and now they send me this.
1. CHANGES TO OUR TERMS & CONDITIONS - PLEASE READ!
A number of our customers are logged onto the internet for over 12
hours a day.
This affects the quality of service for the majority of our customers.
To make things fairer for everybody, we've changed the daily internet
use limit for Anytime and SurfTime customers from 16 hours to 12 hours
of 'unmetered' access in any 24-hour period.
Don't worry: this change won't affect the majority of you.
grrrrrr, guess the company.
pez
Alex 'pez' Porazinski ([email hidden]) wrote on 17 May
2002:
<snipped 'Anytime doesn't really mean any time - how could you be so
silly?' normal patronising BT post>
> grrrrrr, guess the company.
See above ;-)
--
"After all, a mere thousand yards... such a harmless little knoll,
really" - Raymond Mays on Shelsley Walsh.
The GPL Scrapyard: Back again! http://www.btinternet.com/~gplscrapyard
As soon as I can confirm that Freeserve supports ISDN, I'm off.
Andi.
"David Buttery" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
Quoted text (14 lines)
> Alex 'pez' Porazinski ([email hidden]) wrote on 17 May > 2002: > > <snipped 'Anytime doesn't really mean any time - how could you be so > silly?' normal patronising BT post> > > grrrrrr, guess the company. > > See above ;-) > > -- > "After all, a mere thousand yards... such a harmless little knoll, > really" - Raymond Mays on Shelsley Walsh. > > The GPL Scrapyard: Back again! http://www.btinternet.com/~gplscrapyardIt works with home highway, which I believe is the same as ISDN.
--
Ian P
<email invalid due to spam>
"Andi Cole" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:ac3pbp$fkm$[email hidden]...
> As soon as I can confirm that Freeserve supports ISDN, I'm off.
>
> Andi.
>
>
Cheers Ian, yes that is what I have.
Andi.
"Ian P" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:ac3qnl$sgo$[email hidden]...
Quoted text (17 lines)
> It works with home highway, which I believe is the same as ISDN. > > -- > > Ian P > <email invalid due to spam> > > > "Andi Cole" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > news:ac3pbp$fkm$[email hidden]... > > As soon as I can confirm that Freeserve supports ISDN, I'm off. > > > > Andi. > > > > > >Cheers Ian, yes that is what I have.
Andi.
Quoted text (13 lines)
> It works with home highway, which I believe is the same as ISDN. > -- > Ian P > <email invalid due to spam> > > As soon as I can confirm that Freeserve supports ISDN, I'm off. > > Andi.Just a quick FYI.
Freeserve are pretty good, but at peak times it can take a few attempts to
log on.
Maybe give Claranet or Plusnet a trial. They're a bit more expensive but the
service is better. (Plusnet do limit the time online though, which I guess
is why they have good connectivity ;) They also give you a free .co.uk
domain name if you should need one )
I haven't used claranet's anytime service in a while, but I always remember
them as being excellent. I may even change from Freeserve to Clara in the
near future.
--
Ian P
<email invalid due to spam>
"Andi Cole" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:ac5j6u$79i$[email hidden]...
> Cheers Ian, yes that is what I have.
>
> Andi.
>
>
> "Ian P" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
> news:ac3qnl$sgo$[email hidden]...
> > It works with home highway, which I believe is the same as ISDN.
> >
Ian P ([email hidden]) wrote on 18 May 2002:
> Just a quick FYI.
> Freeserve are pretty good, but at peak times it can take a few
> attempts to log on.
Hmmm... you haven't used BTi, I see... ;-)
> Maybe give Claranet or Plusnet a trial.<snip>
No-one who suffered at PlusNet's hands in 2001 will ever return, I
should think. For all I know they're now wonderful, but they'll have to
do somethign *very* special to make me forgive their appalling
behaviour last year. BT are wonderful compared to that...
--
"After all, a mere thousand yards... such a harmless little knoll,
really" - Raymond Mays on Shelsley Walsh.
The GPL Scrapyard: Back again! http://www.btinternet.com/~gplscrapyard
Can you enlighten me what happened at Plusnet last year David ?
I was with them for a while but their prices went a bit silly so I left.
I've since rejoined and have never had any problems with them. Maybe I was
just lucky ?
--
Ian P
<email invalid due to spam>
"David Buttery" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
> Ian P ([email hidden]) wrote on 18 May 2002:
>
> > Just a quick FYI.
> > Freeserve are pretty good, but at peak times it can take a few
> > attempts to log on.
>
> Hmmm... you haven't used BTi, I see... ;-)
>
> > Maybe give Claranet or Plusnet a trial.
> <snip>
>
> No-one who suffered at PlusNet's hands in 2001 will ever return, I
> should think. For all I know they're now wonderful, but they'll have to
> do somethign *very* special to make me forgive their appalling
> behaviour last year. BT are wonderful compared to that...
>
> --
> "After all, a mere thousand yards... such a harmless little knoll,
> really" - Raymond Mays on Shelsley Walsh.
>
> The GPL Scrapyard: Back again! http://www.btinternet.com/~gplscrapyard
Ian P <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:ac5jol$6k4$[email hidden]...
I'm on ntlworld through a BT line (56.6), and it's *mostly* pretty
good; value-for-money seems decent as my entire monthly fee is
credited to my phone call account.
Occasional slow patches, though, and the news server has been known
to be dodgy (for example, I keep getting five-day-old posts which
I know I've already downloaded and read).
Jonny
Quoted text (10 lines)
> Just a quick FYI. > Freeserve are pretty good, but at peak times it can take a few attempts to > log on. > Maybe give Claranet or Plusnet a trial. They're a bit more expensive but the > service is better. (Plusnet do limit the time online though, which I guess > is why they have good connectivity ;) They also give you a free .co.uk > domain name if you should need one ) > I haven't used claranet's anytime service in a while, but I always remember > them as being excellent. I may even change from Freeserve to Clara in the > near future.Ian P ([email hidden]) wrote on 19 May 2002:
> Can you enlighten me what happened at Plusnet last year David ?
> I was with them for a while but their prices went a bit silly so I
> left. I've since rejoined and have never had any problems with
> them. Maybe I was just lucky ?
Briefly, they signed people up for a service called PlusNet 24/7,
giving all appearances that this meant what it said. In fact, I even
emailed them about what they meant, and was told that provided I didn't
host streaming video I could do what I liked.
All was fine for a while, and then - pretty much out of the blue, in
early 2001 - an email arrived (quoted at the end of this post to aid
readability), which told us that "24/7" actually meant 2 hours (sic) a
day, and that 3h 40m was "taking the Michael". We were also told that
"Customers who exceed these guides will receive warning and/or be
subject to punitive action".
This was bad enough, but an even more ridiculous part of the email told
customers on the "Biz" account (intended for... er... businesses) that
7 hours in the daytime and 1h 50m off peak were "taking the Michael"
too. So staying online from 9am to 5pm was out, and so was doing 2h of
online work in the evening.
It didn't end there. As you can imagine, the relevant NGs (eg
alt.internet.providers.uk) were inundated with complaints, and so were
PlusNet's own discussion forums. Things got really surreal when someone
was threatened with legal action for posting PlusNet's contact address
and reception phone number (as opposed to the official - always engaged
- support number), despite the fact that these details were on
PlusNet's own homepage!
If you want to see for yourself just how silly things got, go to Google
groups and do a search for "Plusnet taking the Michael" (without the
quotes). You'll soon realise why vast numbers of their subscribers (me
included) left asap, never to return. By comparison, BT's reduction
from 16/24 to 12/24 is nothing!
That email in full:
---STARTS---
BE WARNED
Fair and reasonable usage guide for Surftime accounts
Following on from the events of the last week or so and feedback we
have received from our customers we have produced a guide to what we
consider to be fair and reasonable use of our Surftime account types.
The guidance is separated by account type and is intended to give an
indication and does not set precise parameters.
In all instances we quote a maximum average, by this we mean the
maximum amount of time in a day a customer has been logged onto the
Surftime dial service, this average is measured across a week. Please
note this does not mean the maximum amount of time logged on in any
given single day as we appreciate that people's usage profile varies.
Biz+ accounts, this is split into two categories
Mon-Fri
08:00 - 18:00hrs
Design - 3 hours 40 minutes
Fair - 4 hours 20 minutes
Pushing it - 5 hours
Unfair - 5 hours 40 minute
......................................................... *
Out of order - 6 hours 20 minutes
Taking the Michael - 7 hours and above
* Customers who exceed these guides will receive warning and/or be
subject
to punitive action
All other times
Design - 1 hour
Fair - 1 hour 10 minutes
Pushing it - 1 hour 20 minutes
Unfair - 1 hour 30 minutes
......................................................... *
Out of order - 1 hour 40 minutes
Taking the Michael - 1 hour 50 minutes and above
* Customers who exceed these guides will receive warning and/or be
subject
to punitive action
24/7 accounts
Design - 1 hours 35 minutes
Fair - 2 hours
Pushing it - 2 hours 25 minutes
Unfair - 2 hours 50 minutes
......................................................... *
Out of order - 3 hours 15 minutes
Taking the Michael - 3 hours 40 minutes and above
* Customers who exceed these guides will receive warning and/or be
subject
to punitive action
OffPeak accounts (Unmetered element only)
Design - 45 minutes
Fair - 1 hour 20 minutes
Pushing it - 1 hour 40 minutes
Unfair - 2 hours
......................................................... *
Out of order - 2 hours 20 minutes
Taking the Michael - 2 hours 40 minutes and above
* Customers who exceed these guides will receive warning and/or be
subject
to punitive action
*** PlusNet reserve the right to review and update this guide in the
future
***
Best Wishes,
Customer Support
---ENDS---
--
"After all, a mere thousand yards... such a harmless little knoll,
really" - Raymond Mays on Shelsley Walsh.
The GPL Scrapyard: Back again! http://www.btinternet.com/~gplscrapyard
Oh yes, I forgot:
* they refused (at least initially) to give refunds to those cancelling
their accounts in advance of payment dates;
* they changed their T&C without notice on more than one occasion;
* they tried to block users from taking legal action or going to
arbitration (Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999,
anyone?);
* they decided that their management staff were not "customer facing",
and therefore wouldn't answer any queations at all;
* at least one user reported that their personal data was held months
longer than necessary (Data Protection Act, anyone?).
Etc, etc, etc...
For all I know they're now the greatest ISP in the world - but I won't
be back. Ever.
--
"After all, a mere thousand yards... such a harmless little knoll,
really" - Raymond Mays on Shelsley Walsh.
The GPL Scrapyard: Back again! http://www.btinternet.com/~gplscrapyard
Wow, and I thought we were getting shafted over here in australia,
very mild compared to that load of %#@%^
FYI, our "unlimited" cable internet has just been reduced to a fixed
volume plan, 3gb per month all of a sudden. Our 3 pc LAN that we use
is not looking so pretty anymore :(
Rafe MC
On 19 May 2002 23:55:17 GMT, David Buttery
<[email hidden]> wrote:
Quoted text (17 lines)
>Oh yes, I forgot: > >* they refused (at least initially) to give refunds to those cancelling >their accounts in advance of payment dates; >* they changed their T&C without notice on more than one occasion; >* they tried to block users from taking legal action or going to >arbitration (Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999, >anyone?); >* they decided that their management staff were not "customer facing", >and therefore wouldn't answer any queations at all; >* at least one user reported that their personal data was held months >longer than necessary (Data Protection Act, anyone?). > >Etc, etc, etc... > >For all I know they're now the greatest ISP in the world - but I won't >be back. Ever.I didn't know about any of that. Sure looks as though they made a major PR
blunder.
I just came across this site after searching google groups.
An interesting article IMO http://www.ispreview.co.uk/articles/usage/
Maybe some people do expect a bit too much, but as the article says, the
ISPs only have themselves to blame.
--
Ian P
<email invalid due to spam>
"David Buttery" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
> Briefly, they signed people up for a service called PlusNet 24/7,
> giving all appearances that this meant what it said. In fact, I even
> emailed them about what they meant, and was told that provided I didn't
> host streaming video I could do what I liked.
< I've snipped the majority of the post to save bandwidth for the poor ISPs
;) >
>
> I'm on ntlworld through a BT line (56.6), and it's *mostly* pretty
> good; value-for-money
Just stay away from NTLworld cablemodem.
I had 9 months of nothing but shit from those wankers.
Around 40% connectivity, forcing me to hand over the GPL league I created
and ran into someone else's hands
Record of 12 complete days without picking a line up. Average of 8-9 hours
down time per day.
After 5 months hassling, I finally got an engineer to turn up. He fitted an
attenuator to my cable and It worked for 7 minutes before the line dropped
again. Called them back but engineer never returned.
Was finally told that my modem was unsuitable for their network - a modem
that NTL themselves sold to me !!
I logged about 200 hours listening to shite music holding on helplines. NTL
used to have 2 call centres. They decided to close one down even though they
were unable to deal with the volume of traffic as was.
If your problems were not on the script, for the flunky on the other end of
the line....NADA chance of getting anything sorted. They put you on hold for
a further hour until another flunky tries to squirm out providing any
reasonable service. The NTL newsgroup dedicated to support had something
like 150-200 complaints logged every day.
Although they have almost gone bust, they still have a massive advertising
campaign in place to get more people signed up to their already creaking at
the seams infrastructure.
Oh yeah, forgot to say - I never got a penny back from them in the form of
pro-rata rebate after numerous attempts, despite receiving an almost
non-existant service for a premium price.
Wankers
MS
