Service Ain't Free (Freeserve)

Member Name: utero

Product:	Freeserve
Date:	23/07/03 (138 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Decent Net Connection

Disadvantages: Crap Customer Service

I've been using the Internet for quite a few years now. When I first started using it there were no such things as unlimited access packages, you paid a subscription to a service provider and then you paid your calls on top of that. Needless to say I was raking up £70 a quarter on access charges alone. Then came the advent of freeserve that offered net access at no cost other than some advertising and marketing information. People were quick to be sceptical and there were teething problems when the service first came online.

In the past couple of years Internet access has become a competitive market with quite a few companies offering various deals. The advent of broadband has also raised the bar in service levels and competition. I've been on Freeserve Anytime for about 18-months. I've saved a great deal of money in this time through only having to pay a flat monthly fee and no call charges for being online. Personally I've never really had a problem with the company until this week. Access speeds have on the whole been generally good. Sure they've been a few times when the servers couldn't cope with demand but quick service upgrades always corrected the problem. I never had to use the support as I've previously worked in computers and know how to sort most problems myself.

Recently Freeserve brought in an 'anytime connection kit'. This was a download to your dialer that would look for the best possible connection in your area. Personally I didn't notice a difference in connection speed whatsoever. Instead what I got was some very annoying pop-ups. They weren't even ad banners but rather primitive advertising for sites that had web cam features. The content of these web cams was suggesting some unsavoury activity to say the least. Since removing said software I haven't experienced any of these pop-ups so I'd love to know what the actual point of this connection kit was.

This week our ho
usehold have gone onto Broadband. I?d always seen it
as expensive and not worth the extra outlay but when NTL came round offering a 150k connection at £17.99 p/month with free installation etc then I was sold. This is because the combined cost of £14.99 freeserve subs and £10 on BT Line rental meant that I?d be saving near to £100 a year for a faster connection. This is where the problem with Freeserve came in.

I called the customer line as listed on the freeserve website.

"Hello I?d like to cancel my account please"

"Certainly, you are aware that you?ve just paid for this coming month?"

"Yes but I'd imagine you can just refund this because I haven't used it"

"I'm sorry we can't do refunds"

Cue a stunned silence, if I had paid for the month and nearly used it all then I would quibble but I paid on the 20th of this month and only used it until the 21st. £14.99 for a days access isn't a good deal. It seems Freeserve still have the Dixon's approach to customer service and getting a refund that you're entitled to. The service rep gave me the address to write to and I plan to because paying for something that you?re not using is frankly ludicrous. I have no faults with the service itself but this is incredibly annoying. I now have to write a letter to ask for my money back when I've paid by card and the refund should be simple. It's like walking into a store having been overcharged for something. Only you're told that you?ll have to do everything yourself to get your money back.

It's because of this that I'd say to anyone to seriously consider not going to Freeserve if you value customer service.

Summary: