Slow Internet?

[Ragged Robin]

Reference POST 16 and apart from other aspect of this thread:
I do not really understand the post, but I do not think a comparison with Authorities and the private ISPS is irrelevant as the Statutory Authorities are just that, their terms of contract fixed by Statute (ie basically parliament). In the uk (I am not sure about here) penalties and rates of compensation are also fixed by the authorities.

In the UK, problems re. performance, contracts and compensation for internet connection (not limited to broadband) are mainly covered by the consumer rights act and/or the sale of goods act - different from the "statutory" compensation specified for water/electricity/gas failures...

This is because the "Stats" are so vital to the normal processes of life. In my view (irrespective of the responsibility or efficiency of MM or any other supplier) the internet has now become equally essential ....

This is definitely a personal view; I would maintain that it is equally desirable - but there are many areas of the UK where any form of broadband is still virtually or actually unavailable.... mobile/cell phone connectivity is also unavailable, and sometimes the only system is land-line dial-up via modem....

Interesting Jaffa. I had heard there are parts of the UK that had connectivity problems - I think they have here too - and I was under the impression that it was location - ie distance from transmitter or geographic features. to me is seems all the more of a problem that people are forced to rely on IT to carry out operations such as banking or getting a driving licence! However at least for UK residents they dont need intenet to watch TV and hopefully land lines are reasonable reliable!

[Ragged Robin]

1. I have already pointed out that it is not "a free service".

Yes you have expressed this opinion before and continue to state it as fact. When I fill up my car with petrol sometimes they wash my windscreens and other times they do not. It is a 'free' courtesy as far as I am concerned . What I am paying for is the petrol and if they wash my windscreen that is a nice bonus. What I do not do is state that the washing of the windscreen is not really 'free' and demand they do it every time and complain and moan when they do not. The VPN service is a free add on to what customers pay us for , namely an internet connection. As is the access to the ntv tv channels. No other ISPs offer such free extras. You can indeed beat MM up for offering these things and demand not only we offer them but also that we set them up and support peoples use of them, including sending engineers to 'elderly' customers to do so but the simple reality is if that was how the majority of customers behaved in response to us offering such extras that others do not offer, then the only sensible commercial decision we could take would be to simply do what everyone else does and not offer them at all.

2. I am a computer illiterate , elderly, partiallly disabled person. Nonetheless I was able to configure the VPN following instructions from (a non nature English)speaker who had patience and the intelligence not to confuse me with unnecessary technical terms! Please do not take it for granted that age and incapacity and sometimes slowness equals stupidy.

No doubt you could also have done so following the online instructions as well.

Unfortunately no! I cant follow instructions on computer while operating it. At worst I have to print off the instructions and that is expensive andnot always easy if they relate to various application

3. I was distressed by the lack of courtesy and consideration show by MM to an elderly customer ...

How do you know the age of the caller ?

I dont! she was described as "elderly" in another post. I assume of a generation like me that did not grow up with computers and lacked the opportunity to learn in later life.

Nor does Erol seem to have picked that up that point.

You are the one who has failed 'to pick up' the point , which is that on the two days the caller said they had no internet they had in fact downloaded very large amounts of data.

The caller said he lost the internet in the afternoon. Would he have time to download in the morning. The caller did explain he was also calling on behalf of the neighbour who had not had internet teh previous day. Surely that indicates a separate fault.

I understand (I have not been able to get there myself) that Multimax offices are on high level in a block in the Centre of Girne with no nearby parking. Therefore any person who is unable to access them, through age, disabiltiy , failty or just lack of transport will not be able to benefit from the services they are paying for.......I had previously doubts about MM but stayed from misplaced loyalty and a belief they were technically the best despite their faults in customer care. Now I am feeling it is against my principles to use a company witht this ethical stance.

There are two parking spaces outside the front of the MM office.

As I said I have not seen th eplace so I am only guessing but I doubt those spaces are available when needed by a disabled person. Sadly if one is disabled or just have walking difficulties you cannot take the risk of one of only two spaces in the centre of town being available or (and this actually applies to more infirmities) of climbing stairs.

If you do not like MM, it service, the free add ons, how much parking space we have, how we answer the phone,or any other aspect of the company you are more than free to take us up on our offer to let you break your term contract early, follow the procedure and get a full refund on the remaining part of that term contract and seek service elsewhere.

OH the usual get out : If you dont like our service do the other thing! I dont want to explain why I am tied to your service to particularly on this formum

We work hard at MM. I work hard for MM. Your constant attacks on us a s a company are in my opinion less about us as a company and certainly us as a company fairly compared to the alternatives on offer here and more about you and your seeming self centred inability to see or care about anything other than your own situation and position.

And I worked hard to get a pension which enables me to pay MM. If I had told clients they should be more patient, or suggested they went elsewhere I would not have kept the job.

I have not attacked you as a person or a company. I take care not to make personal comments about other poster as I have had too many examples of how it hurts. I have to say however that it is not my fault that you identify so much with your employers that you take criticism of them personally. I have not attacked MM . I have shared my experiences and problems with other posters which is the intention of a forum. I had already explained that I my first post on this thread was related to the IT industry in general and not specific to MM. It was others that raised issues arising fromm it and I commented on what I considered to be unfair treamtnet of one of them

I raise issues on any subject where disabled and elserly people are suffering discrimination, not just for my own sake, but for others because before I was struck down myself I had been involved with others who were far worse afflicted and I know what hurt and damage the attitude of society can cause raise and the need to raise awareness. I regret that people on this forum feel the need to make personal attacks on me as a result - it just proves the need for education on the subject and I regret the my attempts fail so sadly.

End of discussion as far as I am concerned. It is late and I still have the problems to sort out that arose because an important enclosure sent on Wednesday afternoon when the Internet in North Cyprus was playing up appears to to have been scrambled in transmission.

I

[erol]

I already posted the link to BT's service terms for their home internet services, seemingly to little effect.

If you suffer a continuous total loss of the service at any time after we have provided it and you report it to us, we promise to put things right by midnight on the third weekday (not public and bank holidays) after you have reported the fault

So if you have a total loss of all internet on say Saturday morning and you report that to them immediately BT will comit to having that fixed by midnight the following Wednesday and if they do that is it . No compensation and certainly no ability to claim for consequential loss of being in the middle of a banking transaction or not being able to make such transactions from you internet connection for nigh on five days. Nothing. If it takes longer than this then they will compensate you for each additional day past this 3 or 5 if its over a weekend at the rate of however many pence per day the services costs. That is it that is the full extent of their 'liability' for sustained loss of internet service over 3-5 days that the customer has paid for. This is as true if you are a young able bodied BT customer or an elderly frail one with limited mobility. For intermittent loss of service rather than total sustained over 3-5 days, they may on a case by case basis offfer some undefined compensation to reflect the value of the service. Or they may not.

what is more

By continuous total loss of broadband service we mean the inability to make a connection to the internet through BT broadband due to a fault in any part of BT's network up to and including the main telephone socket for your property.

Read that and understand it. understand 'due to a fault in any part of BT'S NETWORK. If BT were to operate in an environment where the only link out to the internet they could link customers to were from TTnet and a failure on the part of TTnet that led to a total loss of service to customers even past the excluded 3-5 days from the point the customers notifies BT, they STILL would not be liable under their terms of service.

So as a result of these intermittent problems internet users across north cyprus are suffering because of failures with TT network, you can use all the fancy legalese you like and talk about 'privity of Contract' and such like but the reality is under BT's terms of service such faults would entail no legal liability on BT at all. To imply they would in such circumstances have a liability not just for the service failure itself but also potentialy for consequential losses caused to the customer by this intermittent loss of service is to me so divorced from reality, not just here in the TRNC but anywhere in the world, that it is little more than talking about some cloud cuckoo land than any sort of real world scenario.

[PoshinDevon]

You can take a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink.

Unfortunately despite the rational and reasonable explanations given, some "customers" will still not accept or understand what they are being told.

I have myself had experience in dealing with BT back in the UK both in my working life as a Service Delivery Manager responsible for supplying telecoms services to a large aerospace organisation and also as a private customer. The experience of dealing with this huge dinosaur of an organisation was often one of wrestling with a crocodile......very slippery and almost impossible to beat.

MM or there representative have given reasonable and often detailed explanations with regards to the challenges they face in providing a service. No other ISP here does this and it would never happen with BT.

I also struggle with why MM are even discussing disabled parking spaces and the such like - what is that all about? As has been stated many times if you are a dissatisfied MM customer for whatever reason, cancel your contract, get your rebate and move to a provider which you believe will offer a better and superior service. If you do find an ISP that is more transparent and provides a better service you can then come on the forum and recommend them.

[turtle]

Sounds like a thread lock is coming on ?

[jofra]

" .....However at least for UK residents they dont need intenet to watch TV and hopefully land lines are reasonable reliable!..."
Sadly, wrong again... there are areas where TV is not available (due either to distance or geographic) and internet is not available - so they are limited to satellite reception!
You can see here what one person has resorted to in Central Wales to a "reasonable" internet connection...

[Ragged Robin]

Deeply hurtful ~ how do you think I feel with all the hate mail I get here. Pots and kettles spring to mind.

Actually I am very interested in the provision of statutory services - I tried to make the point that the Internet was now as important to most peoople as they are. I did not take it further because it was going off topic, How you interpret that as a personal attack I quite fail to understand . If I had unintentionally hurt you Erol I am very sorry.. but perhaps you will try to understand that it was mutual If someone wants to start a thread about Statutory Authorities I would be very interested providing they promise not to be offensive and hurtful to me or anyone else.

Keith made an earlier point about prejudice in reading posts: if you and others would kindly consider what I (and some others)actually say instead of what your preconceived ideas of what I said, this forum would be a pleasanter place.

I suggest this thread has become another witch hunt and is serving no useful purpose andbe closed. I am going to treat it as such.

I am a human being too and I like to be treated as one despite disabilities,, Independence is important to me and other disabled people. At my comparatively low level it could easily be achieved if people took a little trouble to consider our problems. IBeing housebound in the evenings (not because of disabiity , but lack of funds to buy a car capable of coping with blinding headlights of others) I would love to be able to hold interesting discussions on this forum without being subject to attack if I happen to express an unpopular opinion. I apologise if this last para is off topic and assure Erol it is not addressed to him specifically

[erol]

Ragged Robin I have sent you a private message