UK ISPs ignore customer service
p2pnet.net news:- Britons are fed up with the service they’re getting from their ISPs with satisfaction levels declining significantly within 10 months, says Point Topic.
Some 92% of respondents saying they were ‘very’ or ‘fairly’ satisfied in February 2006 with the service they receive overall had dropped to 77% in December 2006, says the company.
It asked users about speed of service, billing clarity and value for money, among other topiocs, and the results suggests many ISPs are focusing on the rush to gain market share in a rapidly consolidating market at the expense of customer service, says Point Topic, pointing out that national regulator, Ofcom introduced ‘General Condition 22′ on the February 14 which requires all ISPs to use the ‘MAC process’ if they receive a migration request from a customer.
“The use of the MAC numbers, which will speed up the procedure of changing broadband suppliers, and consumers increasing familiarity with the process suggests that users are more likely to swap their ISP for another if they are unhappy with their service for too long.,” says the company.
Also See:
Point Topic – Broadband customers aren’t as happy as they used to be, February 27, 2007
MAC numbers – New UK ISP ’switching’ rules, February 16, 2007
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March 1st, 2007 at 6:58 am
It good to see the regulator OFCOM is now clamping down on this issue. If ISP doesn’t supply MAC code within 5 days then OFCOM will do it an fine ISP a lot money.
Well done OFCOM!
March 1st, 2007 at 7:02 am
It seams that if you use Windows Vista you could have problems with getting on line with Vista.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6407925.stm
March 1st, 2007 at 12:31 pm
There is a problem with Supanet at the moment insisting people pay £50 to geta MAC code which is against the new rules. People contacting Ofcom are basically told “tough, we don;t want to know”.
The announcement of the new rules was a puff piece designed to get into the press to show they are doing something. The media then moves onto the next story and Ofcom forgets it made the announcement and nothing changes for the customers.
Rincewind.
March 1st, 2007 at 1:59 pm
All uk isps are useless. They all have supposedly ‘unlimited services’, when in actual fact they aren’t. Instead they have a fair use policy, which mandates traffic shaping and other kinds of restricted usage.
They don’t want to admit the fact that millions of people in the uk use p2p sharing services, so they specify in the fair use clause, that only a tiny percentage of their customers use them, and therefore will be shaped. How exactly do they know how many people use p2p services?? They are using wishful thinking as far as i can see, they think if they ignore the ‘problem’, it will just go away and they wont have to invest in their bandwidth.
And yes, most uk isps currently try and max out their customer subscription base, then worry about bandwidth years down the line. Unfortunately, that leaves it’s customers in a rather precarious position. Usually, this means slow speeds, regular outages, and diabolical customer services (if you can actually talk to someone at all). Not to mention the dreaded 12/24 month contract lock-in.
I can see there will be a revolt at some point. A new service will come along and knock the current self-proclaimed market leaders off their positions, and they wont know what hit them. All the years of substandard service and traffic shaping will be rewarded with bankruptcy.
I’m hoping it will be the new power line broadband (if it ever comes). That would completely eliminate the need to use bt/secondary provider. It also makes sense because every home in the uk already has a power line infrastructure, removing the need to install bt telephone lines.
- Ben