Madasafish Questions/answers (merged threads)

storri

Samara,

Can you confirm what charges i would have to pay to MAAF if i moved my ADSL line to BSkyB after being with MAAF for just 6 months.
(Very disappointed with actual MAAF speeds being realised of 2-2.5Mb vs. suggested speed of at least 5Mb)

I migrated into MAAF from BT if that makes any difference to cancellation charges.

Can't seem to find a definitive answer on your website...

Thanks,
storri

Madasafish_Customer_Care

Hi Storri,

Should you wish to cancel our broadband prior to completing the 12 month contract, the cancellation costs are as follows:

New Provision or LLU Migration in: £55 + the cost of any free hardware taken
Other migration in: £25 + the cost of any free hardware taken (as you migrated in from BT, this would apply to you)

If you would like for me to give you a specific breakdown for your account, please PM me your username - likewise I can review that you're getting speeds that are in line with what we expect to be able to supply. For me to do this, please make sure that you're frequently doing speed tests in My Account.

Also a few pointers if you aren't quite getting the speeds expected:

1. Please remember that if your computer is connecting from a phone extension in your home that you may not get the maximum speeds expected because internal wiring can wreck havoc. To check that your internal wiring isn't interfering with your speeds, connect from your master socket. If your speeds improve - it's your internal wiring that's causing the reduction in speeds.

2. Please ensure that all phone sockets that are in use in your home are fitted with a microfilter. Remember to include phone sockets that are being used for Sky TV boxes and FAX machines.

3. If you have got everything fitted with a microfilter and you're getting slow speeds, test your microfilters to see if you've got a dodgy one. To test, unplug everything from all phone sockets in your home with exception to your computer. Now connect to the Internet, disconnect, change microfilters and connect again... do this for all of your microfilters. If you get lower speeds with one of the microfilters you may have found the culprit!


Thank you!

Kind regards,
Samara

Quentin

Hi Samara

I see it is cheaper to get out of a MAAF contract if you use a MAC and migrate to you from another ISP.

But is it any cheaper to join MAAF if you migrate in with a MAC?

Thank you.

Madasafish_Customer_Care

Hi Quentin,

The incentive to customers who migrate in is that they do not incur as much expense in cancellation should they wish to cancel in the first 12 months of contract. To further complicate things, migrations from LLU providers don't count in this formula as BT charge us the same for these as for new provisions.

Unfortunately we cannot offer a great up front deal and a generous cancellation policy to those who migrate in. We have to do one or the other.

We used to have it so that rather than having a generous leaving clause we had a generous introductory offer in the form of up to 2 months free (pending on whether or not you supplied your own hardware). We switched this over to a more generous cancellation policy based on feedback from potential customers who were tentative to switch providers and wanted more leniency on a 12 month contract. This has worked for us as we get a lot of migrations into our services and not a whole lot of migrations away from our service.

Kind regards,
Samara

Quentin

Thank you.

One other question - is there a "cooling off" period before the 12 month contract starts?

Madasafish_Customer_Care

Hi Quentin,

You can cancel the service and not incur any cancellation charges prior to us/you receiving the 'go live date' email. I'm afraid that once the service has been provisioned there is no cooling off period after that. The reason for this is that we incur significant expense from BT to get a connection up and running, we simply cannot afford to take this hit as part of our business model.

I would like to say that I think our flat rate cancellation costs are a lot fairer than the 'remainder of contract' policies.

I hope that is helpful!

Kind regards,
Samara

Quentin

OK Thank you.

I asked as I have had a bad experience with aol, but discovered they do offer (2) cooling off periods, and am of course delighted to be able to "escape" them without any cost.

(Presumably they are faced with similar connection costs as MAAF - yet must absorb these and do offer "cooling off" periods)

Madasafish_Customer_Care

Hi Quentin,

I'm not quite sure about how AOL work because offering unlimited services too doesn't quite make sense to me! Obviously AOL are quite a bit bigger than us and they've probably worked out a way to offset customers against each other.

Kind regards,
Samara

Iffy_Wallet

I think what Samara is saying is that we are getting wise to the idea of ringing up MAAF technical help, because they can't help us by email. But phoning them costs us money. Then when we ring up, they say "unplug your cables, reboot your computer. Are you plugged into the main BT socket (yes). Hold a minute, I've got to confer with somebody. What's you problem? You're getting upto 2MB. Well the service is upto 8MB. and 1.5 falls into the category of upto 8Mb. Hold again a minute. Leave you computer plugged in for 3 days". Then after 3 days we're back to square one with upto 2MB service on an upto 8MB connection. Then when you contact them again they start all over again saying "you have to call us".

If they get bored, they suggest that the filters that they have just provided may be faulty and should be swapped. So perhaps now they think they can make money by selling us endless dodgy filters.

My MAAF account has now started taking the mickey. It used to say "4MB" service, then "3.5MB" service, and now it says "7MB" service whilst actually running the in-house MAAF tests at 1.12MB. Previously I've seen as low as 0.42MB - but Madasafish go round the same old loop. "Get another filter". (No - please supply me with one that works rather than your possibly faulty stock). "Plug into the main socket". (Always have done). "Stand on one leg and wiggle your ears". (No. I'm getting bored of the song and dance routine).

Samara, can we have a system that does what it says on the tin?

Reubo

HI ,
I assume that someone from MAAF is still keeping an eye on this thread.

I have a couple of gripes with MAAF at the moment and am waiting for replies from them.
1, My broadband connection keeps dropping and becoming unreliable.
2, The speed of my broadband varies from 512kps up to 2.4 mbs, and it should have been upto 8mbs as I had it uprated, but it has not gone any faster than 2.4.


Has anyone else had similar problems??

Cheers