minutes!!

    I have a solution for that if some one else is having that kind of problem – It is a application called WateenConnector which will make it easy for you to log into your wateen account.

    Find more information here:
    http://www.ebloggy.net/2008/09/02/wateenconnector-v102-exclusively-for-wateen-wimax-consumers.html

    Regards

  • u5man4
    September 7, 2008

    hello guys, m usman jus a 14 yr old n wat im gona bold out rite now is:

    -_- DONT GET WATEEN ITS GONNA BE THE WORST MISTAKE OF UR LIFE

    i kept up wid there non-sence for like 6 months but not anymore now…

    first day i get wateen it dosnt work till after a week thus i get a 0 in school assignment

    2nd in febuary and march i experience dam slow bronzing speeds coz of the optical fibre while no other isp was affected as much as wateen was…

    on april i get this big fat bill which said i hav to pay 12000 =x i friggn blew my head off coz we payed advance 18000 already and it claimed i downloaded more tan 20 gig althhough i didnt coz i was in my limits…the question is how do i knw…i installed du meter to keep track of my bandwidth from the start so in the end i had to pay the bill coz of some mumbo jumbo

    a month later i figure out my account was hacked and it was being used by someone else and this problem didn’t get solved till like 2 months my god damn password kept on changing when ever i needed to login and then i had to call the boring helpline with that ridiculous song going on EVERYDAY ATLEAST 6 TIMES IN THE DAY coz tat other guy was using my account n somehow he use to reset n change my password n when i tell another wateen representive he says its impossible he needs ur nic no and yap yap yap in the end i was gona refund the product coz the problem wasnt getting solved and then they showed logging against the mac address and it totaly proved someone else was using my account n the solution they picked up was to convert me to prepaid

    ok now i get converted and u knw what the new problem is i logged in and i had 12500 balance and when the next day i login wat do u knw ZERO BALANCE ;@

    now im asking whr that balance went n they say we r sry sir n crap crap crap so in the end i suffered a tremendous loss n now im gona break the cpe proberly smash it coz thrs no way im gonna return it (stay tune for my utube video link in which i smash tat tiny piece of trash into scrap)…

  • Masroor
    September 26, 2008

    Hello all,

    Wateen s—- and this I named it YATEEM. Very bad launching – it was just 12 months late then the target launch date, no knolwedgeable support guys, non sense marketing team, and above all signals are absent at most of the locations. I heared only bad remarks from any of my many freinds/mates. I have yet to hear even a single appreciation remark about then YATEEM network.

    I bought ever green package – 10 GB/month and after 6 months of nonsence service I switched to PTCL 1 MB package.

    This YATEEM network s—-.

  • rehman
    October 4, 2008

    guys common give this company a chance…i knw they will improve…
    lte me tell you my interesting story..i was crazy abt the wimax thingy at first ..well obviously no wires and all and getting your interent over wirelss was amazing so i went to wateen and ordered it…the guy came and there were no signals for my indoor device so he told me to get a jupiter — wateens best take…]
    so it all happened and they came over and installed it…i came bck frm college and sat on the comp…expecting something good BUTTT… hopes shattered..it was way not good giving me speeds like 20 and 18 kbps…i was speechless my bro had paid for it and i had nothing better to offer then dsl….and wht else the connection was dropping again and again on a jupiterrr….for two months this happened and the f???? ppl at wateen cudnt figure it out…adn after months of complaining their original banda came and saw the jupiter direction at the top of my roof…and guesss WHATTT…i literally laughed at what the original one had dne…hahhehe ..HE HAD THE JUPITERS DIRECTION AT MOBILINKS TOWER THINKING IT WAS WARIDS AND THE SIGNAL I WAS GETTING WAS A REFLECTED SIGNAL…. i was furious for the past two months i was banging my heads with them to let me knw wht is the prob and the shitty person didnt even knw whr his tower was located….
    khair since thn the connectionn has been good speeds have been good….and keep in mind tht i am in lahore..it mite not work in shitty karachii

  • shehzie
    October 4, 2008

    yup i agree.. their support guys have yet to pop their cherries, at least they should hire people who have gone through their puberties. i went like a year or two earlier at their clifton office in karachi, and in the bulding there were arrow signs everywhere indicating the office… when i went in there .. there were 3 “boys” there and they themself knew nothing abt wateen and told us that they wil get back to us…

    well wateen i think would be an icon in this field in a few months or so, only if they overcome their unprofessional technical support, everything else is first class with them..

    thumbs up for wateen .. i hope the make us proud owners of their services.

  • Hira
    October 13, 2008

    @ shehzie
    Hello,
    I am also using wateen & I want to share my good experience about wateen’s customer service.Wateen works well in my area but recently I had a problem in my wateen connection. I went their customer service centre for asking about the problem. I felt very happy when, they listened my problem & next morning two persons from wateen came in to my house and they quickly solved my problem.
    Thanks Wateen?

  • shoaib
    October 29, 2008

    Hello,
    I am wateen wimax user. Hira U r rite k wateen customer service is toooo gooood. they seriously took action about complain:). Warna I could not submit assignment on time.

  • shoaib
    October 30, 2008

    Is any one know?? Wateen’s offer for bloggers??
    Wateen is providing free Wimax service P@sha ICT awards at Karachi Marriott Hotel On Oct 31, 08 at Friday. Here is a good chance to get your problem solved. also can share your opinion regarding service improvement.
    For further details
    http://jehanara.wordpress.com/2008/10/30/psha-open-invitation-to-bloggers/

  • farhan
    October 31, 2008

    I think its good for us N Wateen. No we have opportunity to discus problem n issues that we have. Lets see Now wateen kiya karta hai??
    Hope for better

  • shehzie
    October 31, 2008

    @hira,
    you have great convincing capabilities, just like spoken off in an ad.

    well u c i m replying after a long time cos in this time i wasnt having any trouble with my wateen.. yes mineee … mine own..

    see no reason not to fall in love with this service, but still it tells me “abbu unlimited capacity per raazi nahi ho rahay”… so i m kind of link broken.

    and after the evdo and infinity unlimited launch i m hoping that my wateen will be unlimited too… cos its my wateen.. minee..

  • hira
    November 28, 2008

    Wateen Wins “Best Challenging and Interesting Work Award” at PSHRM, 2008

    Wateen won the PSHRM Award, 2008 in the category of “Challenging and Interesting workplace”. Wateen is the preferred organization according to the opinion of 1100 graduates from 27 universities; for facilitating employees with the challenging and interesting workplace and work opportunities. Akram Durrani; MD, Human Resource after receiving the award from Mr. Naveed Qamar; Federal Minister of Privatization, Shipping, Ports and Fishery; commented that the award was once again a testmane tthat Wateen is the preferred company! He further said that, “we sincerely appreciate positive feedback this award gives to us and look forward to working with Pakistan’s young and hardworking workforce.” It is positive attitude such as this which helps to keep Wateen’s work environment a Challenging and Interesting one!

  • anis
    December 10, 2008

    With so many connection packages available, how do I decide which one keeps me connected at all times via phone and internet at a cost-effective offer? Of course this was all before I decided to become part of Wateen family as it is currently operating on the edge of technology in Pakistan with the launch of WiMAX. Get this…5 GB of space with 256 kpbs connectivity at only Rs.500 per month and a telephony tariff of only Rs.90 per month…It gets only better with the special EID offer with unlimited net surfing and downloading, international and local calling all for free from Dec. 8th to midnight Dec. 10th….Wateen will truly keep me connected with family and friends this Eid!!

  • Analyzer
    December 25, 2008

    Wateen record hit broadband market causing Etisalat(PTCL) to rollback its broadband infrastructure from pakistan.

  • Abbas
    January 30, 2009

    First of all …wateen is not too good.. i m a software Engr.. so telling u some points..
    first if u have 512Kbs mean 64kilo byte per second. speed its shared between 5 users.. so mostly u have 15 or 20 Kbp or sometimes 30Kbp..
    and another prob 5GB limit..

    PTCL : they gave u Dedicated DSL 512Kbs (64 kilo byes per secobd) mostly i got around 60Kbps…its way fast… and little bit cost effective..
    bcz i have both….

    PTCL is way fast.. and specailly Good For Gamers..
    if u r normal or average user go for wateen..
    if u wanna download lots of movies…music wanna play online games….
    GO For PTCL…thanks

  • DAVE
    February 27, 2009

    Simply put Wateen SuckkSSSSSS!!
    Do not just walk away. I suggest you better run away.

    The whole setup are bunch of bastards and they only
    present monkey show.

    Their customer support alwasy tell you a new story.
    Too much lie. All Bull Shit!!!

    Do not waste your money with them.

  • Abbas
    March 8, 2009

    Well after jan 2009 i m feeling Wateen got improved..wow!

    speed is good and downloading stream 40 to 50K easily i get..some time more then 50 kilo bytes per second… wateen is now way better….and end of feb i left 4 gb in my account..now from 3 days my system is coutinue oN and dowloading i got UPS with 4 hour back up and and finishing my 4 Gb bcz after 4 days my account will expire… and downloading lots of movies…but its stable and reiliable…goo wateeen goo

  • moeen
    May 7, 2009

    hey every1
    names moeen
    i bought wateen more than year ago nd its was’nt so great bcz signals were not good so i did the smart thing nd put the router in the roof which is on 3rd floor this solved the signal problem nd i extended the wire till my room which was way big
    wateen coverage is very low nd in start wateen speed nd quality was very good bt now its became very lame
    in start speed came almost full all the time bt now it show alot of issue nd in 512 connection i got 25-40 download speed so i upgraded speed to 1mb nd speed was only 35-56
    nd u know what really sucks about wateen when u dont even use it they still charge it
    same in telephony
    well guy i will recomend u the new internet in pakistan ‘nayatel’
    here is its website nayatel.com bt they dont show packages in website so bad luck
    bt still i recommend internet not wireless with good quality
    try micronet ,link.net or any other

  • moeen
    May 7, 2009

    nd ya costumer service always lie
    like they will say that our man just left or they are having lunch or they are busy or some 1 died nd they will just say give us ur number nd we will send some1 in 24 hours

  • saadia khan
    May 24, 2009

    Dear All

    I have just viewed your feedback on Wateen service .If you have any complaint regarding your connection i will request you to send your complaint at [email protected] along with your account info.

    Regards
    Saadia Khan(Wateen CS)

  • ZARA
    July 16, 2009

    I have wateen indoor device that works very fine. As i want to mention that when ever you guys using any service definitely face problem…….
    As i faced but Wateen CS give me positive response and tried to solve my issues…….

  • ZARA
    July 24, 2009

    According to me Wateen is very good service after unlimited. and hope that they will provide more packages in future as well

  • saffi
    August 10, 2009

    mostly person says their experince in this blog that wateen is not good.
    who cares.wateen is superb.i m using wateen from 18 months and still its working fine ,there is no issue with me,i just simply say if u know a little about intenet there is no issue in wateen.its my personal experience.and theri technical support on telephone is very good and caring.so everybody who is barking on wateen just go and learn how to use internet…………………………….thanks.and if u need my help mail me [email protected]
    or call me
    03134007847

  • farhan
    August 29, 2009

    Great unlimited packages from wateen. Wateen is the only wimax operator who is offering unlimited downloads. wateen’s service works fine…

  • shahied
    September 14, 2009

    hello friends.
    i m cometid all of uwateen is a big bullshit.they have not coverge in shahdra ferozwalla stiil signal problams they have.it a money snaching company.

  • saba
    September 17, 2009

    no issue with me by using Wateen after unlimited

Comments are closed.