Trouble with Timico

So I was with adsl24 who sold out to coms.com who sold out to Timico.
Have had issues with Timico who now tell me they have not charged me for line rental for 5 years and say I owe them over £1,000!
They also say they are giving me 30 days notice and will charge me an additional £17 per month for line rental.
I am staggered to say the least. They are bullying and threatening me in an e-mail because I said I was reporting them to the Ombudsman over their poor customer service.
I've had enough of it all now and am going to find a new ISP.
Any ideas fellas?
Oh they say there is also a £40 charge if I leave them!

But if you haven’t paid them, what do you expect ??

In reply to a post by chud51161:

Have had issues with Timico who now tell me they have not charged me for line rental for 5 years and say I owe them over £1,000!

This is within the law. They have 6 years to ask for monies due. https://moneynerd.co.uk/statute-limitations-uk-debt/

Did you think broadband was free for 5 years? Wow!!

Except they haven't been issuing any invoices.

Correction. They were issuing invoices, and he has paid them. They were missing the line rental.

I paid the £25.51 each month when requested by DD.
I have a letter from the director at Timico after they took over my account from Coms.Com which says everything will stay the same.
As far as I am concerned that is the end of the matter and I have correctly paid for the service I got.
Nobody in their right mind would pay an additional £17 per month line rental on top of the £25.51 broadband and calls when there are many ISPs who offer these combined services for under £20.
Are any other internet users on the forum who like me were with Coms.Com then transferred over to Timico? If so what package were you on and did you get a price hike?

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Correction. They were issuing invoices, and he has paid them. They were missing the line rental.

That complicates things. Quite legitimately the OP believed they have paid in full, however the vendor has made a big mistake. I can see that ending up in court/tribunal.

I would suggest the poster ask on the money saving expert site:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/

I agree. That's what I think too. Also perhaps a Citizens Advice Bureau, though I expect the advisers of the bureau will be working from home with very limited access to facilities and colleagues with appropriate knowledge.

I was transferred to Timico by the same route and was on ADSL2+ package with them. I also remember being informed that nothing would change. I do not recall how much it was paying but it was it was certainly not in the order you are talking about. I quickly left them for UNO, on account of fluctuating speeds and poor technical support. When I have a moment I will go through my bank statements and see what I was being charged, if they are still available, as it was some time ago now. I will keep you posted if I have any success

I checked my payment records and can confirm that I paid £17-90 pcm to ADSL24, COMS and TIMICO. I am assuming I paid line rental to BT in addition, but I can find no record of this due bank changes etc. . I was receiving an ADSL2+ service but I cannot remember what the data allowance was, although I seem to recall it was in the order of 50GB/month

Edited by deleted (Sat 31-Oct-20 13:50:26)

Thanks for your replies fellas.
Any heads up as to who I should switch to for ADSL2 only, thanks

You won't get anything without line rental of some sort, but it is typically around £11-£14pm nowadays without a call package. Just straight charging per call. Some providers charge less than that if you also take their broadband.

A considerable number of people on the forums are using Pulse8broadband for FTTC. (I used to have just my line rental with them, until I went completely mobile). Here's their ADSL2+ page where the broadband is £19 and line rental £6pm in a bundle. Total £25pm.

A big point, it is a monthly contract from Day 1. No long tie-in.

Cheers

NowTv Broadband are doing a package for under £20 with internet/line rental and anytime calls, as are a few other companies like John Lewis with evening and weekend calls free.
Most of the UK population have a mobile phone in 2020 and don't need a landline they are of little use these days.
I've got a lebara mobile sim with one month contract at £5 with 1000 minutes included and loads of text and even international minutes. Landlines are dead.

Most of the UK population have a mobile phone in 2020 and don't need a landline they are of little use these days.

.....

NowTv Broadband are doing a package for under £20 with internet/line rental and anytime calls, as are a few other companies like John Lewis with evening and weekend calls free.

...yet you seem to want keep using a landline ??

I've got a lebara mobile sim with one month contract at £5 with 1000 minutes included and loads of text and even international minutes. Landlines are dead.

and how much data is included with that ?

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

Most of the UK population have a mobile phone in 2020 and don't need a landline they are of little use these days.

.....

NowTv Broadband are doing a package for under £20 with internet/line rental and anytime calls, as are a few other companies like John Lewis with evening and weekend calls free.

...yet you seem to want keep using a landline ??

I've got a lebara mobile sim with one month contract at £5 with 1000 minutes included and loads of text and even international minutes. Landlines are dead.

and how much data is included with that ?

No I don't give a monkeys about a landline I was just stating a FACT that it is included in many broadband deals.

I mentioned Lebara as an alternative to a landline with a 1000 minutes talk time included plus international and text messages. A snip at £5 I reckon.

If you are interested in a Lebara account details of data allowances etc will be on their website.

In reply to a post by chud51161:

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

Most of the UK population have a mobile phone in 2020 and don't need a landline they are of little use these days.

.....

NowTv Broadband are doing a package for under £20 with internet/line rental and anytime calls, as are a few other companies like John Lewis with evening and weekend calls free.

...yet you seem to want keep using a landline ??

I've got a lebara mobile sim with one month contract at £5 with 1000 minutes included and loads of text and even international minutes. Landlines are dead.

and how much data is included with that ?

No I don't give a monkeys about a landline I was just stating a FACT that it is included in many broadband deals.

I mentioned Lebara as an alternative to a landline with a 1000 minutes talk time included plus international and text messages. A snip at £5 I reckon.

If you are interested in a Lebara account details of data allowances etc will be on their website.

Until you get FTTP are you migrating to Mobile broadband or are you going to bin your landline and lose your internet connection?

I'm going to get broadband with line rental included but dont need the phone for calls etc.

No I don't give a monkeys about a landline I was just stating a FACT that it is included in many broadband deals.

So unless you use a completely mobile sim based service (hence the query about data allowances) or an FTTP service, how do you imagine the broadband gets from exchange or street DSLAM to your router ?
You may not ‘give a monkeys’ about it, but it still has a vital role to play in delivering your internet service for quite some time to come.

I dont give a monkeys about being able to make telephone calls so a just broadband package will suffice.
As I have said before line rental in included in most broadband packages because as you so kindly pointed out with a phone line there is no broadband.
Hope this helps

I dont give a monkeys about being able to make telephone calls so a just broadband package will suffice.

So order a SOGEA product .... [though you are likely to receive a dialling tone from the CP router anyway] and you will still get charged for line rental.

As I have said before line rental in included in most broadband packages because as you so kindly pointed out with a phone line there is no broadband.
Hope this helps

So, as I (and Robertos) kindly pointed out earlier in this thread, get yourself a wireless router which takes a mobile sim, cancel the landline .... sorted.
Almost certainly better speeds than receive from your ADSL service, you can take it with you if you move. No line rental.
Hope this helps.

Wireless router with mobile sim? mmmm that will cost an arm and a leg but would be a ast option for decent speed I guess.

In reply to a post by chud51161:

Wireless router with mobile sim? mmmm that will cost an arm and a leg but would be a ast option for decent speed I guess.

Perhaps it would be better if you did some research (one source might be various other discussions on this forum) before you start making dogmatic statements.

In reply to a post by chud51161:

Wireless router with mobile sim? mmmm that will cost an arm and a leg but would be a ast option for decent speed I guess.

See the £23pm option on this page.

EE and Vodafone have similar, maybe O2 as well, costing a bit more and perhaps better at the moment depending on location. (Several users on these forums are getting peak time slowdowns, but some of us and no doubt some "silent contented" ones are doing fine).

Also see my sig, bearing in mind my phone has excellent 4G+ capability and the B311 is the pretty poor earlier Three router.

What happen to adsl24 company as I used to be with them for ADSL

they sold out to coms.com who then sold out to Timico.

Thanks for your help RobertoS, now a router with sim card inside and unlimited data would be just great as I reckon the download speed would be far better than what I get now.

Not made any statements lol I'm not a politician just expressing an opinion on an internet forum.
if you know of a package that includes a 4g router that takes sim cards and allows unlimited data for under £25 then speak up man, or maybe you don't?

In reply to a post by chud51161:

Not made any statements lol I'm not a politician just expressing an opinion on an internet forum.
if you know of a package that includes a 4g router that takes sim cards and allows unlimited data for under £25 then speak up man, or maybe you don't?

Good to see we are making progress. We now know that an arm and a leg is £25.

Let's see..

Smarty unlimited data on Three network at £18 per month.
TPLINK 4G router for £73.49.

Over 12 months that is £289.49 or £24.12 per month.

I am not recommending either but that took me about 2 minutes to find. Other routers I am sure would be available for a similar price that may be better - you would probably be best doing some research into 4G routers. Smarty is the only 4G I am aware of that would come in that budget including cost for a router but if you are happy to do some money towards a router for initial outlay then getting under £25 per month with other 4G providers may be possible.

EDIT : Corrected network

Edited by ian72 (Tue 03-Nov-20 08:58:09)

It's likely there will be some contract Black Friday offers including a better router than mine. Especially from Three and EE.

True, keep forgetting that is coming up.

In reply to a post by ian72:

Let's see..

Smarty unlimited data on Three network at £18 per month.
TPLINK 4G router for £73.49.

Over 12 months that is £289.49 or £24.12 per month.

I am not recommending either but that took me about 2 minutes to find. Other routers I am sure would be available for a similar price that may be better - you would probably be best doing some research into 4G routers. Smarty is the only 4G I am aware of that would come in that budget including cost for a router but if you are happy to do some money towards a router for initial outlay then getting under £25 per month with other 4G providers may be possible.

EDIT : Corrected network

Thanks that a great help (wish I could find such detail in under 2 minutes, I bow to your search skills)
The only other thing is will the 4G reception be any good where i live? Now that can be found with trial and error I guess. I hear a lot about the THREE network being poor in London but good elsewhere.
I have heard of smarty thanks.
People I know say EE is the best mobile provider.

Do you have a smart phone? If so test with that, if not ask neighbours who do have one. It really isn't that difficult.

Most providers will provide very cheap pay as you go SIMs that you can put in a smartphone to test signal. However, some providers are more expensive than others for data so others may blow your budget. Looks like cheapest Smarty pay as you go SIM is £6 which would allow you to test the signal. Also, you can check coverage on their site but they aren't always accurate.

Ah coms.com, they really were terrible and over the heads in what they were trying to do