Wanadoo "technical support" fiasco

I've been with Wanadoo since the Freeserve days and by and large I haven't
had many problems. Started off with the 512k service then upped to 1M and
then 2M as they became available, all without problems.

Today however I had cause to reboot my AVM Fritz!Box modem/router, having
made some changes to the VoIP configuration, nothing at all to do with the
ISP login. The thing flatly refused to login, despite my having sync with
the exchange ok, so after several reboots, all with the same result, I bit
the bullet and rang the 0870 "technical support" line.

Spoke to someone who wondered if it might be a server problem, she put me
on the inevitable hold music (I think Wanadoo hold music is specially
designed to induce suicide before the call is answered..!) and after 3 or
4 minutes of this I got cut off.

Redialling got me someone totally different and as soon as I mentioned the
magic word "router" he didn't have a clue what I was talking about and
transferred me to the "department that deals with routers" who turned out
to know nothing at all about anything that wasn't a Wanadoo Livebox.

Third time of asking I got someone even more clueless who at least
admitted she wasn't trained on anything except the Speedtouch USB modems.
I had had enough by this time and asked to speak to a supervisor. More
suicide music for 3 minutes then back she came, "he's extremely busy" said
she. "He's going to be even busier in a minute" says I. "I'm not going
away until I speak to him, try again..!"

3 more suicidal minutes and the supervisor appeared. I told him the
problem all over again and he asked me the phone number the ADSL was
linked to. I told him and he asked me the user ID, which I told him, which
was "xxxxx.fsnet.co.uk@fs". "Ah" he said, it shouldn't be "@fs", it should
be "@bb2.freeserve.co.uk".

"Uh..?" said I. That's what it used to be 3 or more years ago when I first
started with them, then they upgraded some servers and I was told to
change the bit after the @ sign to just "fs" which it has been ever since.
He said "you've recently upgraded to the 2Mbit service, haven't you..?"
Yes, I said, he then said that the login had changed when that had
happened. How this can be I have no idea, as the modem has been restarted
several times since the speed upgrade without the username being
changed..!

However changing the @fs bit to what it used to be before solved the
problem and I am now on line, but it is very strange..! Has anyone else
had this problem..?

What I *really* want to know though is why none of the so-called
"technical support" tubbies didn't pick up on the username being wrong, I
told it to all of them..! At least the supervisor seemed to know
something.

Ivor

well you will go with an isp that has a terrible reputation,never does what
they say and basically is a bag of cacak.

Try www.ntl.co.uk

superb,flawless service, no downtime and top notch support,NOT that youll
ever need it because the service is flawless.

--


--
"Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely."

On Mon, 5 Sep 2005 19:29:30 UTC, "Mr T" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> well you will go with an isp that has a terrible reputation,never does what
> they say and basically is a bag of cacak.
>
> Try www.ntl.co.uk
>
> superb,flawless service, no downtime and top notch support,NOT that youll
> ever need it because the service is flawless.

Ignore the troll.

--
[ 7'ism - a condition by which the sufferer experiences an inability
to give concise answers, express reasoned argument or opinion.
Usually accompanied by silly noises and gestures - incurable, early
euthanasia recommended. ]

Do you ever take your own advice love


[ 7'ism - a condition by which the sufferer experiences an inability
to give concise answers, express reasoned argument or opinion.
Usually accompanied by silly noises and gestures - incurable, early
euthanasia recommended. ]

--


--
"Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely."

On Mon, 05 Sep 2005 20:13:49 GMT, [Mr T] said :-

>Do you ever take your own advice love
>

NTL are incompetent fools. They do nothing about their spam zombies
that spew out over the net.

On 05 Sep 2005 19:29 GMT, "Mr T" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>superb, flawless service, no downtime

and not available to a good portion of the country, so without knowing the
location, makes the recommendation academic, doesn't it. Peter M.

PS I think you should go by the posting ID of 81.110.218.193 which is a
lot more useful for people to filter out, than any of the pseudonyms
you use, depending on the phase of the moon, or something...

---------------------------------8<-------------------------------
From: "Stefan Kaniuk" <(E-Mail Removed)>
Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2005 18:33:46 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: 81.110.218.193

what a surprise, hiding behind a fake address ....

---------------------------------8<-------------------------------
From: "Big Boy UK :-\)" <(E-Mail Removed)>
Date: Mon, 08 Aug 2005 14:53:35 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: 81.110.218.193

perhaps you should consider a more reliable and consistent broadband isp
such as ntl

---------------------------------8<-------------------------------
From: "ShareholderUK" <(E-Mail Removed)>
Date: Tue, 09 Aug 2005 10:58:22 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: 81.110.218.193

---------------------------------8<-------------------------------
From: "BadLadsArmy" <(E-Mail Removed)>
Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2005 10:13:06 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: 81.110.218.193

---------------------------------8<-------------------------------
From: "CCTV" <(E-Mail Removed)>
Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2005 21:41:57 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: 81.110.218.193

---------------------------------8<-------------------------------
From: "<@>" <(E-Mail Removed)>
Date: Sat, 13 Aug 2005 11:09:20 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: 81.110.218.193

---------------------------------8<-------------------------------
From: "Boss" <(E-Mail Removed)>
Date: Fri, 26 Aug 2005 11:21:25 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: 81.110.218.193

---------------------------------8<-------------------------------
From: "UKHierarchy" <(E-Mail Removed)>
Date: Fri, 02 Sep 2005 16:09:34 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: 81.110.218.193

---------------------------------8<-------------------------------

(What can one say ? Pot, Kettle... Black :-)

--

UK ADSL <http://tinyurl.com/5jpa4> - Happy to save cash with Plus.Net!!

"poster" <us-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed). net
> On 05 Sep 2005 19:29 GMT, "Mr T" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> > superb, flawless service, no downtime
>
> and not available to a good portion of the country, so
> without knowing the location, makes the recommendation
> academic, doesn't it. Peter M.
>
> PS I think you should go by the posting ID of
> 81.110.218.193 which is a lot more useful for people to
> filter out, than any of the pseudonyms you use,
> depending on the phase of the moon, or something...

Does anyone have anything constructive to say about my original post..? We
all know Stefan is a pillock, repeating it doesn't stop him being one..!

Ivor

On 5 Sep 2005 22:51, "Ivor Jones" wrote:

>Does anyone have anything constructive to say about my original post..? We
>all know Stefan is a pillock, repeating it doesn't stop him being one..!

Don't remember ever speaking with Freeserve for support in the 30+ months I
used them. Tale of woe seems pretty likely with such a mass market service
firm, if one is not using hardware they supplied. Using an 0870 is better
than some ISPs that might have a premium rate number... Not much more to
say, unless you want a MAC :-) Peter M.

--

UK ADSL <http://tinyurl.com/5jpa4> - Happy to save cash with Plus.Net!!

On Mon, 5 Sep 2005 22:51:09 +0100, "Ivor Jones"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>
>Does anyone have anything constructive to say about my original post..?

it was nicely formatted, if perhaps a little long.

but seriously.....

you didn't really say if the other agents asked you what speed you
were on, or if it had changed recently, or if the username was in a
certain format. You eventually got to someone with the necessary
skills so one could argue that the system worked :-)

These mass market ISPs trawl so far down the food chain that tech
support must be a nightmare. With about 8 versions of windows on the
go and an infinite permutation of computer types, peripherals,
software etc etc I can see why they would restrict support to a USB
modem or their own router box.

They should have got you to try the bt_test@startup_domain login to
prove that the link worked OK, fairly standard troubleshooting.

The online help still says " * Enter your Broadband Username
which we provided when you registered, adding '@fs' to the end, for
example yourname.wanadoo.co.uk@fs
* Enter your account password
* Click on Connect"

so there's room for improvement.

Phil
--
Tiscali - dialup speeds at Broadband prices, see
http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/postlist...&Board=tiscali

AOL - the unlimited ISP of choice for heavy downloaders.

Phil Thompson <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> On Mon, 5 Sep 2005 22:51:09 +0100, "Ivor Jones"
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> >
> >Does anyone have anything constructive to say about my original post..?
>
> it was nicely formatted, if perhaps a little long.
>
> but seriously.....
>
> you didn't really say if the other agents asked you what speed you
> were on, or if it had changed recently, or if the username was in a
> certain format. You eventually got to someone with the necessary
> skills so one could argue that the system worked :-)
>
Yes, that was my feeling too really. I was expecting a saga of many
days of non-working but it would appear that the right answer was
obtained within a not-too-long time.

--
Chris Green