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condoghost
regular
Reg'd: Mon
Posts: 66
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If you paid for it and then want a refund --- be prepared to provide them the first 14-digits of your credit card number for ONSPEED to process the refund.
How insecure is that !
Because 'your credit card details were encrypted when you made the secure online payment and we need them now in order to process the refund'.
Wow !
Onspeed works for some. It didn't for me. I bought it to see what it does when I'm on-the-road. It froze up 5-times in 5 minutes perhaps because I have settings other than just dial-up and it can't cope when switching between. Perhaps. It's absolutely of no benefit when traveling outside the UK. And perhaps that's why it froze up. Who knows. Don't care. Just wanted my money back. Some emails later and at my suggestion, the answer is (leaving us with no choice but) to issue a cheque. It will take 10-working-days to issue the cheque. At least that's a whole lot safer than me providing the first 14-digits of my credit card. Paranoid ? no - just you have absolutely no recourse should that be abused. No company of such repute should be asking for such information in that way.
There we go.
Have a look at the disclaimer on their emails --- it's a gas !
PLEASE NOTE ONSPEED IS NOT LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES, MALFUNCTION, OR LOSS OF DATA, CAUSED AS A RESULT OF FOLLOWING ADVICE ENCLOSED IN THIS EMAIL. ANY CHANGES SHOULD BE CARRIED OUT AT YOUR OWN RISK.
I particularly liked this part ...
The opinions expressed in this mail are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the company.
Now THAT's a beauteee !
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greysts
regular
Reg'd: Thu
Posts: 17943
Loc: Colchester
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You, me and everybody else in the world provides the first 14 digits of our credit cards every time we buy something on the net. In fact we provide all 16 digits and on top of that we give them the security code on the back. I presume you must have done the same when you actually paid for Onspeed in the first place. The only insecure part would be if they asked for your secuity code and/or pin number to make the refund. You were remarkably lucky that they agreed to a cheque refund anyway. The vast majority of companies will only refund using the same method as was used to make the original payment.
As to how good it is I don't know because I've never used it. I did complain to the Advertising Standards Authority last year about the random use of the phrase 'Broadband Speeds' in their advertising when it fact it is no such thing and my complaint was upheld. The technology of compressing web pages before you download is not particularly new but it has certain drawbacks and it sounds as if you've met them.
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Do you know that we're all in line for succession to the throne? Really?
Well, if forty-eight million, two hundred thousand, seven hundred and one people died I'd be Queen.
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Eddie50
new user
Reg'd: Sun
Posts: 2
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I too gave up on OnSpeed about 6 months ago as some web pages simply would not load. I was therefore surprised to see a charge on my Card account for OnSpeed for another year! I had not requested or authorised this. When I got in touch with them they claimed that they send emails to all customers before charging them - I had received nothing. They agreed to refund the charge if I sent them the Card number. With little alternative I sent the numbers and also added the following:
"I am afraid that your attitude of 'We send the emails and then after that it is not our problem' is clearly unsatisfactory. I trust that you have records that emails have been sent in all cases as I am sure that the authorities will require evidence to that effect. They will probably also want to know how much you 'make' from charging customers without any form of confirmation from them.
I know of no other company which operates in this manner. It is quite appalling that you charge your customers without any acknowledgement from them which indicates that they wish to purchase your service for another year. Although I have yet to hear back from Trading Standards I would be very surprised if it is legal to operate as you do. It is not sufficient to claim that, "We do not make any transactions without first notifying the customer." Minimum good business practice requires that you should not make any charge without the express permission of each customer.
I would be interested to learn what percentage of your customers wish to continue with your service beyond one year. Presumably, with your current method of operation, you do not know! I can quite see that it is financially advantageous to you to assume that customers wish to continue but it can hardly be considered as ethical!
As I stated in my previous email, I am ignoring the confidentiality clause which you include at the foot of your emails. Indeed, I am keeping a record of all our correspondence in order to pass it on to interested parties."
They neither refunded my money or replied to the email. When I contacted them through their live chat they claimed that they had not received it - there seems to be a pattern of conveniently disappearing emails!
They have now informed me that a refund has been made. I shall check my account carefully but wonder how many other OnSpeed customers have been charged without their knowledge.
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Madeline
regular
Reg'd: Wed
Posts: 14628
Loc: Wales
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I used OnSpeed for a little while, bit I couldn't get on with it at all so I uninstalled it. Fortunately, it had been provided free by my ISP, so I didn't have any problems like you did. It sounds as if it can be risky buying it if you have any dispute over their dodgy method of raising charges.
Madeline. 
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"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Lord Acton, 1887.
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Eddie50
new user
Reg'd: Sun
Posts: 2
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condoghost
The reason that I was given for having to supply my Credit Card numbers again was: 'We do hold your card details in our systems, but unfortunately these are not made available to the customer support team for privacy and security reasons.' - Nothing about the encryption excuse that you were given.
Is there something going on here?
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onspeed
new user
Reg'd: Tue
Posts: 1
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Hi there. I am from ONSPEED support and while I am not going to argue the topic as such, I'd simply like to bring some info to the foreground that hasn't been mentioned.
1) Yes, our advertising used to be a bit 'embellished' but this has been changed. And that change has been pushed through by customer support because we do actually listen to complaints, although we don't enjoy being target of those. But who does?
2) Yes, we renew automatically. This is held in our terms and conditions and every user has to acknowledge these not only during purchase but also during installation. So essentially everybody says YES to this twice before being able to use ONSPEED. I don't say that I like the practice of automatic renewals myself but we are also not the only company that does that.
3) Yes, we require the first 14 digits to be able to issue refunds. Card details are held encrypted in our system and we have no direct access to them. In fact, if we were to try to decrypt them we'd be waiting for quite a long time, I mean a very long time, for this to complete. As already mentioned in this thread, we are asking for 14 digits and no other detail, unless your expiry date has changed. If you are buying goods over the phone you have to give them your entire CV before they put it through, which is a lot less secure. We also do not encourage people to provide these digits in an email. We are available via phone and also encrypted live chat. So there are ways to get around insecure media. If a customer chooses to pay via PayPal then we also do not need these details because PayPal handle it differently.
4) Emails not received. This is something that happens to us as much as it happens to you. Why should we not be 'allowed' not to receive an email from you while you allow yourself the liberty of not receiving our renewal reminder emails? Unfortunately email is not 100% reliable but neither is Royal Mail. In fact, email is a lot more reliable than Royal Mail.
Anyway, just my two pence and I hope you understand that we aren't all evil.
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