timmygcsc2308 wrote on Dec 4
th, 2006 at 3:27pm:
And I can't believe you have considered against an Entanet reseller because of an 0870 issue, how misinformed you must be..so who are you going to plump for then? AOL? NTL? Even if you DID need to contact Freeola tech support, their FREE email response would be quicker than waiting on hold with a 'big' ISP. Trust me you are a fool if you are going to put this company down
No I would never go to TalkTalk, NTL or Tiscali although actually AOL were quite a good choice for heavy downloaders prior to their acquisition by TalkTalk. The main companies I would consider as alternative to Freeola and none of whom use 0871 numbers are those top rated for customer support and broadband speed at
www.dslzoneuk.net/isp_ratings.php and
www.dslzoneuk.net/isp_speed.php?test=8128&month=11&year=2006&submit=View+average...Also I thought you should know that last week I called UKFSN on their London geographic number and got straight through to Jason who's knowledge about the broadband industry and issues with ADSLMax etc was extremely impressive. As you know
www.ukfsn.org are another reseller of Entanet broadband packages and have been in business a long time in ISP terms but they do not levy the £5 per month additional charge that Freeola makes from Month 4 on (clawing back all the month 1 to 3 artificial discount for anyone merely migrating to them rather than getting a new connection).
As a potential customer of Freeola who lost my custom due to their offputting 0871 numbers and extra £5 levy a month after Month 4 over better priced Entanet suppliers I am quite entitled to give my view.
I can tell you that other good quality ISPs listed at
www.dslzoneuk.net are able to offer just as fast a broadband service and just as good customer support without using 0871. IDNet who are also near top rated for customer support and ADSL Max download speed use 0800 numbers and NewNet use 0845 as do Zen. Had 0871 been used but the 10p per minute been made clear by Freeola that would be one thing. To use 0871 and then disgracefully try to play dumb about how it should be described (since its obvious from your own comments that Freeola staff know perfectly well what the costs implications of calling 0871 compared to 0870 are) is just quite outrageous.
We are talking about blatant breaches of ASA rules and trading standards rules here just so Freeola could put a few more pence per minute in its pocket from calls without many of its customers initially realising (due to the National Rate misdescription which is far more outrageous and unforgiveable on 0871 than 0870).
Speaking of which you remind me to start a thread about Entanet calling its 0870 technical support number on its website National Rate. But at least Entanet have geographic alternatives in the Unverified database on this site which I have checked and are answered on the very first ring.
There are several other decent quality ISPs with fast connections none of whom use 0871 and some of whom use geographic or 0800 numbers. So what's Freeola's excuse for using 0871 then and calling it National Rate then until we complained loudly about this being heavily misleading?