On my advice, neighbours who were still surfing the Internet using dial-up, have chosen for Dommel as provider. On what I read on their site and what I heard from colleagues and friends, they’re the best choice and the cheapest for what you get.
So we registered, we signed the papers, we payed for the first month (20 euro activation + 29 euro for the first month). And then we waited… And waited… and waited even more. Until we were tired of waiting for about a month and still no ADSL was available on their phone line. I mailed back at Dommel, but got no responses. Just an auto-generated response telling they got my e-mail and have made a support ticket for it. After even more waiting, we got a second pro-forma invoice, which was required to be payed within 3 weeks, or the Internet account would be terminated
At that point, I first made a call to their (really expensive) 24/7 support line. I waited three minutes. Nobody picked up – except of course the computer which caused the line to be open so that it could be billed on my neighbours account. I dropped the call and I sent a somewhat spicy mail to all the e-mail addresses I could find, asking what they were doing and we were absolutely not going to pay this second invoice.
The next day, I finally got a human response, telling they got the signed contract and they would start the activation of the ADSL signal on the phone line. Great. They also assured we didn’t have to pay for the time waiting on the ADSL signal.
After waiting even more, 32 days after the payment, the ADSL signal was finally active. I sent an e-mail to Dommel, telling everything worked fine, but asking what to do with the second invoice. Since we already payed for one month Internet and we didn’t get it, we assume the payment is for February and thus we’re not planning to pay the second invoice.
No response came, but two days later we got a first payment reminder. If we wouldn’t pay the open invoice, the Internet account would be terminated. It only exists for two days!. I sent a mail back asking what they were up to. No answer came.
Four days later, I resent the mail to all the addresses I know. Now I got a new support ticket (actually, I got two) in an automatic e-mail, telling they would respond within 5 working days.
Two days later – today – I received a second reminder to pay the invoice. This is the point where even I loose my patience. I resent the mail from two days ago, two times (one for each support ticket) to all e-mail addresses I know. Secondly, I did the same as reply on the second payment reminder, for both support tickets, again to all e-mail addresses I know.
Given that I know 3 e-mail addresses for Dommel, this results in 12 e-mails I sent today + one telling “you’re joking, right?” as direct answer on the second payment reminder.
I also told them I am going to sent a new e-mail every day, until they finally decide to answer me. Until then, I suggest my neighbours not to pay.
Belgacom ADSL is more expensive, but I doubt they cause so much troubles. I was thinking of switching to Dommel myself, but given this knowledge, I stick with Telenet, not that much troubles so far…