Freeserve/Wannadoo... just Wannadon't.
Written: Sep 10 '04 (Updated Sep 10 '04)
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Pros: - Cheap
- One of the most popular, well-known providers.
- Good UK coverage
Cons: - Slow speeds
- Terrible, rude (and stupid) support
- They over-subscribe
The Bottom Line: Fair enough, my experience is with Freeserve and not the repackaged Wanadoo. But I won't be bending over backwards to try them either.
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| dyinginavan's Full Review: Freeserve (UK) |
I moved away from Freeserve about a year ago actually, but used their services for about 3 years prior to that. I started with their "pay as you go" metered service, and then purchased their Freesome Hometime package (now defunct?) through BT SurfTogether.
Connection.
Metered access was generally good, would go through phases every 20-30 minutes or so of grinding to a halt and I would have to sit and wait for my pages to continue loading. The Hometime service, or indeed any of their pay per month packages had awful connection speeds and was always slow. My internet was also impossible to use throughout the summer (I'm assuming too many people are subscribed anyway, and also what with the kdis off school, more people are online) and just wouldn't connect at all often for periods of several weeks.
Customer Support.
Absolutely useless. Many hours were spent on the phone trying to solve my summer long connection woes. By the end of the summer, I would have a reformatted PC, new internet cables, a reinstalled modem and drivers, my telephone line checked at all access points and the cable refitted from the pillar to my house. Only to find that nothing worked, and the service would resume working by itself when the kids went back to school. Christmas was also a bad time for my connection.
All in all, they know nothing.
Value for Money.
Not bad. Metered access is a given but Hometime was generally paid quarterly with my phonebill. I was confused over the pricing however, and to this day no customer support representative could explain it to me properly. I think I was charged £5.99 a month for offpeak access and BT would charge £3 or so on top.
Cancelling the Account.
Sigh. I wanted to to die. First of all, my mother contacted BT since the service works "through" them and was told that cancelling our current package would mean any internet package we purchased later would work out more expensive. My mother hung off without cancelling, confused and I immediately rang back, angered and was put through to Freeserve who insisted they had assumed that as I was cancelling my monthly package, I would then we paying per minute.
I informed them that where I took my business was nothing of their concern any longer and to please cancel my account. They did so, after asking me my reasons for leaving and enquiring where I was going to. I refused to answer and finally we were disconnected from Freeserve.
Celebration!
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): £ 9.99 GBP
Version Number or Year: 2001
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Epinions.com ID:
dyinginavan
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Member: Donna
Location: London, United Kingdom
Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
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