Sponsored Links

Firenet problems

Cyfrin

thanks for your response, we hope the letter will arrive with us soon, and we will reply to your letter as soon as it arrives.
 
You have to be jesting!!:mad:

The letter was dated 5th Feb and posted 6th Feb to:

FIRENET ISP
PO Box 358
Knockmore Industrial Estate
Lisburn
BT28 9AF
 
It's always a good idea to send any important documents via Recorded Mail as that way it's less likely to go missing and you have the ability to check its status. I’ve seen some first class mail take up to two weeks to reach certain parts of the country, no idea why it takes RM so long as it’s very annoying. So much for "First Class".
 
Hello Cyfrin

Thanks for your response.

I cannot understand why you feel we are jesting? please advise on what you want more from us? We have now provided everything you wanted including good will credits?

We would certainly like to complete this now?

Alan
 
I am jesting because you say you have not seen my letter - which includes the BT copy of many many phone calls made during the 4 weeks downtime - which was posted on 6th....................:hrmph:

Is this how you complete all disputes? In a public forum? :mad:
 
Alan - I have just forwarded you some emails you say you or your staff have not seen. I also have sent you another email with the letter, you also 'have not seen' attached.

From now on please respond by email or letter - not here!

Thanx
 
Sponsored Links
Cyfrin

You know my personal address, please send it to that, i still have not got anything from you via email, if you need it, i am happy to do this by getting JP to call you with updates, but i am really interested in getting this letter.

Remember to send it to our new address if you want to send it again to our address

Firenet Internet
52 Market Street
Lurgan
Craigavon
BT66 6DG
 
I do not know your personal address.
Why isn't that new address on your website?

I have ticket numbers for the emails resent to you after you said you had not received them~~

Your support ticket has been assigned an ID of [Firenet: #42945]
Your support ticket has been assigned an ID of [Firenet: #42944]
Your support ticket has been assigned an ID of [Firenet: #42943]

Ticket no. 42944 was headed FAO ALAN CASTLE


:confused:
 
I have had an email response from Alan Castle & will now discuss this with him via email & post, as I wanted to originally :)
 
I have had emails from the CEO of FN but no explanation as to why I was disconnected for 4 weeks, and no recompense for the huge number of phone calls made to FN & BT during those 4 weeks.
If I returned to FN however I would receive some benefit, but I am happy to say with my new ISP.

So that's it - over & out!!
:)
 
cyfrin,

You have been treated in a most appalling manner by Firenet. You should be entitled to a full refund of your telephone calls, plus £10 per hour for the time spent dealing with this. I think it is appalling that the CEO should not recognise this fact, and the suggestion that you might return to Firenet in order to receive "some benefit" is a joke.

The problems seem to arise from poor or negligent administration on the side of Firenet. They could not locate any of the emails or letters you sent. As is the case with me, they have no record of any phone calls and emails I sent.

Regarding my problems with trying to leave Firenet, I finally got to speak with someone about it after several hours of telephoning. I did insist on speaking to the CEO several times, but was always told he was not contactable and that I was wasting my time going down this route (seems to be the case going by your experience). I was assured that there would be no further problems and they would look into refunding the last two months subscription. That was on the 14th of February, so far I haven't heard anything back, but I will give it more time.

It would be interesting to see what information Firenet do actually hold about their customer complaints. Unfortunately the Customer Services Team do not seem to be aware of the Data Protection Act and could not advise who DPA applications should be sent to.

ian t
 
Sponsored Links
Thanx for the reply Ian - yes, I agree with all you say!
However I am past caring about FN - so many ridiculous emails like this:

Dorothy,

I have tried to make you understand with the issues that we had with your service, i have already on numerous occassions apologised for your issue, i have refunded you 2 months service, and cancelled your account with out your having to use our contractual method, i have read all the correspondance that you have sent and, To apologise further, there is nothing more i can do for you in this instance.

As a company who offers broadband for retail customers, we dont offer compensation, especially when you leave us, and then expect compensation, as we are not in the position to give money to customers through no or very little fault of our own.

I would ask therefore after reading the outcome of your issues, accept my apologies once more, but accept there is no more that can be done here for you.

I thankyou for the years of custom you have given us, and wished you still remained a customer so that i could have helped you more with credits to your account. But this was your choice from our bad situation via BT. I would like to remind you that no other company would have a CEO spend so much time dealing with such issues, thats why they have customer helplines.

i cannot offer you an explanation of what happened, as we do not know ourselves and you never allowed us the chance to work with BT to resolve it.

I wish the best for the future and now wish to get on with running my companies if you have any more queries, i cannot unfortunately spend any more time than what i did at an earlier stage to refund and cancel your account last week.

Alan Castle CEO Castle Group Plc


and this ~

Hello Dorothy,

I have received your emails, and have read them over, however i am unsure of what you want from me now?

I cannot offer you any more than what i did, which is

1 Refund 2 months credits onto your bill
2 Cancel your account outside of our agreement, and regulationary requirements.
3 Give you a mac code.

I am unsure as to how you want to proceed, and very happy to talk to you over this, however i am not willing to waste silly amounts of time talking over and over again with what is in the past.

I am keen to learn about what happened with your service, however you constantly blamed us for your issues, yet, we know and still state the issue is the nonsense with BT, they always seem to be able to provide a better service when the service is degraded with other providers.

You are not the first person who suddenly fail mac transfer and then have BT come to the rescue.

I am happy if you are happy, however i fail to see what else you want from us that you havent already got from us.

Alan



The CEO 'tried to make me understand' :confused: I know nothing!!
To date I have received the one month's subscription (taken from my son's account) not 2 as stated.
How I stopped FN from 'working with BT' is a mystery!! :eek:
Happy? far from it!
Never had a failed mac transfer that I was aware of - as allegedly FN asked for mac codes for customers back in November....
Never wanted a mac code as I used an alternative phone number already in the house!

Anyway - You live & learn and after 7 years of recommending FN as a great ISP, I have learnt! :crap:

I did reply at length to the above email but have heard nothing and don't expect to!:hrmph:
 
Cyfrin,

Well I certainly agree that the responses are ridiculous. I could clearly understand what you were wanting from FN and why, just from the information given in this blog.

Here is my personal point of view, WITHOUT PREJUIDICE:


" cancelled your account with out your having to use our contractual method"



A contract existed between you and FN; you pay money, they provide a service. When they fail to provide the service the contract is breached and they are duty bound to compensate. FN seems to think the contract is one sided and that you must adhere to contractual obligations when they don't.


"we don’t offer compensation, especially when you leave us, and then expect compensation, as we are not in the position to give money to customers through no or very little fault of our own."


GOSH!!! Why not? However the problem occurred is irrelevant. They failed to provide the service. Regardless of whose fault it was (it certainly wasn't yours) the contract is between you and FN. If any third party cause a problem for FN that is not an issue that you need be concerned with. It is a rather cavalier attitude towards the law that they say they will only provide compensation if you remain a customer with them! Apart from that they seem to even admit some direct responsibility. As I understand it, you left FN because THEY failed to honour the contract by failing to provide a reasonable service and this resulted in further costs to you.


"I would like to remind you that no other company would have a CEO spend so much time dealing with such issues, thats why they have customer helplines."


A well run company wouldn't need the CEO to be doing all this. Are you supposed to feel honoured that someone with such status is giving you the time of day - while failing to address any real issues.

"i cannot offer you an explanation of what happened, as we do not know ourselves and you never allowed us the chance to work with BT to resolve it."

OK, so FN doesn’t know what’s wrong. You don't really need to know either; you just need to be compensated. Leave BT out of it, if FN has a problem with BT then that is THEIR problem. They still need to provide the service that you pay them to provide.

"You are not the first person who suddenly fail mac transfer and then have BT come to the rescue."

????? eh?? You are also not the first person to have problems with trying to get information from FN!!!


"i cannot unfortunately spend any more time than what i did at an earlier stage to refund and cancel your account last week."


I am sure he would if you took FN to the Small Claims Court.

"I cannot offer you any more than what i did, which is

1 Refund 2 months credits onto your bill
2 Cancel your account outside of our agreement, and regulationary requirements.
3 Give you a mac code."

Which is much less than what he is legally obliged to do under such circumstances.

As regards keeping you son’s credit card details on record for far longer than necessary is surely a breach of the Data Protection Act. It would be worthwhile getting the the Data Commissioner to look into this, especially since their helpline staff don't know how to deal with DPA enquiries. Also taking that money without permission from the card holder is quite a serious criminal offence. As I say, a cavalier attitude.

"i am not willing to waste silly amounts of time talking over and over again with what is in the past."

Well don't!! Just pay the compensation. What about the "silly" amount of time you have spent on it. Sounds very condescending. If I don't get my last two months refunded within the very near future I'll just take legal action against the company and not bother getting into discussions with the CEO who clearly thinks that customers should feel humbled that the CEO has personally said sorry!!! We don't work for him, he is supposed to work for the customer.
 
Thanx so much ian - you certainly have understood where I am coming from even if FN & the CEO don't!!
 
Guys,

i have read this forum over and over again, i am not willing to get into a steaming match with you all here or anywhere.

I appreciate all your feedback but i have done all i can, it seems this is very non-constructive. I wont be pulled into a slagging match here.

I am unhappy that Dottie has on one hand asked for me to email her only then publically installed emails to the forum, which leads to concern as to why this was asked, i am feel her reasons are not appropriate.

Dottie, i cannot help you further, i have made this clear, if you are unsatisfied with my help thus far, i dont know what else to say or do that is reasonable.

Ian, i cannot deal with your issue unless you have something to give me, if you email my staff direct they will be able to help you with your solution and very quickly.
 
Sponsored Links
Hi weatherlawyer - No I'm not! Cannot be bothered to waste my time, but this thread has certainly inflamed someone!

No-one is requiring you to respond to me again Alan. The posts are just for information. As to the posting of the email content, there was no ulterior motive when I first asked you to contact me directly. It seems you are more comfortable with replying on forums than direct to the customer - imho.

End of ................:)
 
Firenet said:

“i have read this forum over and over again, i am not willing to get into a steaming match with you all here or anywhere.”

“I appreciate all your feedback but i have done all i can, it seems this is very non-constructive. I wont be pulled into a slagging match here.”


Who’s trying to do that? Not cyfrin. Not me. I see no attempt to enter a “slagging match”, I see no personal attacks. All that I can see in the recent postings is two people sharing information and concluding our points of view as to our customer experience of using Firenet. My last two posts were simply to let cyfrin know that I sympathised with her situation and that I agree with her point of view. Cyfrin’s last post was to provide further information about how this situation developed as it was clear that there was at least one other person interested i.e. me, in hearing about it. I think that is quite constructive. I did not actually expect any follow up to this thread as it is fairly conclusive.

Accusing people of trying to create a “slagging match” simply because you do not like what is being said is not constructive and is something I take exception to. You continuously say “there is nothing more I can do to help you”. Fine! We accept that is your point of view. We just don’t agree with you. Why bother saying it over and over again? To sum up; we both think the CEO’s response is ridiculous and unhelpful, and we see no point in continuing to discuss anything further with the CEO. I really don’t think there is much more that can be said about this, but should we wish to discuss our points of view further among ourselves, then that is up to us. You are welcome to contribute so long as you do so in a mature and constructive way.

Weatherlawer asks

“are you going to take [Firenet] to court?”.

I’m not sure if the question is addressed to cyfrin, me, or both of us. If the question is addressed to me then the answer is; I don’t know. I am not interested so much in the monetary value of such an action (compensation would be about £40) but rather the fact that I don’t like bad customer service, especially after many years of loyalty. I would likely discuss it with Trading Standards first if I were to pursue this, but that would only be after allowing a period of time for a response and probably a DPA release. Of course, as I have already said, I have already emailed and telephoned Firenet several times but they do not seem to keep a record of such things. I note that I have not received a further bill from Firenet this month so it looks like my subscription has been successfully cancelled at last. Maybe I should be grateful to have got this far.

And to finish off with something constructive to ponder on, here is a few quotes from some people who know what they are talking about:


“A dissatisfied ‘customer’ tells 22 people; a satisfied ‘customer’ tells 8 people...”
--Ford Motor Company Executive


“Worry about being better...Think one customer at a time and take care of each one the best way you can.”
--Gary Comer

“Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong.”
Donald Porter V.P., British Airways

“The customer’s perception is your reality.”
Kate Zabriskie

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning”.
Bill Gates

“In the world of Internet Customer Service, it's important to remember your competitor is only one mouse click away.”
Doug Warner

“Never underestimate the power of the irate customer.”
Joel Ross
 
ian t - You have said it all! Well done :)

Plus someone @ FN needs to take a copy of these & hang it above their desk ;) ~~~

“A dissatisfied ‘customer’ tells 22 people; a satisfied ‘customer’ tells 8 people...”
--Ford Motor Company Executive


“Worry about being better...Think one customer at a time and take care of each one the best way you can.”
--Gary Comer

“Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong.”
Donald Porter V.P., British Airways

“The customer’s perception is your reality.”
Kate Zabriskie

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning”.
Bill Gates

“In the world of Internet Customer Service, it's important to remember your competitor is only one mouse click away.”
Doug Warner

“Never underestimate the power of the irate customer.”
Joel Ross
 
Top
Cheap BIG ISPs for 100Mbps+
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £22.99
132Mbps
Gift: None
Vodafone UK ISP Logo
Vodafone £24.00 - 26.00
150Mbps
Gift: None
NOW UK ISP Logo
NOW £24.00
100Mbps
Gift: None
Plusnet UK ISP Logo
Plusnet £25.99
145Mbps
Gift: £50 Reward Card
Large Availability | View All
Cheapest ISPs for 100Mbps+
Gigaclear UK ISP Logo
Gigaclear £17.00
200Mbps
Gift: None
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £22.99
132Mbps
Gift: None
Hey! Broadband UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Youfibre UK ISP Logo
Youfibre £23.99
150Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Sponsored Links
The Top 15 Category Tags
  1. FTTP (6027)
  2. BT (3639)
  3. Politics (2721)
  4. Business (2440)
  5. Openreach (2405)
  6. Building Digital UK (2330)
  7. Mobile Broadband (2146)
  8. FTTC (2083)
  9. Statistics (1901)
  10. 4G (1816)
  11. Virgin Media (1764)
  12. Ofcom Regulation (1582)
  13. Fibre Optic (1467)
  14. Wireless Internet (1462)
  15. 5G (1407)
Sponsored

Copyright © 1999 to Present - ISPreview.co.uk - All Rights Reserved - Terms  ,  Privacy and Cookie Policy  ,  Links  ,  Website Rules