Madasafish Questions/answers (merged threads)

Fishface_2

I moved my broadband and home phone service from Onetel because of dreadful customer service and chose Madasafish.

I also decided to pay Madasafish line rental (cheaper than BT). Now I have an intermittent problem with my phones and Madasafish just won't reply to my emails (broadband still works most of the time). At first they asked me to test by unplugging my phones and using a test socket which I don't have. Since then I've sent them 4 or 5 messages over the last 6 days to both support and customer care and they simply don't reply. I have no idea what they have done (if anything), I don't even know if they've tested the line. The phone's still not working.

I read lots of reviews before choosing Madasafish and was heavily influenced by the good work of Samara in sorting out customer problems, mostly to do with setting up broadband.

How do I get Samara working on my case please?

Madasafish customer service is not as good as they claim.

Madasafish_Customer_Care

Hi Guys,

I apologise that it's taken me a while to post to these queries. I'll do my best to address them all:

NorthernSparky - I would be happy to look into this for you. Could you please PM me your username? If your phoneline goes down it would be the responsibility of your line rental provider to manage your relationship with BT Openreach to get the problem resolved.

Fishface - I'm really sorry that you've not had a response yet - something doesn't seem right if you've not heard from us; we try to respond to all emails within 24 hours. It's possible that you've gotten caught in a spam filter somewhere. Could you please PM me with your username and the email address that you were using to contact us? I should be able to help you out and trace where your emails are.

You - We'll always offer you a better deal in exchange for a new 12 month contract, I'll have a look at your PM after posting this. I'll also have a look at your account and billing; if your billing date is the 26th of month it means that that's the date that we think your service has gone live. I can correct that if you weren't migrated in until 03 October 2006. In response to this query:

Linked to this is the question of when I could safely ask for my MAC and give you 28 days notice if I do reluctantly decide to leave. There have been a few contradictory things said on this from different posters and things aren't completely clear. If I make the call on the 26th of this month, the anniversary of signing up is that 12 months, or will it be the 3rd of October, a year after the migration. Presumably I will have to pay for a 13th month either way now anyway.

I would always recommend putting in your notice and requesting a MAC on an invoice date (in your case the 26th of the month). The reason for this that should an invoice fall between when you place your invoice and when you migrate away we will take payment for it. This timing helps avoid that situation.

Kind regards,
Samara

harryhound

Thanks Samara,

Excellent service again.

Harry

PS a relative of mine is off chasing the free lap top offer - I do hope they don't come a cropper on the service front.

=======================================================


Hi Harry,

I'm really sorry that the email address was restricted. There are no notes against the account to explain why this occurred.

I've got the account reinstated and Mrs Hound should be back up and running.

Thank you for your patience and please do keep in touch should this happen again.

Kind regards,
Samara
=======================================================

Quote:
Originally Posted by harryhound
Hi Samara,

Last week I asked how "Mrs Hound" could continue to access her emails, using Web mail; and when she logged on via the MAAF site, everything seemed to be in order.

However she now seems to have the following worrying response:

You are currently locked out of your mail account, read the mail below for more info
[EMAIL="christine.hartnell@totalise.co.uk"]xxxxxxx.xxxxxxxx@totalise.co.uk[/EMAIL]


This appears above what appears to be a completely empty mail box.

Any idea what has happened?

Thanks in advance.

Harry.

teddyco

Samara,

Just to let you know, I sent you a PM to request a better deal with Madasafish as my 12 month contract is almost up.

Madasafish_Customer_Care

Hi Huballi,

I've tried to send you a PM but your inbox is full- I'd really like to set up a time where one of my engineers can call you.

I'm just on my way back to London from our South Africa office - could you please select a date and time on or after 24 September and I'll get someone to ring.

Thank you!

Kind regards,
Samara

zorber

Just wish to clear up and clarify the issue of cancelling that many uses of madasfish seem to have. Contrary to what madasafish would try and make you believe if you cancel part way through a billing cycle they have no right to try and then bill you for another complete billing period. If they do this they are then in breach of contract and can be sued. Madasafish will try their best to tell you they ned to bill you for another complete billing cycle but this is simply not true and you can request a partial bill to complete your obligation to madasafish. Any one who has been caught by this sharp practice should report it to ofcom so we can get this stamped out.

Under contract law you only have to pay for your notice period. Martin should take note of this issue and do something about it.

I didnt have an issue with madasafish until i tried to cancel, now i will never consider them again.

oldagetraveller

zorber - could you possibly post the relevant bit of contract law or a link relating to this? Saves me wading through search engines to try and find it!!
Not doubting what you say in any way but it could be useful for future reference when my 12 months contract is nearing completion.
Are you sure there's nothing in their Ts & Cs to cover this legally?

Quentin

Their Ts + Cs are quite definitive about this:

10.4 Unless otherwise specified in this Agreement, either you or we may terminate this Agreement on giving not less than 28 days notice to the other; such notice not to expire before the end of the Minimum Period.

Nothing to say when this notice has to be served in relation to your "billing month". Just give 28 days notice and the contract ends - after the minimum period.

The contract is here:

http://www.madasafish.com/terms-and-conditions/broadband.asp

Take a copy for your file in case they change it. Any future changes don't affect anyone currently in a contract with them.

This has come up a few times in this thread.

When pushed, they have claimed that there is an "enforceable" clause in the contract that they have used to get people to pay up this extra notice period, though when asked to show us the clause, it has never been answered. (They cannot answer it as no clause exists).

There are some posts about it from post no 757 here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=174289&page=39

Quentin

zorber wrote: »

Madasafish will try their best to tell you they ned to bill you for another complete billing cycle but this is simply not true and you can request a partial bill to complete your obligation to madasafish. Any one who has been caught by this sharp practice should report it to ofcom so we can get this stamped out.

Under contract law you only have to pay for your notice period. Martin should take note of this issue and do something about it.

I didnt have an issue with madasafish until i tried to cancel, now i will never consider them again.

I have posted a number of times about this practice.

It seems that once a customer has decided to leave they try and squeeze this extra income from them if the notice period covers a new billing period.

Instead of sending a pro rata bill they bill another full month.

This just brings MAAF into disrepute - they reply that they have to give BT notice, and we have to pay for it.

If they do have to pay BT, then that is a matter between those 2, and nothing to do with the departing customer. (And they are part of BT anyway).

Presumably most folk just grin and bear it, but they shouldn't.

To stop them getting away with it, people should dispute any final invoice which is for more than the 28 days notice, pay them the correct amount and cancel their direct debits.

Let them take the court action over what is remaining - it won't succeed.

oldagetraveller

Thanks Quentin. I read from clause 10.4 , possibly wrongly, that you can give them the required 28 days notice as long as such notice period ends after the minimum period (12 months). ie. notice can be given before the contract anniversary and not after the 12 months. So it could be possible to give the notice, they state it MUST be by 'phone, say 20 days before the 12 months is up and the contract should then end 8 days after the first anniversary. As they don't mention about billing dates, as you point out, anywhere in the contract, then that little chestnut is irrelevant and can be disputed.