25% Increase In Line Rental?

[House]

Ahhh nothing like dragging a thread back up

 

I did manage to register online for MT's SUPER NEW MODERN PAPERLESS BILLING SYSTEMS once they fixed the site - only to be told that I would be sent a good old-fashioned paper letter in due course letting me know what my username was.......

 

Over a week later the letter did in fact turn up (I'd forgotten I'd even registered by then), so I excitedly* logged into the new online systems for the first time.

 

(* I hadn't cracked a stiffy or anything, so not that excited.)

 

First impressions were that the site looks EXACTLY like their old online billing system, which I last used about three years ago and which never worked properly anyway (to the extent that I eventually gave up trying to pay online and just rang them up instead).

 

However, being a bit of a Luddite myself it didn't really bother me that their online billing system design appears to be trenched in the late 1980s, so I then set about entering the world of consolidated phone accounts, whereby you can merge your landline and mobile(s) into one account and get free calls between all of them into the bargain. (We have a landline and two mobiles with MT, so it would be quite handy.)

 

You can imagine my slightly 'what the fuck?' state of bemusement when after clicking around several unhelpfully labelled links, I got to the page where you can merge all your various accounts into one new super-account, and was invited to.......

 

How do I order Groups Call Free?

 

Groups Call Free is easy to order

 

* Call Manx Telecom Sales on 624624 option 2 and request the Account Convergence Forms

* Visit Manx Telecom's shops and pick up the forms

* Download the forms below

 

I took the (cough) easiest option and downloaded the forms, and was confronted by two utterly counter-intuitive abominations. (They're attached to this post.)

 

Upon calling MT to be given some kind of a clue as to which account(s) was 'ceasing' and which was 'gaining', the nice lady readily conceded that the forms are a stupid pile of shit and that they've been getting a lot of hassle about them. (Nearly three weeks later however, they still have the same forms on their site.)

 

So then, I got them filled in (the utter fuck-wittery of making you enter 90% of the same details on two different forms that are designed between them to achieve one goal is really quite astounding), and dropped into the MT shop the next day to hand them in, whereby the final act of true farce was perpetrated upon me when the woman gave me a prepaid envelope to post the form to Manx Telecom...... from the Manx Telecom shop.

 

I was past surprise at this point, so simply accepted the envelope with a resigned shrug, popped my forms into it, and posted them off.

 

Needless to say, a week later and I still haven't heard anything from them. I am refusing to pay my latest phone bill by traditional methods as a conscientious objector to Manx Telecom's crapness. They either get my online account sorted out, or they don't get paid.

 

THE FUTURE IS HERE!

GSC6189_consumer_convergence_form_gaining_party.pdf

GSC6190_consumer_convergence_form_ceasing_party.pdf

[Bobbie Bobster]

Upon calling MT to be given some kind of a clue as to which account(s) was 'ceasing' and which was 'gaining', the nice lady readily conceded that the forms are a stupid pile of shit and that they've been getting a lot of hassle about them. (Nearly three weeks later however, they still have the same forms on their site.)

 

So then, I got them filled in (the utter fuck-wittery of making you enter 90% of the same details on two different forms that are designed between them to achieve one goal is really quite astounding), and dropped into the MT shop the next day to hand them in...

 

"Data Protection" issues allegedly. Covers a multitude of sins.

[Bombay Bad Boy]

Did anyone notice an upswing in MT's mobile service when they got some competition from C&W? Who knows what might happen.

[House]

Upon calling MT to be given some kind of a clue as to which account(s) was 'ceasing' and which was 'gaining', the nice lady readily conceded that the forms are a stupid pile of shit and that they've been getting a lot of hassle about them. (Nearly three weeks later however, they still have the same forms on their site.)

 

So then, I got them filled in (the utter fuck-wittery of making you enter 90% of the same details on two different forms that are designed between them to achieve one goal is really quite astounding), and dropped into the MT shop the next day to hand them in...

 

"Data Protection" issues allegedly. Covers a multitude of sins.

 

They could at least try to be slightly helpful though.

 

A friend of mine dropped in at the shop (as invited to by the website) to pick up the convergence forms, and asked if she could fill them in whilst she was there with a bit of help from them. The woman in the shop told her no, and sent her on her way with two forms and a prepaid envelope. (I helped her fill them in later, as I'd already gone through the convoluted mess of a process myself.)

 

That's one person who won't be renewing her mobile contract with MT, and who will switch landline provider at the first opportunity as well......

 

I don't buy this whole data protection lark a lot of the time, it seems to be an excuse for all kind of red-tape crappery and making the customer do the legwork.

 

Maybe we have super-tough laws here on the IOM or something, but I regularly deal with all manner of institutions in the UK and those based on the IOM as well, often transactions involving fairly hefty wedges of cash - and I've never had to jump through as many hoops as MT seem to require just to get a bloody phone bill sorted out.