Service disconnection

[Cliff Frisby]

I gave the 30-day notice for service termination on 5th April. (Not
transferring to another ISP, so no MAC code or anything.)

My billing date is 12th of each month, and I've been charged as usual up to
12 May on the last invoice.

I assume what happens is that I should expect the ADSL carrier to die about
now, and I will get credited for the period 6-12/May on the next invoice.

Is that right?

I only have a standalone router plugged in to the line in question at the
moment, but I can see that it is still PPP-connected, and I can ping its
IP/hostname from elsewhere on the Internet.

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message <nO8it.3511$PV5....@fx22.fr7>, Cliff Frisby

<spam...@scarpia.demon.co.uk> writes:
>I gave the 30-day notice for service termination on 5th April. (Not
>transferring to another ISP, so no MAC code or anything.)
>
>My billing date is 12th of each month, and I've been charged as usual up to
>12 May on the last invoice.
>
>I assume what happens is that I should expect the ADSL carrier to die about
>now, and I will get credited for the period 6-12/May on the next invoice.

ISTR that'll be swallowed up - and then some - by the
termination/disconnection charge (fortysomething IIRR).
[]
Just being nosey, but are you giving up on the internet, or just
switching to another means of access? (If "mobile", I'd be interested in
the details.)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

TV and radio presenters are just like many people, except they tend to wear
make-up all the time. Especially the radio presenters. - Eddie Mair, in Radio
Times 25-31 August 2012

[Cliff Frisby]

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:

> In message <nO8it.3511$PV5....@fx22.fr7>, Cliff Frisby
> <spam...@scarpia.demon.co.uk> writes:
>>I gave the 30-day notice for service termination on 5th April. (Not
>>transferring to another ISP, so no MAC code or anything.)
>>
>>My billing date is 12th of each month, and I've been charged as usual up
>>to 12 May on the last invoice.
>>
>>I assume what happens is that I should expect the ADSL carrier to die
>>about now, and I will get credited for the period 6-12/May on the next
>>invoice.
>
> ISTR that'll be swallowed up - and then some - by the
> termination/disconnection charge (fortysomething IIRR).

<gulp> I'm not anticipating any disconnection charge. I know such things
exist, but I'm not aware of one in the most recent Ts&Cs that I would have
signed up to in relation to the service in question (HomeOffice 2+). But I
will check...

...Okay, I just rifled through the six pages of small-print from Oct 2006
(the ADSLMax upgrade) when new Ts&Cs were specified, and implicitly agreed
to by continued use of service. The section on termination mentions no
disconnection fee for a normal termination.

The service is still 'live' today AFAICS. I hope the fact that I have an
ADSL router connected to it isn't in any way inhibiting the disconnection;
removal of the ADSL signal is my cue to give notice on the phone line
rental itself, which is why I'm monitoring it.

It's only a few days to wait for the next invoice. If it shows yet another
advance charge for a full month's HomeOffice, I will query what on earth
they are up to.

> []
> Just being nosey, but are you giving up on the internet, or just
> switching to another means of access? (If "mobile", I'd be interested in
> the details.)

I have two BT lines at the moment. Rather than upgrade from HomeOffice 2+ to
Business Unlimited, I decided to take out a fresh Business Unlimited
service on my the line that I actually use for telephony. This will
(eventually) save me a line rental.

As it turns out, there have been enough problems that I rather with I'd gone
for an upgrade, closed my 'telephony' line, and sent out phone number
updates to everybody. The BU billing was initially wrong and has taken two
attempts to get corrected; Email migration I am currently experiencing all
over again, and one week on it is still broken (not that I use Demon email
for anything remotely important anymore). A cock up on the closure of the
HomeOffice and/or a rogue disconnection fee, would make a hat trick of
calamities.

Demon, sadly, doesn't seem to do 'right first time' anymore, and even 'right
second time' seems to be a struggle for them.

[Peter Ceresole]

Cliff Frisby <spam...@scarpia.demon.co.uk> wrote:

> Demon, sadly, doesn't seem to do 'right first time' anymore, and even 'right
> second time' seems to be a struggle for them.

Clearly you've been unlucky. I was on Homeoffice 8000, but Demon
discontinued it and I migrated to Biz Unlimited for effectively the same
price. Smooth as you could wish; Technicolor adsl modem/router delivered
on time, no glitches. Excellent telephone support. Simultaneous Mail
migration has also been a great success for me; the only glitches being
that I was using Eudora/POP3, which is broken on the new Outlook system
(Eudora/IMAP works fine), but Apple Mail/IMAP (and POP3) works as well
as I could want, so I migrated with no pain. A glitch with trying to
post via smtp.d.c.u from a connection in New York was solved nicely by
using the Outlook Webmail service, which worked much more easily and
seamlessly than the 'old' webmail did, and email Biz support was
genuinely informative and... supportive.

I've had one interruption in service, due to a loose connection up my
local distro pole, solved by shouting up to the BT fellow who was up
there for another job. The funny bit was that although it took him two
minutes to fix the fault (loose wire), he didn't write it up as it
wasn't on his job sheet, and next day more BT fellows turned up to check
up to the master socket and found it all okay- and I gained some ADSL
speed into the bargain, although not much; from 4Mb/s up to the dizzy
heights of 4.5Mb/sec. To be in the 21st Century, it's not enough just to
be in London...

The only real drawback has been the reduction in attachment size
possible with the new mail system, which is irritating but forces me to
get familiar with DropBox.

I have to say that I'd be very surprised indeed if Demon charged you a
disconnection fee.
--
Peter

[Cliff Frisby]

Peter Ceresole wrote:

> Cliff Frisby <spam...@scarpia.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> Demon, sadly, doesn't seem to do 'right first time' anymore, and even
>> 'right second time' seems to be a struggle for them.
>
> Clearly you've been unlucky.

<snip>

Perhaps. It's right that good experiences get reported too. I certainly have
no issues with the attentiveness and civility of the support people, and I
see no reason why, if I had taken the upgrade option, it wouldn't have gone
as smoothly as yours did.

But as I took out a new service, I also see no reason why a new customer
would not have had the same bumpy ride as me! I can't be *that* special,
can I?

Anyway, since my previous post, the mail issue on the new BizU service seems
to have been fixed.

And regarding the old HomeOffice service, a few things have happened:
My mailbox on the old punts system has been deleted.
My Homepages has disappeared.
My hostname has had its DNS entries deleted (A and MX) (although the router
still has its PPP connection and I can ping it remotely by IP address --
perhaps if I PPP-disconnected it would never reconnect!)

So things seem to be taking their course.

>
> I have to say that I'd be very surprised indeed if Demon charged you a
> disconnection fee.

AND, I had an extra invoice just now, crediting the pre-paid odd 7 days of
HomeOffice, and no disconnection charge to quibble over. Just have to hope
that the actual direct debits eventually reconcile with the invoices.

[Peter Ceresole]

Cliff Frisby <spam...@scarpia.demon.co.uk> wrote:

> But as I took out a new service, I also see no reason why a new customer
> would not have had the same bumpy ride as me! I can't be *that* special,
> can I?

I guess not; as I said, I think you have been unlucky. I just wanted to
say that my own experience has been quite different, and very good. I'm
claiming no more than that.
--
Peter

[Cliff Frisby]

Peter Ceresole wrote:

>
> I have to say that I'd be very surprised indeed if Demon charged you a
> disconnection fee.

Agreed, and there's no sign of one on the credit note for the unused (but
prepaid) service.

I suppose Demon do get charged a disconnection fee by Openreach though,
which they absorb in their pricing structure and minimum term.

I'm still connected to my Business Unlimited service through the 'wrong'
phone line, i.e. the one nominally associated with my erstwhile HomeOffice
service, two weeks after that HomeOffice service was put to sleep (i.e. I
can't log in to it, DNS/mail/homepages all gone etc.).

Which set me wondering whether Demon might actually not bother requesting
such a disconnection unless and until there is something to be gained by
them from doing so.

Okay, two weeks is not very long, and perhaps these things get done in
batches. I've scripted up an audible alarm on the router to wake me up in
the event that connectivity is lost. Part of me is curious to see how long
the situation will last for, although another part of me would quite like
to stop paying the BT line rental ASAP!

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message <ENIlt.48655$ne1....@fx07.fr7>, Cliff Frisby

<spam...@scarpia.demon.co.uk> writes:
>Peter Ceresole wrote:
>
>>
>> I have to say that I'd be very surprised indeed if Demon charged you a
>> disconnection fee.
>
>Agreed, and there's no sign of one on the credit note for the unused (but
>prepaid) service.
>
>I suppose Demon do get charged a disconnection fee by Openreach though,
>which they absorb in their pricing structure and minimum term.

I think - BICBW - that I get charged one (by PlusNet) if I just
terminate, but not if I transfer to another ISP. (On the other hand,
PlusNet don't charge me if I move house, which I presume involves them
in both a disconnection and an activation fee. They do limit how often
you can move though.)
[]

>Which set me wondering whether Demon might actually not bother requesting
>such a disconnection unless and until there is something to be gained by
>them from doing so.

Presumably BTW charge them a line rental for the ADSL service.

>
>Okay, two weeks is not very long, and perhaps these things get done in
>batches. I've scripted up an audible alarm on the router to wake me up in
>the event that connectivity is lost. Part of me is curious to see how long
>the situation will last for, although another part of me would quite like
>to stop paying the BT line rental ASAP!
>
>

--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

"Purgamentum init, exit purgamentum." Translation: "Garbage in, garbage out."

[Cliff Frisby]

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:

> In message <ENIlt.48655$ne1....@fx07.fr7>, Cliff Frisby
> <spam...@scarpia.demon.co.uk> writes:
>>Peter Ceresole wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> I have to say that I'd be very surprised indeed if Demon charged you a
>>> disconnection fee.
>>
>>Agreed, and there's no sign of one on the credit note for the unused (but
>>prepaid) service.
>>
>>I suppose Demon do get charged a disconnection fee by Openreach though,
>>which they absorb in their pricing structure and minimum term.
>
> I think - BICBW - that I get charged one (by PlusNet) if I just
> terminate, but not if I transfer to another ISP. (On the other hand,
> PlusNet don't charge me if I move house, which I presume involves them
> in both a disconnection and an activation fee. They do limit how often
> you can move though.)
> []

Yes, I had heard of such charges existing in the contracts of certain ISPs.

>>Which set me wondering whether Demon might actually not bother requesting
>>such a disconnection unless and until there is something to be gained by
>>them from doing so.
>
> Presumably BTW charge them a line rental for the ADSL service.
>>

Well, I wouldn't go as far as presuming! In the case of a Talk-Talk type of
LLU, I'm sure BTW charge rent to the ISP. But where the end user is still
paying line rental to BT, the ISP presumably pays less, and possibly
nothing at all.

<snipped>