Broadband Woes

After being with TalkTalk for the last few years and a broadband connection of around 1.8mb it was time for a change, mainly due to the incredibly slow connection in the evenings.

As a Sky subscriber I decided upon them for my nexct connection. A new line from BT was installed in January. February saw me connected to Sky at around 1.8mb again, but with no loss of speed in the evenings.

After the DLM tests and 4 weeks of steady broadband it decided to give up with constant disconnections and connecting back at around 0.25mb. Sky customer services were quick to answer and the end result after a few calls was an engineer visit by BT. BT fitted a new pre-filtered socket and again everything was good for about 5 hours. A call from Sky on theanswerphone stated 'Your connection is stable now, so we are going to tweak the line for best speed and close the case'.

Well that did it. Back to normal 0.19mb and constant disconnections. More calls to Sky.

YES I am in the master socket

Yes I am using the correct filters

NO I am not using an extension lead.

So I get a new router sent. 4 days later on goes the new router. No difference. Call Sky again, another BT visit ordered. He rewires the line all the way back to green box, and says the line can handle 2mb. But still the problems persists. Another router is organsised from Sky. 4 days later it arrives and again a connection that is unstable and eventually settles at 0.25mb.

This is where I gave on up Sky and got them to give me a MAC code to migrate out to another ADSL supplier.

I have now re-ordered broadband with BT for my sins. More expensive but hey lets see if it works. Meanwhile while I wait for my new connection I suffer my excellent 0.2mb connection.

Vodafone, Customer service.... or not.

 Below can be seen the message which is what i had to result to wrinting to get any response from so called customer service at Vodafone UK..

Some 4 months ago I called to cancel my contract. I was told I had to write which I did so, I also emailed. All three methods of contact have been ignored. I now have a letter from CapQuest to whom I am also replying. Please cease this account immediately as it is now out of term and has been for some while. 

I expect a full refund of all billed sums since my initial request. I no longer require the contract or insurance as I have now moved to a company with ACTUAL customer service o2.

 If you wish to persist in ignoring matters than I will gladly allow this to go to county court where I will also be seeking damages. This email has been witnessed and I expect a prompt response within seven days

After a bit of back and forth twittering to @VodafoneUK and submitting emails on their website, I finally get the following response.....

I`m sorry to learn that you`re unhappy with regards to the charges on your account.

Just to let you know that to cancel the account, we require 30 days written notice either through a letter or through an email from the account holder.

If we have not received any notice from the account holder to cancel the account then the account remains active even after the contract is completed.

Furthermore, Vodafone will not place a disconnection date at the end of the contract terms because if this happened many customers would be disconnected when they clearly want to carry using the service beyond the initial contract term.

This is the reason why Vodafone places the onus on the customer to inform us of any changes in circumstance or any intention to disconnect.

Having checked your account and I`m sorry to inform you that I`m unable to find any letter or email on your account stating the cancellation of your account. Just to let you know that if we have received any letter or email then it would have been updated on your account and some one would have replied to you.

However, I`ve spoken with my manager and as a one off case, I`ve scheduled your account for cancellation on 31st August 2010. I can also confirm that the charges on your account are correct and I`m unable to credit any charges back to your account.

Mr. Grant, once the contract for the above number is cancelled, you`ll receive a final bill on your normal bill generation date. The final bill will consist of the line rental and the usage charges (if any) until 31st August 2010.

I can also confirm that your account is suspended since 16th May 2010, by our Collections Team due to non-payment of the following bills:

- Bill for the month of April 2010 of £52.93
- Bill for the month of May 2010 of £50.47
- Bill for the month of June 2010 of £50.46
- Bill for the month of July 2010 of £50.47
- Bill for the month of August 2010 of £50.47

The overdue balance on your account is £254.80. Furthermore, I can see that your account is now handled by external debt collections agency. In order to make the payment of the above overdue balance, please contact the following debt collections agency:

- Cap Quest Debt Collections Agency

Well there you go... as a 'one off case', arn't I the lucky one!, my reply to them is below, while I look into this further.

 

Thank you for your reply, but as I have previously said, I complied with everything you asked, and it now seems that as you failed to reply to me on the previous communications that I am now left with the debt. I am not disputing the onus on the customer to cancel the contract or the fact that 30 days notice is required, which is what I have tried to do on numerous occasions, by telephone and writing.

 

Indeed I have received communications from Cap Quest and have also contacted them, (surprise surpirse no reply).

 

As from now I will escalate the complaint, through whatever means required.

 

Regards

(Nike) RED Lace Up Save Lives

This weekend see the UK, Spanish & Italian football leagues turn (RED) with  the special edition (NIKE) RED T90 Ascente ball to be used in all home fixtures.

To support for the 'Lace Up Saves Lives' campaign designed to raise funds and awareness for the fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa. The (Nike) RED ball is a specially designed T90 Ascente - the  ball currently used by all three leagues.

Previsously the Arsenal v Manchester United game at the Emirates stadium turned RED in support, with red goal nets, and players lining up in red jackets and laces.

Special edition Nike RED Laces, Footballs and Jackets are available from Kitbag, Turn RED and show your support. CLICK HERE

New Pay Monthly Tarriffs from O2

26th February saw O2 review their pay monthly tarriff offerings.

On an 18 month standard contract the some of the tarriffs on offer are:

£15.00 per month - 50 inclusive minutes and unlimited Texts
£20.00 per month - 100 minutes and unlimited Texts
£30.00 per month - 300 minutes and unlimited Texts + Free Bolt-on

On an 24 month standard contract the some of the tarriffs on offer are:

£10.00 per month - 50 inclusive minutes and unlimited Texts
£15.00 per month - 100 minutes and unlimited Texts
£25.00 per month - 300 minutes and unlimited Texts + Free Bolt-on

The plans offering 300 minutes or more and offer a free bolt on, this can be:

Unlimited 02 to 02 calls
Unlimited landline calls
Unlimited web

For mobile users that are currently on pay-as-you-go the £10 per month offering could be a usefull alternative, with the 50 free minutes, unlimited texts and you can choose a free phone such as the LG POP, Sony Ericsson Naite and Nokia 6303 and others.

Click For more on the latest tarriffs from O2

Cheap Network Storage with the WD My Book

I received a report of some problems with an old server at one of the offices I look after.

The server was Linux based and old used as a shared file store, and also a DHCP server.

After looking around at possible solutions. I decided to pull the service and its 80GB drive, configure the wireless router as the DHCP server and look for an alternative storage solution. As per usual costs had to be kept to a minimum.

The item I went for was a Western Digital 1TB My Book World Edition. A simple NAS and media server. I was surprised at the size of the unit which was little bigger than a standard external drive.

Set up was simple, connect the drive to the router, insert the CD and setup through the menu system. The drive allows me to have log on private storage for each employee, a public folder and easy to set up file folders all on the hefty 1TB drive.

Within a couple of hours all the old server data was put onto the world book and all the shares set up and back in operation. Looks tidy, takes up far less room, and even allows me to add more storage via a USB port on the back.

The cost for this unit was just under £100+VAT and fully recommended.

More info on the Western Digital My Book

Thumbs up for Barclays insurance!

Shortly before Christmas my son spilt a cup full of Cola onto his MacBook, now it was totally dead, and thought well thats that.

After a few days I realised that maybe it would be covered on house contents insurance, check the policy and hmmm no accidental damage cover, but I did have possessions cover.

Called the insurance company and was told no, laptops are not covered, deskops were ok but not portable equipment. At first I took their word for it, but on reading about the personal posessions cover decided to give them another call.

This time I was told (by a different person) of course my insurance covered it, they took my details and told me the people handling it would call me in a few days to arrange everything (this was 23rd December) due to the date I thought I would not hear anything until the new year. An hour later they called, took the details and said Macbook would be collected on the 29th December.

29th December came but no collection, however at 7pm on the 30th they DPD turned up packaged away the laptop and told me I would get a call in a week or so.

31st Decmeber 9:30 AM some 14 hours after collection I was called to say the Macbook had been inspected and deemed uneconomical to repair, paid my £75 excess and was told a new replacement MacBook had been ordered and will be will me on 5th January.

After the initial rejection, I have to say this is the best service  I have ever experienced.

My shopping online....

Quite surprised this year with buying online, although I have always preferred to get out to the shops and buy myself rather than order online, but this year I decided to do a bit more online, did I save money? of course! 

My fist buy was WWE Smackdown v Raw 2010 for PSP a little hunting around and I found this at Game for £15.95 just about half price.

My second item was Need for Speed for Xbox 360, Gamestation came up trumps here at an amazing £24.95

Off to sportsdirect.com where this time I purchased World cup replica ball at £12.99 (£2.00 less than most places) and Nike Mercurial Veloci V Junior SG for £24.99 another good saving. What impressed me most about this was that I placed the order Wednesday lunchtime and the order was delivered Thursday lunchtime.

A Kodak ESP 3250 Printer from Currys although not ordered online, I reserved to pick up and saved £8.00

One thing I did purchase instore was an iPod touch 32GB, which as my wife works for Sainsburys we used her discount card and got 15% off, the bargain here was I also got a £25.00 itunes gift card free with the multi-buy offer. ipod touch and gift card £195.00

So not a bad shop this week, with good savings too... Thanks merchants!