The PhoneCooP.

[Jelly Bean]

I do a lot of work in the community at the local Drop In Centre which helps the community in many ways.My computer skills although I would say they are better skills hands on than me trying to do written help.

 

Lately my computer skills have been required more and more and free of charge to the local community.I will never be a millionairess at this rate.

 

We also have a community building called Project 104.Brian who runs Project 104 single handed as a volunteer called me to help him with his network issues two weeks ago.

 

He went from BT supplying his internet to the PhoneCoop.

 

This is were his issues started.

 

He has three computers,one cable connected to the Thomson wireless router and two which are supposed to connect via Belkin USB wireless adaptors.Now all was well and working excellent with BT wireless router then he connected the Thomson and no wirless connection.

 

Many many phone calls to The Phone CooP.Gareth the technician talking to Brian as if he was a child.I will add I also taked to Gareth there technician and he also spoke to me as if I was a child.

 

The amount of times the The Phone CooP told Brian THEY DO NOT SEND TECHNICIANS out to set up a router or to help fix any issues was unbelivable.They flatley refused to send a technician out.Now Brian being a patient man then called me in.

 

I set about trying every fix I could think of.I tried every command in ipconfig I could think of,no fix.I tried a winsox fix.I tried adding IPs and setting to auto IP and DNS.I logged onto the router settings and adjusted them,nothing worked so I reset the settings to default.

 

I found one computer infected so I formatted the two public wireless connected computers.I took the Belkin wireless adaptors away and tested them on other computers and one was broken and two were fine.

 

My netbook would not connect to that Thomson,Brains laptop would not connect,other laptops would not connect but they would connect to my wireless no problem,they connect to the Drop In Centres wireless no problem.

 

I managed to get the Belkins and windows to reconise and show a 54 mbp connection after all my effort IE said cannot display this page.

 

Gareth The Phone CooPs technician remote accessed the computer and as I watched him he did some of the exact same things as I had done days before.Guess what?Still no connection.

 

In Gareths opinion he said the issue is all the Belkin USB wireless adaptors are broken,which I know is untrue as two of them work and were used to connect to two other wireless networks with no issues at all.Or he said you have two many IPs trying to connect to the wireless network.WHAT?Mate we only trying to get two computers connected to your rubbish Thomson wireless router.

 

End of story I suppose,nothing will connect to the Thomson wireless router,not via USB wireless adaptor,nore wireless cards in laptops/netbooks.

 

So I ordered the cables and the hub,they arrived Saturday and I set the network up today within a few minutes and all computers online via cable.Brian pays for 8 meg BB and he gets just under 7 meg on all three computers.The local community can now surf for jobs and information about benefits and other information they wishh to find for free.

 

Moral of the story is The Phone CooP has terrible customer services,they DO NOT send technicians out if anything goes wrong,Gareth there emplyee is a very ignorant little man who thinks he can pull the wool over my eyes.They may have good internet speeds but there customer relations is very very poor.

 

I belive what Brian needs is for the Phone CooP to send out a new router and the wireless connection would be resolved,but they even refused to send him a new router.

 

Word of warning I would never have my internet from The Phone CooP after all this hassle Brian and myself had over the past two weeks.

 

Just having a rant,I dont need help with the network I tried every trick in the book.104 is up and running now and everyone is happy.

 

15 meters of ethernet cable.

2 x1 meter ethernet cable.

1 hub.

£20-30.

 

Bargain as the Jelly Bean knows how to shop.

[Plastic Nev]

Nice heads up JB about poor service from one of the many ISPs there are. I have a different and much happier story concerning the ISP I use, Supanet. They kindly rang me last week to inform me the contract would soon close and would I like to renew, all at the same rate, as I have been what the guy said a "Loyal customer" great news as their current offering for a new customer is a good few ££ more for the same service I have.

I mentioned I would soon be upgrading with a new computer and as I understood it the ADSL modem I was using will not work with Windows 7.

I was told that the router they could send would normally cost about £40. whereas again because I am a "Loyal customer" I can have it for £20. (they only ship them out free to new customers, it is covered by the signing on fee!!)

So the new router turned up yesterday, and I spent a few minutes connecting it, it does have wireless but I am not using it as the cables and router are all together, with my laptop by the side of the desktop, wireless seemed a bit daft. I now have my laptop networked to the desktop, can have both on line at once, and of course transfer different bits and files between the two a lot easier than with the old pen drive.

[Jelly Bean]

I was having a bit of a polite rant.

 

I am disgusted at there attitude,we dont send technicians out.

 

Shame as now they have a network hub and the computers are cable connected.Project 104 has offices that are rented out and now those using them cannot connect there laptops to wireless it has to be cable.

 

What we need is a new router.But no they will not send out a new one.

 

The problems will arise soon as I have to run a new eBay account from Project 104 building.This account will serve the whole of Swansea to sell there goods.We then as a charity take a few pounds from the sale wich inturn this money made will serve for projects in the community.

 

But now we have no wireless connection and our soon to be office is far enough away from the router,I see a very very long cable being fitted by me.

 

I think they should go back to BT or another providor.