16 March 2005

Wanasucklemons

A friend of mine over at Homeworking.com is having trouble with Wanadoo Broadband. This is the story, as she told it to me.

She cancelled her contract ages ago, in fact her original contract was with Surfanytime, a company later taken over by Wanadoo. She retired to SPAIN in 2002 and apart from selling the house, closing down the phone account etc etc, she of course sent notification to cancel the broadband. Hell, she sent notification to cancel everything.

Anyhow, come the beginning of this year, 2005, she spots a tiny amount of money trickling out of her account on a regular basis, traces it back to Wanadoo and totals it up to £380 (about $800) - pretty hefty all told, when its coming out of a pension.
(Actually, I want to get back to her on that because their current rates are £17.99 a month and £380/24 months = £15 something - it could be that the cheeky erm gentlemen actually reinstated the contract)


So, she wrote to them and got two identical and dismissive letters from the same 'person' (probably a computer program) sent in separate envelopes on the same day - which certainly set my alarm bells ringing about levels of customer service and personal attention. I mean, do what?

The letters both said they had no record of her cancellation, didnt give a rats fart that the telephone line the broadband had been connected to had been disconnected, nor that she could prove when she moved. Or words to that effect.

So she wrote personally to the Managing Director, explaining everything, saying she was prepared to believe that they or Surfanytime could have lost the cancellation details in the handover, and asking very nicely for her money back.

Long wait. FIVE WEEKS wait.

What does she get? ANOTHER snooty letter from the same signatory as the first two. Even the MD, faced with a direct request for help from a member of the public, shoves it to one side for the minions or the number cruncher to deal with.

All that hassle, all that money gone through their oversight and bad administration and she gets not a flicker of understanding from them.

Wanadoo? Wanabloodydont.

So THAT explains why they target their current adverts at teenage headbangers...................Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

2 comments:

She Weevil said...

Presuming she still has a correspondence she should copy the lot 4 times. She should then send the package of correspondence back to the MD requesting he now takes immediate remedial action with a list of the people she is copying the letter to. She should then send copies of the correspondence to 1. Ofcom, 2. BBC Watchdog and 3. Didier Lombard, France Telecom Headquarters
6 place d'Alleray - 75505 Paris Cedex 15. Maybe she could include a brief note of congratulations on his new appointment (27 February).

All correspondence should be sent be signed for delivery. This should get her a refund and an apology.

Cheryl said...

Thanks for that, but no.
See the thread: http://www.homeworking.com/discus/messages/20/2741.html?1110985646
Catch 22, but they didnt need to be so off hand, or so picky.