I don't know the address of the company, but the name is Localnet. I started doing business with them earlier this year and at first thought that they were great.

Then all of a sudden I started getting dropped connections pretty frequently I dealt with it until after a thunderstorm on June 17, 2007. I had one computer online when the lightening struck, which burned out the modem. Ok, that is understood. I was outside when the storm hit and wasn't able to get in fast enough to get the computer offline.

However, I have three computers in my house: an old one that was not being used at all, but is still sitting where it was unplugged, a brand new one that was the recipient of the strike and a laptop.

I plugged the laptop into the phone line that I had the fried computer plugged into and was able to connect to the Internet. The connection was immediately dropped. I tried again every few seconds with the same result. I called Localnet's technical support and they told me that they were not experiencing any problems and it was my phone line, so I called my local phone company. They sent a repairman out to check the lines and he found a minor problem so he fixed it.

I tried to connect to Localnet again and was immediately bumped off as so on as the connection was made. I called them again to find out what was up. Again, they blamed the phone company, so again, I called the phone company.

The repairman called me and we talked about what the issues were that I was having (he was very pleasant). He came out and completely switched my lines. Tried again to connect to Localnet, was able to browse for ten minutes and was then bumped off. I called tech support again, again they blamed the phone company.

In summary, this went on for two weeks, with the repairman from the telephone company coming out THREE times and putting in new lines, switching the line at the pole and doing whatever else he could to help me. STILL had problems with connecting. The repairman from the telephone company connected
on my lines to HIS ISP with NO problems.

When I called Localnet and explained this, they told me it was my COMPUTER. Mind you, all THREE computers were having this problem and they blamed the computer. After a week of trying to get them to fix the problem (and one tech support guy actually admitting that they WERE having problems with a certain link in their system (bet he no longer works with them since he admitted fault with them) I told them I wanted to cancel the account since I couldn't use it. They said ok.

I left it at that only to find that they had already taken money for the month out of my bank account. I asked for a refund and they said that since my billing cycle was halfway through (billing cycle was the 10th of each month, I called to cancel it with their knowledge that I had not been able to connect for a week, somewhere around the 24th.) I didn't take note of the date because I really didn't think that I would have to. They took another month payment out of my account on the 29th of June.

I called them about the money they took out of my account and they said it was for service and that in order to cancel the account, I would have to send them a letter in writing. I was unable to do this until the 3rd of July at which time I FAXED the request for cancellation and also told them that they were no longer authorized to take money out of my account. On the 5th, they sent out an acknowledgment of cancellation, however on the 12th of July, they took $24.95 out of my bank account, causing an overdraft. When I called them to inform them that I wanted that money, plus the overdraft amount, refunded back to me, they told me tough. It was the middle of the billing cycle they said and they billed for services.

I had been UNABLE to use the service since the 17th of June. Since the 24th of June I had signed up with a different (and local to me) service provider and had NO problems keeping connected even using the SAME computers that Localnet was blaming for my problems with them.

This company needs to be put out of business and a class action suit needs to be filed against them.