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Innovation

Unmetered ISP dragged into court

IGClick could face criminal investigation for alleged shoddy service and misleading sales pitch
Written by Jane Wakefield, Contributor

Criticism of unmetered ISP IGClick mounted Tuesday as it emerged the ISP is under investigation from the Trading Standards and is about to be taken to court by a group of angry users.

There are a lot of complaints about the ISP ranging from generally bad customer service, random termination of accounts, u-turns on the original service offerings, cut-offs after 30 minutes online and jammed lines. The service provider appears to be the latest in a string that have let down customers and struggled to maintain decent service levels.

One of IGClick's users, Mike Ashworth, has reached breaking point and is now heading a group of around 15 other frustrated customers determined to take the ISP to court. "When people originally joined they were sold it as a 24/7 unlimited Internet access service. Now IGClick has amended its Website to make it sound like it wasn't the service actually sold to us," he says.

Ashworth was one of the customers who found their account terminated without warning last Friday. "I was told I was in breach of its terms and conditions but I have read them and I am not in breach. In fact it is IGClick that is in breach of its own contract for not giving me seven days' notice."

As a consequence Ashworth is pursuing the case in the small claims court and will demand a refund of the £80 he originally paid for the service. He is in no doubt that the criticism of the ISP stems from a change in management. "It is only in the last two months that it has become atrocious. Since manager Kieran Butcher left they do not care about their customers. In fact they seek to alienate customers."

Bexley Trading Standards Office confirmed it is currently investigating IGClick. It would not release details but did not rule out a criminal investigation. IGClick admits it met with Trading Standards but does not think it will pursue an investigation. "That is not the impression I was given," says an IGClick spokesman.

The spokesman for IGClick also denies that anyone has been thrown off the service unfairly. "The people concerned are excessively busy users and they have a very cheap form of Internet access and have been removed for a variety of reasons," he said. These include using the service to run a business, causing offence or anxiety to other Internet users or generally abusing the system. Around 60 customers have had their service terminated according to the spokesman.

He does admit that in hindsight it may have been unwise to advertise the service as a limitless 24/7 service. "Our interpretation is that you can access it 24 hours a day not sit on it for 24 hours a day but it is open to interpretation and that is why we have changed it," he said.

He is generally happy about service levels in the company, claiming the majority of IGClick customers are happy. "As far as we are concerned we have been as fair and reasonable as we could have been," he said.

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