Madasafish Questions/answers (merged threads)

mrJ_5

dont see why MAAF charge £55, when BT charge them £40... and most broadband ISPs then in turn charge £47, once you add the VAT on

no ISP can guarentee a perfect 8mb connection - since the whole idea of adslmax, is to provide the end user with the maximum speed possible (up to 8mb) on the customer line

if you really want antivirus for free... get AVG free - seems to be one of the best apps i have ever got for free

splodge_99

Hi Samara

Seen the advise you have given others :T maybe you can help me :rolleyes:

Have been a new customer since 30/6 and very happy, but........ I was under the impression I would be able to have a conection speed of 6.5mb or greater as shown when entering my details on your home page. However the results have always been below 2mbs ?

When i go to the upgrade to 8mbs it states:

An initial test of your phone line suggests that you are already receiving the fastest speed your line can support: 6.5Mb or greater :rolleyes:

I've emailed tech help and they made some suggestions, all of which I was doing, then the final email said:

What i suggest you do is contact our Technical support on 0870 160 138 who would then perform a line test on you line to check if there is a fault :mad: why call them when I've been emailing them for the last few days :rolleyes:

Please help :A thanks Steve

Madasafish_Customer_Care

Hi AngryCustomer,

I'll do my best to address all your queries:

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?

Our phone number is going to change in August to an 0844 number which is going to be a flat 4 pence a minute. Currently the 0870 is charged at a national rate which means that your charged a difference rate depending on who your phone provider is and at what time of day you call.

The new number, whilst not free, is more transparent in what you're charged. BT does have an 0800 number, however their packages are more expensive than ours.

Our customer service team is not trying to keep you on the line when you phone; it's within our advantage to resolve problems as quickly & professionally as possible.

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?


It's all down to the individual and what variables are important to them when they choose a provider. And it doesn't always come down to cost. On the comparision survey on ADSL Guide we rank far ahead of BT and Talk Talk for Speed, Reliability and Customer Care. For some people that's more important than cost.

At the end of the day, I'm a consumer too and the BT option 2 doesn't appeal to me; I've already got a wireless router, I only use 3GB a month, I use Skype for my free voice over internet calls and I use Bulldog at £30 a year. The difference in cost is still £42 and I'd rather spend that money taking Mr. Customer Care out to dinner.

4. 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?

When was the last time you saw a Madasafish advertisement? I would be really impressed if you've seen one! We choose not to market aggressively so we can invest in our technical architecture and our Customer Care services.

Why am I on this forum? I'm here because we were given mention in an article by Martin Lewis. We're aware that there may be customers who signed up with us because of the mention and we want to be where our customers are to provide as many avenues of communication as possible.

At the end of the day, our customers are the most important asset to our company and it's important that they feel comfortable communicating with us whether it's via an email, telephone call, posting/PM on MoneySavingExpert or a posting/PM on ADSL Guide.



5. 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.

Simple, we don't collect the hardware because we don't network lock it. You can continue to use your hardware with any other ADSL broadband provider. We anticipate that this could save you money in the future.

In the instances where an ISP network locks their hardware, you're right, the ISP should collect it back and recycle it. Because we don't network lock our hardware, we anticipate that our customers will continue to use it future forwards and it won't end up in landfills.

6. 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.

Our cancellation costs are purely the costs that we are out of pocket to get a customer connected. That is why it's cheaper to cancel if you migrated in, it reflects the true costs incurred. We think that this is fairer than what other providers do which is to charge you for the remainder of the contract. Think about it this way. If you had broadband services for 3 months then you decided to cancel here is what you would pay:

Madasafish New Provision: £55 + the cost of any free hardware taken
Madasafish Migration in: £25 + the cost of any free hardware taken
BT Option 2: £206.91 (£22.99*9months)

7.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.

Again, I'm really sorry that you're not happy with the services that you're receiving with us. Our pricing and exit fees are fair and well published on our website.

It's difficult to end this post on a positive note because clearly you sound quite unhappy. The best I can do is explain our policies and why they're in place.

Kind regards,
Samara

Madasafish_Customer_Care

Hi Splodge_99,

I'd like to investigate your speed query! Could you please PM me your Madasafish username?

You can PM via clicking on my name on the left and then scrolling down to 'send Madasafish Customer Care a Private Message'.

Thank you!

Kind regards,
Samara

Madasafish_Customer_Care

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

Hi T,

I like this argument and it's funny because we did a poll in the office and we're divided too!

I personally say Madas-afish; however it does derive from the phrase "mad as a fish" and it can also be pronounced that way. I think my pronunciation derives from the fact that I have to say it all day long so I've shortened it!

Kind regards,
Samara

Madasafish_Customer_Care

Hello - this is a message to user Donnie,

I'm trying to respond to your PM, however I think you may need to clear some space in your inbox.

I'll try and send you the response again later today.

Thank you for your patience.

Kind regards,
Samara

maveli

Hi,
Can anyone tell me the diffence between the speed tester at speedtester.bt.com and MAAF speed test ? I am confused by the difference in the speed shown by these sites. MAAF speedtester shows more than double the speed of BT's speedtester.

thanks

Madasafish_Customer_Care

Hell Maveli,

I asked this question internally and the response that I got was that the BT Speed Tester doesn’t work properly and has been known to misreport speeds – apparently BT are working on resolving this problem. Despite it not working 100% all the time, we’re still required by BT to get customers with speed queries to run speed tests at that site in order for us to raise a fault with BT for slow speeds – go figure.

Another difference is that the BT speed Tester records the results again that particular CBUK and both BT and us have access to these results remotely. When you run a speed test through My Account, only we have access to those results.

Kind regards,
Samara

Heidi61

Hi
we decided to switch to MAAF after getting appalling customer service from orange after our line went down nearly two months ago. decided on MAAF mainly from looking on this site and because i was impressed by Samara's quick replies to queries and general willingness to help!

now here's the problem - after we didn't hear anything from MAAF for over a week after registering i rang them yesterday to be told that nothing at all has happened concerning our connection because the migration code from orange is wrong! now why didn't anyone get in touch with us about this?? although the code i gave is correct as far as i know because it's exactly the one in the letter from orange.
funny thing is MAAF sent us a bottle of sun lotion yesterday, so that we wouldn't get sunburn while surfing wirelessly. well thanks for that but i'd rather be kept up to date with what's going on regarding our connection!

my question now is - would it be better to just cancel orange broadband, because going by their past performance sorting things out, it will probably take forever sorting out this code.we are away for five weeks anyway so won't be using the computer for that time and it wouldn't matter if there is a gap in service, but hopefully we would be on MAAF when we get back.

so Samara - if you read this please help!! or anybody else, please!

Heidi

mrJ_5

just ask for another MAC - give it to MAAF, and see what happens - cancelling will leave you with about 4 weeks of no broadband