The Day When Maxcom Went Against Books… Attention Maxcom Users!

| September 6, 2009 | 8 Comments

It started as a happy Saturday. . . the day with no classes to attend this semester for the first time in Szabist. I started of with an assignment that needed nine references which means nine books and yes Google happens to be the best friend when it comes to skimming through relevant books or even plagiarism depending on how you use it.

After all this time of good service one might not expect a flaw from Maxcom. However, just like people, services too give up when you need them the most and you can become prey to errors beyond the scope of your most horrendous imagination possible. This was the day when I felt like co branding Maxcom with our most beloved organisation, KESC.

It was a desperate hour for book references and I couldn’t gain access to Google Books which Google forbade from, thereby relying on euphemism to apologise for this situation. It was ‘ERROR 403′ which still lands on my face as a punch when I try to go to Google Books.   “We’re sorry…

… but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application. To protect our users, we can’t process your request right now,” says the search engine whenever I try to plead it to show up.

Well,  I tried to recall the last time I downloaded songs . . . July it was, however, this was the time period I had used illegal downloading during my internship with the help of the office pc. Hmmm, then there was a possibility of getting bugs from school computers facilitated through the use of my usb.

With the deadline of my assignment approaching me as a nooze and becoming tighter and tighter “I’m doomed !!!” I thought and tried three different spywares to ease me out of trouble. Whether it was spyware doctor, anti trojan, spyware veterinarian, none had been of any help in solving my access issue.

I found out a wonderful website that helped me gain access to Google Books illegally !!! Hail the online illegality and piracy ! One should always aim for it when needed and should be practiced as a right. Yes it was www.ninjacloak.com that came up as a blessing in disguise and is literally disguised because of which you can get access to websites without them knowing maybe . . . well that’s how it works.  Try recalling the time when your institute blocked Face Book or MSN and you would have tried different websites to get back to them . . .

I tried to tell Google that I’m  human but Maxcom has been causing trouble in letting the search engine recognize me as one. Therefore, I found out that it’s not just me but all Maxcom users are facing this issue while they claim that it’s a problem from Google itself.

If the issue happens to be residing with Google, how come there isn’t such an access  problem with other internet service providers.  So . . . Maxcom users, try living without Google Books for a while if you have been accustomed to using them.

After delivering good service for quite some time, however denying their own fault since the past three days, Maxcom fits well to the definition of ‘post purchase irritation’ rather than ‘post purchase dissonance’ . . .

maxcom

Tags: access, attitude, books, DSL, google, google books, hyderabad, Internet, karachi, maxcom, net, pakistan, search engine, service, time, users

Category: Brands, Other Stuff

About the Author (Author Profile)

Hiba Moeen is currently working as an account manager at Sociality 360 which is not just a social media agency but a marketing think tank as well. As the name suggests, the agency has taken a 360 degree rotation towards incorporating all forms of marketing.
She also writes for www.hibamoeen.blogspot.com and www.marketingmaniacs.net
If you have any suggestions and feedback, you can email her at hiba.moeen@sociality360.com
or tweet @hibamoeen
Happy reading! :)

  • http://pakopen.blogspot.com Taha Noman Khan

    Kind of harsh of you to actually condemn an internet service provider who has been, in your own words delivering good service for quite some time. Just because of one error, you choose to defame them. How about switching your service and trying to deal with the hundreds of issues that other providers ‘provide’ to you??
    Think about that.
    P.S: I am a Maxcom user since the time of their launch and though I have had my share of problems with the service, they always manage to pull through and provide the best technical support and internet speed. They are still to this day one of the best (and humble)service providers.

  • http://saroshwaiz.com Sarosh Waiz

    Its just one error that leads to hampered consumer expectations and experiences…

    As they say.. client/customer is always right… blogging is not about defaming.. its about the writers opinions and experiences .. its just the power of the global network that leads opinions to the defamation of brands … thats why this area is of such a growing concern for marketers and brand teams…

  • http://omar.t3-interactive.com Omar Khan

    Hmm…I don’t see where MaxCom is at fault in this whole article. As most tech savy individuals would know that the Internet is all about o’s and 1′s, IPv4 and IPv6 protocols running back and forth delivering and receiving data.

    Each ISP in Pakistan is assigned an IP address range, and If one is a hardcore techie, he/she would start to recognize each ISP by it’s IP ranges. The most popular ones being 203.81.., 115… for WorldCall, 202.163… for Cybernet etc. Getting into the intricacies of an IP range would turn this comment into a thesis report so let’s skip that part and move to why the page did not open for the user. Combining all Classes of IP addresses (namely A, B and C), the grand total number of possible hosts come to about 16,843,002.

    Now I just have one question, Is it possible to control 16,843,002 hosts? Assuming MaxCom has 100,000 users, can MaxCom guarantee what the users are doing at any given time? Each computer network has certain rules that are used as checks and balances, the more knowledge one has of how these checks and balances work, what the network rules are, the easier it is to beat them.

    The author was a victim of being blocked out of Google Books because SOMEONE on the MaxCom ip range had a naughty computer virus, not necessarily the author herself which blocked the IP range from Google’s servers for X no. hours or so.

    Summarizing this, I would say, it was more of irresponsible users than the service provider itself that was at fault.

    :)

  • Hiba Moeen

    Well, it’s quite irresponsible of Maxcom as well for not acknowledging an issue at their end and blaming it on Google . . . if you guys recall the concept of ‘multiplier effect’(without googling it ofcourse) from the second semester then only you can realise how one issue is leading to a chain of events here.

    So Maxcom fans, whatever product augmentation could be satisfying for an individual could be a source of prolonging post purchase dissonance for the other . . . :)

  • Saeed

    earlier i was the user of maxcom and i left maxcom because of its service and on the record maxcom is pathetic. whatever problem of protocols and ip and whatever it is i m paying whatever they are asking and in return i need service and if it is fault on my side they should guide me because this is the era of giving better services not just services. maxcom has failed to provide better service and it is pathetic now.

  • http://www.hibamoeen.blogspot.com Hiba Moeen

    Simply tsk tsk tsk . . .

  • http://- Kambar Farooq

    “Maxcom is unable to solve the issues of its users now a days”. These are my friend’s words about Maxcom.

    He turned to a different ISP after waiting 2 months, bearing the disruptive internet connectivity, which he claimed, was not solved at the end.

    The problem was not the internet speed, but the line. Speed is constant if the line is OK.

  • http://www.hibamoeen.blogspot.com Hiba Moeen

    Hi Kamran,

    hehe hehe . . . actually I wasn’t expecting a comment on this post since it’s quite old now. Well it’s good to know that there ar still readers :D
    I think the problem with all our organisations is not fulfilling commitments at the stage of product augmentation, that is, they sell and forget that selling was just the beginning. . .
    Overall Maxcom is ok but the most irritating aspect is when you need something the most and it doesn’t deliver a proper service.
    In this case they blamed, Google Books and then PTA after which they realised there was something wrong at their end and fixed the issue after 3 days . . .
    Line disruptions could also vary with the difference of areas, I hope your friend is satisfied now . :)

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