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

xplo5iv

If you do lose the BB go to Trading Standards for advice. As mondayboy says, the credit is linked under the CCA, similar to when you buy things on a credit card. All hope is not lost!

nedmundo

Hopefully, it will never come to that.

My ideal scenario is that everything carries carries on as is. Regardless of Savastore problems, I'm well pleased with the quality of my connection thus far and if it stays this way (or even gets upgraded to 24mB/s) I will still regard joining Redten as a gooe move.

It would be nice to get an update from Redten Mark though!!

mondayboy

nedmundo wrote:

Hopefully, it will never come to that.

My ideal scenario is that everything carries carries on as is.

Seconded. Awful customer service from the start, but the PC is decent enough (especially with an extra 1/2 gig of RAM) and the connection is good.

fangbang

nedmundo wrote:

I'm well pleased with the quality of my connection thus far and if it stays this way (or even gets upgraded to 24mB/s) I will still regard joining Redten as a good move.

It would be nice to get an update from Redten Mark though!!

My thoughts exactly. It's difficult to see how Redten can carry on though. They would appear to have ZERO income at the moment. Our monthly payment goes to the credit company. And obviously they are getting no new sign-ups.

How can they possibly continue with no money coming in?

Wildr

I signed up on the 12th Jan, (before the closure of their site & their inability to answer any of the 3 different phone numbers I had for them), paying the 3 years upfront on my credit card. I was advised it would take 7 days to get the service from providing the MAC (which I provided on the 18th Jan), and about 10 days to then get the PC.

I questioned their leadtime, as I had noticed from lurking here and at other forums, that there had been an initial problem with delivery and was pleased to be told "Don't worry - we've got loads in stock" !!!

I passed them my MAC (which is visible on their site when I log in through the laughingly labelled Support option), and they failed to deliver the service within 7 days.

I left it until 10 days had passed and then phoned, a frustrating 10 minutes later I managed to get across to the 'customer services' lady that although she was speaking English, she wasn't very good at understanding me when I was telling her that I had already paid, and wasn't interested in taking out a credit agreement to get a service I'd already paid for.

It then took another 10 minutes to make her understand that I hadn't filled in any forms for a credit agreement, and therefore didn't need to return them to Redten in order for my order to be processed.

I was eventually given another telephone number and then had to reiterate the whole thing again to "Broadband Support", the net result of which was him telling me that BT hadn't processed the order to migrate, and that he's put another request in and it should be done by 8th Feb....

(You know what's coming next don't you?)

I left it until the 8th had passed - still saying processing on their website (Support option - now not funny anymore).

Phoned again, went through the same routine of:
ME "No I've already paid fo rthe service, I've just not received it"
Red10 "Once you complete the forms and the credit is agreed, we'll process the order"
ME "I haven't got any forms for credit, I've paid upfront. I haven't received what I've paid for"

Etc.

Another phone number, another conversation, another excuse that BT didn't carry out the migration, and that they'd put the order to BT again.

I asked that this be treated as priority, as I did not want to incur a £12 fee for another MAC, and I did not feel it fair that I had paid Redten for a service and I'm still having to pay my existing isp. I also explained that the CORE reasons for wanting to change my isp were:

1) Expense (currently paying £28 per month to Orange),
2) Lack of response from Orange Customer Service and their overseas CallCentre
3) Interest in a PC capable of running Vista/loaded with Vista (or upgrade package).

I was told to rest assured that it would get sorted.

3 days later I attempt to log into the Support section (now causing serious gnashing of teeth) only to find that it's no longer open!

I try to phone all 3 numbers, they all ring for at least 15 minutes with no answer!

I email the provided 'care' address with my concerns as I had noted Watford go belly up.

I receive a notification (from a 'Mark - d'you reckon their 'care' dept is just one person left dealing with all the trouble?), that all will be sorted and my order is fine, just waiting for globally to source new PC's.

I reply tah tI was told they had plenty, I am annoyed at not getting the service, I do not want to have to pay for another MAC and I expect to be compensated for the interest I have to pay on my Credit Card, and the fact I am paying them for a service and my existing isp as well.

I'm told no compensation will be forthcoming and that I have a choice, either pay for another MAC if needed, or cancel my isp and let Redten start afresh with no connection in place.

I reply that I cannot let the connection die as I am virtually housebound following a workplace injury and need to order shopping etc online, and I am not prepared to pay for another MAC because Redten are unable to manage THEIR supplier base.

I ask for this to be treated as a formal complaint and to be elevated within their company.

I hear nothing back.

I have sort advice from Trading standards and from ofcom, and have today sent another email stating where I feel they have failed in the contract we have entered into (stating clauses from their T's & C's).

I have provided them with a quote from Trading Standards relating to distance selling (with regards to services being provided with a reasonable timeframe after payment is taken).

I have again requested that they treat my email as a complaint and forward details of their complaints procedure, and warn them that if they do not, I will make a formal complaint to ofcom, and advise their 'partners' (BT, Microsoft, Lg etc) of the content of their email (I.E. blaming BT for the fact that I have not been migrated).

I know that the easiest thing to do would be to request a refund, however I now feel that this is not acceptable - I have had to pay interest on my credit card, as well as pay them the (nearly) £700 I paid to Redten.

I am also annoyed that they have the front to join forums in order to try and whitewash the situation.

It is clear to me that Redten was a last ditch attempt by watford to get some cashflow into their business and it failed, I believe they never intended to provide me the service I paid for in January, and that they were well aware of the financial state of their company, yet still continued to accept orders that they could not and possibly will not fulfill.

Any advice for me anyone?

Would anyone be interested in 'joining me' should I need to make an official complaint to ofcom? Obviously anyone with similar stories to tell will add weight to the complaint.

Apologies for that fact that my first post is a whinge, and also so long! However, I felt it fair to lay out the full story for all to see!

R.

Wildr

Redten Internet said:

Hi Rex,

While I appreciate you feel you may be 'looking out for others', I should point out that Redten Internet is a brand of Redten Communications Ltd. The recent acquisition of Watford Electronics Ltd by Globally Ltd will not be affecting us or our customers.

Regards,
Mark.

Hmmmmm curious! In an email to me (following my complaint at Redten's poor management of my order - which it still has not honoured nearly 1.5 months from taking the money - Mark says...

Hi Roy,

While I personally appreciate and understand everything you have said,
I'm afraid I have to inform you that due to the huge constraint the sale
of Watford Electronics Ltd has put on our business, no compensation will
be forthcoming.

So is it that they are not part of Watford, in which case he lied to me and 'his' business (Redten Communications) can compensate me, or is it that they are part of Watford, and he lied to you (and the other readers of this board!).

Speaking as a former Business Manager (Branch Manager) from a sales & distribution network, I find that the way Redten conduct their business, and the falsehoods they readily put forward, is nothing short of disgusting and self serving in the extreme.

R.

benjimoron_2

WOW! What a long post!

I have to say that most people have been through the same sort of things as you've described, long waits to be answered, not speaking good enough English to understand what you're saying, told you'll be phoned back etc. I've come to expect this of most companies now, whilst it's not acceptable to be treated like that I think that if everyone got the service they expect then no company would make any money, it's only by not giving the customer what they want that they make any profit. So I agree with most of what you say, not so sure about the paying interest on your credit card bit, if they had provided the service then you would still have paid the same interest wouldn't you? I assume you planned to pay the £700 off if they had set it up so therefore why didn't you? Not for me to ask obviously but I reckon that's what they'll say if you try to use that against them.

So, not alot you can do I'm afraid, either wait for your pc and service and put up with the lack of in the meantime or keep calling them in the hope that it will speed things along, but I don't think it will to be honest.

When I migrated from Tesco to AOL it took a few hours of having no internet and me shouting at their manager down the phone that he was in breach of contract etc and needed to sort it out by the end of the day. I tried the same when Redten took over from AOL but was left without internet for 3 days. So you can shout all you like but I don't think it's going to make much difference.

As said earlier, if you do the maths we can't work out how redten are going to keep going. They've had all the money and have bought our pcs but with no more income (and they're not going to get any more out of me!) then I don't see how they can keep our internet connections going for the next 3 years!

All I hope is that they go bust and I'm covered by the credit agreement like was suggested earlier and they never bother to pick up my "free" pc. I'm relying on there being something in credit agreements like there is in credit cards that means you're protected against this sort of thing. And the fact that they said to a magazine earlier that if it all goes belly up then you can simply cancel your direct debit agreement. Which I will be doing as soon as my internet connection stops working, just got to wait now!

Wildr

Thanks for the reply Benji, and you are of course right on the credit card issue in the main, however I only chose to pay that way because I was told that they had stock of PC's and it would only take 7 days to set the service up, and that there was a 10% discount for paying upfront.

Your other points are correct, and I'm stuck with waiting for them to make a move I guess.

The fact that this is the norm isn't something to just shrug our shoulders about however, we should demand and deserve good service.

I make damn sure I give good service to people who use my business and if one of my team has a customer with a complaint I will ahppily deal with it.

I don't always give the customer what they believe they are entitled to, but I am more than willing to discuss and negotiate, which is where Redten fall flat on their face!

Apologies again for the long post (it won't happen again!)

R.

nedmundo

If it does all go t*ts up, I hope they do the decent thing and give us a MAC code. Otherwise we could be stuck with markers on our lines and no-one to contact to get them removed!!!!!!

I'm still keeping my fingers crossed -come on Redten Mark - where are you??????

jt2k6

Read this thread with much interest as i was led to redten by quidco, myinitial thoughts being that if they are on there they should be fairly "kosha" seems from the post that this is not the case! is there anyone that has started the process recently, some of the troubles seem to be caused by the buyouts etc... of the various companies that own /are owned / or someway related to redten (watford etc...)

Now (if) that has all been settled would things begin to get better (that is if the intentions of redten were ever hounerable!!!!)

despite the problems, if everything works still seems like a blooming good deal! and no doubt there are plenty of happy customers, it's just that if you are happy with something you tend not to complain!!!! so we don't often hear the success stories!

anyway ttfn