Getting fedup with UKFSN

So Tuesday night, 15th of October last week, my broadband connection went down out of the blue. I contacted UKFSN support the next day on the phone and was told the supplier had cancelled all the connections and it was out of their hands.

I was told I had the choice of being transferred to an Entanet based line that was working and I agreed to do so. I was told it would take up to 5 working days for the line to be transferred but nothing has come up yet. I rang up today and was told it will now take up to Friday to complete.

Frankly being out of internet for over a week is very disruptive, especially when I have people in the house who rely on it, younger brothers who go to highschool and need the net to submit homework and look up information.

I'm at a loss for what to do, shall I wait until Friday and hope the new connection comes online?
Or shall I look into a new provider and hope to get a better service from them?

Funnily enough, the same thing happened to me, I e-mailed and was very surprised when I got a reply, which said I must have changed something to do with my phone line, I replied saying that nothing had changed, I then called the LLU Support Number to discuss the problem, someone answered and said that this was just for accounts and that I would have to email support.

I said that I had already done this and had a reply, but I would like to discuss the issue, I left my number for Jason to call me, nothing came.

I had taken advice from another provider who said that as my line was clear I was free to sign up to them or any other provider of my choice, I decided to do this, as I have become very unhappy with the lack of support, I did actually ask for my MAC some months back, which again I never received, so took this as an opportunity to move to another provider.

I put the order in last Wednesday afternoon and by the evening I was back up and running again.

I did receive a mail from UKFSN on the Thursday saying that Daisy wholesale had ceased the line for no reason, and it was looking unlikely they could get it back on again anytime soon and I should move to another LLU Service provided by O2, but on the next line of the e-mail it said this was unavailable at my exchange, there was also options for fibre.

I replied to this saying that I was not happy by any means, and that e-mails go unanswered, including one for my MAC, and because of that I would like to leave UKFSN. To date I have had no reply.

Firstly I apologise that you feel let down. The action taken by Daisy came without any notice and they have still not provided an acceptable explanation or response. Of course that is my problem not yours.

That being said it seems you may have misunderstood what 5 working days means. it means Monday to Friday only so an order processed on Thursday evening or Friday morning will complete the following Friday.

If you want me to cancel the order in progress you need to contact me directly (via email) and state that this is what you want.

UK Free Software Network Ltd was dissolved back in June.

The few remaining companies that supply or deal with them are going to be increasingly nervous about being exposed to them.

To continue to receive service, It's time to bail.

In reply to a post by partial:

UK Free Software Network Ltd was dissolved back in June.

The few remaining companies that supply or deal with them are going to be increasingly nervous about being exposed to them.

To continue to receive service, It's time to bail.

Yes, the Ltd company was dissolved. You are not exactly the bearer of news however. I announced this to UKFSN customers and suppliers in June and came to new agreements with suppliers to continue providing services as normal.

Daisy managed to terminate UKFSN customer connections through an act of incompetence. Their incompetence has no bearing on the relationship I have with Entanet, who are the only supplier I am now using for broadband, or with any of the other suppliers used at UKFSN.

Your post appears to serve no purpose other than to try and attack UKFSN without any good foundation.

Bit worrying that they can just cancel your service without any knowledge and for no reason other than being abit useless.

More worrying that you did not contact custs immediately informing them that you were unable to continue providing the service you contracted to provide and that only by phoning you did they find out.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

More worrying that you did not contact custs immediately informing them that you were unable to continue providing the service you contracted to provide and that only by phoning you did they find out.

I did email every customer affected to inform them of the situation. The email was sent to every email address we had on record for each customer.

In reply to a post by bobble_bob:

Bit worrying that they can just cancel your service without any knowledge and for no reason other than being abit useless.

Indeed. For this reason I wont be using Daisy Wholesale again.

How would they get emails with no internet service?

Aoart from this incident, how did you find Daisy on the whole? My ISP use them

Now, now.

Daisy are a supporter of worthy causes so I am very disappointed that UKFSN subscribers will no longer be contributing to 'worthy causes'

http://www.daisygroupplc.com/why-daisy/supporting-ou...

Perhaps you could expand on their 'incompetence' as many referrers seem to get on okay with them?

In reply to a post by partial:

Daisy are a supporter of worthy causes so I am very disappointed that UKFSN subscribers will no longer be contributing to 'worthy causes'

http://www.daisygroupplc.com/why-daisy/supporting-ou...

Perhaps you could expand on their 'incompetence' as many referrers seem to get on okay with them?

Quite simple really. They terminated the connections of all of the customers UKFSN had with them without any notice and without any explanation.

I consider that incompetent.

What a mystery

I suppose the key words in play are 'incompetent' and 'insolvent'.

In reply to a post by partial:

I suppose the key words in play are 'incompetent' and 'insolvent'.

You have brought the latter word into the discussion. Why are you saying it is a key word? I have not.

There site is down right now

It's up at the moment.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

It's up at the moment.

It's down now and my UKFSN ADSL has just been disconnected. Online through my phone.

I've emailed Jason, hopefully his email is working. If not it would be nice to speak to him here.

I know there was the Daisy issue recently, I don't think I was with them, I got the email explaining why my ADSL had been disconnected, but it hadn't been and it's continued to work till today. I replied to Jason pointing this out, and since i didn't hear back I assumed everything was fine. I didn't think I was on Daisy LLU.

So if you're there Jason, hello, and please help!

edit: I'm not actually fed up of UKFSN, I've had a few problems but I've generally had a good service. But didn't think my connection being down merited a new thread!

Edited by deleted (Fri 01-Nov-13 17:05:50)

you havent said why you dissolved the company, people will assume the worst if you dont provide this information.

Plus why are these lines been ceased out of the blue, I would ssume you have some formn of contract with this company meaning either.

1 - it expired so you would know in advanced this happen
2 - you havent paid your bills.
3 - they made a mistake, you said incompetance, you can confirm this is the case here?

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

3 - they made a mistake, you said incompetance, you can confirm this is the case here?

Makes me laugh how he calls other companies incompetent after all the late filing fees he's had to pay and numerous proposals to strike off.

As there has been a proposal to "Strike off" the company every year for many years, including this year, I very much doubt that Jason dissolved it. It is however possible he finally gave up or found it impossible to produce Company Accounts. Or his accountants did.

(Involuntary) Strike-off and Dissolution.

As that can result in the freezing of bank accounts, and if no action were taken wrt the payment of Daisy invoices that may, (as I think I suggested earlier may have been by Direct Debit), ....

He may not be insolvent, but I'm damn sure couldn't file accounts in time to avoid UK Free Software Network being struck off.

Edited by RobertoS (Sun 10-Nov-13 21:05:34)

Its impossible for daisy to keep contracts with a company that doesn't exist or an insolvent one right?

Edited by epyon (Mon 11-Nov-13 01:24:16)

He continued as a "Sole Trader". Nothing wrong with that. I expect he just forgot to sort out the payments to Daisy when he did the Entanet and other organising.

I think Jason is a decent guy, but not so good at running a business.

I got switched to an Entanet line but then I put in an order for a Plusnet connection instead, but they can't do anything until I get a MAC from UKFSN.

I'm trying to get UKFSN to respond to me but I haven't been able to get a response from them for a week now - what can I do to get their attention? I've emailed them and rang them - no response. I even called Entanet and they said they can't do anything.

I'm at a loss for what to do.

Isn't it automated through your account control panel?

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Isn't it automated through your account control panel?

If you mean the UKFSN website, most of the control panel does not work. There is a link, but I end up with a 500 Internal Server Error.

Ahhh. I forgot! You were on a Daisy connection? Maybe it's time to call them then.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Ahhh. I forgot! You were on a Daisy connection? Maybe it's time to call them then.

Not sure if that would work.
When I rang Plusnet up they said my line had no connection (they wondered if I had just moved into a new house) - However I was in the middle of being transferred to the Entanet connection. The Entanet connection activated first so the Plusnet order was put on hold. They now need a MAC for me to move from UKFSN/Enta to Plusnet.

In that case Enta can, (and have done in the past for others), issue you a MAC. They are your ISP, even though you are buying the service through UKFSN.

You need it to come direct to you though, as it normally goes into your reseller control panel.

In reply to a post by Kraker2k:

They now need a MAC for me to move from UKFSN/Enta to Plusnet.

The easiest way if UKFSN are not playing is to ring customer services at Enta and tell them what is going about getting your MAC and ask them to email it to your registered email address. it should take a couple of minutes.

I contacted Enta, this is what they told me.

Unfortunately as this connection is billed to your reseller and also this is in a contracted period, we are unable to provide you with the migration code.

We have however spoken to the reseller now and he has advised he will be in touch shortly.

Trying to move away from UKFSN is getting more and more frustrating. The fact that UKFSN refuses to respond is just mind boggling.

In reply to a post by Kraker2k:

I contacted Enta, this is what they told me.

Unfortunately as this connection is billed to your reseller and also this is in a contracted period, we are unable to provide you with the migration code.

We have however spoken to the reseller now and he has advised he will be in touch shortly.

Trying to move away from UKFSN is getting more and more frustrating. The fact that UKFSN refuses to respond is just mind boggling.

This situation has several legal aspects of note.


You are not a party to the contract between UKFSN and their suppliers. Unless you were warned that you would be entering into a new minimum contract period before you agreed to be moved to Enta, you cannot now be subjected to a new minimum contract period by UKFSN. Any contract only embodies those matters the parties agreed on before the contract was formed.

Moreover, unless there is a recorded phone call or something in writing that shows you agreed to a new minimum contract period, UKFSN will not be able to show that, on the balance of probabilities, you agreed to a new minimum contract period.


If you did not agree to a new minimum contract period, it's unlikely your agreement to move to Enta is a contract varying your previous contract with UKFSN. Any purported contract to vary your previous agreement with UKFSN appears to be void for lack of consideration, because you did not pay or promise anything new.

If UKFSN entered into a minimum period contract with Enta in order not to break their contract with you, that's their look out.


Further, according to section A1.11 of the Migrations Authorisation Code (MAC) Broadband Migrations Process Code of Practice, being in a minimum contract period is not a valid reason for refusal of a MAC. The Communications Provider should provide the MAC, then pursue the customer for breach of contract if the customer has broken a minimum contract period by leaving.

Of course, UKFSN is your Communications Provider, not Enta - though I appreciate you're talking to Enta to try to sort the matter out without having to wait for UKFSN.

I suggest returning to Enta, pointing out that being in a minimum contract period would not be a valid reason for UKFSN to refuse you a MAC. Request the MAC again, pointing out that it is up to Enta to enforce any debt owed to them by UKFSN due to a broken minimum contract period.


Ultimately, if UKFSN chose to continue providing service they are contracted to provide to their customers by moving customers to Enta without securing the customer's agreement to a new minimum contract period, they must take the risk of a customer moved to Enta breaking the minimum period of the contract UKFSN entered into with Enta.

Edited by deleted (Thu 14-Nov-13 21:47:50)

Post deleted by XRaySpeX

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

You meant?

In reply to a post by David_W:

Moreover, unless there is a recorded phone call or something in writing that shows you agreed to a new minimum contract period, UKFSN will NOT be able to show that, on the balance of probabilities, you agreed to a new minimum contract period.

Correct - and I've changed the original post. Such are the perils of editing, then reading what you thought you wrote.