As you may have read in our recent 'Unmetered Report', freecall ISPs have been cropping up just about everywhere; not without their problems. It's difficult enough for a normal ISP to get off the ground, first there's the network to build, then there's the software and on top of that you're going to need a whole load of staff.

Nobody's perfect, but when some 90% of freecall ISPs neglect one of the most important aspects of the system, somebody has to take stock and get the word out. Sadly ISPs have been doing just that, in an effort to boost profits and reach ever closer to the 'break away' point, ISPs have been neglecting customer support.

Hah, customers support, why should we care?

Fair enough, not everybody cares about customer support and most have never even picked up the phone, preferring E-Mail or no contact at all. However sooner or later we all use them, whether it's to fix a service problem or to cancel an account, take that freedom away and things quickly get out of hand.

As an example, imagine for a moment that you've just purchased an account on a shiny new ISP. It offers the world and you're deeply looking forward to tasting the lush services and systems held within, problems arise when you realise your password doesn't work. A moment later and you're on the phone; there you stand for nearly 1hour on a premium rate line, no answer.

Having no success with the phone, you swiftly resort to sending a couple of E-Mails to the customer services and billing departments. Two weeks pass and any sort of reply doesn't appear to be forthcoming, in that period you have also tried to phone several more times, send faxes and even write a letter. You're at your wits end and there's not a damn thing that can be done about it, NOT A DAMN THING!

Sounds like a horror story doesn't it? Well this is exactly what's happening to a vast portion of those that take up freecall/unmetered ISP offers before they have had a chance to mature. Imagine trying to get a refund or cancel your account, how can this be possible if there's no business > customer communication?

Why is this happening?

It might surprise anyone to know that around 90% of freecall/unmetered ISPs have similar problems to those mentioned above, some almost manage to totally mirror them. Throughout the UK people are signing up for what they believe is a dream come true, freecall Internet access and no more nagging Telco bills! The truth is the UK simply isn't ready for such a huge upsurge; businesses are rushing head long into things they simply don't understand.

It costs enough to build the network and business surrounding an ISP, however the greatest costs often come from those employed to look after or work for it. The problem most new unmetered ISPs make is that they underestimate demand (that's their excuse anyway), this helps to cause service engage tones and very slow speeds for those that can actually get on.

Take the above and combine that with the unforgivable mistake of supplying levels of staff to suit a normal ISPs support system and not an unmetered one, instantly you have a problem. Worse still is that the cost of producing a freecall ISP can be so great that the ISP may have already made cut backs to the staff to help lower costs, adding to an already over strained system. The end result is a highly insufficient support staff to customer ratio of demand, something that bogs down almost ALL unmetered/freecall ISPs of the day.

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