To Coms

Dear Coms,

I would like to know how you have managed to obtain a private email address, of mine, that is only used for private communications with established contracts that we have in place. It's never been made public, therefore you have clearly obtained this from a private inhouse mailing list (or been passed to you without consent).

I would also like to know why you are mailing me about your wholesale services, of which we have no interest in using. You have been contacted via email on several occasions, but have ignored the removal request. You have also failed to remove the address via you so called "unsubscribe" link in your mailing emails.

I would therefore like to know who handles your Data Protection requests so we can establish if other private information has been gathered unlawfully.

Edited by aquiss (Tue 08-Apr-14 11:03:22)

Grabs popcorn.

Plain text passwords, throttling to 5kbps and now this? I wouldn't trust them to provide me my morning coffee let alone wholesale services. I'd laugh but at this point I'm too busy counting down the days until I can move away from this joke of a company.

Edited by deleted (Tue 08-Apr-14 10:46:15)

In reply to a post by aquiss:

Dear Coms

I would also like to know why you are mailing me about your wholesale services, of which we have no interest in using. You have been contacted via email on several occasions, but have ignored the removal request. You have also failed to remove the address via you so called "unsubscribe" link in your mailing emails.

I would therefore like to know who handles your Data Protection requests so we can establish if other private information has been gathered unlawfully.

How ironic, Coms retail customers get absolutely nil, official, communication from them. Yet they are peddling their wholesale wares un-invited to other isp`s

In reply to a post by Cruncher:

Grabs popcorn.

Ill get the beer

Who would have though Coms would do such a thing??

Maybe they are buddies with Edward Snowden

Steve

Strange to address such a request to a Community Forum.

I can only assume that you want a lot of people to see this to influence any decision making...

---

I am not in any way affiliated with ANY ISP listed on thinkbroadband.com but I AM knowledgeable on many subjects relating to broadband.

In reply to a post by Mr_Morpheus:

Strange to address such a request to a Community Forum.

I can only assume that you want a lot of people to see this to influence any decision making...

---

I am not in any way affiliated with ANY ISP listed on thinkbroadband.com but I AM knowledgeable on many subjects relating to broadband.

From the original post "I would also like to know why you are mailing me about your wholesale services, of which we have no interest in using. You have been contacted via email on several occasions, but have ignored the removal request. You have also failed to remove the address via you so called "unsubscribe" link in your mailing emails."

Posting here seems fair enough to me if other direct approaches have been fruitless. Coms were quite regular on this forum, though they seem to be keeping their heads down here at the moment also

Edited by deleted (Fri 11-Apr-14 11:15:35)

In reply to a post by Mr_Morpheus:

Strange to address such a request to a Community Forum.

What seems strange to me is that this appears to be your first post on the forum....

Are you affiliated with any ISP not listed on thinkbroadband.com

Can anyone remember the nick of the Coms chap who posted a few times when Paul was away the first time? I can't, and every time I get a few minutes I look through a few more posts looking for him. I started soon after this newbie posted.

My idea being to compare his registration date and the new chap's.

Most remarkable is the very presence of the specific statement about non-affiliation to a TBB listed ISP. That's what made me smell a rat.

DanComs maybe?

and yes, I had just the same thought.


EDIT: Yep Dan - http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/showprofile.php?Use...

Edited by Cruncher (Fri 11-Apr-14 14:23:26)

Not close then. Mr_Morpheus is 26 Feb.

Do you really think that just because they have a presence on a Community Forum that they intend to provide you with answers?

Checking some history of Coms and the various companies they have acquired, they can be reached on:

0207 148 3000 - which appears to be for the VoIP service
0207 148 4000 - this one appears to be for Wholesale
01457 6000 24 - this appears to be the support number for former ADSL24 customers and their own bb service

E-Mail:
[email protected] - appears to be for their VoIP service for both Direct and Wholesale
[email protected] - appears to be for every other product
[email protected] - pretty obvious what this one is
[email protected] - again, pretty obvious

There are probably many more methods to contact them instead of airing your complaint in a Community Forum.

Just my 2 pence...

>What seems strange to me is that this appears to be your first post on the forum....

May be my first post here, but I have been reading the forums for months - usually to glean information, after all isn't that what a Community Forum is for?

>Are you affiliated with any ISP not listed on thinkbroadband.com

Perhaps I should have elaborated, I do NOT WORK FOR any ISP, I have used many of the ISPs listed

>Most remarkable is the very presence of the specific statement about non-affiliation to a TBB listed ISP. >That's what made me smell a rat.

Do you really think that if I worked for Coms (or any other ISP listed) I'd wade into a thread that was directing flames in their direction?

Paranoia is rife

I do just find it amusing that a Community Forum is used to try and get support from an ISP. Yes I understand that several members of this forum work for various ISPs but what level of support do you think to get from them by posting here?

By all means, post your thoughts and experiences - after all this is for the Community, but if you want support then perhaps try using the ISPs official support channel?

Just a thought

In reply to a post by Mr_Morpheus:

There are probably many more methods to contact them instead of airing your complaint in a Community Forum.

The advantage of posting on a Community Forum is that it allows other potential and current customers to see how the ISP deals with complaints.

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

In reply to a post by Mr_Morpheus:

There are probably many more methods to contact them instead of airing your complaint in a Community Forum.

The advantage of posting on a Community Forum is that it allows other potential and current customers to see how the ISP deals with complaints.

Not disputing that at all - after all that is the whole point of the Community. But to try and get official support from an ISP from said Community?

I think it's fairly obvious at this point how Coms handles complaints without any need for another thread lol.. still I'm all for more embarrassment for this joke of an ISP.

In reply to a post by Mr_Morpheus:

Do you really think that just because they have a presence on a Community Forum that they intend to provide you with answers?
[/quote

Call me old fashioned but yes!

In reply to a post by aibreeze:

I think it's fairly obvious at this point how Coms handles complaints without any need for another thread lol.. still I'm all for more embarrassment for this joke of an ISP.

To be fair, I've seen the threads and it *is* astounding how they've handled things...the migration debacle, the "DNS" issues, throttling etc, the list goes on. I dare say there'll be more.

As "unusual" users (meaning that we as a community have a lot of knowledge to spread around) do generally go to Forums to b*tch and moan (I've done it before) but in reality, all that does is give us, the user a sense of airing out our frustrations but not actually solving the problem that caused the frustrations...

Support channels exist for one reason, to provide support to us the user. If we can't use them, the provider won't know there is a problem that needs addressing unless they frequent the community, which (again checking historically) some of the Coms staff has done and from what I could tell, they have been (relatively) helpful to a certain extent.

To give an analogy, would you post on a Car forum about your car not starting and moaning at the manufacturer? Unlikely, you may post that it didn't start and you had to call the AA/RAC/Green Flag whatever, but you wouldn't post in the forum looking for help on how to start the car would you?

Same principle here, sure post your frustrations, but don't expect rapid support response from a provider in a Community Forum...

My 2 penneth worth

In reply to a post by Mr_Morpheus:

Not disputing that at all - after all that is the whole point of the Community. But to try and get official support from an ISP from said Community?

Coms seemed happy enough to engage on this forum when they saw some advantage for them. A few more complaints will no doubt make it advantageous for them to respond with solutions if they have any.

Contacting Coms directly has apparently brought the OP no joy.

Coms have engaged in this forum, and members have received support as a result.

Therefore, it is understandable for someone to raise problems they are having with Coms here in reasonable expectation of a response.

To be fair, I've seen the threads and it *is* astounding how they've handled things...the migration debacle, the "DNS" issues, throttling etc, the list goes on. I dare say there'll be more.

Apart from the throttling which could have been handled better, the rest of the issues have been dealth with very quickly if you PM Paul.

In reply to a post by Molehusband:

Contacting Coms directly has apparently brought the OP no joy.

Coms have engaged in this forum, and members have received support as a result.

Therefore, it is understandable for someone to raise problems they are having with Coms here in reasonable expectation of a response.

Coms seemed happy enough to engage on this forum when they saw some advantage for them. A few more complaints will no doubt make it advantageous for them to respond with solutions if they have any.

Again, both valid points. But in my personal experience (not with Coms, but other providers in general) - the Support Channel is generally the best way to go. If Coms ran their own forum (unlikely based on post observations) then I *would* expect some level of support. But this is *not* a Coms operated forum, therefore (past posts not withstanding), I personally would expect little or no support from an ISP regardless of who they are from a Community Forum such as this.

Don't get me wrong, whilst I've been reading posts over the years this is a great place to find nuggets of info, but it isn't really the right place to request Provider Support.

It is only my personal opinion so do feel free to take it with a huge pinch of salt!

Although not an official support forum, people like DanComs and PaulComs can bypass the usually [censored] customer support methods which frustrate users and deal with issues directly.

In reply to a post by bobble_bob:

Although not an official support forum, people like DanComs and PaulComs can bypass the usually [censored] customer support methods which frustrate users and deal with issues directly.

Not disagreeing with you at all, I just find that Community driven forums attract a lot of posts that could be better handled if the OP directed it at the Official Support Channel.

It is good that providers have presence on forums, and it can be a way to get some support but it isn't the best way (in general).

If Providers had a consistent presence on Community Forums I would then expect a level of support from them - but I wouldn't expect the same level of support from a Forum as I would from contacting the Provider directly - just an observation

You have already made the same point over and over. What are you hoping to gain by continually posting the same point?

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

You have already made the same point over and over. What are you hoping to gain by continually posting the same point?

Maybe I'm hoping the message will actually sink in

In reply to a post by Mr_Morpheus:

Maybe I'm hoping the message will actually sink in

You hope that people will stop posting here asking for help? That's not going to happen.

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

In reply to a post by Mr_Morpheus:

Maybe I'm hoping the message will actually sink in

You hope that people will stop posting here asking for help? That's not going to happen.

Way to take my comment out of context. I'm hoping that users after Official Support go to the appropriate channel rather than a community forum.

In reply to a post by Mr_Morpheus:

I'm hoping that users after Official Support go to the appropriate channel rather than a community forum.

Do you have any evidence that posters here have not used official channels?

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

In reply to a post by Mr_Morpheus:

I'm hoping that users after Official Support go to the appropriate channel rather than a community forum.

Do you have any evidence that posters here have not used official channels?

If I looked through all the threads, I dare say I could find more than a few posts where the poster has not gone via Official Channels and expected support from this Forum.

As I've said, I'm not against posting for help, but having been on both sides of the Support fence I personally wouldn't expect any Provider/Vendor support from a Community Forum unless said forum is owned and operated by the Vendor/Provider. That being said, a forum has no guarantee of a response level so in that vein Official Channels exist to provide direct support within a time-frame (which of course varies from Vendor/Provider to Vendor/Provider).

Perhaps, I am being a little old fashioned in thinking that a Support Channel provides support

As someone else pointed out, with Coms you actually get better support on here than you do from their own support phone number. Will save you from my own personal woes with their support but if I get a problem in my last few weeks remaining with them, the first thing I'd do would be to try and speak to their reps via this website.

In reply to a post by aibreeze:

As someone else pointed out, with Coms you actually get better support on here than you do from their own support phone number. Will save you from my own personal woes with their support but if I get a problem in my last few weeks remaining with them, the first thing I'd do would be to try and speak to their reps via this website.

So would you expect the same level of support from this forum from BT or Virgin?

In reply to a post by Mr_Morpheus:

If I looked through all the threads, I dare say I could find more than a few posts where the poster has not gone via Official Channels and expected support from this Forum.

How do you know the posters have not gone via Official Channels?

Quite a few people have received significant help from BT_Care reps here, when BT Retail support has failed. At 14:08 a BT_Care rep viewed their list of PMs here.

Edited by RobertoS (Sat 12-Apr-14 14:12:04)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Quite a few people have received significant help from BT_Care reps here, when BT Retail support has failed. At 14:08 a BT_Care rep viewed their list of PMs here.

So they tried official channels, got nowhere and decided to post on a Community Forum. Which is precisely my point. BT_Care are only on here because it provides some level of benefit to them, they don't have to be here.

Perhaps if more people actually told the Official Channels what is going wrong with the Support, Provider/Vendor reps wouldn't need to frequent Community Forums.

Which is my point, a Community Forum may provide a level of support, but it is not and should never be the place for Vendors/Providers to provide support to their customer base.

Let's face it, if every Vendor/Provider had decent support there wouldn't be anyone posting in Community Forums except for those asking for "How To's" or asking advice about which router to get next.

But in the real world, pretty much every Support Channel sucks a$$ to some degree so Forums like this exist. Besides BT operate their own Community Care forum where BT customers do receive a level of support from their "Community Care" Team(s).

In reply to a post by Mr_Morpheus:

But in the real world, pretty much every Support Channel sucks a$$ to some degree so Forums like this exist. Besides BT operate their own Community Care forum where BT customers do receive a level of support from their "Community Care" Team(s).

The BT Community Care forums are Customer-to-Customer forums, not a BT specialist team.

Let's see, on the first page of this sub-forum:

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/otherisp/t/4314455-...

In response to the OP (who did state he opened a ticket) but this chap does not appear (and admittedly it isn't concrete) to have made any effort to go via the Official Channels.

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/otherisp/f/4318340-...

Rather than speaking to the Support Channel, the OP posted here...

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/otherisp/f/4320938-...

Oh yes, this one just asking if anyone else has seen something, but not checked with Support for any assistance....

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/otherisp/f/4320079-...

Strangely, the quoted examples are all related to Coms - maybe because their Support sucks a$$, or maybe the posters didn't want to/couldn't contact the Official Channel - but that is just the front page of the "Resellers and other ISP" sub-forum.

I think you're confusing normal forum conversation with support requests.

As a regular beneficiary of this well-informed website I have found it useful to know how ISPs are treating their customers; by the nature of things dissatisfied customers are likely to be in the majority here. I hope people will continue to post their experiences, good or bad, so the rest of us can be informed.

I have found the TBB website far better than the BT Community Forums. Over the past year my sadly lowering opinion of BT has been confirmed by the posts of other customers on this website.

This thread about the BT Community forums being extremely interesting.

For years it has also been clear here that on TalkTalk the only way to get anywhere with real problems is through their in-house forum, the support line apparently being dreadful.

BT_Care rep checked PM list at 14:40.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

At 14:08 a BT_Care rep viewed their list of PMs here.

From the frequency of those viewings 24/7, it is not a person doing the viewings but an automated system. I've seen those viewing happen about every 10 mins throughout the night.

That makes sense.

It will get seen by a BT_Care rep though, unless the automatic process is just to delete them

I've gotta say that since the Coms takeover, I've found their official online ticket support system useless.
e.g. during the DNS problems recently, after a significant delay their only response was a copy & paste "reboot your router, replace microfilter & cables then replace your router" reply.
Bitching about the outage here and bouncing speculation off other affected users and more knowledgeable people than I managed to partly solve the problem and in the end find out what that actual problem was.
Coms official line was that it was an OpenDNS problem when in fact we were notified by a competing ISP's rep that it was an Enta problem.

Indeed, my whinging about the throttle here on this forum eventually prompted PaulComs to PM me and offer to remove the throttle from my account if I have a sensible approach to usage.
Now leaving aside all the other points for discussion that brings up, it was through this forum that a personal solution was found to Coms' unannounced throttling, that in itself being discussed here in absence of any official word from Coms directly.

I think that when the ISP has an absence of any support forums of their own and indeed any meaningful support full stop then users discussing problems, coming up with solutions themselves is sometimes the only way that we can overcome said problems, short of migrating to an ISP that has said in house forums and or better support.
If we can get support from the ISP through here then so much the better.
Plus it gives us a chance to see what life is like on the other side of the fence and a chance to learn about internety things in general.. And a place to vent, which sometimes is all we really want!

Some how this thread has got way of topic. In all my years on here I have never seen another ISP being so open as to post an open letter of complaint to another ISP.

Now that means one of two things
1) the poster is pathetic, has a grudge and is just trying to take advantage of another isps current situation. Unusual ans unlikely as like any business, everyone has their ups and downs and often just count their blessing it isn't them.

2) The Poster is SO fed up with any lack of official response, and like many others is also fed up with trying the official channels and getting nowhere. Whilst perhaps "not the done thing" it sometimes takes something like that to jolt the system a bit.

Unfortunately, it does rather uphold the current public perception of Coms, that they are just ignoring anything that doesn't suit them and aren't worried who they upset.

Paul does read these forums as we all know. He does usually also act on PMs, though the amount of us who have suggested he keeps up good communication on here seems to have fallen on deaf ears.

Paul has taken an effort to sort out my problems, for which I am genuinly grateful, however, I am still; very much considering leaving as I really am not impressed with certain issues and attitudes

Woody

Edited by ukwoody (Sat 12-Apr-14 17:44:14)