Madasafish Questions/answers (merged threads)

Madasafish_Customer_Care

ADSL is available in your area
Your exchange is also enabled for ADSL Max services

According to BT Wholesale, your line should be able to support a 6Mbps or greater ADSL connection via ADSL Max.

You are approximately 596 metres from the exchange (straight line distance).

Given this to be the case, what is MAAF willing to guarantee?

When your phone number goes live, just go onto the first two pages of sign ups. On the second page you'll get a reading of what we expect to be able to provide you.

Of course, this speed will be dependent on you connecting from your master socket and having a microfilter fitted to every phone socket that is in use in your home.

Kind regards,
Samara

Quentin

Madasafish_Customer_Care wrote:

The irony with the AOL deal is that there is a 7 day get out clause, but you're still within the 10 day testing period during that time...so it's not really that helpful. Your speeds can be great for 9 days and then drop on day 10.

Also with AOL if you're getting 256Kbps and you cancel, there is nothing that indicates you'll get faster speeds with any other provider offering the ADSL MAX service. You'll just be switching providers for the sake of switching providers. It's a false economy.

No. As I said, AOL give you 2 cooling off periods of 7 working days.

These start (1) on the day after the service is set up on your line, and (2) on the day after your hardware is delivered.

So including the day the hardware is delivered and the non-working days you should easily manage 10 days (bearing in mind you already get the first cooling off period in any case).

If you don't want the service, you cancel and they pay the postage for the return of the hardware (by way of supplying a postage paid envelope for it).

You have nothing to lose. (With MAAF if you want to get out after they have e-mailed you a start date - even before its started) you are facing paying a cancellation fee of £50 plus paying for the hardware.

If you are only getting 256 but were paying for up to 8megs you probably would be happier paying less for a fixed 256 service elsewhere (or using dialup). Trying it first with an ISP who allows a cooling off period does make sense, doesn't it?

Madasafish_Customer_Care

Hi Espresso,

It is 400Kbps provided that when you do the XML check that you don't get the report that your line can only carry 512Kbps or 256Kbps as your MAX speed.

If you are getting those results then I would recommend doing the fixed speed product. Which we can do, we do 256Kbps, 512KBps, 1Mb and 2Mb. We're happy to move customers onto those services if it's determined that they'll get better results.

Kind regards,
Samara

Madasafish_Customer_Care

Hi Quentin,

Then sign up for AOL!

The bottom line is that you have to choose an ISP that fits your needs the best - and if that is what makes you feel secure in your decision then go for it!

Kind regards,
Samara

Quentin

When you say "Sign up with AOL", you seem to have missed the point.

My suggestion is not an ad for AOL, but a way for newcomers to max to see if their line is going to be any good.

You did mislead by saying the 7 days was "not helpful" - I have corrected that by pointing out again it is 7 working days plus the day the connection is made and the day the hardware is delivered.

You have to choose MAAF "blind" - as it seems that as long as you get 256 Kbps you have no grounds for getting out of the contract without paying cancellation penalties.

I have suggested a moneysavers alternative - nothing else. I certainly don't recommend AOL, but you can't fault them giving these cooling off periods.

donglefan

Dear Samara

Thank you for your reply.

you wrote:

When your phone number goes live, just go onto the first two pages of sign ups. On the second page you'll get a reading of what we expect to be able to provide you.

Of course, this speed will be dependent on you connecting from your master socket and having a microfilter fitted to every phone socket that is in use in your home.

I am just wondering what is the bottom line regarding speed guarantee. For example if MAAF page 2 says I can get 6mb, I connect from my master socket with microfilter (mastersocket is my only socket) will MAAF guarantee at least a percentage of their estimate?

Sorry to keep on at it, but don't want to risk having signed up for a year with only 400kb guaranteed on an 8mb service charge.

Kind regards, Dongle

edit, just looking over your reply to Espresso Samara and it seems as though, in the worst case scenario of less than 2mb on MAX you offer customers a switch to your fixed 2mb service - does that have a guaranteed min speed? Would that fixed speed package cost the same price per month as the MAX package?

Madasafish_Customer_Care

Hi Donglefan,

The checker results are an estimate and not a guarantee. They are based on the previous line history and your distance from the exchange. It is entirely possible that you'll get speeds slower than the estimate, but likewise you may get speeds faster than it too!

The reason for not being able to guarantee the estimate is that there are just too many variables at play that are impossible to take into account until the service goes live. For example it turns out that the copper running into your home is really old and of poor quality.

It seems as though, in the worst case scenario of less than 2mb on MAX you offer customers a switch to your fixed 2mb service - does that have a guaranteed min speed? Would that fixed speed package cost the same price per month as the MAX package

If you're on the fixed 2Mb service, it doesn't entirely mean that you'll be getting speeds of 2Mb if your line can only handle 256Kbps or 512Kbps. In that respect perhaps it should be marketed as 'speeds up to 2Mb'. However the technology behind fixed rate products is a lot more stable than speeds up to 8Mb - for customers who are getting unreliable speed results and frequent disconnections often this can be resolved by simply putting them on a fixed rate product. BT Wholesale charge us the same for a fixed rate product as they do for 'speeds up to 8Mb' thus I'm afraid that there is no difference in the pricing.

Kind regards,
Samara

donglefan

Dear Samara

If the rest of MAAF is as excellent as you, I am confident I will get the best service possible.

Thank you once again for your time.

FelixTCat

donglefan wrote:

Dear Samara

If the rest of MAAF is as excellent as you, I am confident I will get the best service possible.

Thank you once again for your time.

Hi donglefan,

Going on to MAX broadband does require a change in thought pattern. For a number of years I was on a Pipex connection, originally 512 kbps and later upgraded to 1 Mbps. My download speed was a fairly steady 920 kbps.

The MAX product gives you the highest speed that your line is capable of giving and it will vary, sometimes day-to-day and hour-by-hour. My speed has varied from 0.9 - 2.3 Mbps with a normal figure of 1.9 Mbps (and these are the measured rates - there may have been more variation at other times when I wasn't measuring).

According to the BT line checker, my line is only rated at up to 512 kbps, so on my experience it may be considered conservative - others may have had a different experience.

Not only that, but the achieved download speed depends on which modem router I use. Some makes achieve faster speeds than others - for me, my D-Link modem router gives me better speeds that my BT modem router.

As far as I am aware, no ISP will give you a guaranteed speed on a MAX product and, from my experience, I can understand why. It is also a fact that the speed you get depends more on BT than the ISP and BT will only respond to problems on a MAX line when the speed falls WAY below what you expect (e.g. 512 kbps on a 2 Mbps line).

If you want to gain a feel for how customers feel about the service from their ISPs, go to http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/ and have a quick look at some of the ISP's forum postings. MAAF monitor their forum and respond to queries raised there. Do many others?

I admit to being a very happy MAAF customer. When I had problems, they were sorted very quickly, even when they were my fault, not theirs. That did NOT happen with either Pipex or ntl.

Regards

Felix

mariacallous

I'm now onto my 6th week with an abysmally slow speed. BT claim there is nothing wrong with my line and next door gets a 9 x faster connection than I do. Actually no I've gone even slower today (0.2mbps) so now next door gets 15 x faster connection.The help on here is very fast and appreciated, but at the end of the day,I'm on a crap speed and nobody seems to be doing anything about it other than constantly sending me round in circles. I'm at exactly the same stage I was at 4 weeks ago. i.e. I'm told by Madasafish that BT are running tests.When I contact BT they claim they aren't, there is no problem on my line and I have to raise the issue with my ISP.