Euro1Net Further Woes
September 5th, 2006 by spk
On 23rd August, Euro1Net shed thousands of its customers when BT wholesale unilaterally withdrew ADSL services to everyone with a euro1net.com domain. Coincidentally we had moved from Euro1Net.com to Euro1Net.broadband just a month earlier following a contention issue on our line, so thus far we were okay.
Today was supposed to be the day that BT released the ADSL lines from that purge to allow customers to reconnect with new ISPs, but Euro1Net continued trading with its other providers, and continued to sign up customers, claiming that the issue with BT concerned a dispute and not an inability to pay.
Well last night, shortly before 5.30pm, our home ADSL line went dead. This morning the support line are simply picking up and hanging up the phone, they are not answering emails, and there is no information about the fault on their network monitoring page.
We can only presume that this fault is related to the last (although we note that when BT cut off service, BT provided a message to indicate what they had done. This loss of service is different).
But because of the concerns over dates, and the other troubles of Euro1Net, we called Ofcom. Ofcom have no information about this current loss of service but will investigate. When we hear more from Ofcom, I’ll post it on this site.
When we signed up for Euro1Net following this debacle with BT, we knew there was a risk of a small ISP going under (and paid on credit card for that very reason!) but it was worth it for the excellent knowledgeable in-houes and UK based technical support. What a pity that our fears about solvency may have been realised.
I would still go to any ISP that offered this quality of technical support, even if it was a little more expensive than the competitors. BT, Wanadoo, Tiscali etc., take note. We won’t be signing up with you.
(Actually we already have a plan B in operation, after the 23rd August announcement. Let’s hope it all works).
Latest news is that Euro1Net have ceased trading, and sent an email to this effect at 5:30 this evening.
We didn’t wait for them - but after another fun session playing “round the houses” with BT, I feel another BT rant coming on. However, the short of this is that we should be getting the ADSL marker on our line removed soon - but BT are not very helpful when you ask for the release!
BT seems to make the assumption that it has NO legal obligations regards these sort of Wholesale disconnections. Big mistake this, as they may be called to Court to account for their actions quite soon…Indeed it is this avenue that they were legally obliged to go down before actual disconnection.
Maybe their ALL in on it to rip people off..!!!???
Hi John,
I agree that BT wholesale appear to have failed in their duty to ensure that the resellers of their wholesale product are financially viable and meet the necessary stability requirements of a reseller. Their action against euro1net also smacked of protecting their own revenues rather than any consideration of end customers.
However, Euro1net’s position has not been faultless either. They claim the original disconnection was over a disputed bill rather than inability to pay that bill, but they took no steps to protect their reputation against BT’s assertion otherwise, and the resulting publicity - from which it would be difficult for any company to survive.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting. I hope you get reconnected soon (and not with BT!)
Regards,
Stephen