WARNING - TESCO Broadband - Fiasco

Hi

These people really are p*ss poor they launched a product without the necessary
forethought. I have been trying to cancel my registration and get them to
free-up my telephone line for 3 weeks now, even threatened to write to Tesco's
Charirman (David Reid), result - no response. They are consistent (terrible) if
nothing else. Seems a pity Tesco put their brand name against this fiasco!


Idler

> Hi
>
> These people really are p*ss poor they launched a product without the
> necessary
> forethought. I have been trying to cancel my registration and get them to
> free-up my telephone line for 3 weeks now, even threatened to write to
> Tesco's
> Charirman (David Reid), result - no response. They are consistent
> (terrible) if
> nothing else. Seems a pity Tesco put their brand name against this fiasco!

I made the mistake of trying Tesco DVD Rental and that was also cr@p, I'm
currently in a dispute with regards £2.73 which they claim I owe them, I
know it's only a couple of quid, but it the principle of their mistake that
has annoyed me. Tesco DVD is actually just a front for DVD Island I think it
is, so maybe Tesco need to sort out the logistic of these products before
simply slapping their name onto every service going!

(".)

On 21 Oct 2004 11:20:16 GMT, (E-Mail Removed) (Idler) wrote:

>They are consistent (terrible) if
>nothing else. Seems a pity Tesco put their brand name against this fiasco!

The thing is, Tesco is a supermarket. They specialise in selling food
products to the masses. They have, imo, no business becoming a
broaband ISP as well.

"Richard Sobey" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On 21 Oct 2004 11:20:16 GMT, (E-Mail Removed) (Idler) wrote:
>
> >They are consistent (terrible) if
> >nothing else. Seems a pity Tesco put their brand name against this
fiasco!
>
> The thing is, Tesco is a supermarket. They specialise in selling food
> products to the masses. They have, imo, no business becoming a
> broaband ISP as well.
Virgin used to only sell records, but it didn't stop them branching out to
flights/holidays, broadband. It is how you go about supporting what the
marketing people have promised.

It seems as though all the problems in today's services are due to the
marketing people not realising how their product will take off. They pluck
the first number that appears into their heads at a take-up figure and
retreat when it is realised that it would become over-subscribed. Classic
examples, Hoover (flights), Avon (Orange phone)

S

ABC wrote:
>
> It seems as though all the problems in today's services are due to the
> marketing people not realising how their product will take off. They
> pluck the first number that appears into their heads at a take-up
> figure and retreat when it is realised that it would become
> over-subscribed. Classic examples, Hoover (flights), Avon (Orange
> phone)

I think their problem started when the choose NTL to run it for them!!!
Jon

On 21 Oct 2004 in uk.telecom.broadband, Richard Sobey wrote:

>They specialise in selling food products to the masses.

Which they seem to do very well according to the city, but from selling food
they (and others, let's not forget) have widened the scope to sell goods of
many types, including electrical items and even (shock, horror!) computers.

>They have, imo, no business becoming a broaband ISP as well.

Well, they don't make the computers they sell, buying in from someone else,
and nor do they run the ISP service. They switched from BT to NTL a while
ago, and might have several years contract to run with NTL. I assume NTL
had to consider ADSL as a result primarily of its support of Tesco.Net -
it would surely not have done so otherwise, but stuck with its existing
cable network and locations. Tesco has never attempted to run the ISP
side, and their only criticism can be the entrustment of some small part
of their total products/services collection to a firm which fails to come
up to scratch when it matters. I don't know how 'low key' their promotion
of Broadband has been - certainly I've seen most via the posters on news,
not from any TV or radio advertising campaign, but I don't visit Tesco
all that often to know if they are 'pushing' it there. Peter M.

On 21 Oct 2004 in uk.telecom.broadband, I wrote:

>Tesco has never attempted to run the ISP side

I meant to add "I think" because I cannot be 100% sure, but like Waitrose,
and WH Smith, I assume they didn't want to go through the growth pains of
setting it all up from scratch, at significant cost. I have had a Tesco
mail address since 1999, not that I dial in very often, though! Peter.


--
PlusNet <http://tinyurl.com/24ymz> - I recommend them and save some cash.

Peter M wrote:
> On 21 Oct 2004 in uk.telecom.broadband, Richard Sobey wrote:
>
>> They specialise in selling food products to the masses.
>
> Which they seem to do very well according to the city, but from
> selling food they (and others, let's not forget) have widened the
> scope to sell goods of many types, including electrical items and
> even (shock, horror!) computers.
>
>> They have, imo, no business becoming a broaband ISP as well.
>
> Well, they don't make the computers they sell, buying in from someone
> else, and nor do they run the ISP service. They switched from BT to
> NTL a while ago, and might have several years contract to run with
> NTL. I assume NTL had to consider ADSL as a result primarily of its
> support of Tesco.Net -
> it would surely not have done so otherwise, but stuck with its
> existing cable network and locations. Tesco has never attempted to
> run the ISP side, and their only criticism can be the entrustment of
> some small part
> of their total products/services collection to a firm which fails to
> come up to scratch when it matters. I don't know how 'low key' their
> promotion of Broadband has been - certainly I've seen most via the
> posters on news, not from any TV or radio advertising campaign, but I
> don't visit Tesco
> all that often to know if they are 'pushing' it there. Peter M.


Tesco's advertising of its BB service appears to be limited to
banners at the entrance to their car-parks and free disks to be picked
up at the checkouts.
It's my impression that after 6th September they were flooded with
orders for which they were quite unequipped to cope. They offered
connexion in 10 -15 days but, as in my case, 30 days would pass before
lines were activated and during that time no information was forthcoming
about what, if anything, was happening.
I've now been connected for 15 days without any problems at all.

--
DB.

"Richard Sobey" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On 21 Oct 2004 11:20:16 GMT, (E-Mail Removed) (Idler) wrote:
>
>>They are consistent (terrible) if
>>nothing else. Seems a pity Tesco put their brand name against this fiasco!
>
> The thing is, Tesco is a supermarket. They specialise in selling food
> products to the masses. They have, imo, no business becoming a
> broaband ISP as well.

Fair comment, yet their telephone ISP service was excellent imo :-)

Isn't Tesco Broadband using the NTL network? I know their phone ISP was.

Do you think they shouldn't sell insurances as well? Not being balshy, but
it is an interesting opinion.

Best wishes

Gareth Edmondson

Gareth Edmondson wrote:
> "Richard Sobey" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> On 21 Oct 2004 11:20:16 GMT, (E-Mail Removed) (Idler) wrote:
>>
>>> They are consistent (terrible) if
>>> nothing else. Seems a pity Tesco put their brand name against this
>>> fiasco!
>>
>> The thing is, Tesco is a supermarket. They specialise in selling food
>> products to the masses. They have, imo, no business becoming a
>> broaband ISP as well.
>
> Fair comment, yet their telephone ISP service was excellent imo :-)
>
> Isn't Tesco Broadband using the NTL network? I know their phone ISP
> was.
> Do you think they shouldn't sell insurances as well? Not being
> balshy, but it is an interesting opinion.
>
> Best wishes Gareth Edmondson


One aspect of this is that Tesco is highly regarded (though not by
all) as a supermarket chain and is likely to be concerned that any of
their 'partners' (in Internet, Financial Services or whatever) should
not damage their reputation. It can perhaps be expected that they will
be watchful of their partners' performance.
I believe they recognise that they (or NTL, perhaps?) have performed
badly whilst intruducing BB services, and I've recently had an email
apologising for that which begins:
<quote>
The massive success of our Broadband launch has taken us by surprise and
we didn't anticipate the number of customers who would be interested in
our new service.
</quote>
I'd been on Tesco's "Anytime" service for two years and was very
satisfied by that - and was agreeably surprised when, at one point, I
found that they had reduced my monthly subscription (already the lowest
around) by 50p.

--
DB.