UK Users Complain

UK.internet.com reports that customers of RedHotAnt.com's unmetered access offering subjected the ISP to a stream of abuse. One outraged user revealed to uk.internet.com that he had been unable to connect since June.

by David Rae
of uk.internet.com
[August 18, 2000]

Customers of RedHotAnt.com's unmetered access offering today subjected the ISP to a stream of abuse, saying that it "broke new records in providing a crappy service". One outraged user revealed to uk.internet.com that he had been unable to connect since June.

"As far as I am concerned, redhotant is breaking new records in providing a crappy service. I signed up in March of this year when the service went live," said Ross Manuell, systems and network administrator at an NHS Trust in the South East of England.

"Since then I have been able to connect precisely eight times. My record is 173 redials before getting a connection, but I know of people - some of whom I work with - that have broken the 200 barrier."

Another disgruntled redhotant subscriber, John Picton, said: "The service is absolutely appalling. Tonight I have attempted over 60 times to connect. I managed to connect twice but was disconnected within 10 seconds. I applied for a refund, but got a letter back from them on the 11th August telling me I was not entitled to a refund and asking me to check the terms and conditions of the agreement."

Redhotant does not deny that the service is not working properly, but passed the buck to its telecommunications provider, MCI Worldcom. On its homepage, the ISP states that it is still waiting for MCI Worldcom to deliver additional lines to its modem racks.

Charlotte Steele, UK PR Manager at MCI Worldcom, said: "MCI Worldcom is working with the customer in question to resolve any issues we have with them."

Unregulated
Internet watchdog ISPA is powerless to act on behalf of the disgruntled surfers. Nicholas Lansman, secretary general at ISPA, said: "We have had a couple of complaints about the service, but because the company isn't registered with us there is nothing we can do."

He added: "There seems to be a growing problem with real ISPs as opposed to virtual ones. Sometimes the virtual ISPs are so desperate to gain market share, they offer incredible deals that they cannot always commit to."

Attempting to get comment from Redhotant proved troublesome. On its website redhotant offers the address of a company called JAK Group Ltd as its contact details, based in Cheriton, Kent. Unfortunately there are no records of such a company at that address. It turns out that this is the location of the company's server farm, so why it would put the full postal address on its website as contact details remains a mystery to uk.internet.com.

Delving a little further revealed that JAK Group has another address listed within its T&C agreement, this time for Finchley Road, London. Again, no such company is listed under directory enquiries.

The correct address is buried deep within the T&C agreement, and it turns out the company is indeed based in Cheriton, Kent, but as JAK Productions.

Despite repeated phone calls and emails to Redhotant director Bob Garrioch requesting some comment on the situation, all our attempts proved fruitless.

—End