Any one having problems with AOL?

John - good for you. Let us know how you get on with getting the �£45 back.

Helen - Sorry to hear you're still having problems with AOL. When i bought my PC's, they both came with AOL which i immediately removed. I had read such bad reports about them in my computer mag, plus i was with BT PAYG to start with.

I'm with Virgin for everything at the mo, but they mess up now and again with the tv side. i phone them every time I got my monthly fee reduced by �£10 p.m. cos of it, but as Sky offer about the same that could have been the real reason!

Imp - just be careful regarding cancelling your dd. i've heard of people in real trouble cos of doing that. Someone on here will be able to advise you better (sorry for bad english) i'm sure.

Blooming isp's are rubbish. It always gets me that when you watch US programmes they are able to stay on net all day, get connected in 3 seconds whether phone or net and that is even in old shows.

hope you all get sorted soon.

cheers

 

I had a bad experience with Tiscali last year when I changed over from them to BT.

Having had problems leaving Virgin Net some years before I was extra careful to keep records of everything. I Phoned Tiscali, and told them I wanted to migrate to BT and to close my account immediately. This was all greed and sent me a letter giving me the migration code but asking me not to cancel the direct debit as a month's notice was required and we were half way thro' a month and therefore 2 payments were still required.

Fair enough, I waited for the second month to clear and then cancelled my direct debit at the bank. Thought that was end of story, but no!

About 3 months later I received a demand for 3 months payments in arrears! As I was no longer with them I ignored it thinking that they can't charge me anyway. After 6 months I received a letter from them asking for further money and if I didn't pay by a certain date they would hand over to a debt recovery company, which they did.

I then received a letter from the debt recover company telling me that I must pay by a certain date or court proceeds will be taken out against me. I phoned them up and told them the real facts and they said they would check into it. A month later I received the same letter all over again but gave me a time and date that the debt recovery agent would be calling to collect the outstanding debt!

Phoned them up again, and they agreed not to call if I could produce the evidence (copy of letter from BT and copy of letter from Tiscali of migration code) which finally did the trick!

I think they are all as bad as each other, and probably make quite a bit extra in trying to frighten people into paying money that they don't owe! Let's face it they would not use these tactics if it was not profitable!

 

The 2 worse ones DAGS are TalkTalk (also known as the Cowboy Warehouse) who now own AOL UK and Tiscali who bought out Pipex. They have, in my opinion, formed an illegal cartel and are slowly buying out all the other companies. Sky advertises its broadband at �£5 a month if you are a Sky TV customer but actually charges �£17 a month, they just hide it in other things. It's like TalkTalk's so called free broadband which is actually very expensive.

I also have had threatening letters off Pipex/Tiscali demanding money I didn't owe but I just sent one email back saying I would contest it if they wanted to go to court and told them not to mess around but to get the summons issued. They never did. But I am expecting the same tactics now that I have actually managed to leave them.

 

I have to say, I`m with Virginn Media, I have their large broadband package, which is up to 4 meg. But they are now, over the next 6 months, upgrading, free of charge, to 10meg. We have small problems with the tv reception from time to time, but nothing major. Overall, I`m quite happy.

 

Dont get me started on the carphone warehouse, This company is a total sham with zero cutomer service and a couldnt give a **** atitude.

I bought a motorola k razor phone from them last year and they point blank refused to replace or repair it when the screen died a day later, as I hadnt taken the stupidly expensive ripp of insurance out.

Didnt get my money back as I walked out or else id of ended up punching the manager but have put off many existing and future customers with the story.

 

I agree Shieny, but:

TBH I gave up as I dont have time for letter writing and the store is in Bristol thus costing me �£10.60 a time bridge toll plus derv.

Thankfully being self employed it is atleast tax deductable.

I find the short sighted ness of the CPW amazing, they did themselves out of potentially my lifetimes worth of future business over a �£130 retail value phone.

In reality with the bulk buying dicounts the cost of replacing it would have been more like �£40 to CPW.

Happily there are still a lot of other companies out there who value and provide traditional standards of customer service.

 

pro gard send it bach to manufactures with receipt they will send you a new phone, tell them your story .been there and done ,got a better phone than the one i had

 

Originally posted by Shiney:

I got a bit more Shiney. Just got an email from the CEO of Pipex saying that 'as a measure of goodwill' they have cancelled the balance of my contract (it still had 2 months to run) and were sending me a cheque for �£100 to compensate me for any inconvenience and to cover my phone charges. Of course they still (had to) claim that they did nothing wrong and the only reason they ignored my request for a MAC was because of the data protection act. Quite funny really. But at least the matter is now closed. And I won a small victory but a worthwhile one for the ordinary consumer.

 

I am absolutely fed up with AOL.Some days I cannot start it at all.j42

 

Good for you John


cheers

 

Well, my ISP changed this a.m. to Fast so they now have 10 days to find my maximum speed. But already the connection seems more stable. I used to get 10 and 20 second dropouts regularly as well as the less frequent long dropouts.

Hilariously (but as I knew they would) Pipex sent me an email (actually 2 identical emails) saying that my bill for next month would be on-line from March 23rd. I wonder why they don't have Easter Sunday where they are?

 

I started with Tiscali years ogo rubbish,
moved to BT not much better,
onto Freeserve,/Wanadoo/now Orange been with them about three years no complaints.