Dear Fellow Demons,

Looks like we can still communicate with each other but not with anyone
else. Seems it has been like this since Friday 19th.

It took three phone calls to get them to modify the Summary Status.

You'd have thought they could have found the disconnected cable by now?

Time was when Demon was ahead of the game not behind it. Anyway at least
they are not one of the 'big six', not that I share music anyway.+


--
Ed Sirett - Property maintainer and registered gas fitter.
The FAQ for uk.diy is at http://www.diyfaq.org.uk
Gas fitting FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/GasFitting.html
Sealed CH FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/SealedCH.html
Choosing a Boiler FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/BoilerChoice.html

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Ed Sirett wrote:

Dear Fellow Demons,

Looks like we can still communicate with each other but not with
anyone else. Seems it has been like this since Friday 19th.

It took three phone calls to get them to modify the Summary Status.

You'd have thought they could have found the disconnected cable by
now?

Time was when Demon was ahead of the game not behind it. Anyway at
least they are not one of the 'big six', not that I share music
anyway.+


Well, I'm not a Demon! Am I supposed not to be able to see this message?
--
Cheers,
Roger
______
Email address maintained for newsgroup use only, and not regularly
monitored.. Messages sent to it may not be read for several weeks.
PLEASE REPLY TO NEWSGROUP!

Ed Sirett wrote:
Dear Fellow Demons,

Looks like we can still communicate with each other but not with anyone
else. Seems it has been like this since Friday 19th.

It took three phone calls to get them to modify the Summary Status.

You'd have thought they could have found the disconnected cable by now?

Time was when Demon was ahead of the game not behind it. Anyway at least
they are not one of the 'big six', not that I share music anyway.+


Assuming this is OT and posted to the right group, the problem is that
Demon Internot users probably won't see it anyway if their news servers
are not working.

Demon's news servers have for ages now been a bit iffy, with odd
articles missed, but their machine seemed to die completely last
Thursday. It appears that some items are trickling through now after 6
days, but the system still seems broken, with article requests returning
the wrong item. At least at last they seem to have taken on board that
there is a problem.

The trouble is to know which ISP to move to. Having helped a friend on
Onetel/TalkTalk, experiencing their literally unbelievably inept
"service" on multiple occasions, and reading that they are possibly
buying Tiscali, despair is a word that springs to mind.

"Ed Sirett" wrote in message
...
Dear Fellow Demons,

Looks like we can still communicate with each other but not with anyone
else. Seems it has been like this since Friday 19th.

It took three phone calls to get them to modify the Summary Status.

You'd have thought they could have found the disconnected cable by now?

Time was when Demon was ahead of the game not behind it. Anyway at least
they are not one of the 'big six', not that I share music anyway.+

You must be right, i'm not on Demon and I don't know why I am replying to a
nonexistent message.
It must be ESP.

"Billaboard" wrote in message
...
Ed Sirett wrote:
Dear Fellow Demons, Looks like we can still communicate with each other
but not with anyone else. Seems it has been like this since Friday 19th.
It took three phone calls to get them to modify the Summary Status. You'd
have thought they could have found the disconnected cable by now?

Time was when Demon was ahead of the game not behind it. Anyway at least
they are not one of the 'big six', not that I share music anyway.+


Assuming this is OT and posted to the right group, the problem is that
Demon Internot users probably won't see it anyway if their news servers
are not working.

Demon's news servers have for ages now been a bit iffy, with odd articles
missed, but their machine seemed to die completely last Thursday. It
appears that some items are trickling through now after 6 days, but the
system still seems broken, with article requests returning the wrong item.
At least at last they seem to have taken on board that there is a problem.

The trouble is to know which ISP to move to. Having helped a friend on
Onetel/TalkTalk, experiencing their literally unbelievably inept "service"
on multiple occasions, and reading that they are possibly buying Tiscali,
despair is a word that springs to mind.


I didn't think it was possible to make Tiscali and worse than it already is.
Can their technical staff be any more clueless and demonstrate they have
no idea how to solve problems or keep things running on a regular basis.
The technical staff have completely ruined that company - how many
have bluffed their way in to a job!
The very people who didn't know how to use traffic shaping software
and set the controls back to front so it even blocked their own news server.
CH4OD and BBCi was blocked as it competed with their pay-TV service
and lots of people complained to ISPA when problems were ignored.
Is TalkTalk that bad?

You do realise that you can use any news server, not just one provided
by your ISP? Most are FREE of charge, so no point paying.

On Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:27:50 +0100, Ian wrote:

snip

You do realise that you can use any news server, not just one provided
by your ISP? Most are FREE of charge, so no point paying.


well, the text-only ones are free. There aren't all that many free binary
servers. You usually have to pay for those or put up with poor access.

--
Mick (Working in a M$-free zone!)
Web: http://www.nascom.info http://mixpix.batcave.net
Filtering everything posted from googlegroups to kill spam.

Ian wrote:
Is TalkTalk that bad?

You do realise that you can use any news server, not just one provided
by your ISP? Most are FREE of charge, so no point paying.


In a word, yes. This friend was talked into joining Onetel to get a
complete ISP + Phone service. At the time he was on dial-up. He then
moved to ADSL, and wanted to keep the same username. He was told he
couldn't. He was then sent a letter with the wrong username. "Oh we
discovered that our servers ddin't work with an underscore in the
username and changed it to a dot". I may have the dot and underscore
swapped, but that was what they said when we rang. That took the best
part of a day to sort, and he bought me lunch while we waited on the
musical helpline.

It worked on and off, then TalkTalk bought Onetel and told him he had to
change to TalkTalk to get the right deal He wanted to keep the same
username. He was sent info about a new TalkTalk username. Everything
stopped working, so I was invited over again.

After talking to helpdesks for TalkTalk and Onetel, we finally got it
working, in the process discovering that his joining letter again had
the wrong data in it.

After about a month it went off for a few days, and he rang the
helpline, who talked him into completely dud settings for server
addresses etc. Again, I visited. Again we talked to several support
staff at different helpdesks. It eventually was all put right and worked
again.

Since then, about twice a week, I get a call from him saying "My
internet has stopped working". I then have to look at their status page
and/or send emails on his behalf. Eventually he rings to say it's back.

He works as a semi-retired, semi-pro journalist using fax and email to
send his copy. I'm at the stage where every time he rings I tell him he
ought to find a better ISP.

This only gives a hint at the time he and I have wasted with
TalkTalk.I really worry that international relations between Britain and
India or wherever are being ruined by utterly inept British management.
I don't start off wanting to be rude.

Billaboard wrote:
Ed Sirett wrote:
Dear Fellow Demons,
Looks like we can still communicate with each other but not with
anyone else. Seems it has been like this since Friday 19th.
It took three phone calls to get them to modify the Summary Status.
You'd have thought they could have found the disconnected cable by now?

This is a problem why? At least one of the newsgroups I use has been
made virtually unusable all summer with x-posts from demon.local. Seems
to have got better now the kiddies are back at school...

snip
The trouble is to know which ISP to move to. Having helped a friend on
Onetel/TalkTalk, experiencing their literally unbelievably inept
"service" on multiple occasions, and reading that they are possibly
buying Tiscali, despair is a word that springs to mind.


Sorry Tiscali good?

I used to have a Pipex account. Tiscali took them over. A bit later my
credit card expired: "You've cancelled your direct debit so we're going
to cut you off in 6 days unless you do something" (or words to that
effect). Not friendly. So I got a MAC code, sent them a check for the
last month, and cancelled. In April. They are still phoning me "You
have a problem with your account" left by a robot on my answering
machine several times; also emails and letters threatening legal action
if I don't pay the increasing charges for the account I don't have any
more. Coupled with occasional responses back to emails saying the data
protection act stops them doing anything, ignoring a recorded delivery
letter, and occasional suggestions that I phone them back on a premium
rate (0870) number.

Memo to self: Contact OFCOM.

fx pause

Ah OK, I have to complain through CISAS, a 3rd part arbitration service.

fx pause

Complaint now submitted. Let's see what CISAS can do! Thanks for
reminding me.

Andy

In article , mick
scribeth thus
On Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:27:50 +0100, Ian wrote:

snip

You do realise that you can use any news server, not just one provided
by your ISP? Most are FREE of charge, so no point paying.


well, the text-only ones are free. There aren't all that many free binary
servers. You usually have to pay for those or put up with poor access.


News.individual.net around 7 quid a year and superb service

Based in Germany...
--
Tony Sayer

Oh, and PS, of course one can use another news provider, which is how
I'm here.

The thing about Demon is that it was a moderately priced, moderately
competemt ISP that had a track record of being started and initially run
by people with a vague interest in the technology. These people evn
posted occasionally, so they felt real and human.

Sad that a bunch of failed Scottish accountants bought it, and have now
sold it on to, presumably, another bunch of no-marks trading under a
used-to-be respected name.

I think I've lived too long. Fed up with idiots changing companies'
names to something stupid like Thus, LessThan and so on. Fed up with
British Gas ringing me almost every day wanting me to change all my
accounts to them. If they have any spare employees, I want them to be
looking for leaks or a new job, not making me put down my tea and answer
the phone.

In message , "dennis@home"
writes


"Ed Sirett" wrote in message
...
Dear Fellow Demons,

Looks like we can still communicate with each other but not with anyone
else. Seems it has been like this since Friday 19th.

It took three phone calls to get them to modify the Summary Status.

You'd have thought they could have found the disconnected cable by now?

Time was when Demon was ahead of the game not behind it. Anyway at least
they are not one of the 'big six', not that I share music anyway.+

You must be right, i'm not on Demon and I don't know why I am replying
to a nonexistent message.
It must be ESP.

an Exceptionally Stupid Person


--
geoff

"geoff" wrote in message
...
In message , "dennis@home"
writes


"Ed Sirett" wrote in message
...
Dear Fellow Demons,

Looks like we can still communicate with each other but not with anyone
else. Seems it has been like this since Friday 19th.

It took three phone calls to get them to modify the Summary Status.

You'd have thought they could have found the disconnected cable by now?

Time was when Demon was ahead of the game not behind it. Anyway at least
they are not one of the 'big six', not that I share music anyway.+

You must be right, i'm not on Demon and I don't know why I am replying to
a nonexistent message.
It must be ESP.

an Exceptionally Stupid Person

Oh deer it looks like geoff is an insane stalker as well as stupid.

tony sayer wrote:

News.individual.net around 7 quid a year and superb service

Based in Germany...

Eclipse (my new ISP) outsource news to Giganews.

Andy

In message , "dennis@home"
writes


"geoff" wrote in message
...
In message , "dennis@home"
writes


"Ed Sirett" wrote in message
.. .
Dear Fellow Demons,

Looks like we can still communicate with each other but not with anyone
else. Seems it has been like this since Friday 19th.

It took three phone calls to get them to modify the Summary Status.

You'd have thought they could have found the disconnected cable by now?

Time was when Demon was ahead of the game not behind it. Anyway at least
they are not one of the 'big six', not that I share music anyway.+

You must be right, i'm not on Demon and I don't know why I am
replying to a nonexistent message.
It must be ESP.

an Exceptionally Stupid Person

Oh deer it looks like geoff is an insane stalker as well as stupid.

You're in middle management, aren't you den

--
geoff

In message , "dennis@home"
writes


"geoff" wrote in message
...
In message , "dennis@home"
writes


"Ed Sirett" wrote in message
.. .
Dear Fellow Demons,

Looks like we can still communicate with each other but not with anyone
else. Seems it has been like this since Friday 19th.

It took three phone calls to get them to modify the Summary Status.

You'd have thought they could have found the disconnected cable by now?

Time was when Demon was ahead of the game not behind it. Anyway at least
they are not one of the 'big six', not that I share music anyway.+

You must be right, i'm not on Demon and I don't know why I am
replying to a nonexistent message.
It must be ESP.

an Exceptionally Stupid Person

Oh deer it looks like geoff is an insane stalker

you get confused by words, don't you den


--
geoff

Andy Champ wrote:
Billaboard wrote:
Ed Sirett wrote:
Dear Fellow Demons,
Looks like we can still communicate with each other but not with
anyone else. Seems it has been like this since Friday 19th.
It took three phone calls to get them to modify the Summary Status.
You'd have thought they could have found the disconnected cable by now?

This is a problem why? At least one of the newsgroups I use has been
made virtually unusable all summer with x-posts from demon.local. Seems
to have got better now the kiddies are back at school...

snip
The trouble is to know which ISP to move to.

go here

www.kitz.co.uk

and find the page with ISP customer feedback and ratings, and pick one
near the top.

The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Andy Champ wrote:
Billaboard wrote:

snip
The trouble is to know which ISP to move to.

go here

www.kitz.co.uk

and find the page with ISP customer feedback and ratings, and pick one
near the top.

The trouble with that site is that the top ISP on the list is there on
the basis of one submission, yet there are other ISP's that are rated
based on numbers like 150 submissions.

I don't dispute the ratings or their helpfulness (I've always heard that
the top one was very well thought of and presumably those unhappy with
their ISP would be more likely to visit such a site and vent their
spleen) but neither do I think they are necessarily terribly accurate.

In article ,
Andy Champ wrote:
Sorry Tiscali good?

I used to have a Pipex account. Tiscali took them over. A bit later my
credit card expired: "You've cancelled your direct debit so we're going
to cut you off in 6 days unless you do something" (or words to that
effect). Not friendly. So I got a MAC code, sent them a check for the
last month, and cancelled.

You cancelled an otherwise OK service because of a badly worded email or
whatever? Isn't that cutting off your nose to spite your face - given how
relatively poor all these large organizations inevitably will be to a few
at least.

I'm still with Pipex and so far ok - at least their news server still
works fine.

--
*Honk if you love peace and quiet*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In message , Ed Sirett
writes
Dear Fellow Demons,

Looks like we can still communicate with each other but not with anyone
else. Seems it has been like this since Friday 19th.

Yes:-(

It took three phone calls to get them to modify the Summary Status.

That was you?

You'd have thought they could have found the disconnected cable by now?

Hmm... there were various interruptions early this year. There was an
announcement about replacing some equipment affecting web hosting
recently. From what I remember of finding suitable power supplies for
mainframe upgrades, there will be an absolute rats breakfast of data and
power mixed under a suspended floor......

Time was when Demon was ahead of the game not behind it. Anyway at least
they are not one of the 'big six', not that I share music anyway.+

Patience:-) Just when I need some practical plumbing advice! FYI Herts.
plumbers are taking orders for 2009.

regards



--
Tim Lamb

Ed Sirett wrote:
Dear Fellow Demons,

Looks like we can still communicate with each other but not with anyone
else. Seems it has been like this since Friday 19th.

Indeed.

It took three phone calls to get them to modify the Summary Status.

One of my biggest grips with Demon is that they no longer update their
summary status page in a timly manner.

The cynic in me wonders if the summary status page has gone from being
a useful service for Demon's clients (tell it like it is) to part of
the sales and marketing effort for potential new clients (everything is
wonderful).

You'd have thought they could have found the disconnected cable by now?

Indeed.

Time was when Demon was ahead of the game not behind it. Anyway at least
they are not one of the 'big six', not that I share music anyway.+

Sadly, USENET is no longer a priority service for most ISPs.

Guy
-- --------------------------------------------------------------------
Guy Dawson I.T. Manager Crossflight Ltd

Ed Sirett wrote:
Dear Fellow Demons,

Looks like we can still communicate with each other but not with anyone
else. Seems it has been like this since Friday 19th.

It took three phone calls to get them to modify the Summary Status.

You'd have thought they could have found the disconnected cable by now?

Time was when Demon was ahead of the game not behind it. Anyway at least
they are not one of the 'big six', not that I share music anyway.+



Yep, I noticed this too. Last messages to the outside world are on the 18th.
Perhaps someone should phone their help line but I hate talking to an
Indian call centre who will probably tell me to switch off my ADSL
router for 5 minutes :-))

A

Andy Dee wrote:
Ed Sirett wrote:
Dear Fellow Demons,
Looks like we can still communicate with each other but not with
anyone else. Seems it has been like this since Friday 19th.
It took three phone calls to get them to modify the Summary Status.
You'd have thought they could have found the disconnected cable by now?

Time was when Demon was ahead of the game not behind it. Anyway at
least they are not one of the 'big six', not that I share music anyway.+



Yep, I noticed this too. Last messages to the outside world are on the
18th.
Perhaps someone should phone their help line but I hate talking to an
Indian call centre who will probably tell me to switch off my ADSL
router for 5 minutes :-))

A
seems to be leaking out to other ISPs now.

Andy Dee wrote:

Ed Sirett wrote:
Dear Fellow Demons,

Looks like we can still communicate with each other but not with anyone
else. Seems it has been like this since Friday 19th.

It took three phone calls to get them to modify the Summary Status.

You'd have thought they could have found the disconnected cable by now?

Time was when Demon was ahead of the game not behind it. Anyway at least
they are not one of the 'big six', not that I share music anyway.+



Yep, I noticed this too. Last messages to the outside world are on the 18th.
Perhaps someone should phone their help line but I hate talking to an
Indian call centre who will probably tell me to switch off my ADSL
router for 5 minutes :-))


They must use the same call centre as Tiscali, then. ;-)

In article ,
Bruce wrote:
Yep, I noticed this too. Last messages to the outside world are on the
18th. Perhaps someone should phone their help line but I hate talking
to an Indian call centre who will probably tell me to switch off my
ADSL router for 5 minutes :-))


They must use the same call centre as Tiscali, then. ;-)

I've only needed to contact Pipex 3 times - all when my broadband
failed. In each case the ADSL carrier was still present.

First time I got a very helpful English sounding bloke who had heard of
RISC OS and did his best - pretty good really since non of my RISC OS
browsers could get into the router menu. It got sorted with no action from
me - he actually phoned me back to say it was likely a BT problem.

Second time - still Pipex - same sort of fault. This time got someone who
sounded black - not Asian - and I can only guess had been instructed to
waste as much customer time as possible while enraging the recipient into
the bargain. I just about changed ISP there and then. That fault also
sorted itself without any action from me.

Third time - same fault. This time Tiscali ownership. Got an extremely
helpful bloke who sounded Dutch. Spent a lot of time checking everything
he could. Eventually concluded it was probably BT again. Fault once more
cleared as if by magic. ;-)

Total outages (that I know of) have only totalled a few hours in some 4
years.

--
*A bicycle can't stand alone because it's two tyred.*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
The Natural Philosopher writes:
Andy Dee wrote:
Ed Sirett wrote:
Dear Fellow Demons,
Looks like we can still communicate with each other but not with
anyone else. Seems it has been like this since Friday 19th.
It took three phone calls to get them to modify the Summary Status.
You'd have thought they could have found the disconnected cable by now?

Time was when Demon was ahead of the game not behind it. Anyway at
least they are not one of the 'big six', not that I share music anyway.+



Yep, I noticed this too. Last messages to the outside world are on the
18th.
Perhaps someone should phone their help line but I hate talking to an
Indian call centre who will probably tell me to switch off my ADSL
router for 5 minutes :-))

A
seems to be leaking out to other ISPs now.

I think outgoing is working-ish.
Incoming isn't.
When something like this happened back around 2000/2001, I took pity
and streamed lots of the uk.* groups into Demon from my own newsservers.
I don't think I can get to the Demon newsservers anymore (not having a
modem or a Demon adsl line).

I used to know a few people who worked there, but I don't know anyone
who's still there now. I rather suspect they don't have the expertise
left to maintain their service. The news system was their own design,
but they lost those staff. From dipping into demon.service occasionally,
it looks like they have no one left who knows how to run the service.
ISP's are generally very strapped for money (they've beaten each other
down in price to below what it costs to run a service). This means they
usually can't afford good enough staff and are stuck with aging kit, a
combination which leads to poor service levels. Demon also stopped being
honest and open about their service status many years ago (it takes many
days of outage before they publically admit to anything having gone
wrong). This is in stark contrast to how honest and open they were in
the early years, and is probably a reflection of their insecurity.

In the early years, I probably setup around 10 people on Demon, but I
don't think I know anyone who still uses Demon now. Most of those left
as a result of the incompetence of Demon's accounts department over
the years (it's always been really dire, even in the beginning).

Contrary to my headers, I haven't seriously used Demon for about
8 years now, only as a maildrop and webspace. I use a commercial ISP
in order to get the service level I require.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

Andrew Gabriel wrote:

Most of those left as a result of the incompetence of Demon's accounts
department over the years

fx: waves

I left for several reasons, the accounts being one and the "Crap Legal
Team" being the other. I refused to sign a contract giving open-ended
indemnity to Demon to cover their legal costs in the event that I did
anything that incurred such costs. The exchange of letters/emails with
the brainless **** they employed as a lawyer got to the point where I
referred them to Arkell vs Pressdram.

On Wed, 24 Sep 2008 20:21:07 +0100, Billaboard wrote:


He works as a semi-retired, semi-pro journalist using fax and email to
send his copy. I'm at the stage where every time he rings I tell him he
ought to find a better ISP.

Entanet have* tech support lines which get answered promptly by techs with
clue. Never used their news service (if they have one) though.

* at least had, when I set up my mum's ADSL about 18 months ago; never
needed to use them since. I bought the service through UKFSN who, sadly,
are in the ****up-in-brewery league.

--
John Stumbles

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.

Contrary to my headers, I haven't seriously used Demon for about
8 years now, only as a maildrop and webspace. I use a commercial ISP
in order to get the service level I require.


Anyone to recommend then please?...

--
Tony Sayer

They must use the same call centre as Tiscali, then. ;-)

I've only needed to contact Pipex 3 times - all when my broadband
failed. In each case the ADSL carrier was still present.

First time I got a very helpful English sounding bloke who had heard of
RISC OS and did his best - pretty good really since non of my RISC OS
browsers could get into the router menu. It got sorted with no action from
me - he actually phoned me back to say it was likely a BT problem.

Second time - still Pipex - same sort of fault. This time got someone who
sounded black - not Asian - and I can only guess had been instructed to
waste as much customer time as possible while enraging the recipient into
the bargain. I just about changed ISP there and then. That fault also
sorted itself without any action from me.

Third time - same fault. This time Tiscali ownership. Got an extremely
helpful bloke who sounded Dutch. Spent a lot of time checking everything
he could. Eventually concluded it was probably BT again. Fault once more
cleared as if by magic. ;-)

Total outages (that I know of) have only totalled a few hours in some 4
years.


Course all ADSL is finally dependant on good ole BT;(...........
--
Tony Sayer

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote:

Third time - same fault. This time Tiscali ownership. Got an extremely
helpful bloke who sounded Dutch. Spent a lot of time checking everything
he could. Eventually concluded it was probably BT again. Fault once more
cleared as if by magic. ;-)


Was this prior to 18 January 2008? I ask because that is the date
when Tiscali migrated all Pipex customer service provision to the
Tiscali call centre in India.

Andrew Gabriel wrote:


I used to know a few people who worked there, but I don't know anyone
who's still there now. I rather suspect they don't have the expertise
left to maintain their service. The news system was their own design,
but they lost those staff. From dipping into demon.service occasionally,
it looks like they have no one left who knows how to run the service.

This sounds like what I've suspected for ages.

ISP's are generally very strapped for money (they've beaten each other
down in price to below what it costs to run a service). This means they
usually can't afford good enough staff and are stuck with aging kit, a
combination which leads to poor service levels. Demon also stopped being
honest and open about their service status many years ago (it takes many
days of outage before they publically admit to anything having gone
wrong). This is in stark contrast to how honest and open they were in
the early years, and is probably a reflection of their insecurity.


I know there are business providers, eg Claranet, who charge more and
provide reasonable if limited service.
But this is the point. If I pay a fiver a month for adsl, I don't expect
much. If I pay £25, along with a number of other users, I expect the
provider to be able to afford to employ someone who knows what they are
doing. I can even put up with a bunch of engineers who can't do
accounts. What I don't want is to be dealing with a bunch of accountants
using words like efficiency and shareholder value while users get fed up
with the service provided. Aging kit shouldn't happen. There should be a
programme of maintenance and continual modernisation.
Similarly, I get incensed in the way that water companies tell me that
they have "invested" in a lot of new replacement pipes and this is a
huge improvement that I should pay for.

It's not just Demon, it's the Post Office, British Gas, Scottish Power,
BT.... The list goes on and on as Lesser Britain slides down the greasy
pole to third-worldness or beyond. I'm becoming a grumpy old man, and am
starting to write letters, but nothing seems to stop it all turning to crap.

Hello - it has been very quiet of late hasn't it!

Must admit I was getting a bit fed up that they didn't seem to even know
there was a problem and it has been nearly a week now...

Ho hum


In article , Ed Sirett
writes
Dear Fellow Demons,

Looks like we can still communicate with each other but not with anyone
else. Seems it has been like this since Friday 19th.

It took three phone calls to get them to modify the Summary Status.

You'd have thought they could have found the disconnected cable by now?

Time was when Demon was ahead of the game not behind it. Anyway at least
they are not one of the 'big six', not that I share music anyway.+



--
John Alexander,

Remove NOSPAM if replying by e-mail

In message , Ed Sirett
writes
Dear Fellow Demons,

Looks like we can still communicate with each other but not with anyone
else. Seems it has been like this since Friday 19th.

It took three phone calls to get them to modify the Summary Status.

You'd have thought they could have found the disconnected cable by now?

Time was when Demon was ahead of the game not behind it. Anyway at least
they are not one of the 'big six', not that I share music anyway.+


Interesting, I've not seen posts from anyone until yours. Shame, time to
leave Demon I think. Customer service is now dire and Be are in my area
for a couple of quid less a month so after many, many years....
--
Clint Sharp

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

You cancelled an otherwise OK service because of a badly worded email or
whatever? Isn't that cutting off your nose to spite your face - given how
relatively poor all these large organizations inevitably will be to a few
at least.


No. I was considering changing ISPs when they sent me an letter telling
me I was going to be cut off for doing something that they should have
known I hadn't done - after 5 years of having an account with them - and
giving me less notice than the length of my annual holiday. They have
changed all their contact numbers to premium rate. They have changed
the Ts&Cs to limit my use (but so have they all) - I could go on, but
what't the use.

I'm still with Pipex and so far ok - at least their news server still
works fine.

It's when you get a fault that you'll find out what the problems are.

Andy

In article ,
Bruce wrote:
Third time - same fault. This time Tiscali ownership. Got an extremely
helpful bloke who sounded Dutch. Spent a lot of time checking everything
he could. Eventually concluded it was probably BT again. Fault once more
cleared as if by magic. ;-)


Was this prior to 18 January 2008? I ask because that is the date
when Tiscali migrated all Pipex customer service provision to the
Tiscali call centre in India.

I can't be certain except that it was earlier this year.

[Thinks]

I'll have a look at the logging system on this machine.

28th March.

--
*I finally got my head together, now my body is falling apart.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Andy Champ wrote:

It's when you get a fault that you'll find out what the problems are.

... and I should have added - since I got and used the MAC code, PIPEX
have emailed me at least 4 times with the intersting message "your
broadband has gone live and you can start using the service
immediately". And 4 times saying my service will be suspended in 10
days unless I pay up. Plus, once, just to be different, a 6 day warning...

And I forgot to mention one of the reasons why I was thinking about
switching ISPs was that as the "fix" for a fault they dropped my line
speed to 1mBit.

Andy

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote:

In article ,
Bruce wrote:
Third time - same fault. This time Tiscali ownership. Got an extremely
helpful bloke who sounded Dutch. Spent a lot of time checking everything
he could. Eventually concluded it was probably BT again. Fault once more
cleared as if by magic. ;-)


Was this prior to 18 January 2008? I ask because that is the date
when Tiscali migrated all Pipex customer service provision to the
Tiscali call centre in India.

I can't be certain except that it was earlier this year.

[Thinks]

I'll have a look at the logging system on this machine.

28th March.


Perhaps Tiscali were late? Or one of their Indian call centre
personnel speaks English with what appears to be a Dutch accent ...

In article ,
tony sayer writes:
Contrary to my headers, I haven't seriously used Demon for about
8 years now, only as a maildrop and webspace. I use a commercial ISP
in order to get the service level I require.

Anyone to recommend then please?...

I initially had BT Openworld Business. That was excellent. They
generally noticed faults before I did, and they were fixed within
a few hours even over weekends. Their news service started developing
lots of missing articles. They relied on the BT Openworld residential
news service, and the BT Openworld residential side was nowhere near
as good as the business side. (Ironically, I took a full newsfeed
from BT's peering newsservers at work and that was excellent, but
sadly not what the BT Openworld news servers seemed to use.)
However, at £65/month when other ADSL providers had dropped well
below that, and with the newsservice not working too well, I switched
to Andrews+Arnold about 3 years ago. They are mainly a business ISP
(I don't think they expect support calls from windows users whose
systems have stopped working). They only officially provide support
Mon-Fri business hours, but unofficially support seems to be available
weekends too. The news service is provided by Gradwell, and seems OK
(gets the odd hickup for a few minutes occasionally). A+A are very
honest with their customers -- like Demon were in their first couple
of years, and I like to see that from a company. I believe A+A have
deliberately priced themselves to dissaude new customers at the moment,
to maintain quality of service for existing users whilst they wait for
BT to get the new generation links working. I've got 3 ADSL lines
with A+A around the family, and it's nice to be able to monitor and
manage them from web pages, and get SMS alerts when they go down, etc.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

In article , Andrew Gabriel
scribeth thus
In article ,
tony sayer writes:
Contrary to my headers, I haven't seriously used Demon for about
8 years now, only as a maildrop and webspace. I use a commercial ISP
in order to get the service level I require.

Anyone to recommend then please?...

I initially had BT Openworld Business. That was excellent. They
generally noticed faults before I did, and they were fixed within
a few hours even over weekends. Their news service started developing
lots of missing articles. They relied on the BT Openworld residential
news service, and the BT Openworld residential side was nowhere near
as good as the business side. (Ironically, I took a full newsfeed
from BT's peering newsservers at work and that was excellent, but
sadly not what the BT Openworld news servers seemed to use.)
However, at £65/month when other ADSL providers had dropped well
below that, and with the newsservice not working too well, I switched
to Andrews+Arnold about 3 years ago. They are mainly a business ISP
(I don't think they expect support calls from windows users whose
systems have stopped working). They only officially provide support
Mon-Fri business hours, but unofficially support seems to be available
weekends too. The news service is provided by Gradwell, and seems OK
(gets the odd hickup for a few minutes occasionally). A+A are very
honest with their customers -- like Demon were in their first couple
of years, and I like to see that from a company. I believe A+A have
deliberately priced themselves to dissaude new customers at the moment,
to maintain quality of service for existing users whilst they wait for
BT to get the new generation links working. I've got 3 ADSL lines
with A+A around the family, and it's nice to be able to monitor and
manage them from web pages, and get SMS alerts when they go down, etc.


All noted thanks!....
--
Tony Sayer