Vispa

Utter crap.

Please ex-Titan users, if Titan gave you up to these cowboys, get out NOW, while you still have a chance for a MAC code.

Utter poor speeds, the throttling is even worse than BT, and thats with sites like Youtube, BBC I-player, anything that Vispa deems unimportant, such as the Internet.

I have been with Vispa now for over 5 years. Service has been up and down over that period, but in the last 12 months it has improved until very recently.

Vispa has recently taken on the Titan and Abel customer base - Vispa's systems, resources and support appears to be over-stretched. Overall things are not good at the mo.

Their out-of-hours support is non-existent; their telephone support works spasmodically.

Their phone systems are supposed to give one the option to verify status (ie any issues, etc), and/or leave a message regarding any issues - yesterday when the systems failed , none of the phone systems worked, albeit trying all day. Even the old system of how many callers waiting wasn't operational. Using VOIP for this doesn't in my mind make much sense; when the systems are down, VOIP also fails!

In summary, their vaunted customer service, has only rarely fulfilled the hype.

PS I was also charged twice for last December, but after several emails managed to resolve by agreeing not to pay anything in January.

I have been a Vispa Subscriber since August 2009.I have had contracts with 'major players' in the past and have consistantly had issues with speed, continuity and the biggest bugbear of them all, Customer Service.

Since August 2009, none of these issues have arisen. Outages are promptly dealt with. The Technical Support is excellent. The out of hours support, is unfortunately, by email only.
For some this might be an issue. My experience is again, that issues are dealt with promptly.

Yes, they have there teething troubles but they are resolved in a satisfactory manner and within a reasonable timeframe.

If your experience with BT, TalkTalk, Tiscali or any of the other so-called big names has been disappointing to say the least, then I would suggest you give Vispa a try. It is more expensive than any of the providers mentioned but, I think you'll find that extra cost is justified.

Ian Arnold.

I have been with Vispa since the days of dial & have always been VERY happy to be with one of the so called smaller ISP's. They offer great value for money, friendly tech support & an all round great internet experience. Yes like any growing organisation they have had a few teething problems but are willing to resolve any issues quickly & without a fuss. I have had no issues with speed & appreciate the fact that they DON'T OFFER really cheap unlimited usage packages, as all who have done so end up ruining the network for the "normal user".

All in all excellent support, great value for money & I would recommend them if you are looking to change from one of those other ISP's where you are confronted by scripted replies from Indian call centres or have your speed throttled when you occasionally break your usage cap !!!

I've been a customer since I started using Vispa dial-up in early 2001. I've had ADSL with them since 2003. After December 2009 I can honestly say that I can't wait to be free from what has become an excuse for an ISP. Why?

For one thing, during December my connection was so slow and unreliable that I was stuck with using dial-up instead. To quote Managing Director James Omerod when replying to a customer who was speaking out about the same issue:

"Many thanks for spitting your dummy out!

If you would have spoken to our customer support, we would have told you that our centrals are running at maximum capacity and that our new BT host link was commissioned today and being brought into services on 24th December 2009..."

"All other customers who have noticed the loss in speeds have been perfectly happy and accepted that it will be back to normal in one week's time. At least we have done something about it and ordered more capacity."

First of all, as one of these customers Omerod mentions, I was *NOT* happy that the service I was paying for had become unusable. Just because I did not make a complaint to Vispa did *not* mean that I was "happy" about paying for a service that for a protracted period of time I could not use.

And this brings me onto my next point. Why didn't I complain? Well, take a look at Omerod's words. "Many thanks for spitting your dummy out!" What kind of MD of what kind of company speaks to its customers with such blatant contempt?

As if all this were not enough, on Christmas Eve I discovered that Vispa had taken THREE payments in December! They recharged me for the month of October and November! When I e-mailed billing to ask what the heck was going on I got this reply:

These invoices have previously been paid, our system has reset itself and set them to unpaid. Please advise if you have paid these again and we will refund accordingly.

Not only did I receive no e-mail notification of Vispa having taken extra payments, but they also do not appear on my transactions history on Vispa's own website. So, Vispa have taken my money with no receipt or record anywhere but on my own bank statement! I feel like i've been mugged!

This issue is still ongoing with Vispa having asked me to send them my bank statements! God knows when I'll get my money back. What a nice Christmas present on top of having to pay for the month of December when for most of it the service was so poor that I could not even use it!

What an utter, utter shambles of an excuse for an ISP. Save yourself a lot of worry and headaches and find a *competent* ISP.