Posted: 25th Mar, 2003 By: MarkJ
Having read a number of broadband success stories its only right that the odd broadband disaster item get an airing.
This is very much a tale of how BT and
BTOpenworld screwed things up for Simon Claridge's connection:
Essentially, in December last year BT Analogue mistakenly disconnected his phone line, which he uses for his broadband connection. This in turn triggered an automatic response from BT Openworld Broadband.
Detecting a break in his phone service it disconnected his broadband connection and then invoked the 12-month minimum connection penalty of £210. This was immediately deducted from Mr Claridge's bank account, and so began three months of misery.
The upshot was that Mr Claridge was paying for mistakes he hadn't made. "I had broadband for five months until the brief disconnection of my second line put in for broadband," he explained. "Despite a memo between BT analogue and the broadband people during which BT Analogue accepted blame and guilt, they said they can't transfer this memo to the billing [department] to action a refund/reconnection."The whole sordid affair can be read in full on
VNUNet, but be warned, it's even more frightening than watching '
The Ring' alone =).