Yet another POP Telecom victim...

Anamox

Hi all,
I wish I'd searched this company's name on this forum before I signed up, now I'm left at my wits' end trying to scrape together any advice the internet has to offer...

I started my contract on 06/01 with this company on their £14.50 plan which offers 11MB/s, ample for my usage. Straight after installation I noted my speed was less than 1MB/s and contacted the company by email asking for advice. In this time I'd read the non-trustpilot reviews and realised the genuine reviews are almost entirely terrible for this apparent cowboy outfit. I made sure to email them saying that I wanted to cancel the contract if they couldn't fix it quickly, I also stated that I didn't want my 14 day cooling off period to be invalidated if they took too long to even consider my case. 

Long story short I'm now on week 8 and my problem persists; I now use my mobile data for WiFi, work WiFi for downloads and my smart home systems do not work (heating, security, CCTV) as the upload speed is abysmal at lower than 0.4MB/s. I've had several hours waiting in queues for the call centre to either not get connected or to be connected to an agent who admits they can't do anything to help and can only promise a supervisor callback which never happens; their opening hours are also less than my work hours. I've had callout charges applied to my account and taken as direct debits without warning (£192 + £14.50 taken on one day as a DD despite only being billed for and told about £14.50), I've had members of their staff saying these should have been waived and members of staff saying I have to pay it. I've had people telling me there are faults on my line from remote tests, there are no faults on the line from remote tests, I need Openreach to attend the property to fix the line, I do not need Openreach to attend the property, I need Openreach to check the infrastructure outside, I do not need Openreach to check the infrastructure outside... some of these statements have been from the same person on the same day! My last contact was them saying they'd call me with a solution last week but they never did. I am also apparently responsible for the costs of any repairs required to get my internet working, even though it hasn't worked from day one and it worked with my previous provider just fine. 

Customer service has been as great as their supervisor telling me "this best be important, I've had to stop what I was doing" when she called me after me requesting a callback, I then had to do the company's dirty work to diagnose the problems - removing faceplates from telecoms sockets and plugging the router into test sockets etc... I've had to cancel the Direct Debit to protect my bank account from their unwarranted and unwarned takings, I've alerted them and agreed to pay an extra £9.99 a month to pay by debit card manually. Luckily my bank reversed the £192 they charged without warning as it would have left me in my overdraft all whilst trying to get a new mortgage! 

I'm absolutely depressed at this whole situation, I feel like a powerless victim with nowhere to turn. There doesn't seem to be any right for me to do anything to protect myself from their malicious and unjust charges,  they have hundreds if not thousands of similar reviews on various websites yet they're still operating and generating customer dissatisfaction on a large scale. 

Is there any way to get away from these companies when they break their policy promises at every turn? I've never felt so belittled and angered by a service I'm paying for...

Many thanks for any advice, and if you're reading this as a potential future customer for them... DO NOT do it! 

notobanksters

You may want to consider reading information on the citizens advice website. This can be found on their website under the consumer section - look for the following page:

Dispute a mobile, phone, internet or TV bill 

I suggest you contact the consumer helpline and speak to them for help and support.  Contact number on the website.  
Hope this will help.