Madasafish Questions/answers (merged threads)

trigger_mike

private message, click on users name and then send private message

Madasafish_Customer_Care

Hi Larsony,

I believe that you are downloading your mail from the server to entourage and not leaving a copy on the server. What this means is that you would not be able to view old messages in webmail - only ones that you haven't yet downloaded through entourage.

You can leave a copy of mail on the server even after you download it to entourage.

Please open entourage:

1. From the Tools menu please select Accounts
2. On the Mail tab, double-click the account
3. Click the Options tab and then select the option Leave a copy of each message on the servercheck box.

You won't be able to view historical emails, however all future ones will have a copy saved on the server that you'll be able to view in Webmail. Before your computer goes into service, perhaps you could email yourself the important emails that you need.

One thing to remember is that your email account is 50MB or 2,000 emails - thus I would recommend periodically deleting emails from webmail that you don't want to archive.

I hope that is helpful!

Kind regards,
Samara

AngryCustomer06

I joined Madasafish after seeing it recommended on this site. I now need to move to a flat in the same building with the same phone number because of building works, and Madasafish wants to charge me £55 for relocation (BT moves your line for free by the way). With the nature of my work, I am likely to move twice over the next 6 months, and I was told that I would have to pay the £55 charge every time I move. Also, I phoned their call centre and I when I asked to speak to a team leader, I was told that this was not possible as the team leader would tell me the same thing as I had been told. I was also told that if I am not happy, I can leave the service and pay the £95 charge (£55 + extra for the cost of the box they provide initially; note that in paragraph 10 of their contract there is a note that you will be an undisclosed fee for equipment, should you decide to leave - the customer service informed me that no amount is given there because the cost of equipment varies widely...). I am very annoyed with this poor level of customer service and cunning pricing strategy which gets customers to spend more money than other companies when they have to move house. The customer service, by the way only works between 9 and 6 and if you work long hours, you have to find time during the day to call the premium rate number and wait for 10 minutes to see whether a team leader can speak to you; if you get through they tell you 20 times that they are very keen on customer care, but you still need to pay or just go. The point of this blog is to warn you all to make sure you choose the right service: what is advertised as cheap to start with can turn out to be very expensive in the long run. And as some have noted, the 8MB speed is mostly a myth... Am I the only person finding Madasafish a marketing scam?

mrJ_5

the charge appears correct, since they will have to reactivate your line, once you have moved.... if anything blame BT, as you cannot yet move both your line and broadband, without costs being incurred

Madasafish_Customer_Care

Hello AngryCustomer06,

I'm really sorry that you're unhappy with our charges for moving home.

I would like to take a moment and explain the charges. When you move flats, even though you are keeping the same telephone number your physical line has changed. The new line won't have broadband on it, thus we'll need to reinstall broadband on your new line.

When a customer first signs up for broadband, we pay BT £55 to get ADSL installed on the line. Whenever the customer moves or changes their phone number we have to pay BT a further £55 to reinstall the service. Because our monthly subscription costs are so low, we cannot afford to cover the free installation and provide a free moving home within the same year.

To illustrate this: Without taking advantage of any promotion when you sign up, the cost of the first year of service is £179.88.

£179.88 - £55 (first connection set up) - £39.99 (hardware) - £55 (moving home) = £29.89.

We also have to pay a cost to BT monthly to keep your connection live - which I haven't factored into the above and if I did it would put us far into the red.

If you're within your second year of contract we will provide one moving home free of charge.

Our T&Cs state that the cancellation is the provisioning cost + the cost of any free hardware taken. You can find out the actual cost of the free hardware when you sign up by going to our hardware page.

Additionally, I would like to clarify our speeds. We do advertise our speeds as "up to 8Mb". What this means is that we will install the fastest speed possible, up to 8Mb, on your line. After you've submitted your telephone number during sign up, the next page will state the speeds that we expect for you to receive on your line. The speeds ratio that we expect is based on the distance of your line from the exchange and the line quality. If after you sign up you're not receiving the speeds that we indicated you would get during sign ups, please PM me and I'll see what I can do to improve them.

I am concerned that it was mentioned that our speeds up to 8Mb is a scam. We do our best to keep the language on our website clear and to make our practices transparent. We have noted all over our website that the speeds are Up to 8Mb and on all of our broadband services pages there is the explanation that:

The download speed you'll actually get depends on how near your home is to the phone exchange. Up to 8Mb will be installed where available, otherwise the fastest speed that we are able to install.

I'm sorry that you feel the way that you do and should you have any suggestions on how we can improve our services I would be happy to take them on board.

Kind regards,
Samara

computerwoman

Can I just ask is the name pronounced MAD AS A FISH or MADAS-AFISH, it's an argument going on between friends and family as to how it's actually pronounced, thanks T

AngryCustomer06

Samara, thanks for the reply and for the very detailed break down which will be vey tempting but, I am afraid, confusing to all customers looking for a bargain.

1. Phone MAAF customer service and you are on a 0870 number which is charged at a premium rate (for comparison, BT has an 0800 number for customer service). This site itself appears to be against 0870 numbers. Why do MAAF customer service try to keep you on the line when you phone?
2. MAAF advertises what appears to be a low cost of connection, but recoups the costs by overcharging customers in more ways than one. This is not made clear on this site or when one joins MAAF.
3. Many ISPs (e.g. BT Total Packages, and TalkTalk) offer new packages which are MUCH CHEAPER than MAAF comparatively. Compare what you get for BT Total Option 2 (12 month contract, £72 more expensive than MAAF per month, but free voice over internet calls, wireless home hub, 6GB, same speed as MAAF, Norton included as free, free relocation of service). Add the extras on the MAAF basic £14.99 package (for example, add the one-year Bull guard fees) and how much does this add up to?
4. When the MAAF service is not working properly or is down (as it happened in London a month or so ago), the MAAF customer service is prompt to blame BT which apparently connects the lines. Why doesn't the company then assume its responsibilities towards customers and compensates them for the loss of service? Customers enter into agreement with MAAF and they should not be responsible for the costs incurred by MAAF from BT. In my case, when the broadband connection was lost, I spent about 20 minutes on the 0870 number to be given temporary dial-up access. How much did that phone call cost me?

In general, my only point is that customers should be more wary of what appears to be cheap. All businesses in a given industry sector generally have similar operating costs, and "cheaper" services become "cheap" by making up for costs incurred differently (think about those very interesting offers from credit card agencies; you fall for them until the day you find yourself stuck with a huge debt and they force you to pay back; this is often the result of strong marketing/advertising campaigns which mis-inform enthusiastic customers). For ISPs, much of the operating costs go to marketing and advertising. Why would MAAF have an over-zealous member of staff answering queries on this forum?

Why doesn't MAAF collect the hardware when people no longer need the service? This certainly leads to a waste. With a better model, MAAF could collect the hardware, recycle it, and keep all costs down for customers while being an environmentally friendly company.

Would charging customers when they want to leave the ISP for poor service and high costs fall under the anti-competition EU laws (think recent Microsoft cases reported in the media)? The excessive fees seem to make customers stay for longer, thereby promoting anti-competitiveness.

I do not mind paying a company as long as I get a good, decent service. I am NOT happy when I have to dispose of my hard-earned cash on ridiculous pricing models which enrich ISPs (2005 revenue for Invox, the company which owns MadAsAFish was GBP 21.2 million) which offer a poor customer experience.

miniemma

AngryCustomer06

It's not just MAAF that will charge you like this, I think you will find that the majority of ISPs that give you free hardware when you sign up will make you pay for it if you break the initial 12/18 month contract.

Also, if MAAF have to pay £55 every time you change a line then surely it is OK to pass this cost on to you, especially as they did not charge you a connection fee (many do) and they may well have already swallowed the intial charge of £55 when one first signs up for broadband?

Ian_W

AngryCustomer06 posted: Why would MAAF have an over-zealous member of staff answering queries on this forum?

So its wrong that MAAF customer service answer queries on this and adslguide forums, is it?

My question is why don't other ISP's?

I'm not a MAAF customer, I'm with Pipex but looking to change next month as their pricing is pants, IMO. MAAF is one of the favourites to get my business so I was interested to read what an Angry Customer had to say, there are very few about, here or on Adslg boards. Having heard it I'm afraid it says more about you than it does about MAAF, IMO.

Two questions Mr Angry.
1. Which ISPs that charge the same or less that MAAF don't charge if you move home within the 1st 12 months?
2. Which ISP guarantees 8 meg? Even BT [who you seem to revere] only offer UP TO and if you check your line on their website it doesn't just depend on the distance from the exchange, your domestic wiring, modem/router and even your computer affect speed. To suggest it's a MAAF scam undermines your credibility totally with me.

The one valid point, which does put me off MAAF is the premium rate 0870 numbers for tech support. There again do I pay BT far more for an 0800 number and a load of stuff I won't use [Norton is !!!!!! BTW, tries to take over your whole computer!] or go with a cheaper supplier, most of whom have premium rate helplines?

miniemma

Ian_W wrote:

The one valid point, which does put me off MAAF is the premium rate 0870 numbers for tech support. There again do I pay BT far more for an 0800 number and a load of stuff I won't use [Norton is !!!!!! BTW, tries to take over your whole computer!] or go with a cheaper supplier, most of whom have premium rate helplines?

I too am greatly opposed to 0870 numbers but, in the end, I didn't let it put me off becoming a MAAF customer. What I have found is that every time I have emailed MAAF I have had a reply within 2 hours! I have NEVER come across another company that manages to reply to email so quickly, mostly it takes at least 2 to 5 days to get a reply from other companies. Also on the 2 occasions I have found the need to ring MAAF there has been a very short queue - just a few minutes - and my query has been responded to quickly and clearly.

I also agree with you with regard to all the 'extras' that BT 'include' in their dreadfully high pricing - they are ALL worth absolutely nothing to a person like me. I waited and waited for BT to upgrade their packages to compete with Talk Talk and was greatly disappointed so MAAF got my custom and I am very satisfied - so far .