INTERNET
BT
Announce
Unlimited
Surfing
Fees
'BT
Surftime',
subject to
satisfactory
agreement
with
Oftel,
will be
available
from
Spring
next year
- and will
consist of
a range of
unlimited
usage
packages
for a
single
monthly
fee. They
will be
aimed at
both heavy
and
infrequent
users of
the
Internet.
Customers
of
Internet
Service
Providers
(ISPs)
offering
subscription-based
and/or
'pay-as-you-go'
free
access
services
will be
able to
choose the
pricing
package
that best
suits
their
surfing
needs.
Designed
to expand
the market
overall -
now
growing at
more than
100 per
cent a
year - the
BT
Surftime
options
will be:
Weekend
Internet
option - a
£6.99 per
month
charge for
unlimited
access at
the
weekend
plus any
applicable
ISP
subscription
charge. On
weekdays,
customers
will be
charged at
only one
penny per
minute
evening
and
night-time
and two
pence per
minute
during the
day.
Evening
and
night-time
Internet
option - a
£6.99 per
month
charge for
unlimited
access
during the
evening
and
night-time,
Monday to
Friday,
plus any
applicable
ISP
subscription
charge. At
weekends,
customers
will be
charged at
only one
penny per
minute and
two pence
per minute
on
weekdays.
Daytime
Internet
option - a
£26.99 per
month
charge for
unlimited
access
during the
day,
Monday to
Friday,
plus any
applicable
ISP
subscription
charge.
Outside
this
period
customers
will be
charged at
only one
penny per
minute.
Anytime
Internet
option - a
£34.99 per
month
charge for
unlimited
access at
anytime,
day,
evening
and
night-time,
and
weekends,
plus any
applicable
ISP
subscription
charge.
'Pay-as-you-go'
Internet
option -
Internet
calls
charge at
one penny
per minute
evening,
night-time
and
weekend as
well as
two pence
per minute
during the
day, plus
any
applicable
ISP
subscription
charge. In
addition,
ISP
charging a
monthly
fee can
bill BT
customers
through
their BT
account.
Source:
BT
CREDIT
CARDS
Credit
Card Rip
Off
A Sunday
Times (ST)
survey
estimates
interest
on credit
cards to
be
overcharged
by £2.5
billion -
"about £80
for each
of the 30m
cards that
are not
paid off
every
month."
They say,
"this
would make
credit
cards the
biggest
financial
rip-off in
the
financial
services
industry."
With a
possible
18
different
rates of
interest,
problems
arise from
manual
input of
credit
taken:interest
category,
that said,
the
lenders
computer
systems
are also
thought to
be at
fault.
The ST
also blew
the
whistle on
an
estimated
£4 billion
erroneous
bank
charges,
and £1
billion of
mortgage
interest
over-charging.
The ST are
to
continue
the
investigation
(which we
will
report).
Source:
Sunday
Times
(Ed: If
the
findings
of the ST
credit
card
survey are
correct, I
can see
myself
affording
a 15
day
luxury
holiday in
the
Bahamas on
the
refund.
What, you
too!)
MORTGAGE
Unfair
Penalties
Under
Review
The Sunday
Times also
report "at
least 14
of the
country's
biggest
banks and
building
societies
charge up
to a
month's
extra
interest
after a
homeowner
moves or
remortgages."
The
lenders
are
charging a
full
months
interest
regardless
of when
the old
mortgage
is
settled.
Someone
settling a
mortgage
on the 4th
December
will be
charged
interest
to the
31st
December:
being 27
days over
the period
that the
mortgage
was
repaid.
"The
practice
would cost
someone on
a £100,000
standard
variable
rate
mortgage
about
£520.
Northern
Rock say
that
prices
will go up
if they
stop the
practice
and
Bradford &
Bingley
it's an
'historical'
system,
that's now
under
review.
Source:
Sunday
Times
SURVEY
R.I.P.
E-Mail
Support
A new
report
from
Jupiter
Communications
finds that
despite
the
critical
need for
more
substantial
customer
support,
the number
of email
queries
being
answered
is
decreasing.
The survey
sent
customer
inquiries
to the top
125 web
sites in
the
retail,
travel,
content,
financial
services
and
consumer
brand
sectors
and found
that
customer
service
failure
rates are
higher
than last
year. Only
37 percent
of
companies
surveyed
have
integrated
three or
more
customer
service
channels
on their
web sites.
While half
of
shopping
sites
responded
within a
day and 40
percent of
travel
sites
responded
in one day
shopping
sites
demonstrated
a 40
percent
failure
rate, up
from 28
percent
last year
while
travel
sites had
a 48
percent
failure
rate up
from 38
percent.
Just under
half of
all web
sites
tested, 46
percent,
either did
not
respond
for five
days or
more, did
not
respond at
all or did
not have
contact
details on
their site
for
customer
queries.
In the
same
survey
last year,
this
figure was
38
percent.
According
to
Jupiter,
the most
frequently
trafficked
sites have
to process
upwards of
50,000
transactions
per day
and many
are
finding
that
fulfillment
of these
orders is
stretching
customer
service
resources.
As a
result,
online
marketers
need to
start
implementing
multi-channel
automated
strategies
to retain
existing
customers.
Source:
NUA Ltd
FIRST
TUESDAY
GROUP
The Bug
Could be a
Virus
Two
untouched
excerpts
from users
of the
First
Tuesday
Group
First
Tuesday
North
"We have
just
received a
warning
from an
anti-virus
specialist
(poacher
turned
gamekeeper
?) about
some
idiots in
Holland
who have
established
a
competition
for the
best Y2K
virus. The
prates
involved
have set
up "game
rules"
with the
only
requirement
being that
each entry
has to be
a virus/trojan
or
backdoor,
and
preferably
related to
the
Millennium
Bug or the
year 2000.
Quoting
(after
editing)
from the
(hackers)
site :
"The
viruses
that will
be sent
for the
Y2K
infection
feast
[sic] will
be sent
4-5 days
before the
release to
AV
companies.
The one
that gets
detected
last will
be the
winner.
Words fail
me. I'm
told there
are almost
50,000
viruses
floating
around the
world now.
It's a
real pain
that some
stupid
*****
***** is
going to
further
waste my
time over
Y2K, just
when I
don't need
the
hassle.
I'm sure
you don't
either.
What to
do? We're
disconnecting
our email
servers
from the
WWW and
setting up
an email
service on
a
standalone
PC. This
standalone
machine
will do
ALL email
downloads
from real
soon now
until well
after New
Year.
We'll keep
that
machine
loaded to
the
gunwales
with the
latest
anti-virus
software
and will
endeavor
to ensure
that any
virus
outbreaks
are thus
contained.
Remember
also that
the major
anti-virus
companies
have all
agreed to
provide
FREE
90-day
versions
of their
software
to cover
this
period.
"If loss
of
business
results in
any way,
directly
or
indirectly,
due to
Y2K,
whether
real or
not (and
don't
forget the
insurers
will claim
more is
due to Y2K
than is
not in
order to
claim the
validity
of their
disclaimers
for Y2K) ,
and
thoughts
change to
claiming
damage,
then it is
important
to ensure
you, your
customers
and
suppliers
do not
rush to
the courts
(that is
unless you
enjoy
throwing
loads of
money at
lawyers).
The best
way to
sleep easy
on that is
to
immediately
exchange
mutual
letters of
commitment
with
suppliers
and major
customers
(and with
the public
through
additions
to your on
site Terms
&
Conditions)
SHORT BITS
Hmmm
That's
Interesting
(or
Worrying)
A recent
survey
conducted
by
Cranfield
School of
Management
in
conjunction
with
Microsoft
finds that
73 percent
of British
executives
do not
believe
technology
is
strategic
to the
growth of
their
business
(God help
us!).
The
Chancellor,
Gordon
Brown, is
considering
a tax, VAT
and
National
Insurance
amnesty
for
"informal
economy"
workers
(black-economy)
who come
forward.
Those that
do not
come clean
will be
positively
targeted -
for the
first
time.
TOPIC
Part 2. An
Overview
of Credit
Control
The Topic
concentrates
on payment
and
debtors,
as opposed
