Freeserve Free Trial question

Hi,
I'm considering the one month Freeserve Broadband Free Trial offer. Anyone
have experience with cancellation of said offer within the month? Was it
smooth? Any hidden charges/pitfalls? Surprised Freeserve can accommodate
the connex
fee Bt will have charged them for line activation when there is a
cancellation within the month? The only thing I've seen is that it can take
two/three weeks for one isp to give up the line for a.n.other isp.
And is it possible to extrapolate all the info needed to set up an
already installed modem without having to use their free one or all the "IE
provided for you by Freeserve" etc etc I suspect would be attached to any
install progs.
Ta.

Based on my experience:
1. If you're using Freeserve 24/7 flatrate Dial-up access, be aware that if
you change over to BB after the start of your next billing month, even if
you specify to have dial-up ceased when BB commences, they will still bill
you for ALL of that dial up month even though you may have only used a few
days of it (and have no problem with doing so - no apology about this in my
case). This means if you want to change over, arrange it so the BB will be
activated just before the dial-up bill is due - not after.
2. "The system" is *very* slow to disconnect if requested within the month
(even with much prompting/reminding on my part) - in my case I requested the
cancellation on 28th December and BT didn't have this logged on their system
until about the 9th January, it then wasn't removed until about the 20th
January. Only then could the new BB ISP commence connection procedures -
this last part was accomplished quickly by my new ISP. If the change over
was only 2 or 3 weeks I would have been happy but it was closer to a month
in my experience.
3. Freeserve are incredibly inflexible with regards to their cancellation
policy - bottom line is if there's *a chance* you may move into a non-BB
served area after the first month, be prepared to pay the full year anyway.
I'm now with an ISP that provides monthly contracts so the most I'm obliged
to pay is 1 month after cancellation and its much cheaper than Freeserve
anyway.
4. Freeserve BB can be fully "manually" set-up using built in
windows/internet explorer functionality, you don't NEED proprietary software
such as with AOLs Email system. Many ISPs are like this however, including
my current one. The CDROMs are usually just offered to simplify things for
those who aren't computer savvy enough to manually configure things
themselves (or with the assistance of the tech support people at the ISP).

Paul

"dunno" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi,
> I'm considering the one month Freeserve Broadband Free Trial offer. Anyone
> have experience with cancellation of said offer within the month? Was it
> smooth? Any hidden charges/pitfalls? Surprised Freeserve can accommodate
> the connex
> fee Bt will have charged them for line activation when there is a
> cancellation within the month? The only thing I've seen is that it can
take
> two/three weeks for one isp to give up the line for a.n.other isp.
> And is it possible to extrapolate all the info needed to set up an
> already installed modem without having to use their free one or all the
"IE
> provided for you by Freeserve" etc etc I suspect would be attached to any
> install progs.
> Ta.
>
>
>

I cancelled it within 2 weeks because of line problems and they refunded me
in full in 2 months.

"dunno" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi,
> I'm considering the one month Freeserve Broadband Free Trial offer. Anyone
> have experience with cancellation of said offer within the month? Was it
> smooth? Any hidden charges/pitfalls? Surprised Freeserve can accommodate
> the connex
> fee Bt will have charged them for line activation when there is a
> cancellation within the month? The only thing I've seen is that it can
take
> two/three weeks for one isp to give up the line for a.n.other isp.
> And is it possible to extrapolate all the info needed to set up an
> already installed modem without having to use their free one or all the
"IE
> provided for you by Freeserve" etc etc I suspect would be attached to any
> install progs.
> Ta.
>
>
>

On 1 Feb 2004, "Paul Murphy" wrote:

>I requested the cancellation on 28th December and BT didn't have this
>logged on their system until about the 9th January, it then wasn't
>removed until about the 20th January.

lucky you. I had FS BB from early 2001. I rang to cancel on Saturday 1st
November and the order to cease service was received by BT (after many fax
and phone complaints) on 27th January. My router is still "in sync" with
the exchange at the moment. The delay caused me to miss a free connection
deal with another ISP. They were dealing with lots of other people who
had been using the free trial, and during November or December did add
some more staff (from 4 to 7 handling cancellations) but never rang me
back nor managed to sort it out promptly. Ended up with someone in the
tech support section accepting that BT Provisioning had not received a
cease request, despite FS having no knowledge of ADSL still being on my
line - good job they stopped billing me in November!. Peter Morgan.

Thanx for all the replies/info - so the main pitfall to watch out for
will be the line not being released for up to a month after cancellation. I
can live with that because by then I'll be joining a local wireless Lan and
BBing through that. I assume the phone call to cancel won't take longer
than 27 mins at a £1 a minute : ) I'm still amazed that Freeserve can absorb
the £70(or whatever) they'll be charged by BT for activation?
Ta again for the replies.


"Paul Murphy" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:ZE4Tb.557$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Based on my experience:
> 1. If you're using Freeserve 24/7 flatrate Dial-up access, be aware that
if
> you change over to BB after the start of your next billing month, even if
> you specify to have dial-up ceased when BB commences, they will still bill
> you for ALL of that dial up month even though you may have only used a few
> days of it (and have no problem with doing so - no apology about this in
my
> case). This means if you want to change over, arrange it so the BB will be
> activated just before the dial-up bill is due - not after.
> 2. "The system" is *very* slow to disconnect if requested within the month
> (even with much prompting/reminding on my part) - in my case I requested
the
> cancellation on 28th December and BT didn't have this logged on their
system
> until about the 9th January, it then wasn't removed until about the 20th
> January. Only then could the new BB ISP commence connection procedures -
> this last part was accomplished quickly by my new ISP. If the change over
> was only 2 or 3 weeks I would have been happy but it was closer to a month
> in my experience.
> 3. Freeserve are incredibly inflexible with regards to their cancellation
> policy - bottom line is if there's *a chance* you may move into a non-BB
> served area after the first month, be prepared to pay the full year
anyway.
> I'm now with an ISP that provides monthly contracts so the most I'm
obliged
> to pay is 1 month after cancellation and its much cheaper than Freeserve
> anyway.
> 4. Freeserve BB can be fully "manually" set-up using built in
> windows/internet explorer functionality, you don't NEED proprietary
software
> such as with AOLs Email system. Many ISPs are like this however, including
> my current one. The CDROMs are usually just offered to simplify things for
> those who aren't computer savvy enough to manually configure things
> themselves (or with the assistance of the tech support people at the ISP).
>
> Paul
>
> "dunno" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Hi,
> > I'm considering the one month Freeserve Broadband Free Trial offer.
Anyone
> > have experience with cancellation of said offer within the month? Was it
> > smooth? Any hidden charges/pitfalls? Surprised Freeserve can
accommodate
> > the connex
> > fee Bt will have charged them for line activation when there is a
> > cancellation within the month? The only thing I've seen is that it can
> take
> > two/three weeks for one isp to give up the line for a.n.other isp.
> > And is it possible to extrapolate all the info needed to set up an
> > already installed modem without having to use their free one or all the
> "IE
> > provided for you by Freeserve" etc etc I suspect would be attached to
any
> > install progs.
> > Ta.
> >
> >
> >
>
>

"Peter Morgan - 0870 432 9631" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) .net...
> On 1 Feb 2004, "Paul Murphy" wrote:
>
> >I requested the cancellation on 28th December and BT didn't have this
> >logged on their system until about the 9th January, it then wasn't
> >removed until about the 20th January.
>
> and phone complaints) on 27th January. My router is still "in sync" with
> the exchange at the moment. The delay caused me to miss a free connection
> deal with another ISP. They were dealing with lots of other people who
> had been using the free trial, and during November or December did add
> some more staff (from 4 to 7 handling cancellations) but never rang me
> back nor managed to sort it out promptly. Ended up with someone in the
I even experienced the situation of FS claiming ADSL had been removed from
the line even though, just as in your case, my routers synch light was
stilll on (and they were told this). Fortunately (after much insistence) I
spoke with one of their supervisors who listened to reason and sorted it
with BT. This was just as well because BT wouldn't act on my "direct"
request to finish the ADSL removal (even though they acknowledged that
they'd already received a cease request at that stage and their records
showed it should have been removed by 16th January) because as far as ADSL
was concerned, I wasn't their customer, the ISP was. I was dependant on a
company I was no longer a paying customer of (FS) to hurry along the ADSL
removal so I could go with another ISP - not a good situation to be in.

> line - good job they stopped billing me in November!.
They were fast to credit my BB payment - no problem with that particular
issue (unlike the dial-up payment).