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Is the bubble deflating?

Oh dear! Having been the keenest supporter of Metronet since last year I wondered how long it would before the honeymoon would be over!

The pay-as-you-go concept appealled to me not so much for the cost but simply because I thought this would prevent gamers and downloaders from using a potentially expensive service for them, thus allowing "normal" users a smoother ride. In the main I feel that this judgment remains, however...

Yes, there has been an major pipe upgrade in June that regrettably caused major disruption to me (and others) over a protracted period though Metronet did try their best to keep us advised at all times. Nevertheless, irritating! However, since mid-August the service has been patchy to say the least with the blame firmly and squarely aimed at BT. Fair enough I think :D, but its been topped now by a complete failure since yesterday.

I know we can't hold Metronet completely responsible, however, it would be more reassuring if their customer service was up to scratch. When there is an outage, its no good explaining this on their www.servicestatus.net if you haven't got access to it :mad:! In this day and age of striving perfection we do not automatically assume there is an outage... it took me an age to determine it was not my PC configuration, a router fault or BT line fault and finally when I dialed up from my laptop only then did I have access to Metronet's service status (and yes they are suffering terribly!).

The thing is I would have been less annoyed if I would have been able to get this outage information over the phone in the form of a recorded message rather than an "out of hours" message that they are closed and to send an e-mail!!! :confused:

Metronet - you have recently had good PR (see http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1092034925,22928), however, you are letting yourself down in very basic areas (our ADSL connection at work is, granted, more expensive, however, if we have an issue out of hours, invariably there is a message to let us know this fact preventing us from pulling our hair out!).

Sometimes increased popularity can be counter-productive - selfishly, I would have preferred to keep Metronet's service a secret, however lets hope the bubble does not burst as I for one will certainly be unhappy if I have to migrate...

N
 
Nirm: able to get this outage information over the phone in the form of a recorded message
What a good idea, Metronet should have a status phone number where a message giving the current status and time for the next update recorded.

I my self wonder where Metronet are going, like you Nirm having been a keen supporter of Metronet. Joined July 2003 and my service was very good in my case until before the upgrade in May 2004 when I had connection problems, after that my experience has been the same as yours. Friday afternoon & evening my connection was up and down, and have total loss of broadband sine late Friday evening and still down now lunch time Sunday. The only bright point is that their backup dial-up works although it’s not free :(

This recent problem will make or break it for myself and many customers, if we have two days of pain and that means it is resolved and stable, great; if we have a month of unreliable service I will seriously considering moving. I will access it next weekend, but my patience is running out and to be frank I expect a better level of service. I accept reliability can not be 100%, we even have power cuts etc, but the service has to be addressed quickly.

Have recommended Metronet to many people, but currently am unable to do so as there are more reliable providers at a similar price and I also hope the bubble does not burst.
 
I was unlucky enough to join MetroNet just over a month ago (just as the problems started)..
While I was happy with my 1st bill (£24 for 2Mb).... Iv not had a full week without it going down...

Its Pot Luck if you get a Nice or Nasty reply from Support.. Today However it was the Nice turn.. Very good Oliver!!!!.

Last week however, this wasnt so..
I e-mailed saying it had been down every week since I signed up and I got this as a reply...

If you wish to cancel following your three months, that decision is entirely down to you. I would also mention that ADSL is not a gauranteed service, and has no service level agreements. For a gauranteed service you're looking more along the lines of £2,000 monthly, rather than £10-20.

Well.. Seeing as Im on the 2MbPAYG, the MINIMUM I pay is £20, Never will it be as low as £10... Nice going there mate.. Wonder if I could hold them to those prices :shrug: ......
 
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System appears now to be stable again. Had no problems in the last 10 days, speeds continue to be good. So may be over the recent problems.
 
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Yea, it has been stable.... (Touch Wood)...
Lets hope they've fixed things
 
To be honest, Iv never had a problem with the speed.
Im on 2Mb too, seams to fun fine, Speed wise.

Still got 1 or 2 Reliability issues, but on the whole, they're ok.
and when my 2Mb can cost around £24 a month, who can argue ?
 
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Re spedd a link to my last and previous speed test. You will see from my post my results were downstream 473 (475today) Kbps and upstream 240 (244today) Kbps for 512 50:1 contention ratio; I regard that as good.

Re the pipe! - the information is wrong they have a 155Mb pipe that was installed in June '04 and recevied an email yeterday that they are installing another 155Mb pipe for details. So they have atleast two 155Mb pipes that I know of, may be more.
 
Thanks for the feedback fellas! 2x 155Mb pipes now then eh!

Damn this is difficult trying to pick a new isp! :shrug: ;)

So now I've got NDO, Zen, and now MetroNet! Descisions descisions! :D
 
Decisions :confused: apart from NDO, ZeN and Metronet you can add VISPA to your list.

Review your requirements and services each ISP offers and their costs; would it help if I email you a pin? :)

Although email extra at Metronet at £8.81 a year other free or cheap option available; Link for info and review.
 
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Is the bubble deflacting? No

Is the bubble deflacting? I don’t think the Metronet bubble is deflating, their second 155Mb ADSL pipe from BT came on line this week and I noticed no problems; but other bubbles may be deflecting as we have seen with recent news items about Gio.

I have followed Gio as they were one of the ISP’s I considered moving to from my dialup 18 months ago, just to see if I made the right choice and see what’s going on in the market should I wish or need to change at any time. Was first attracted to Gio because or their price, did investigations looked at Pipex (but decided they were too expensive & CS), for some reason did not like the look of Gio (I think it promised the earth) and in the end in came up with a short list of two Metronet and Plusnet.

Well I’m glad I did choose Metronet :) :) over Gio, I doubt I would have stayed with Gio long from the posts I have seen.
 
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I think GIO's problem is down to Underpricng the product. It cannot be viable at the price they charge. It takes a year to 18 months though before the problem shows up.
 
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