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Re: Freeserve - twist the knife!
hmmm. Looks like I'll have one of those letters sitting in my freeserve
account then. Not that I can get at it, as they want me to email my
password to them so they can investigate the account. Problem is, the
reason I can't get at it is that my password doesn't work :-)
On Wed, 15 Nov 2000 09:43:30 Mark McCall wrote:
> I'm on The Register !! (Fame at last)
>
> Read on....
>
>
>
> http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/14714.html
> Freeserve: the worst customer service in the world?
> By: Kieren McCarthy
> Posted: 14/11/2000 at 12:58 GMT
>
>
> UK ISP Freeserve has gone one step further in alienating its customers
by
> sending out hundreds of thousands of emails demanding payment within
> seven days or risk being cut off Freeserve Time altogether.
>
> An estimated 250,000 people received an email beginning:
"According to
> our records, the following amount is outstanding on your account:
£xx.xx.
> If the amount shown above remains outstanding, you should note that
under
> the terms of your agreement with us you are required to pay by direct
> debit and if we are unable to collect the amounts due by direct debit,
> the debt will be forwarded to an external agency for manual collection
> and may result in the Service being suspended or cancelled."
>
> Except a number of readers have contacted us to tell us that they
> actually set up direct debit accounts with Freeserve and so would like
to
> know why they are being threatened with bailiffs for less than £20. A
> number of them contacted Freeserve and were informed that Freeserve
> Time's billing system had fallen over and had been unable to access
> direct debit accounts for at least three months. This was confirmed
with
> reference to readers' bank statements.
>
> It would appear there has been a complete breakdown and so a mass
> (hysterical) email has been sent out to claim all outstanding debts.
One
> reader, on calling Freeserve for information, was told to send a copy
of
> his bank statement proving what he had paid (to a different address)
as
> the company had no record of who had paid what when. People are,
> unsurprisingly, not very happy about the situation.
>
> We gave Freeserve a call and outlined the main problems. It confirmed
an
> email demanding money had been sent out but insisted it had not been
sent
> out by Freeserve, rather network supplier Energis Communications. A
> statement is apparently "being prepared" and confirmation
was needed for
> all other points.
>
> Yesterday, Freeserve annoyed hundreds more customers by cutting them
off
> for "abusing" the service.
>
>
> ******THIS WAS ME**********
> We received an email from one of the 700 original people pulled off
last
> month. In it, he claimed that in response to a letter sent by him to
the
> Freeserve board, he was informed that anyone using the service for
more
> than 340 hours in August had been pulled off.
> ***********************************
>
> As he points out, this equates to 11 hours per day, and not the 17
hours
> per day that Freeserve was claiming. A Freeserve spokeswoman told us
that
> those pulled off had been the subject of "careful
investigations" but she
> would look into the situation.
>
> All this looks extremely bad for Freeserve. It also begs the question
of
> how much cash and liquid assets Freeserve has at its disposal. Is
Energis
> dragging out what it can? Can Freeserve not afford to run at a loss
any
> longer? Has funding dried up? We'll wait and see. ®
>
>
>
> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0
Transitional//EN">
> <HTML><HEAD>
> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html;
charset=iso-8859-1">
> <META content="MSHTML 5.50.4207.2601" name=GENERATOR>
> <STYLE></STYLE>
> </HEAD>
> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff><FONT face=Arial size=2>
> <DIV class=story_head>I'm on The Register !! (Fame at
last)</DIV>
> <DIV class=story_head> </DIV>
> <DIV class=story_head>Read on....</DIV>
> <DIV class=story_head> </DIV>
> <DIV class=story_head> </DIV>
> <DIV class=story_head> </DIV>
> <DIV class=story_head><A
> href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/14714.html";>http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/14714.html</A></DIV>
> <DIV class=story_head>Freeserve: the worst customer service in
the
> world?</DIV>
> <DIV class=story_byline><A href="mailto:kieren.mccarthy@xxxxxxx";>By:
>
> <A href="mailto:kieren.mccarthy@xxxxxxx";>Kieren
> McCarthy</A></A></DIV>
> <DIV class=index_posted>Posted: 14/11/2000 at 12:58
GMT</DIV><BR>
> <DIV class=story_body>UK ISP Freeserve has gone one step further
in
> alienating
> its customers by sending out hundreds of thousands of emails demanding
> payment
> within seven days or risk being cut off Freeserve Time altogether.
> <BR><BR>An
> estimated 250,000 people received an email beginning: "According
to our
> records,
> the following amount is outstanding on your account: £xx.xx. If the
> amount shown
> above remains outstanding, you should note that under the terms of
your
> agreement with us you are required to pay by direct debit and if we
are
> unable
> to collect the amounts due by direct debit, the debt will be forwarded
to
> an
> external agency for manual collection and may result in the Service
being
>
> suspended or cancelled." <BR><BR>Except a number of
readers have
> contacted us to
> tell us that they actually set up direct debit accounts with Freeserve
> and so
> would like to know why they are being threatened with bailiffs for
less
> than
> £20. A number of them contacted Freeserve and were informed that
> Freeserve
> Time's billing system had fallen over and had been unable to access
> direct debit
> accounts for at least three months. This was confirmed with reference
to
> readers' bank statements. <BR><BR>It would appear there
has been a
> complete
> breakdown and so a mass (hysterical) email has been sent out to claim
all
>
> outstanding debts. One reader, on calling Freeserve for information,
was
> told to
> send a copy of his bank statement proving what he had paid (to a
> different
> address) as the company had no record of who had paid what when.
People
> are,
> unsurprisingly, not very happy about the situation.
<BR><BR>We gave
> Freeserve a
> call and outlined the main problems. It confirmed an email demanding
> money had
> been sent out but insisted it had not been sent out by Freeserve,
rather
> network
> supplier Energis Communications. A statement is apparently "being
> prepared" and
> confirmation was needed for all other points.
<BR><BR>Yesterday,
> Freeserve
> annoyed hundreds more customers by cutting them off for
"abusing" the
> service.
> </DIV>
> <DIV class=story_body> </DIV>
> <DIV class=story_body> </DIV>
> <DIV class=story_body>******THIS WAS ME**********</DIV>
> <DIV class=story_body>We received an email from one of the 700
original
> people
> pulled off last month. In it, he claimed that in response to a letter
> sent by
> him to the Freeserve board, he was informed that anyone using the
service
> for
> more than 340 hours in August had been pulled off.
> <BR>***********************************</DIV>
> <DIV class=story_body><BR>As he points out, this equates
to 11 hours per
> day,
> and not the 17 hours per day that Freeserve was claiming. A Freeserve
> spokeswoman told us that those pulled off had been the subject of
> "careful
> investigations" but she would look into the situation.
<BR><BR>All this
> looks
> extremely bad for Freeserve. It also begs the question of how much
cash
> and
> liquid assets Freeserve has at its disposal. Is Energis dragging out
what
> it
> can? Can Freeserve not afford to run at a loss any longer? Has funding
> dried up?
> We'll wait and see. ® <BR></DIV></FONT>
> <DIV><FONT face=Arial
size=2></FONT> </DIV>
> <br>
>
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