Broadband News Item

Whatever the advantage to shareholders and the new board of Biscit/V21, ordinary loyal former V21 broadband customers have been dragged through the mud by this acquisition. The service is 'down' more often than it is 'up' and there is never any adequate expanation given by clicking on SYSTEM STATUS button. I could not recommend the new V21/Biscit ISP to anyone on the strength of the performance we disgruntled customers have had to put up with for the past week or more! Biscit has bitten the V21 bullet - and swallowed it. I hope it chokes on it...Cobber

To be fair, this is probably good news for V21 customers, and this may well improve the services for V21 users finally. Isn't it about time that V21 was rescued by a better company?

Perhaps cobber should not be so hasty to prematurely judge this, after all it can only get better.

As a V21 customer I understand that changes are occurring and that this takes time.
There is no excuse however for the extended failure of service which is currently occurring.
The first priority MUST be to keep the hardware working....

their goal is to provide V21's customers with the products that will take pounds out of their bank accounts if they try to leave biscit.


Term and Termination

6.2 The Customer may terminate this Agreement after the Minimum Term by giving Biscit not less than thirty (30) days' written notice. A Cancellation Request Form will need to be completed and returned to Biscit. A copy of the form can be obtained here

6.6.2 If a New Residential Customer wishes to discontinue the service, they should complete the Cancellation Request Form described in 6.2 above and send it to Biscit with a termination fee of £70 (including VAT). On receipt of cleared funds, the termination will be deemed to have taken place at the next invoice date. If the Residential Customer requires a Migration Authorisation Code ("MAC¨) then an administration fee of £35 (including VAT) will apply, payable with the termination fee.

up date

6. Term and Termination

6.1 This Agreement will commence on the Commencement Date of the Current Service and shall continue for a minimum period of 12 months, or 18 months in relation to the freeMAX product, after which time the Agreement will automatically run on a monthly basis, subject to the provisions of this Clause 6 ("the Term"). Cancellation of this agreement may be terminated by giving at least 96 working hours notice prior to the Commencement Date, after which you must pay for the "Minimum period" (Clause 1.21) plus the termination fee of £75 + VAT.

6.2 The Customer may terminate this Agreement after the Minimum Term by giving Biscit not less than thirty (30) days' written notice. A Cancellation Request Form will need to be completed and returned to Biscit. A copy of the form can be obtained here

6.3 Biscit may terminate this Agreement immediately upon written notice to The Customer if:

6.3.1 it becomes unlawful for Biscit or the Carrier supporting the Service to continue to provide the Service or the Carrier supporting the Service is required to cease the Service by a competent regulatory authority; or

6.3.2 the Carrier supporting the Service ceases to do so for whatever reason or changes the terms its provision of telecommunications services to Biscit for the Service beyond the reasonable control of Biscit.

6.3.3 The Customer (or a third party acting on the Customer behalf or instruction) fails to comply with any of the material terms or conditions of the Agreement including the Customer obligation to pay and The Customer do not remedy such failure within 15 days of a request to do so; or

6.3.4 The Customer takes (or causes or permits a third party to take) any action in breach of Biscit's rights to the Confidential Information.

6.4 The provisions of this Agreement regarding Restricted Information and limitation of liability shall survive the termination of the Agreement.

6.5 Upon term

I strongly advise anyone who currently has a v21 account, either broadband or dial-up to look very, very carefully at their bank statements, this is what to look for. Subscriptions being taken out at irregular intervals, two or more subscriptions being taken in one month. I have had three take in the month of October!!!!

I got caught, I know and I am finding it almost impossible to contact their customer service team particularly since they have closed down the on-line, secure members control panel.

They are theiving barstools!

3 months I have tried to get a MAC code, and still waiting - they claim they "cannot get them..." even though they are re-issued monthly - shocking behaviour... oh and that's when you finally get through to a customer services rep...

They never return voicemails/email/fax (oh that number never connects by the way) - I am appaled at the lack of service...

Oh and if you want to go to OFFCOM about them - yep their "service" is purely voluntary, so the ISP doesn't have to comply...

As to the change in the terms and conditions - they have to get agreement of both parties to any changes to contract - they cannot get more money than V21 would have charged to cancel.

I hope the barstools find ALL their customers leave due to lack of service! HATE THEM!

I WAS WITH V21 FOR ALMOST 5 YEARS INC THEIR DIAL UP SERVICE AND HAD VERY FEW PROBLEMS ALONG COMES BISCIT AND LO AND BEHOLD NO SERVIEC AND NO SUPPORT.
THEY WILL NOT RECIEVE ONE PENNY FROM ME ONCE THE NOVEMBER DD IS CLEARED. I AM SEEKING LEGAL ADVICE WITH A VIEW TO SUEING THE BISCIT BOARD FOR THIER BREACH OF CONTRACT BY NOT SUPPLYING THE PAYED FOR SERVICE.IF ALL THE BADLY TREATED FORMER V21 CLIENTS DO THE THE SAME MAYBE THE ROBBING BA####DS
CAN BE HELD TO ACCOUNT.
I WISH EVERYONE WITH THE FORMER V21 ALL THE BEST AND HOPE THAT BETWEEN US WE CAN PUT PRESSURE ON THE THE ROBBING DIRECTORS OF BISCIT.

I too have been waiting for my MAC code to be supplied since 19 September, when I was charged £30 for the privilege. As other members say, I have been promised a call-back every single day for the last 2 weeks and no-one has yet rung me. They have tried to persuade me to stay with Biscit and when I said no then I think I have probably been put on an "Ignore" list. Their Technical Services helpline is a joke, as to date I have never been dealt with by anyone with any technical knowledge - they just say some-one will call you back! And well know the result of that - nothing!

Biscit shoud go bust,
as the level of service is a joke

Ah well V21/Biscit are no more. Shutdown as of today.Luckily no money has been taken from me for this month-YET.
Problem is I have to wait aprox two weeks before I can get another ISP,unless anyone knows different.
It's back to good old dial up for now.

Ah well V21/Biscit are no more. Shutdown as of today.Luckily no money has been taken from me for this month-YET.
Problem is I have to wait aprox two weeks before I can get another ISP,unless anyone knows different.
It's back to good old dial up for now.

Well, I did nothing when the Biscit email came through and boy am I now sorry.

Today my service got cut and I was offered two options
- take up NetServices alternative service (12 month contract, more money paid, not the same service deal)
- wait for disconnection and reconnection with a company of my choice (earliest date for broadband back on at 22nd December)

No MAC codes offered, no ’same service interim’ deal.

Otelo toothless, Ofcom unable to help, Watchdog unavailable, BT unable to sort reconnection sooner.

So signed the contract for alternate service as felt i had no option. Now my broadband is back on I see that V21 are urging people that MAC codes are available and to migrate to them…

So who’s lied to me? Why was I forced into a contract or a six week wait?

AAGGH!!

Why did I leave it so long to check my statements?? V21 had a sneeky habit of taking payments twice in one month and they got me for four months in the last year!!! Now I fully understand the meaning of 'you pay peanuts, you get monkeys'. I will definately be signing up with one of the big, established ISPs for the security & accountability they provide and will happily pay extra. After all, I have actually been paying 33.3% more than I thought I was paying anyway.

I was promised a "free" dial up to compensate for my loss of broadband. I now have a phone bill with £78 of charges related to this. Ha bloody ha !!

They talk of giving me a voucher when they have won their court case. Well I've had enough. I am demanding my phone charges and will sue if they refuse.

I agree I enjoyed years of trouble free service from V21 but smelled trouble the moment the takeover went through.

V21 has been overcharging the customers by irregular direct debiting. Customers must check their statement. It is disgraceful that bank cannot stop such direct debit despite a written request. A class action is required by all customers who are owed the over payment.

mulpiple subscription extractions from account ,i am conituously being charged twice a month subscribtion , now v21 give escuses when trying to contact them,person not being available no messages passed on or no returned calls,this is deceit. i would not recommend them to anyone its their lose in the end.

Hugh Paterson may think the merge fits perfectly with forward strategy but regrettably v21 have been left left high and dry for several weeks with no consideration whatsoever, i like numerous people have been left unable to receive emails and yet they seem to get a kick out of putting messages on their system status assuring v21 customers that all is well and good, a sad day for v21 customers when the merge happened and we have'nt moved on since

I have been a loyal customer of V21 for 2 years but since they have been taken over by biscit they have really gone downhill. I have never managed to re connect my broadband after their problems, their technical help on their website never reply and the helpline are useless even a letter to the CEO of biscit didn't get a reply! I'm changing as soon as I can get a mac code.

Mid October 06, about a month before my broadband was cut due to the V21/Netservices saga, I signed up to Biscit's FreeMaxHome £19.99/month package.
Although I recieved no emails to inform me, it went live on 26th October 06 as my previous Telco, OneTel had refunded me line rental back to 26 Oct.
My V21 broadband continued to work until mid November as above.
After my broadband disappeared I spent ages trying to contact Biscit both by email and their 0870 Customer Services. Emails disappeared down the pan - no bounces but no replies and phone calls just resulted in me being put on hold for up to an hour at a time (0870 = 10p/Min - a nice income for Biscit) and then either getting cut off or transferred to an answermachine. Needless to say, no messages I left were ever replied to.
In desperation I sent several emails to cancel my service backed up with a snailmail letter to their accounts dept. Never heard a thing.
Signed up to TalkTalk who's package 3 phone service started on 5th December with my Broadband a month later due to a Tag problem on my line left over from this lot. But I can only praise the Talk Talk customer service. They were very helpful at every stage and kept me informed of problmes and who to go to to sort them.
I'm now very happy indeed with my Talk Talk phone service and Broadband.
You can imagine my shock when I got an email last Thursday from Biscit (having heard nothing from them since last October) with a bill for FreeMaxHome from 26 October - 26 Feb 07 (4 x £19.99 + 23.99 setup charge).
True, I owe them for one month plus the setup as I was set up on their system until my broadband disappeared and then Talk Talk took over my line rental from 4th December 06, but not after this.

I've written to them with copies of my last OneTel bill and my Talk Talk bill to prove dates and I wait with interest to see what happens.
I did try to phone Customer Services again last Thursday morning as soon as the email arrived but

i was double charged in november, then suffered with the netservice problem. I immediately cancelled my bank card as i could'nt cancel the direct debit because it was on my card and not my account. Ive not been able to get any answers to emails or get through via the phone. still waiting for my phone line to be cleared so i can get another service provider. no internet for two months unless i use works pc. V21/Biscit are now possible the worst theiving b***ards going yet no one seems to be able to help. Anyone thinking of signing to them sould avoid at all costs.

Well done to cobber on the first comment posted, can tell the future i guess. I have a small issue with V21, if anyone can help it would be much appriciated. Basically in August i upgraded my ADSL to 1mbps with V21 and I think I entered a new year contract. I haven't contacted them yet, basically cause it is not possible (you know wot their queues are like), so i guessed it would be easier to ask a community of users, does my upgrade mean i am stuck with them until next august and wot is the best way to get out of V21 without having to pay too much money? my email is matt@ukpeople.com. thanks