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

Wildr

Broadband services are featuring on BBC1's Watchdog programme tonight (Tues 27th Feb), I wonder if Redten will feature at all?

I included the Watchdog team as an additional contact on my last email to Redten last week.

*Update* I have received email notification that my order has been cancelled and refunded.

So, any suggestions for a good service? By this I mean somebody who can provide at least 8mb (My Exchange is capable), NO Setup costs, and no more than £20 per month unlimited service (Fair Usage Policy's excepted).

I've already spent the refund - bought a £500 Medion Vista PC package from Sainsbury, included a printer, 15" LCD Monitor, 250gb HD, Vista Home Premium preloaded, 1024Mb Memory, Dual Core Intel Petium D915 Processor.

This is my 2nd Medion product purchased, and I'm really impressed with their quality and VFM.

(Sorry if that was off-topic, just thought it was worth mentioning )

R.

Slartibardfast_2

Wildr wrote:

So, any suggestions for a good service? By this I mean somebody who can provide at least 8mb (My Exchange is capable), NO Setup costs, and no more than £20 per month unlimited service (Fair Usage Policy's excepted).

I have unlimited broadband with Demon. £19.99 per month up to 8MB/s (although unfortunately my exchange only manages 2.5MB).

I signed up when it was 512K unlimited a couple of years ago, but they have upgraded me, 1st to 2MB then to 8MB a few months ago.

I have had no problems with service or connection speeds, other than when BT were upgrading the exchange.

You don't get webspace but you do get email addresses with pop3 and web access.

Free setup & usb modem but you must signup online at http://www.demon.net/demon/products/internetaccess/broadband/home

They do have a fair usage policy http://www.demon.net/helpdesk/producthelp/aup/thusfup/ , but I must say that when connected I am a high bandwidth user and so far I have not experienced any problems.

I haven't been able to find a better service (I don't need any extras ) for the same price, although I can't guarantee that there may be one out there!

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Slartibardfast.

mondayboy

Before signing up to RedTen I was with Eclipse for years and very happy with the service. They have a selection of services, and well worth a look.

benjimoron_2

Not so sure we are as covered as we think by our credit agreement. I have ben speaking to my credit card company today as I recently got ripped off on ebay, basically someone not honouring their warranty once I'd sent the item back. I have email proof that they said they would give a refund and I have a recorded delivery slip to prove that it was sent back. I sent all the stuff off to the credit card company and they've basically said that you only get cover for the first 120 days after the purchase date and even then it's only if you don't get the item, not the fact that it stops working after some time.

So in summary, I think most of us have passed the 120 day mark quite a while ago and I think they would class this as a service that stopped working after a while but was received working therefore they won't be able to do anything. (if anything goes wrong that is!)

Any comments on this?

mondayboy

Well, I've paid for a 3-yr service, so the credit card company cannot claim that the service I have paid for has been delivered. If I'd bought a PC and got 3 years broadband free, that would be a different matter, as I've received the PC, but it was the other way around - I've bought a 3-year service (which I've not yet received) and received a free PC.

If the 120-day rule exists (and I wouldn't take it on blind faith from the credit card company) then it should be easy to argue that it's 120 days from the time the service in full has been delivered.

That said, the most likely outcome would be for the creditcard company to deduct the value of the service received so far (£20pm for x months) and the value of the PC (and here I would argue depreciation and resale value, rather than accept full purchase-price valuation).

EDIT:
I've just checked Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act (this is the relevant piece of legislation) and it states:

(1) If the debtor under a debtor-creditor-supplier agreement falling within section 12(b) or (c) has, in relation to a transaction financed by the agreement, any claim against the supplier in respect of a misrepresentation or breach of contract, he shall have a like claim against the creditor, who, with the supplier, shall accordingly be jointly and severally liable to the debtor.

(2) Subject to any agreement between them, the creditor shall be entitled to be indemnified by the supplier for loss suffered by the creditor in satisfying his liability under subsection (1), including costs reasonably incurred by him in defending proceedings instituted by the debtor.

There is no reference anywhere to a 120-day rule, so this is probably just your bank's policy (which, as we know, isn't always totally in line with the strict letter of legislation).

The key term in 75 (1) is that we are indemnified against "breach of contract".

nedmundo

Has anybody heard anything new about what is happening to Watford/Savastore/Redten. It's been nearly a month now and thus far, there has been no new developments that I know of and certainly no official word.

mondayboy

Nope - I emailed them two weeks ago (phone is never answered), asking for an update, but to no avail.

Not looking promising.

asdaorange

I joined Redten just after the Watford troubles (just my luck) and was told at first by Redten it would not affect them at all.
Then the PC offer stopped so I contacted them again and was told it would only affect them for about a week and I would still get my PC in a couple of weeks.
My download speeds rapidly dropped from 2Mb on the first day to 1.5Mb to 1Mb then 512k, dropping on an almost daily basis. My download speed has been around 230KB for a couple of weeks now, I`ve reported it to them but nothing has happened (no surprise there!)
They seem no longer contactable so I contacted the Finance company who told me that the agreement had been cancelled by Redten.
I have also been refunded my £50 by Redten back onto my Credit Card which I found out today.
I contacted BT today to see if there is any way to change ISP without a Mac Code. They said there isn`t but that I should write or e-mail Redten and inform them that I want a Mac Code or to cease the service. Both are valid for 30 days (if you cease the service you still get 30 days use apparently).
If Redten don`t do either then I should contact Ofcom who will intervene and have the power to cancel your Broadband and allow you to move to another ISP.
Sorry my first post is so long but hope it helps.

Wildr

Thanks for the responses Slartibardfast & benjimoron - I am 'considering my options' before placing an order elsewhere - thankfully orange are still providing my service at present (albeit at a ridiculous fee!).

After receiving the Email from Redten saying they WOULD credit my credit card, I yesterday received a letter from them which basically said

"sorry we've not provided the PC, don't know when we will, so here's several options of reduced per month payment, or tick if you want to cancel and receive a MAC"

(The above is not a quote, just me paraphrasing).

Arrgh! I NEVER received the Internet connection from them, so how are they going to send me a MAC? In addition, how is offering me a cheaper per month option, when I paid the FULL 3 year amount upfront :huh:

Anyway, I'm just waiting for my Credit Card statement to check the credit has gone through, and in the meantime I bought myself a Vista PC package from Sainsburys (£500 for Intel Dual Core, 1GB Ram, 15" TFT, Printer, All leads etc and pre-loaded with Vista Home Premium).

Good luck to all involved with Redten, my advice is to get out if/when/as soon as you can!

n3phi1im

There is a little info about this in the May issue of PCPro.

The new company is a separate legal entity to the old one and although they are both owned by members of the same family, as the companies are Limited Companies, the directors have limited responsibilities for the problems of the company.

Watford/Savastore has been acquired by Global, but Redten was not part of the
deal so 'has effectively been cut adrift'. "In the event that Redten Communications Ltd ceases to trade, the provision of broadband will revert to Watford Electronics" as Watford Electronics no longer exists (?) the support that was promised to Redten cannot be given. This could be a Breach of Contract and thus a way out but it would need some proper legal advice.

The deal says you can cancel and return the PC.

Question: Does the contract say that YOU are responsible for the cost of shipping the pc back to Redten?

If not, write to Redten and ask them to collect the goods. Then follow this procedure here.

You can deduct a "reasonable storage charge" from the amount you send back to Redten. Nothing in the guidance indicates that you have a responsibility to sell the item for market value simply a 'fair price' - a 3 day auction on ebay should do the trick as an auction price is the only true measure of the value of an item.

Remember, when setting you P&P price, you want to make sure you can pack and post the item very securely however, high P&P often puts buyers off thus a local buyer who can collect in person might get a real bargain.