Wanadoo Problems

verypoor

Hi I am just wanting some advice on where i go next with a problem i am having with Wanadoo broadband. I signed up for wanadoo last Febuary and was going to sign up with direct debit as my payment method. I was told that because I was signing up on the 4th direct debit would come out 10 working days after that, I decided to then pay by debit card instead because this would have come out 24-48 hours after the 4th so that was that. No payments came out in march, the payment for april came out on the 3rd, then after that every payment came out varying from the earliest the 16th to the latest 26th of each months. on each occasion I was charged by the bank £30 for the payments pushing me outside my overdraft limit.

I spoke to Wanadoo and advised them what was happening and they advised that the payments come out on the 2nd of each months. I emailed their customer support so I could get some written confirmation and I recieved it saying that it is the 2nd and to allow 3-4 days after that for it to clear (leaving the dates of the 16th right upto the 26th a mystery).

I sent a copy of my statements to wanadoo asking for clarity and a refund for bank fees etc. and all i recieved was a standard template saying again the payment dates was the 2nd. I have since wrote back demanding some explanation and a refund or I would be taking matters further. I today recieved a letter saying that they will offer me a £30 refund for Novembers payment only and that the rest were my banks fault (i have spoke to the bank and have sight of when wanadoo took payments so that is incorrect)

I also had a livebox that has not worked for 3 months (I have had the rental refunded for this) however even though I have nt got nothing outstanding on my account the have suspended my account and when I spoke to the customer support they have said that they cannot reset it until my bill date (so even though I dont owe them any money they cannot restore!!!). this had something to do with me having an outstanding balance when i was disputing the fact my livebox was nt working but even though they refunded my line rental the system still thinks i have an outstanding balance!!

I just need some advice from someone on what avenue i could go because I was thinking of taking wanadoo to a small claims court however I have no experience of this and would nt know where to start etc. I have also spoke to Ofcom but they said that wanadoo have an independent company that would take a complaint and look into it if I get no resolution off wanadoo but none of the staff know who that is and it is nt on the website. I did ask for it when I wrote to them but they have nt told me who it is

mhendo

Take a look at Wanadoo's Code of Practice. Important bits are section 16 (explaining billing is on or around same day each month), 26 (making a complaint, which you've already done), 27 (how it will be dealt with, and if unhappy you can escalate to the ISPA https://www.ispa.org.uk, admin@ispa.org.uk), 28 (if still unhappy, then escalate to CISAS who are an ADR service). Section 29 will give you the contact details of the external bodies.

As you suggest, you also have the Small Claims Court route. You can prove that Wanadoo have confirmed to you verbally & in writing that billing date is 2nd of the month. If direct debit, then this can be 10 working days after this date (to work within the DD gaurantee); if debit card as you say, then it should have been on or around the 2nd of each month. I would only bother going down this route after going to the ISPA and/or CISAS.

You now have loss of service, costing you "x" amount - perhaps dial-up costs, and make sure you put in a request for compensation for the loss of service (getting at least your service charge back for the period of down-time), as you can prove from your back statements they took appropriate payments (albeit on the incorrect days) - paying by Direct Debit or Debit Card puts the responsibility on the company to collect the money, subject to you ensuring there are appropriate funds to clear the payment in your account on or around the day of collection (I would say "on or around" could be open to interpretation, but at most should be no more than 5 working days either side - and Wanadoo are miles outside that!)

Good luck!!! Hope this is a good starting point for you

P.S. Here's the link to the Broadband T&C's if you need it. http://www.wanadoo.co.uk/terms/bb_services.htm?linkfrom=terms_code.htm&link=ChannelMenu_a_links&article=Broadband
And let us know how you get on :think:

verypoor

Thanks for that Mhendo I have just finished my complaint to ISPA so hopefully I will get some resolution on the matter

Thanks again for your help

Spinney_2

I too had problems with Wanadoo. Their live box router doesn't work and I had to revert to the broadband modem. Despite promises to refund to my bank account, I have not been as lucky as you at getting my money back.

Last year a fault appeared on my ADSL line while I was working on it which prevented any connection. A lot of time wasting, expensive calls to their customer "service" department followed but they refused to carry out a proper check on the line. BT will only do it if requested by the service provider. After weeks without a service I was forced to switch and, knowing several users of Tiscali, I went to them. They claimed to carry out a full line check before establishing the connection but did not do so. Despite several weeks trying I never got through to their "service" department and no one else would arrange a repair by BT.

The only solutioh was to switch to BT as broadband provider. Their service department was accessible. They did checks and found the fault 50 metres before the line entered the house. The whole process took half an hour.

I am now in dispute with Tiscali who want payment even though I was never able to connect to their service. Fortunately, I was not using the service for business which would have been crippling.

The conclusion seems to be that there is not much to choose between providers when everything is working. If there is a problem then the quality of service is all important.

Stubbsy5050

I was with Wanado for years. They contacted me saying that I was exceeding my capped internet usage. It was news to me that they had put any cap on my usage. When I looked into it I found the heavy use had happened when my son, a computer sciences undergraduate had been at home on holiday, downloading his projects from university.

They then offered me a free upgrade to 8mb broadband at "no increase" on my £28 a month subscription. I happily agreed until I found that the modem they had supplied was capable of a maximum download speed of 0.6 mb !

My home broadband connection failed in December so I rang Wanadoo and was promised reconnection by Christmas Eve. We rely on internet contact with friends and family abroad. Our 18 year old is at university in the USA. It is also vital for my work.

By January we were still disconnected. Wanadoo blamed BT. I made over 40 national rate phone calls before Customer Services in India admitted it was Wanadoo's problem all along and that they had done nothing to correct it. I cancelled my subscription.

However the problems continued when I tried to sign up to a new ISP.
Wanadoo refused to give me a MAC code to transfer to another provider and for over a month now they have blocked my BT line so no other broadband supplier can use it.

Wanadoo also sent me a Hotmail message from Customer Services asking me why I was cancelling. I completed the online form and sent it back via the hotlink on the form. Surprise, surprise - it bounced back with "No such address"!

Wanadoo have displayed corporate incompetence, malice and mendacity, and I would advise anybody to avoid them like the plague. I have of course made a formal complaint to Ofcom.