Square Mile

[bendyone]

Copy of email sent to me.
Dear User,

We are sorry to inform you that the Yacht Havens Group will stop offering Berth holders at Plymouth Yacht Haven the Square Mile Internet Access as of the beginning of next month.

Square Mile is still proud to be the largest marina Wi-Fi operator in Europe providing broadband Internet access in 54 UK marinas. This means your subscription to Square Mile will still continue to work in all these locations.

The Yacht Haven Group will be offering their own Wi-Fi network but this will not enable you to gain access at other Square Mile locations so we do hope you maintain your account with us.

We are sorry to loose Plymouth Yacht Haven as part of our network and hope that you will see the value of keeping your account.

Good job too hardly every worked!!

 

[Neraida]

Indeed. I'm thinking about a 3G card for my laptop. No download limits and the word about, is that T-Mobile's coverage is pretty good.

 

[sighmoon]

My experience of the 3g card (vodafone, but I think 3g network is shared by all providers) is that you don't actually get 3g in most coastal places, and if you do, it'll be a weak signal, and looses the connection when it looses the 3g network and switches to GPRS.

 

[JerryHawkins]

Not SquareMile\'s fault 90% of time!

It is unfortunate that SquareMile have got a bad name (at PYH at least) mainly due to the ridiculous location of the hardware. This, as you may or may not know, is just "tucked" under the desk on the floor in the corner of the office. Here it gets kicked by the feet of staff trying to use the computer on the desk above. I, personally, have "repaired" problems countless times over the last two years - mainly involving re-plugging in the power cable to either the ADSL router or the active antenna; or simp,y re-booting the router as it was "locked up. Certainly, SquareMile didn't do themselves any favours by not getting this moved to a more suitable location, despite many requests on my part.

I suspect the Yacht Havens see this as yet another source of income (they got nothing from the SquareMile deal). I have no raeson to believe that the replacement will be any more reliable unless they put kit in a dedicated enclosure where people can't just unplug it in order to charge up their mobile phone (yes - that was one of the "problems" I fixed!!). I'm sorry to see SquareMile go; now I will have to pay a Yacht Haven subscription AND a SquareMile one if I wish to use other marinas - YH and SM will not have a "roaming" agreement - wonder why!!

Jerry (happily SquareMile surfing at PYH - well most of the time, after I've fixed it!!!)

 

[rickp]

Re: Not SquareMile\'s fault 90% of time!

I'm not sure how you can claim that improper installation is not the fault of Square Mile? In reality, they tried to cover as many marinas as they could, as cheaply as possible so they could claim to be the biggest and attract investment (which they got via Dragon's Den). Now they're paying the price, with lots of complaints in Brighton amoungst others.

Rick

 

[JerryHawkins]

Agreed

Yes - agree with you on that point. When I say "not their falut" I meant that it was not a service configuration issue or a "line" issue or a DNS issue or a BT issue etc... I think the "bad name" (and complaints to PYH management) came from the £1 +VAT per minute support line which if you phoned would not be much help when all that was required was to plug the power back into the kit in the office. I never called this number as 90% of the time I fixed it. One thing SM did institute on my behest was a dailt "ping" test of the ADSL router - great, providing it was not the antenna power that was unplugged!

Yes - absolutely SM should have re-located the kit after my initial (and many subsequent) requests for them to do so. They have well and truly shot themselves in the foot. I just hope we, as berth holders and users of the sevice don't suffer a poor service from the new provider. I wan't a service that works, not just a "local rate" support number to call to complain. Time will tell - I'll keep my fingers crossed!

Jerry

 

[Brian_B]

I got that email. Here's my reply:

Nic

Thank goodness. I think the service you've supplied is nowhere short of atrocious.
I consider Square Mile to be nothing but a scam to make money out of poor punters and the line at the bottom of your email says it all
Square Mile Wi-Fi Technical Support: 0906 780 0440 Calls charges at £1 per minute + VAT

The sooner you go out of business the better.

Good riddance.

BB

 

[rickp]

Re: Agreed

And another piece of spam from SquareMile about CrewReunited. What an odius operation.

Rick

 

[PilotWolf]

We use it off the South Coast and coverage is varied from no signal a couple of miles off Selsey up to coverage 10+ miles off as we move further east.

It is possible to set (ours anyway) to either 3G or GPRS or both... but GPRS isn't included in our monthly rate so be careful as it gets expensive if you don't notice its swopped from 3G.

PW

 

[Oen]

Well, bendyone was lucky to get an e-mail.

I didn't; just found out that Premier were getting rid of SM as their service was so utterly appalling, and now I find myself with a letter from them threatening debt collectors, although other berth holders where I am were told that their subscriptions were void as the service was no longer on offer.

Anyone else facing this sort of unbelievably crass rubbish?

 

[yelbis]

i am based in brighton, same thing is happening, been threatened with debt collectors for £20 from square mile. Told them that the service was so crap i was unable to use it as were many others. they sid that they would not cancell my subscription until i paid. I mentioned to them that forum members and berth holders were going to collectively send them a bill for the money wasted. They have not responded.