Astrill support chat

System	12:50:35
Topic: general performance questions (China)

A representative will be connected, please be patient.

Sam enters the chatroom.

Sam	12:50:55
Hello Dave, my name is Sam, how may I help you?

Dave	12:50:58
hi Sam
I live in Shanghai, China
been using Astrill nigh on 3 years now

Sam	12:51:15
Hi Dave,

Dave	12:51:15
generally the performance has been pretty good. And any dip in performance was soon fixed.
however, the last 3-4 weeks Astrill has been unusually slow and unreliable
servers that have worked fine for a long time (Fremont, Seattle, Las Vegas) now barely work
I realise that you're in a constant cat-and-mouse game with the censors to get around the GFW

Sam	12:52:27
We apologize for the inconvenience,
Kindly confirm your email address, which is associated with the account; so that I can verify the details.

Dave	12:52:39
[email protected]

Sam	12:52:48
Thank you; kindly hold on for a moment; let me check for it.

Dave	12:53:29
if possible I'd love it if you didn't bother with the boilerplate copy-paste responses and actually gave me some kind of insight as to why performance is suffering to such a degree, and whether you think that it's something that you guys will be able to circumvent in the future
no offence meant, of course. it's just that using Astrill over the past few weeks has been very frustrating
I give out a lot of Astrill invites to people who are new in town, but I don't want to recommend something to them that won't work very well
what I'd really like to know is if it's worth continuing to use Astrill, or if you guys honestly feel that you are fighting a losing battle with China's Great Firewall and I would be better off using a different VPN solution

Sam	12:55:48
May i ask what is your Device / OS ?

Dave	12:55:54
various devices
Windows 7 (both 32 and 64 bit systems)
various Android devices (Samsung Galaxy S3 I9300, Samsung Galaxy S4 I9500, Nexus 7 2013)

Sam	12:56:28
alright for windows 7 your version of Astrill App is outdated
you need to upgrade that,

Dave	12:56:47
I thought it updated automatically. I'll do that right now
2.9 is the latest version, right? that's what I'm running.
I also use the Astrill app for Android, which is a huge improvement over Android's default VPN configuration, but I'm having the same performance issues as I have with the desktop app.

Sam	12:58:24
for android app, goto settings
mode
TCP & Port 443

Dave	12:58:40
and use TCP instead of UDP? tried that. but i'll try port 443
I'm not convinced that this is a configuration issue, however
I'm pretty technically capable, when things don't work I fiddle with settings and try a lot of different solutions myself before contacting support
what I really wanted to know is whether you knew anything about the current state of China's efforts to circumvent VPN usage and whether Astrill can stay one step ahead
I mean, China has clearly upped their game recently, else we wouldn't be having this universal dip in performance
I've used you guys for a long time and have been really pleased with the general performance and support. This is by far the longest it has had poor performance without some kind of fix

Sam	13:01:36
Your issue will definitely resolve once you upgrade the app,

Dave	13:01:45
as I said, the app seems to be up to date.
it says v2.9 in the corner.

Dave	13:02:02
the version offered on your download page (https://www.astrill.com/download.php) is 2.9

Sam	13:02:15
we are working on Astrill Android app, and the bugs will resolve shortly
yes, but your build is outdated

Dave	13:02:54
right
I'll get on that
and will report back if I notice a performance improvement
can I ask, why didn't the client prompt me to update automatically, like it usually does?

Sam	13:04:45
it does but some clients have also notified us that, so we are working on that too ...

Dave	13:05:01
right you are
do you have any comment re: what I asked above?


Sam	13:05:20
We apologize for the inconvenience, and appreciate your patience in this regard!

Dave	13:05:23
about whether Astrill will be able to stay one step ahead?

Sam	13:06:30
Yes, we are definitely working on it, we have 75% clients in China so we know that's very important,

Dave	13:06:52
yeah, I guess China must make up a large portion of your users

Sam	13:06:56
we have not received such performance dip issues lately

Dave	13:07:26
that's interesting. from what I've seen and experienced, everybody who uses Astrill here has been complaining about the performance

Sam	13:07:36
but your feed back is very important, we will surely look upto it.

Dave	13:07:48
I appreciate that, thank you
and thanks a lot for your help
do you mind if I screenshot this conversation and post it on Reddit?
you guys have been getting a bad rap for customer service lately, but I've always had very good experiences talking to you guys

Sam	13:09:03
we are here 24/7 & our goal is just one to have a satisfied customer

Dave	13:09:16
that's a good goal
like I said, I've been using Astrill for several years and it's the most reliable VPN service I've used since moving to China
I wasn't contacting you to complain, more for clarification
if it's OK with you, I'll post this conversation online so more people can be aware of what's going on

Sam	13:11:27
that is why we are here for you!
sure

Dave	13:11:32
thanks a lot, Sam
I appreciate your help

Sam	13:12:27
They are competitors who's job is to spread negativity towards Astrill,
only people who use Astrill know what it is about

Dave	13:12:57
haha, I don't think it's so much that. I think it's more just a group of entitled, whiny expats who live in China
as soon as something doesn't work exactly as intended, they fly off the handle and take to internet messageboards to complain
most of the anti-Astrill comments I've seen don't recommend an alternative - if they are shills for another VPN service, they're doing a pretty poor job

Sam	13:13:57
If clients have any sort of issue we are here 24/7

Dave	13:14:09
I'll pass that along

Sam	13:14:18
also our technicians can remote access and solve the issue if required

Dave	13:14:31
that's also good to know

Sam	13:16:00
after all if there is a chance of not able to solve the issue we can also issue a full refund,

Dave	13:19:09
thanks dude
ok, that's all i needed to know
thanks a lot for your help Sam!

Sam	13:19:24
our support is 100% support staff working day/night 365 days a year,
not just automatic reply machines!
https://www.astrill.com/support.php
You're most welcome!!!
Thank you for your interest in Astrill VPN,

System	13:22:08
Sam has left the chatroom.
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