Redten Internet offer FREE computer woth £500 if you sign up for 3 years @ £19.99 pm!

mdoo98

fangbang wrote:

I have no problem with that. I need a new PC anyway. The way I see it is that I'm buying a new PC (with 3 year warranty) for £20 per month, interest free, and getting top-speed broadband thrown in for free. If I decide to cancel, and pay the residual charge for the PC, what have I lost? I've still got a decent PC and had free broadband for however long I stayed with them.

Took the plunge and signed up online, credit checks being carried out, next step request a MAC from AOL.

BritBrat

Good luck to you all, I hope it works out for you.

Harpoon_2

Rex_Mundi wrote:

I've looked everywhere for any figures concerning their FUP. There are none so far (very very woolly). I've seen other big sites talking about this deal as well, and this is one of the big concerns with this deal (along with the length of the contract, the dubious privacy policy, and Watford Electronics past bad record of customer service).

Concerning the free upgrade to Vista. Most of the big PC suppliers now (Dell, PC World etc) are offering a free upgrade to Vista Basic on new computers bought now until next March.

It's worth noting that the integrated graphics the PC has won't cut the mustard for the snazzy Vista Aero Glass effects

frible

Harpoon wrote:

It's worth noting that the integrated graphics the PC has won't cut the mustard for the snazzy Vista Aero Glass effects

I dont think you get Aero with Vista basic, but thats a whole new thread to start! But I agree with what you say, the PC on offer is a fairly low spec by todays standards and will be bit of a slouch in 3 yrs time, but then again if you are not playing games or video editing it will perform good enough for most people.

fangbang

frible wrote:

the PC on offer is a fairly low spec by todays standards and will be bit of a slouch in 3 yrs time, but then again if you are not playing games or video editing it will perform good enough for most people.

I don't play games or edit video. Tell me where I can get a better PC for this for £20 a month - interest free and with free broadband, and I'll sign up immediately!

wilywhitewombat

fangbang wrote:

I don't play games or edit video. Tell me where I can get a better PC for this for £20 a month - interest free and with free broadband, and I'll sign up immediately!

I'm with the poster on this - and if he does ever want to start playing games and editing video it will only cost him £30-£40 for a suitable graphics card.

I've signed up and am waiting for RedTen to start supplying my broadband.

Why does everybody think three years is a problem? I've been with Pipex for almost two years and during that time the price has never gone down (£23.49 for 1Mbit). Pipex is offering 8Mbit connections to new customers but stubbornly refusing to upgrade existing subscribers.

The PC that RedTen is supplying is definitely worth £500 with the 19in monitor and Vista upgrades, and as I'll be paying £2.50 a month less than I am now, I don't see where the risk is.

RedTen is part of Watford Electronics and there's no way Watford is not going to be around in three years' time. The company goes back to BBC Micro days and is now a major player in internet IT retailing. I've been buying from them for 23 years and I know a good deal when I see one.

headcook

Hi.
I signed up for this and my order is complete, I'm just waiting for the computer and broadband. HOWEVER, I checked the faq's today and Redten have changed the bit about ownership of the computer:

Previously it said: the computer is yours straight away, to do with as you please.

NOW it says: computer is yours after 3 years.

I've googled "redten" and saved and will print off a cached copy of the original frequently asked questions which said the computer was yours straightaway.

I intend to keep hold of this just in case.

fangbang

OK, the good news is my Redten broadband service is now activated. It is working fine, and as fast as can be expected on my line (almost twice the speed that my Tiscali service was providing).

The bad news is their customer service is very poor indeed.

I had originally asked for my broadband service to be delayed until my free PC had been delivered. This is due in about another two weeks. But sometime on Tuesday, Tiscali ended my broadband service without informing me, because they had been informed by Redten that my service with them was now underway. This left me with no internet access.

I phoned Redten 4 times to try to get the details on how to connect to my new broadband service. The first person I spoke to said There was nothing they could do and I would just have to wait until my PC arrived. I phoned again a few hours later and was told that someone from the technical department would phone me back. They did not. The following day I phoned again. I was given a number to phone their technical department, which I did. After being on hold for 30 minutes, the phone was answered by someone at Watford Electronics, who said that this line was certainly not a technical help line for the Redten service and they could not help me! So I phoned again and was told by another voice that she would 'fast track' my order and get the set up CD sent out to me.

None of these people seemed to have any idea how to help me, or any ability to tell me the answer to any question I had to ask. I am almost certain that two of them did not even type my order number into their system when I told them it. And the ones who did appear to type my details onto their keyboard seemed unable to gain access to any information on their systems.

Yesterday, a letter arrived with my sign-in details and password. So I was able to log in and begin to use my new broadband. None of the people that I spoke to on the previous days appeared to be aware that this letter was on it's way to me.

So the service is working well, but if you need any help with anything I'd say you will probably not get it by phoning them up at the moment!

Now. I will patiently await the arrival of my new PC, and will let you know when it arrives!

AMO

From what I understand, the broadband market is set to become cheaper with Sky, Orange & TalkTalk doing what FreeServe did to the dialup market. It might not be a good idea to be tied into a 3 year deal.

Does this tie in allow you to change packages once they become more competitive over the next few years?

AMO

fangbang

AMO wrote:

It might not be a good idea to be tied into a 3 year deal.

Does this tie in allow you to change packages once they become more competitive over the next few years?

AMO

You can end the contract at any time within the three years and just pay for the PC.