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“Don't trust Demon promises about transfer to loyalty...”

written by on 31/03/2013

We'd been with Demon 16 years, with a lot of problems, but we didn't change as we didn't think we would get better service with others and we wanted to keep our email address. But recently a new company laid new cables that improve our download speed from 0.78mbs to 10mbs (we live in a rural area)and the deal is using them as our ISP. So we had to break from Demon as ISP. But I enquired about keeping the email address.

Them: Yes, no problem, for a small charge but we won't tell you what it is till you request the Mac code.
Me: So we'll be able to continue getting our mail using the demon address?
Them: yes, no break in service, or if there is, only very short.

So we decide to go with that. Upshot:

It's called 'dialup loyalty'. They charge five pounds ten pence per month. Steep when so many email accounts are free or less than a fiver a year, but I requested the change.

They then said: 48 hours of down time on the account, when mails will be bounced back to sender and lost.

Okay, I say wearily, just do it.

ONE WEEK LATER and several phone calls, we still don't have email coming through. Each time I talk to someone it's the same: "oh, it'll take 48 hours to reset the account for the new arrangement..." (48 hours??? how hard can it be?) "...but I'll escalate the request to urgent".

That is, 48 hours from when I speak to them. Every time. So nothing is happening.

This really is the cherry on the icing on the cake. Demon has been nothing but trouble for the last 10 years (Demon used to be very good) and I really would not recommend you use them, or make this transfer to dialup loyalty, because the operators you talk to are underinformed, totally scripted and unable to do anything to help, and the company is not geared up to actually helping customers. Is it just because we are leaving them and they don't care? Well that can't help of course, but we have had this kind of problem many times. Always sounding helpful and punting the problem away to someone else. We were once in a loop for ten weeks with no phone or internet because they kept punting the problem away when it was theirs to solve.

My advice? Ask your friends till you find an ISP or email provider that they recommend. Demon, I think, is not likely to feature. (And if you live in rural Wales and get less than 2mbs download speed, check out the opportunities for getting new cables laid using the Welsh Government schemes).