Marina WiFi ................Spectrum

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Sandyman

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Would be interested to hear other peoples view and opinions on Spectrum Marina WiFi.

I signed up last week for a 3 month contract & have experienced nothing but problem after problem after problem. They do not return my requests for help & assistance.

Thanks
 
Been using them for months now, problem one day but was sorted out on help line within a few minutes. Wifi went off couple of weekends ago but back on the monday and blisteringly fast now :) HD doc who :)
 
I use Spectrum here at Brighton Marina, I think the fact that I'm very close (about 50 metres) to one of the aerials makes it better (have you tried a wifi booster aerial, can get one for about £7 on ebay?).

Negatives:
They do things without warning you first (changing the username from one you chose to your email address) and you only find out by calling them and asking why you can't log in. Service was particularly bad a while ago now for a good few weeks. I eventually had the engineer's phone number, dealt directly with him and spent a few hours wandering round the marina with him and my laptop trying to test/sort out problems. I feel I do complain to them quite a lot (use landline no. 01442 205500).

Positives:
Most of the time it's quite good, good enough usually to stream video (BBC iplayer usually works, youtube sometimes have to wait for stuff to load, TV Catchup I'd say 50/50). I got an extra 3 months free out of them for poor service. Sometimes the poor service isn't actually their fault, e.g. we had problems with the BT lines feeding the wifi routers. As there's no data limit it's much better value for a heavy user (I am as I use internet a lot and also to watch a bit of TV) than using a dongle, works out at £10/month if you pay for 12 months. It's not perfect but it's definitely the best option for now...
 
At Largs Marina (where it's free).
Variable. I note that they charge you a lot just to phone their helpline, so I don't. I sometimes have to use my Vodafone card to connect rather than the sometimes very slow speeds (maybe caused by people video streaming!!)
 
AllanJ said:
At Largs Marina (where it's free).
Variable. I note that they charge you a lot just to phone their helpline, so I don't. I sometimes have to use my Vodafone card to connect rather than the sometimes very slow speeds (maybe caused by people video streaming!!)
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I use landline no. 01442 205500 & ask to be put through to tech support if that's who you need, they don't like it but will do it, you may have to insist...:)
 
Robih said:
seconded. Just installed at Sutton Harbour in Plymouth. Very good service so far.

rob
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We use MDL's wifi in Penton Hook, cheap and works very well:) (I think they may have upgraded the aerials as reception lately has been very good). I think we can also use the wifi at any other MDL marina which is included in the flat rate:p.
 
Still no joy and no reply to my e-mails. Becoming clear they want me to phone them on their 0871 premium rate number ( I only have a mobile so no way)
Made contact with the marina office to see if others were having same problems. There IT peeps contacted Spectrum and lo & behold I get an e-mail from there customer peeps telling me that a service manager will contact me. Not holding my breath.
 
I had problem with logging on on monday, help line sorted it by reseting password in about a minute. Mobile is unlimited work one so don't know cost. Think it said 10p per minute for land line on the recorded message.
 
Sandyman said:
Would be interested to hear other peoples view and opinions on Spectrum Marina WiFi.
Click to expand...
dropped connections (at Gosport Marina), contract for elapsed time rather than useage (as per French net-a-bord) and the price.

Now use an Orange dongle which is cheaper, always works without interuption but has severe limitations such as 250mb (?) d/l limit per month and will only rarely have enough bandwidth to stream iplayer.
 
steve_clayton said:
Sandy,

the man in charge of their IT/Wifi services is Steve Ellis.

phone number: 01442 205 500

web contact info : http://www.spectruminteractive.co.uk/contact/contact_information/
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Tks for that Steve. Just annoys me that despite my e-mails they have done nothing and knowing I am having problems with there service they seem to expect me to contact them to sort it out. Peeps may just accept it being that way today, but I do not, as I am paying for a service & not getting it.

They wont be getting my business again that's for sure. Useless sods.
 
Sandyman said:
Tks for that Steve. Just annoys me that despite my e-mails they have done nothing and knowing I am having problems with there service they seem to expect me to contact them to sort it out. Peeps may just accept it being that way today, but I do not, as I am paying for a service & not getting it.

They wont be getting my business again that's for sure. Useless sods.
Click to expand...

Seriously you need to call them and hassle them, I know we shouldn't have to etc., but you won't get anywhere unless you do. When you do, you will get a refund or extra time (if you want it), get them to agree to send an engineer, etc...
 
Sandyman said:
Would be interested to hear other peoples view and opinions on Spectrum Marina WiFi.

I signed up last week for a 3 month contract & have experienced nothing but problem after problem after problem. They do not return my requests for help & assistance.

Thanks
Click to expand...
Using WiFi on yachts is seriously effected by where your laptop (or anntena extension) is positioned. If you are sitting in a lower cabin on a steel hulled yacht your signal strength will have obvious issues. An anntena booster may help, simply because it comes with a 2m cable and the ariel can be positioned higher up and out of the confines of the steel hull. I've also experienced issues when the boat nextdoor has a high cabin structure and it causes a signal shadow on our boat. Another issue that sometimes effects some marinas are the volume of other WiFi networks leaking out from nearby flats. Each one weakens the main signal you are trying to receive.

I'm on Spectrum, and happy with the support when I had to ask for it - though I did ring their call centre. Didn't know there was an email way for support. What email address were you using Sandyman?
 
I found them to be awful at St Katharine Docks in London. I paid for 3 months and probably got a week of service before it totally dropped.

I then bought a 3 usb dongle http://threestore.three.co.uk/broadband/

£15 per month for 5gb download or (what i eventually did) 2 year contract @ £15 per month with 15gb download. I'm a developer and work quite happily from my boat using this neat little dongle. Plus I'm not limited to the harbour you can find a nice little pub garden and check your emails while sipping a pint at the same time :D

Mind you I am in London so not sure how good the connection is elsewhere, but for £15 you can try it and return it if its no good for free within the first few weeks i believe.

I know someone else who is using a vodafone dongle with much less success than me.
 
I was thinking of using Spectrum at Brighton so I emailed them a week ago....... still no response!

I have a friend who works in Brighton Marina and confirmed "they are c**p, get a 3G dongle".
 
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