OpenWeb and Cancellations: Not Invented Here

I have some negative feedback for OpenWeb.

I decided to move back to the Afrihost side of the water now that the Cape Town IPC is up and running. After playing with an Afrihost account for a few days I decided I could go ahead and cancel with OpenWeb.

First I logged in and tried to find a means of cancelling my account via the online control panel. Nothing. Not Invented Here.

Next I went to the Contacts page. No direct mention of a Cancellations method so I emailed [email protected]. The response was:

Hello,

I appreciate your email!

We require one (1) calendar month’s notice.

To confirm the cancellation, and for your cancellation reference number, please email your request to [email protected]

We will beat any price you have been quoted by any of our competitors! Reply to this mail to take us up on the offer.

If there is anything we can do to keep you as an OpenWeb client, let us know!

Kind regards,
OpenWeb Administrator

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So I emailed this unlisted [email protected] address and received a single reply:

Cancellations Department, Mar 06 21:33 (EET):
Your account will expire at the end of April 2013 as per the calendar months cancellation notice period required.

OpenWeb Cancellations Department

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This made me a bit mad!

Why?

I'm being billed by credit card. This was my response to the above message:

That is rather unsatisfactory as I my account is renewed via credit card.

Other ISPs I have used allowed me to cancel with 20 days notice (Debit Order) or effective at the end of the month (Credit Card).

Since I have already made the move to another ISP I find it unsatisfactory that you intend to bill me for a further month as there is no technical impediment to the cancellation of credit card billing sooner than the period you have outlined.

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I received no response to this message and so the next morning I tried ringing the support line. Unsurprisingly, they told me they are unable to place me through to cancellations as they do not have their number.

So I logged in to the ticketing system and asked once more:

Hi, I'd like some actual feedback on this.

What possible reason could you have for not being able to end my service at the end of this month given that I am being billed via credit card?

I understand the 30-day notice period in the context of a debit order payment as I realise that it takes a certain period of working days for the bank to process the cancellation of a debit order.

However, the same is not true of a credit card auto-billing in my experience with multiple services that I have paid for in said fashion and then cancelled at some point. Not one of the services I have ever paid for via credit card autobilling has disallowed me from termination effective at the end of the current monthly period.

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I have yet receive a response from the cancellations department.

It's not one single thing that has made me angry with regards to this, it's a combination of things.

• Not allowing your customers to easily discontinue their service in this day and age is obstructive.
• Not providing a direct means of contacting the cancellations department on the website or via phone is obfuscation.
• Not responding to reasonable queries is rude.
• Not allowing customers being billed via credit card to cancel effective at the end of the current month is ridiculous.

I would love to hear from OpenWeb on this matter, but it seems they don't give enough of a damn to respond to me.

In this context I find it hard to recommend OpenWeb to anyone.

this has been covered over and over again in the existing openweb feedback thread. from what i have seen it boils down to the 30 days notice period you agreed to. no one gets released earlier by the looks of it.

Unfortunately the whole calendar month notice thing is fairly standard. I agree that it is unfair though.

Kindly refer to our Terms if Service, which I believe answers your query:

8.1 one (1) calendar months’ notice for all Users making use of debit/credit order payment facilities, given before the 25th day of the month before the last month for the provision of the Service (e.g. if the User wishes the Service to terminate at the end of April, notice of termination must be given
before 25 March). Users may not downgrade their ADSL account/s during the one (1) calendar months’ notice period. Where proper notice is given in time, OpenISP CC will issue, by email, a cancellation reference number. Only once a cancellation reference number has been issued will the User’s account be deemed to be cancelled.

OOPMan said:

I have some negative feedback for OpenWeb.

I decided to move back to the Afrihost side of the water now that the Cape Town IPC is up and running. After playing with an Afrihost account for a few days I decided I could go ahead and cancel with OpenWeb.

First I logged in and tried to find a means of cancelling my account via the online control panel. Nothing. Not Invented Here.

Next I went to the Contacts page. No direct mention of a Cancellations method so I emailed [email protected]. The response was:



So I emailed this unlisted [email protected] address and received a single reply:


This made me a bit mad!

Why?

I'm being billed by credit card. This was my response to the above message:


I received no response to this message and so the next morning I tried ringing the support line. Unsurprisingly, they told me they are unable to place me through to cancellations as they do not have their number.

So I logged in to the ticketing system and asked once more:


I have yet receive a response from the cancellations department.

It's not one single thing that has made me angry with regards to this, it's a combination of things.

• Not allowing your customers to easily discontinue their service in this day and age is obstructive.
• Not providing a direct means of contacting the cancellations department on the website or via phone is obfuscation.
• Not responding to reasonable queries is rude.
• Not allowing customers being billed via credit card to cancel effective at the end of the current month is ridiculous.

I would love to hear from OpenWeb on this matter, but it seems they don't give enough of a damn to respond to me.

In this context I find it hard to recommend OpenWeb to anyone.

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