I've been with Madasafish now since they first came on the scene. Initially as a pay per minute customer, then subscribing to their 'off peak' unmetered service, and now currently on their unmetered 24/7 service. So as you can expect I've experienced all the highs and lows of this ISP.
The current problem they are having is not one of the worst they've had by a long shot. But it has happened at the very worst time for Madasafish when they have informed all their Timezone customers of an increase from £12.99 to £15.99.
The current problem started Monday around about 4.30pm and persisted for the rest of the evening up to about midnight with constant BT auto messages: 'The number you have called is busy. To use ringback please press 5' or 'The service cannot be connected'. If you configure your browser settings efficiently the best strategy is to auto connect to Madasafish and then let your browser auto reconnect for you upon each failed attempt. My experience over the last few days is that you usually get online after 12 - 30 attempts. Extremely poor I know but in the meantime just go and have a nice cup of tea and a chocolate bun to amuse yourself as you will eventually get online. Madasafish themselves advise this.
What is unprofessional of Madasafish is that on their homepage there is a system status page that was intended to inform its users of any problems the server platform is experiencing at the moment. As everyone here will testify and as Madasafish themselves acknowledge, there are big problems between 4.30pm to late evening hours which their engineers are currently working on to resolve. But has there been a mention of this at any point on their 'system status page'? Not at all, it still carries a message that states that there are no known problems with their service. What's the point of having a 'system status' page when you have no intention of using it. This is wrong! Look at a system service page like that of Tiscali or Vispanet and you will see lots of update information on what problems are currently occurring, but on the Madasafish homepage it has now become a redundant feature.
As I mentioned earlier, I've been with 'da fish' for a long time now. As I subscriber I've stuck with them for the last 11 months. As an ISP they have a cyclical nature of performance. Everything is ok for a few months then problems occur, customers leave for these reasons and then the problems disappear. So my philosophy has always been if I stick with them they will eventually sort things out and performance will improve. The £12.99 factor has also been a large factor in me staying with the fish people.
But now, the battlefield has changed. Madasafish 24/7 Timezone will be increasing to £14.99 like many other of their competitors. For that reason the motivation to 'stick it out' with da Fish as I have done in the past 11 months may now have to take a back seat. An ISP like Vispa Internet offers the same service for the same price, more reliable, much faster and with a national rate tech support service. Customer feedback is far superior to that of fish so it may now be time to move on. I'd prefer to stay with Madasafish because I do like them, but in the current situation the poor performance, uncompetitive subscription price, extortionate premium rate tech support phone calls, and inability to actually get online with them points me in the direction of Vispa Internet. Vispa Internet seem to be an ISP that emulates what Madasafish used to be like in the beginning with their emphasis on fast performance, cheap tech support and reliable service.
Madasafish is far from being a bad ISP, but it has lost its competitive edge and is now merely just another ISP.
Cheers
Dionysus