I use the broadband ISP Amcom here in Western Australia for my fast broadband needs. They are one of the only providers which have their own DSLAMS in the local telephone exchanges, most of the rest of the ISPs are at Telstra's mercy. I have always found the Amcom connection to be fairly fast and reliable, unlike my experience with iiNet where disconnections seemed to be an almost daily occurance. My main problem with Amcom is their administration department and their billing department and their technical support department...

So when I decided to look around for another ISP before moving into a new house I came back to Amcom. Their price for an 8mbit connection is probably the best around, they don't force you to bundle some stupid phone package like iiNet but they do require a 12 month contract or a $99 disconnection fee.

During the winter I had requested Amcom reduce my plan to a lower fee and quota as I was away in the UK for some months. They failed to do this and in fact denied any knowledge of any of my emails, despite being allocated case numbers by their automated system. So when moved out of my flat I filled in the necessary disconnection form. Amcom promptly phoned, hoping to keep me as a client and I explained why I was annoyed with their service and why I wanted to go with someone else. After some discussion they offered to reduce my final bill by the amount of money I should have been saving by being on the lower tarif all these months as long as I got a new connection with them at my new house. I agreed, mostly because their plans are the best and in my opinion only option, and set up the transfer forms.

I moved in to my new house, paid my Amcom bill and everything was good for a couple of weeks. Nice fast broadband, a reliable connection. Then I suddenly got disconnected. I phoned technical support. "It appears you haven't paid your bill sir". What bill? It's an outstanding amount of $14 that they hadn't even sent me and for this they decided to suspend my account! Its this kind of problems that piss me off and made me want to go with someone else.

Ok, got that sorted and another couple of weeks pass. Next thing I know I've been disconnected again. This time its because I've supposedly put in a cancellation request to permanently close my account! What had actually happened is that some idiot in admin had decided, a month a half later, that the cancellation request on the ADSL connection from my previous address was in fact a current request to cancel my new connection, despite my having just paid $198 to get it set up! How stupid are these people? Four days of calls to tech support and someone called me back with a half assed explanation and no offer of any kind of financial recompense for my lost time and energy sorting this problem out.

Now I have to wait for a brand new connection, usually around 5-10 working days, but over this Christmas period that means a lot more. Thanks Amcom, you guys really suck.

So if anyone reads this and is looking to connect up to Amcom, I say think about it first. Is the financial gain really worth the hassle? I hope this loses Amcom a few customers and costs them some time and hassle.