RE: OT : Internet Service Providers...

["Phil Harris" <phillip.harris1@xxxxxxx>]

> Anyone with some legal background might be able to answer
> this question: Do or don't they practise false advertising
> when they say that you get a 24/7 internet connection and can
> reconnect at anytime you please after the 'standard' 4 hour cut-off?

My issue is with "Unmetered" - I'm not using it as an always on
service
and don't expect it to be so but they do state twice on their home page
that the service is unmetered and obviously this is not the case. I
wouldn't even mind so much if they sent you an email saying that your
usage patterns were innappropriate for their service and that if you
continued they would terminate your account but to just pull the plug
really pisses me off!

I have just spoken with their Managing Director - Steve Kaye. I was
first told that I have been connected continuously for 36 hours and that
was why my service had been disconnected. He obviously had access to my
logs as he was able to tell me that I have an email client which checks
for email every five minutes and then drops the line three minutes
later. (Hence I've not been connected *CONTINUOUSLY* which kinda goes
against their "reconnect at anytime".)

Now, it just so happens that I left my laptop on last night (fell asleep
in front of the telly, woke up at 2:30 and staggered to bed) but when I
was asked what level of useage I considered I may need I said perhaps up
to 16 hours a day depending whether I was in or out. I was told that
this was unnacceptable. I asked what was acceptable and he said that he
couldn't tell me ... That it was an automated system that takes current
demand into account when determining maximum allowable connection times
within a period which is currently 24 hours. I don't consider that this
picking numbers out of a hat without telling you method of determining
allowable usage is acceptable. I was also unable to find out from  him
when my account would become active once more! ("It's an automated
system sir.")

I asked Mr. Kaye about his note in a message about connection problems
(that you can only get to via the server status page) which says "V21
will then be collating weekly reports of the users whose accounts have
been suspended in this way and talking to those users to suggest more
suitable connection methods for them." and asked him what service he
would recommend as I really didn't want to have this hassle again -
"ADSL" was his reply however he seemed unsuprised that ADSL was
not
available in my area. He also didn't think much of my suggestion that if
they would provide the service I would be happy to stump up another
tenner a month!

> I've come to the point that I just can not be bothered to go
> hunting for another get rich quick ISP and am joining AOL.
> But ofcourse will following this thread with great interest... :-)

I'm just looking for a service where I have *ONE* dialup number and
which is reliable ... I have a BT Surftime account but that has two
numbers which screws access via my router!

Phil