Internet Access

Click4Internet users angry after a week without Internet access

Customers of Click4Internet have voiced their anger at having gone seven days without Internet access with little explanation or apology from the company. A contrast to their previously good reputation.

Customers on the Isle of Wight first reported the failure on Thursday evening last week.

Many rely on the Internet not only for email and Web access, but also their VOIP telephone service.

“Appalling” lack of communication
Totland resident, Sarah Sims, told OnTheWight,

“It’s been a nightmare. I’ve now had to go to London to catch up properly as I work from home and use broadband constantly for my business.

“What appals me most is Click4Internet do not keep customers updated regularly enough – no updates on Twitter or Facebook. Just a pre-recorded message that is not updated often enough.

“They need to be far more savvy and on the ball with their customer care/services. It’s like living in the dark ages….yet this is cutting edge technology.”

Problems for Wightlink
WightlinkTV tweeted that they were without Internet access from Wednesday morning last week until lunchtime today (Thursday).

A spokesperson for Wightlink confirmed,

“The public WiFi connection on our Yarmouth to Lymington route is supplied by Click4Internet and has been affected.”

They confirmed the ticket office was unaffected.

Silence from Click4Internet
Current customers of Click4Internet tell us that they feel slightly abandoned, with information from the company being very limited. They say this is a stark contrast to the great suppport they’ve had previously.

We could not find any information on the Click4Internet Website about the problems and the last update on their Facebook page was October 2013.

OnTheWight understands that some customers have been reconnected, but some of those have since lost their connection again.

We called Click4Internet on Monday afternoon and were told that someone would call us back. We’ve not heard back from them since then.

Image: photosteve101 under CC BY 2.0

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liz Miller
5, March 2015 10:10 pm

this is the 4th time this year that the service has stopped working. All those you have spoken to are correct there has been no calls to say there is a problem, you call them and usually there is a recording. It is extremely annoying as it tells you that they have sorted out others and you are still waiting. I have an Internet phone as well… Read more »

Don Smith
5, March 2015 11:55 pm

Better click 4 WightFibre.

ThomasC
Reply to  Don Smith
5, March 2015 11:58 pm

Easy to say, but quite often the two company’s coverage is mutually exclusive, so customers don’t have a choice :-(

ThomasC
5, March 2015 11:57 pm

As a fall-back for people in the Yarmouth and surrounding areas it’s now possible to get good 3G speeds, so you can get yourself online at the cost of £15 for a pay as you go 3G dongle and £10 for 1Gig data top up, or £20 for 3Gig. My folks run a holiday business and it’s essential that they are able to answer email enquiries for… Read more »

Caconym
6, March 2015 7:17 am

a lot of Wight Fibre customers have been without Internet access in Newport for a week, now.

These are also customers on a Wiber service. Is there any connection between the two?

Joseph Kohlmaier
Reply to  Caconym
6, March 2015 10:13 am

Yes, WightFibre depends on Click4Internet: https://www.wightfibre.com/support/service-update/

Caconym
Reply to  Joseph Kohlmaier
6, March 2015 11:01 am

Criminal Activity? Interesting. Petty vandalism or cable theft (some muppet thinking they were ripping out copper)

I know a couple of people who rely on their Internet access for their business. Both have now ditched Wight Fibre for BT over this fiasco.

Oldie
6, March 2015 8:51 am

Is click4 your only option? I never realised. I have brilliant fast internet access in Ventnor using talk talk and brilliant fast internet access on the Island on my mobile using EE. If a text fails delivery to someone who is probably in an area of bad reception I alter my settings on the mobile to cellular and resend and they get it. Same when I want… Read more »

Joseph Kohlmaier
6, March 2015 9:14 am

I am design professional and work mainly in website design, and I belong to that substantial part of the IoW population who work from home and rely on the internet. When we moved into our new home, we decided not to have a BT line and choose a VoiP telephone setup, with Click4Internet as our provider. Like other people who have, and will comment on this post,… Read more »

Joseph Kohlmaier
Reply to  Joseph Kohlmaier
6, March 2015 9:27 am

https://twitter.com/click4internet – so, use it and encourage customers to follow you. And here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/click4internet/27489819130 – keep us updated.

davimel
Reply to  Joseph Kohlmaier
6, March 2015 12:23 pm

A very well thought out and informative post Joseph. Thank you for the information and suggestions which I hope other users will find helpful. A quick ‘whois’ search shows that the site is registered and hosted by GODADDY.COM, LLC and is registered on a 12 month basis which is a little unusual these days, or maybe I am behind the times (as an ex web designer). The… Read more »

Joseph Kohlmaier
Reply to  davimel
6, March 2015 12:34 pm

Thank you, Davimel. I feel a bit bad about the way I ended my comment, but essentially stand by everything else I say. I always thought C4I are worth supporting and will continue to do so; I hope that all this will help them move forward, and reconsider/re-invent themselves. They are a big, serious business, but stuck in some ways. Let’s see what happens next!

click4internet
Reply to  Joseph Kohlmaier
6, March 2015 1:47 pm

We have apologised to customers and continue to do everything possible to overcome issues and reinstate services. As a small local business we do not have rooms full of people to sit and talk on the phone and answer every call and respond to every message during an extreme emergency event like this. We have a choice – direct our resource towards answering calls and emails –… Read more »

Joseph Kohlmaier
Reply to  click4internet
6, March 2015 2:10 pm

Dear Click 4 Internet Team, It is reassuring, and also sad and upsetting to read all this. As you have seen in my post (and I am sure you will forgive me and the hundreds of other users for being angry and upset) I want to support local business and most of the advice I am giving is, I believe, sound. You don’t need to divert your… Read more »

click4internet
Reply to  Joseph Kohlmaier
6, March 2015 4:34 pm

Thank you for your advice which is noted. As I previously said, we have detected criminal cyber attacks that have affected our ability to communicate. This means that we are unable to access social media accounts at this time so that is not a communication tool open to us during this particular emergency. The vast majority of our customers are not able to access social media or… Read more »

Joseph Kohlmaier
Reply to  click4internet
6, March 2015 5:05 pm

Thank you for this. “Our basic website reflects that our focus is on investing in infrastructure and service rather than on looks, PR and image.” This is not, I can guarantee you, how the public perceive your website. You must see this. Having a good communication platform will bring you more business AND make your existing customers even happier than they are. It does not mean lying,… Read more »

Caconym
Reply to  click4internet
6, March 2015 2:46 pm

Would you care to explain exactly what happened to your service? You state your web and mail servers have been under attack (DDOS?), but I don’t see how this relates to the problems with your broadband infrastructure. I agree about BT. It was disgusting of the IWC to pick BT over local concerns like Yourselves and Wight Fibre, but, and it’s a big but, many people rely… Read more »

click4internet
Reply to  Caconym
6, March 2015 5:24 pm

Thank you for your comments. All our customers have our support line telephone number. It has always been our support policy that customer should phone support for assistance or information. Our support line message has been for days informing customers that we have a problem and that we are doing everything possible to fix it as soon as we can. I do not therefore think it is… Read more »

davimel
6, March 2015 10:02 am

Is there any connection (no pun intended) with the loss of mobile coverage with EE and 3 phones in the Ventnor/niton/Wroxall areas? We do seem to be experiencing a lot of outages at present but we are now at 3 days without signal and rumour has it we have no hope of solution before next Tuesday/Wednesday. Damned technology!

James
Reply to  davimel
6, March 2015 2:26 pm

No.

Joseph Kohlmaier
6, March 2015 10:14 am

Here is something everyone should read, coming from the WightFibre website: https://www.wightfibre.com/support/service-update/ “Suspected criminal activity is continuing to cause issues with some WightFibre customers on the Click4Internet network. The police have been called. Whilst awaiting police action, WightFibre with Click4Internet are taking action to mitigate these problems and we expect to have a resolution in the next few hours. Unfortunately, this will still leave a small number… Read more »

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