Sick to death of Coms now!

Last night I decided to check up on my monthly usage, by logging in and going to the usage report, and wanted to know what I averaged each month. Now, it used to be easy and you had a list of each month with totals etc. Now it just lists the current month.

So I wrote an email asking my total data usage for Jan, Feb and Mar, by month, explaining that information was no longer available on the customer portal.

After an earlier email (with mistakes) saying it was being passed to billing to answer, I then got this back.
Please be advised that you can see this information in usage report, connection logs for data and call logs for voice by login in your account. If you require any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.


So I then looked into connection logs which showed the following.

NOTE: The session logs below display all usage including off-peak and are for display purposes only. The usage report page is the authoritive report from which you can monitor your monthly allowance.

Session startSession endSession lengthDownloadedUploaded
24 Apr 2014 14:21 --- 1 hr 4 mins 80.31 MB 19.69 MB
22 Apr 2014 09:40 24 Apr 2014 14:15 2 days 4 hrs 35 mins 1961.09 MB 701.62 MB
22 Apr 2014 09:37 22 Apr 2014 09:38 51 secs 0.01 MB 0.02 MB
6 Apr 2014 15:32 22 Apr 2014 09:35 15 days 18 hrs 3 mins 6389.33 MB 4093.01 MB
6 Apr 2014 02:23 6 Apr 2014 15:31 13 hrs 7 mins 151.31 MB 156.41 MB
14 Mar 2014 07:59 6 Apr 2014 02:22 22 days 17 hrs 23 mins 14844.74 MB 7038.86 MB
11 Mar 2014 03:10 14 Mar 2014 07:58 3 days 4 hrs 48 mins 662.69 MB 869.77 MB
20 Feb 2014 03:00 11 Mar 2014 03:09 18 days 18 hrs 1 mins 6255.97 MB 5339.23 MB
16 Feb 2014 17:25 --- 0 secs 0.00 MB 0.00 MB
13 Feb 2014 17:25 16 Feb 2014 17:25 3 days 1800.29 MB 536.67 MB
10 Feb 2014 17:24 13 Feb 2014 17:24 2 days 23 hrs 59 mins 20571.48 MB 906.47 MB
8 Feb 2014 16:42 10 Feb 2014 17:05 2 days 23 mins 702.62 MB 356.58 MB
6 Feb 2014 23:16 8 Feb 2014 16:41 1 day 17 hrs 25 mins 929.89 MB 310.25 MB
5 Feb 2014 09:21 6 Feb 2014 23:14 1 day 13 hrs 52 mins 1467.35 MB 298.49 MB
4 Feb 2014 13:08 5 Feb 2014 09:20 20 hrs 11 mins 198.96 MB 139.21 MB
1 Feb 2014 13:08 4 Feb 2014 13:08 2 days 23 hrs 59 mins 1011.85 MB 509.56 MB
29 Jan 2014 13:07 1 Feb 2014 13:07 3 days 1269.89 MB 519.80 MB

Firstly it doesn't give me the monthly breakdown, I wanted, secondly it states use the usage report -0 which is now useless, and, Third I was horrified to see the sheer number of "sessions". The average is 3 days at a time since Jan. I NEVER used to have this with ADSL24 and does not tally up with my recent router logs.

I've had enough and will now be off asap. They can't even be bothered to read my email correctly and give me a basic fundamental data usage pattern.

I was very behind the takeover at first. well forget it now. Constant, lies, mis-information, broken promises, dates that never happen, even the "new residential" packages that were meant to happen never appeared, let alone being able to log in and get all your info.
Sorry Paul, this is one too many. I depend on and NEED a reliable connection.

On top of all that I get my invoice thru today, it's SO unprofessional "Dear Customer please find attached your latest invoice." Just like the common spam ones - so much so Outlook bunged it in Trash!
I'm already in talks with another ISP and will hopefully be gone asap.

Woody

I noticed that problem too with the usage page a little while ago - yet another thing they've managed to mess up. I should have reported it, but what's the point?

You can look back at previous usage on a day by day basis if you click on a single day and then edit the url to a previous date.

My connection had been up since the 1st April without any problems (things have been much better for me since the throttling was introduced), but I note in my sessions log that I was also disconnected for approx 3 minutes yesterday at about the same time as you (14.19) - so looks like another coms issue I would say.

I've already got my MAC (though no idea if it will work), but haven't made a move yet.

Coms did ask for feedback as to why I was leaving, and they did provide a response to that feedback, dne element of which was "Coms appreciate that there should have been more communication given on the current hot topics, such as traffic management and are striving to better ourselves to match our customers expectations. Coms' customers should expect a higher level of communication from now on as we now appreciate the level of communication that our customers expect and deserve."

Well that statement was a week ago - and I've still not seen any more communications from Coms.

Another part of the response about the missing line options feature - "Regarding the line options on your My Account, these are in the final stages of testing at the moment as I am sure you can appreciate this was not a matter of just switching the feature between portals, however this should be available in the coming weeks" - well really I DON'T understand why it's so difficult - it's not as if they didn't have months and months to prepare, and was it really not possible just to migrate everything 'as-is' from ADSL24 as an intermediate solution?

They appear to be a bunch of amateurs with too much money to spend on acquisitions.

In reply to a post by tonytiger07:

I've already got my MAC (though no idea if it will work), but haven't made a move yet.

If you're Enta/BT and your MAC expires on 03/05/2014 then my guess is it won't work and will show up as used. I've been trying to leave since the 8th of April and only yesterday, finally, after cutting Coms totally out of the loop and going straight to Enta, got a working MAC.

Everything they do is a farce, the service is totally unfit for purpose. I note with some amusement that their share price is slowly dropping back to where it was prior to the ADSL24 acquisition. Essentially their purchase has gained them little in value and a huge amount of bad-will around the internet; if you search for "Coms plc" most of the top links are people complaining about terrible service.

http://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/prices-a...

Edited by deleted (Fri 25-Apr-14 09:54:34)

I'm off to BT fibre on the 12th. I was going to go fibre with adsl24 a few months ago but shelved it for a while, glad i did . BT say that i don't have to inform coms and that they will do everything neccessary to change me over from phone and broadband to fibre and phone with no extra charges and claim that there is no traffic mangement, so hopefully i won't have to deal with coms.

In reply to a post by tonytiger07:

Coms did ask for feedback as to why I was leaving, and they did provide a response to that feedback, dne element of which was "Coms appreciate that there should have been more communication given on the current hot topics, such as traffic management and are striving to better ourselves to match our customers expectations. Coms' customers should expect a higher level of communication from now on as we now appreciate the level of communication that our customers expect and deserve."

That's hilarious, they assured us ages ago in an overly friendly manner that if anything about our service should change, they'd let us know. So far the only sort of communication they have made is on here as far as I'm aware. And despite all their acknowledgements of their poor communication, they still haven't even made their announcement they promised.. I can only assume it's in the same place as their integrity, ie: non existent.

Well I've just had a follow up email

"Could you please advise if you managed to see your monthly usage as we advised in last email? If so, is that ok for us to close this case?
If you require further assistance do not hesitate to contact us."

So basically they don't even know them selves if I can see the monthly usage data!

Staggeringly incompetant

woody

Recently I got 3 invoices from Coms asking for my monthly payment and I had closed my broadband account a month earlier. I was told that had been sorted and I wouldn't receive any more invoices. Yesterday I got another invoice and couldn't believe what they sent:
Your Charges

Charges Due £-44.76
VAT @ 20% £-8.95
Total £-53.71

Method of Payment

There is nothing to pay on this bill.

That is only a very small part of the invoice. The rest was filled up with 00.00, three pages of it.
What a waste of time, energy and resources. I've contacted someone at Coms but up till now not received a response. Perhaps I'll just wait now till the summons from the court arrives and tries to screw the £-53.71 out of me.
Wonder how I'm going to pay it. Any suggestions?

Looks like a credit note for one or more of the other three?

In reply to a post by Lambrettaday:

Wonder how I'm going to pay it. Any suggestions?

If you owe a negative amount, it is a refund .

It think it was more sarcasm DrT

Matt

No sarcasm intended. I was definitely sent this 3 page invoice with negative amounts and I wasn't with Coms long enough to be owed such an amount as a refund. If you would like to see the full invoice just ask. They not only messed up ADSL24 broadband they also messed up the billing system too. Glad I'm out.

I got a similar bill yesterday with a -18.90 total even tho I left them on the 31st of March. It's most likey another cock up on thier part as I made sure I settled up with them. I contacted them before I migrated to check the last payment date and to ake sure they close the account once I paid the last bill.

Seems like since the takeover there have been a few issues.

I left in early February, got my MAC code before I left and made sure they acknowledged I was leaving. I was assured there would be no problem and was told to cancel my DD which I did. Then 3 invoices came fluttering through email asking for my March payment so I phoned and was told just to ignore them but that could lead to trouble. One of Coms agents on Thinkbroadband said he'd see to it I would receive no more invoices. I was contacted by Coms billing manager who apologised and said I would receive no more and here we are again with not one not two but a three page invoice. Oh dear how wearisome.

Don't forget that if they agreed you should not have been charged, in order to straighten their accounts they need to raise related credit notes. These need to be sent to the (possibly business) customer in case the invoices also have to go through their accounts.

COMS claim to be originally a business-oriented ISP and issuing credits would be normal and expected. A business receiving an invoice cannot ignore it in the way a non-trader can.

You haven't answered my question about the negative invoice and the values of the incorrect invoices?

Sorry I didn't know it was a question. Could you explain what you mean?

Sorry, maybe I didn't make that clear.

See this later reply to bodcod .

It could be it is just to cancel one or more of the three duff invoices for computerised accounting systems.

You could be right but if a promise is made to send no more invoices then that should be upheld. If they really need to send an invoice then it would be polite to notify the person they promised not to send anymore to, first. There are many people like me who hate sloppiness and this is a classic case by a company who is proven to be inept to say the least.

You can see the values in the documents. I can't.

As I said, a business would expect to receive credit notes for incorrect invoices, and that applies even after they have been told the invalid invoices will stop.

It's perfectly normal .

If I'm right about the value(s) it should have been a "plus" value with a heading "Credit note", rather than a negative invoice. That shows a poor computer system, but doesn't mean it shouldn't be sent.

Oh I'm afraid you're wrong there. Invoices that are invalid should not be sent, very bad policy. I object to receiving invalid invoices because it makes it easy for the sender. I owe Coms nothing which has been explained to them and agreed by them. Why should I have my time and space taken up by an inept company who have lost control of their billing system as well as many other parts of their company. Coms got up the noses of ex Adsl24 customers and going by the furore that has been in these forums lately quite a number of noses, so why should I as one of the noses let them off with sending me invalid invoices. I'm see you must be one of the lucky ones who wasn't a customer of Coms

I begin to doubt if you understand my posts. Or if you are even really reading them.

Nobody, especially me, is saying the original invoices should have been sent. I am merely saying that the negative invoice could have been a credit note against them.

Please see if one or more of them add up to the negative value. The discussion is pointless until you do. Or have you thrown them away so can't check?

If they do, it is essential in business-to-business transactions that it should be sent. HMRC (in effect) require it. Even just dealing with residential customers like you or I, the credit has to be created.

Why would I frequent these forums if I wasn't going to read the posts? I am pleased that you are saying the original invoices shouldn't have been sent, that's one point in your favour. Having now looked again at the invoice it doesn't add up to a negative value but a value of -£44.76. How they came to that total is a mystery to me and probably if I showed it to Coms it would be a bigger mystery to them. So hopefully you can now understand my anger at being sent ANOTHER invoice when it serves no useful purpose.

What were the values of the three original invalid invoices?

In reply to a post by Lambrettaday:

Having now looked again at the invoice it doesn't add up to a negative value but a value of -£44.76. How they came to that total is a mystery to me

We are trying to help you solve that mystery.

Not that invoice which you have already posted here earlier, but the 3 earlier invoices that you referred to. Plse would you post their values just like you posted the -£44.76 one?

Invoice 1 was 14.92
Invoice 2 was 18.34
Invoice 3 was 14.57

What's the point of knowing them?

Well there you are then; you've made a profit.

14.92 + 18.34 + 14.57 = 47.83
which is more than paid back by the 4th 'invoice' which is really a credit note, of -53.71. It is not an invalid invoice but a valid credit note. They had to send you it to confirm they are refunding you the 1st 3 invoices.

Now you will just have to wait and see when this is credited to your method of payment or as a cheque in the post.

The point was to see if they added up to the negative (fourth) one .

A total of £47.83. Against a refund of £53.71.

Are those figures the values including Vat, or before Vat? If including Vat then the difference is £5.88 in your favour. Which strangely is £5 plus the old Vat rate of 17.5%.

Their accounting really is in a mess if that's wrong as well. Never mind their broadband.

Is there anything in those three invoices that isn't subject to Vat? It should distinguish between vatable and non-vatable items. Particularly something for £5.

Well I won't hold my breath for that. I don't want their refund if it means being contacted by them again I want their unsolicited emails stopped.

Vat of £2.98 on one invoice, £3.17 on another and absolutely zero on the last. Isn't this fun

In reply to a post by Lambrettaday:

Well I won't hold my breath for that. I don't want their refund if it means being contacted by them again I want their unsolicited emails stopped.

You will get a refund from Coms, I have had a nice response from one of their staff after receiving a bill for the whole of May, when in fact I am moving to Vivaciti from the 8th May, and should have only been billed for 7 days.
She asked me to kindly pay the invoice and then I will be refunded back to my account pro-rata. They have no means on their systems to amend bills
Just hope I dont get more bills after I move away :9

If I was in your shoes I wouldn't trust them. Don't pay the full invoice cause they'll not only lose your 3 weeks refund but they'll lose the complete invoice and try and get you to pay for another month. Don't trust them.

There's no way these bills are reconcilable!

I wouldn't trust them to provide me with my morning coffee let alone do a refund. Probably hear your woes in a week or two about having to chase up a refund.

In reply to a post by Lambrettaday:

Well I won't hold my breath for that. I don't want their refund if it means being contacted by them again I want their unsolicited emails stopped.

Just buy a share or two in the Post Office, then you shouldn't mind how many pieces of rubbish they send you. Simples !

Give that man a cigar, he hit the answer right on the nose.

And just how long do you think the Post Office is going to survive???

In reply to a post by Lambrettaday:

And just how long do you think the Post Office is going to survive???

A long time. It is doing very well at the moment.

In reply to a post by aibreeze:

I wouldn't trust them to provide me with my morning coffee let alone do a refund. Probably hear your woes in a week or two about having to chase up a refund.

It is a worry I admit, but knowing how business` work with invoicing. But I have until end of April to cancel DD so will see what reply I get on monday to my questions

Just wait till the Bank of Ireland goes belly up

Third I was horrified to see the sheer number of "sessions". The average is 3 days at a time since Jan. I NEVER used to have this with ADSL24 and does not tally up with my recent router logs.

Exactly the same here. For the first time in some time I checked my connection logs the other day and was shocked at the number of sessions some of which lasted only a few seconds. I had been wondering why I was having issues with a Flash game and now I know.

This is the first time in some years I've visited here as I had no issues with ADSL24. First issue with Com.com was their email server going down, I phoned them up to see if it was their side and instead of the helpful quick support I use to have with ADSL24 I connected to a foreign call centre who's employers seem to hardly speak English.

Then next issue was when I had an email that seemed to be composed by a language translator telling me about a compulsory password change giving no details of how to do it. After mailing them I did get a follow up mail explaining how to do it which seemed to be a general mail to all users so it looks like I was not the only one.

Then, while in cPanel I thought I'd install the site software for a blog. It was only when I tried to do so that I found you could no longer do so.

Now I find email and web space is being removed.

All this is making me feel com.com is doing an asset strip and to hell with old ADSL24 customers.

The throttling is another issue

It's beginning to look as if I will have to go through the hassle of changing ISP, email addresses and what is worse in UK is when you now sign up with a new ISP you have to demand they remove censorship of sites they deem unfit for kids which gives the impression you are some sort of pervert whereas you just want freedom.

Edited by deleted (Sat 05-Jul-14 11:47:27)

Exactly the same here. For the first time in some time I checked my connection logs the other day and was shocked at the number of sessions some of which lasted only a few seconds. I had been wondering why I was having issues with a Flash game and now I know.

Im certain the few second connections are a bug in their monitoring software, as my router doesnt pick them up

Well, since the move to Xilo, I've had a rock steady connection, currently at 43 days 18hrs 26mins, and the last one was down to me anyway.

Mind you, I still havent had my £15 refund from Cons.com, and cant be arsed to ask for it, even though I don't see why they should end up with it.

What did you mean they have done away with the email?

Woody

We all got an email yesterday saying as of the end of Sept they're stopping email and web hosting

Dont effect me mind

yeah, sorry Bob I've seen the other thread. Appalling really.

Woody

As your other post said, depends if its cost effective. Hardly doubt email and web hosting is a selling point for any ISP as its very easy to get free accounts quickly these days.

In reply to a post by bobble_bob:

We all got an email yesterday saying as of the end of Sept they're stopping email and web hosting

Dont effect me mind

They may have stopped it already and it's only August 8. As of today I can no longer poll any of my ADSL24 email accounts.

If this is true then it's another example of deception and being economical with the truth. They stated both before and after acquisition of ADSL24 that there would be no changes in services for us. Not long after they withdraw email and web hosting and we find they are traffic managing and now appear to have closed email accounts three weeks before they said they would. I'm sorry, but, only the most naive person would not claim this is deceit and lies on Com.Com's part.

As far as the mail from them some time ago demanding all account users change their email password so that accounts could not be compromised to send spam there was definitely an element of truth in that. For very many years I have reported all spam to SpamCop and over those years have noticed a large proportion of spam coming from com.com email addresses. Spam reports from SpamCop to com.com used to be routinely blocked and at one point I blocked all mail bearing a com.com address due to the issues. As an asside I never once saw spam from ADSL24..

My mind is made up now, I'll be leaving as soon as I near the date of my next payment as it seems quite a few people have lost out on refunds.

Think it was just an outage since it came back on yesterday afternoon and is still ok now.

As far as spam goes, noticed another re-occurrence of the 'bad reputation' issue when sending to btinternet addresses, last week. Can't be bothered to report it since I've moved all my email to my web hosting provider and am just monitoring my Coms accounts to pickup any 'in the pipeline' emails.

Also noticed that Coms seem to have pretty tight flood control on their servers. Sent out a COA email to about 15 of my friends and got 'delayed delivery' kickbacks for 5 of them saying that max emails per hours was only 10 and would try to deliver the rest, later. Needless to say, I resent the email via my new provider with absolutely no problem. The above observation about Spamcop might explain why Coms seem a bit sensitive about emails with more than a couple of addresses on them, but really.....10 per hour!

I'm moving house in October and am looking for to cutting all ties with this shower who've broken more or less every promise they made when they took over the excellent ADSL24. Our buyers asked if I would recommend my current provider...you can guess what my answer was