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Homecall!!!! Dont Do It Please!!!!!

Ok i`ll keep this as brief as possible

joined april 2005 , constant double billing and at the wrong rate of the package i signed up for i.w 24.99 for a 19.99 everytime then doubled
crap speeds on the broadband from day 1 but tolerated it as it was better than dial up and hey i was tied into a 12 month contract !!
everything tolerable untill dec 2005 , the bills we insisted we werent going to pay until they had credited us back for the over billing were eventually sorted (after probably spending £10 a time on 0870 calls though ) there is a direct number though i find out later 01614511000 or direct to there scummy customer service centre 0161 451 2214 where the head of customer Relations is Mark Carberry.
so anyway in amongst all this billing prob we get offered an upgrade from 512k to 1meg at the same price as were already paying now , obviously we think ok thats cool seeing as were tied into this contract anyway and agree .
next bill comes 24.99 for 1 meg broadband (double billed of course ) why change there habits now , when of course we have no upgrade same in december, more ringing more hassle and more suspended billing we ask where our upgrade is , answer were having the usual bla bla blah bulshit bulshit ******** problems we cant do it at the moment BUT if you were a new customer we could we just cant upgrade you !!!! im like omfg at this point but remain patient until the new year , jan 1st comes no upgrade my new sms phones wont work properly with there crappy lines and finding out im on a restricted userlist between peak hours (6pm to 11pm daily ) which on my still 512k connection basically renders it useless i ring and yell them enogh is enough im leaving f**k you w*****s , snotty little sh*t operater tries to tell me theres a cancellation fee for breaking the contract to which i start pointing out if we had a contract you breach it every f*****g month you dickhead, after a long pause its decided i can leave them with no penalties which i am now back with bt for my phone and waiting for them to disconnect my broadband on feb 7th 2006 ( they cant do this any sooner they say and wont let me migrate ) which is bloody minded imho ......so in the time i cancelled (3 weeks ago ) the restricted user policy has been changed and slipped in through the back door it now reads 4pm to 11pm weekdays and all day sat/sun !!!! SO OK U THINK THESE PEOPLE HAD A ROUGH RIDE BUT THERE LEAVING AND PUTTING IT ALL BEHIND THEM ??

NOT QUITE , i ring homecall today 26th jan 2006 as my broadbands been almost dead 24 hours , they tell me im on a 24/7 restricted use list now (HMMMM WHERE THE F**K DID THAT ONE COME FROM ) for my last 12 days of there shitty service (SEEMS LIKE WE MUST HAVE REALLY PISSED SOME PEOPLE OFF AT HOMECALL OR MAYBE THIS IS HOW THEY LIKE TO FRUSTRATE PEOPLE WHO HAVE GOT THE BETTER OF THEM ) admittedly i have been downloading as much as possible but obviously wiythin the confines of there restrictions , BE WARNED THERE SEEM TO BE NO CONFINES JUST LIMITS THAT GET YOU PLACED ON INVISIBLE THROTTLING LISTS THAT ARENT MENTIONED UNTILL YOU HIT THE LIMIT OF THE UNLIMITED USE !!

A BIT LIKE AN ALL U CAN EAT STAY AS LONG AS U WANT DINER FOR 19:99 A MONTH BUT HEY WHATS GOIN ON YOUVE BEEN SAT THERE TOO LONG SO BETWEEN 6 AND 11PM WERE ONLY SERVING PRAWN CRACKERS, CPL WEEKS GO BY AND , FFS U STILL HERE WERE NOW SERVING CRACKERS BETWEEN 4 AND 11PM ANOTHER MONTH GOES BY AND THERE LOOKIN AT ME AND THINKIN THATS ONE MIGHTY FAT BILLY BUNTER BOY WERE PUTTIN YOU IN THE BACKROOM LARDASS AND U CAN SLIM DOWN ON CRACKERS 24/7 BUT HEY YOU CAN STILL PAY US 19:99 A MONTH AND HEY JUST FER FREE WE`LL DOUBLE BILL YOU HOWS THAT !!!

IM GOING TO PASTE THIS REVIEW EVERYWHERE I CAN AS A PERSONAL CRUSADE AGAINST THESE DIRTY PRACTICES BY HOMECALL (OR IS THAT TISCALI IN DISGUISE? ) THE MAJORITY OF USERS ARE UNAWARE OF THE PROBLEMS WITH BROADBAND WITH THIS COMPANY AND ARE SUPPORTING IT UNAWARE OF THE MISERY THEY CAUSE ELSEWHERE


NOW 1 FINAL POINT I HAVE A 512K CONNECTION , HOW MUCH COULD I POSSIBLY DOWNLOAD FFS COMPARED TO THOSE ON 2 MEG OR 8 MEG ? (I DONT UPLOAD OR USE P2P EITHER JUST DOWNSTREAM FROM FRIENDS ) THEY CALL THE USAGE FAIR POLICY BUT PUTTING 512K USERS IN A PIPELINE WITH 2MEG TO 8MEG USERS WITH NOT ENOUGH BANDWIDTH TO GO ROUND IS NOT UNLIMITED BROADBAND , MY HOMECALL BILL IS SAT HERE WAITING TO PAY , DO U THINK THERE GONNA GET IT ? MAYBE AT 5 A MONTH IF I FEEL IN THE MOOD !!!

P.S GENUINE REASON BY ONE OF THEIR TECH SUPPORT PEOPLE FOR MY CRAP SPEEDS " YOU WILL NEED TO GET A NEW PHONE EXTENSION CABLE EVERY COUPLE OF MONTHS SIR , THE POWER OF BROADBAND BURNS THEM OUT PERIODICALY " IF IT WASNT SO F*****G PATHETIC ID PROBABLY LAUGH

STAY AWAY PEOPLE YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
 
Did you happen to keep any emails, letters or logs of phone calls and who you spoke to?

If you did then you may want to get in touch with the CAB about where you stand legally.
As with the double billing they have no leg to stand on but the rest I suppose they could argue.

I would suggest getting proper legal advice and following it as far as you can

And from now on I would really suggest you KEEP CALM. As difficult as it is when dealing with morons. Getting angry and arguing is not going to get you anywhere.
 
homecallsuck said:
STAY AWAY PEOPLE YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

I honestly don't know whether you're advising me to stay away from yourself or homecall.

If you kick off on a call centre agent, of course they're going to get snooty with you. I can appreciate you've had a rough time, and as the previous poster said, having a log of all inbound and outbound calls will help your cause no end. However, they've equally got call logs, which will show that you've been abusive etc which will go against you.

I'm glad you're getting this sorted out, but I seriously do not recommend that other people take this course of action when resolving a dispute.
 
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Sorry to hear about Homecallsuck’s problems – I experienced similar difficulties when I was with them. My advice is that it is vitally important to first check out the legal situation with your local Citizen’s Advice Bureau and / or Trading Standards department.

From my own experience with Homecall (not withstanding or substituting full and proper legal advice) I would suggest the following:

• When dealing with Homecall always work in writing using careful wording. Send important letters by Recorded Delivery and obviously keep copies. If you do agree anything with them by telephone confirm it in writing together with the name of the person you have spoken to by Recorded Delivery as soon as possible after the conversation. The aim of this is to “put the ball” in Homecall’s court so to speak. Homecall’s automated email replies can also be useful for this. My experience with them suggests it to be likely that they will try to resolve matters raised in writing over the telephone rather than provide an adequate written response. Throughout my problems with Homecall I found detailed written replies to be something of a rarity.

• A useful alternative to consider instead of legal action is the Ombudsman scheme as it is likely to less expensive and less risky for the customer than a County Court action. In the case of Homecall the Ombudsman is OTELO – The Office of the Telecommunications Ombudsman. Details from http://www.otelo.org.uk .

• Check your original copy of the Homecall contract to see if there is provision for them to implement a Fair User Policy (FUP). Such a provision was quietly added whilst I was with them however I am not aware of the exact date.

• When speaking to them on the telephone always try to be polite and stay calm (I know this can be difficult from personal experience).

• If you do remain with Homecall until the end of the contract take note that the 12 Month contract period begins at the date when the service commences rather than the date when the contract is initially entered into. Getting this wrong could easily mean a customer having to pay compensation to Homecall for early termination. Also ensure that Direct Debits can no longer be drawn by Homecall once you are no longer a customer – they tried billing me even after I had left them.

I hope the above information helps however I do realise the difficulties faced – it can be a long haul.
 
it may not be homecall fault that you cannot migrate for example if your on a datastream product you cannot migrate to a ipstream product, also many isps now use throttling during peak hours and this is not a homecall thing, also did you read the FUP (Fair Usage Policy) before you signed up?

also if exchanges are full then i believe bt sometimes hold back upgrades have you checked your exchage status as it sounds like they might be waiting for bt to add more capacity to your exchange.

anyway just a few ideas


anyway i hope you manage to resolve this.

sean
 
I can concur that Homecall have an incredibly poor internet service - The space they rent from Tiscalli is not sufficient for their customer's needs. It took us 4 months to discover this, after being messed about and constantly lied to by the staff. A BT engineer came to my house and got virtually a 2meg connection, when we were getting just 0.5meg at best through Homecall. Incidentally Homecall ordered the engineer, then when we were no longer a customer decided to try and bill us £75 for his time!!!

They also have appaling internal communications. Each customer has a 'file' with their info on, but the staff never seem to actually look at it, rendering it useless. For a communications company their inneptitude is unforgiveable, and I'd advise anyone considering joining up with them not to, unless they like spending hours on the phone to call centre staff who effectively lie to you then fob you off.

Having been a customer of BT and then Homecall I'm well versed in dealing with useless call centre staff, but would agree with the comments about loosing your temper. Staying calm, and putting the pressure onto them does much more than getting pointlessly angry.

After months of problems i finally found the direct line for one of their senior Customer Relations individuals by the name of Gary Kerr his number is 0161 4511409. He's now cancelled the outstanding bill so hopefully I'll never hear from them again.

Dan
 
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