| Code of Practice
1. Introduction
Netkonect is a premier provider of communication services, supplying
integrated telecommunications and Internet solutions for companies across
the UK. Netkonect customers enjoy fast, flexible and future-proofed services
ensuring significant competitive advantage.
2. The purpose of this code of practice
This guide has been developed to help you to understand the relationship
you have as a customer of Netkonect. It will enable you to:
• Access details of our services and products;
• Understand what you can expect from Netkonect after you have
made a purchase or registered for a service; and
• Find out how to contact us
This code of practice has been approved by Ofcom (Office of Communications).
3. How to contact Netkonect Communications
Customer Services
Telephone: 0870 063 2222
Email: support@netkonect.net
Our Customer Services department is open Monday to Thursday from 8.00am
to 6.00pm and Friday from 8.00am to 5.00pm with all calls charged at
National rate. Closed Bank Holidays.
Our service status can found by browsing to our website www.netkonect.net
and selecting Network Status from the menu bar or calling our Customer
Services Team on 0870 063 2222
Accounts Enquiries or Payments
Telephone: 0870 063 1111
Our accounts department is open Monday to Thursday from 9.00am to 5.30pm
and Friday 9.00am to 5.00pm with all calls charged at National rate.
Closed Bank Holidays.
Cancellations
To cancel your account, call us on 0870 063 1111
Complaints
All complaints must be put in writing and either e-mailed to support@netkonect.net
and commercial@netkonect.net
or posted to:-
Commercial Department
Netkonect Communications plc
Opus House, Manor Court
Herriard RG25 2PH
Contacting related organizations
Ofcom - Office of Communications (http://www.ofcom.org.uk/)
- the government regulator of the telecommunications industry. E-mail:
contact@ofcom.org.uk
Advisory Committees on Telecommunications (ACTs) (www.acts.org.uk)
- these committees advise Ofcom and the telecommunications industry.
Email: actsec@acts.org.uk
Internet Watch Foundation (http://www.iwf.org.uk)
- works to reduce illegal content as far as possible.
ICSTIS (http://www.icstis.org.uk)
- the Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone
Information Services regulates the content and promotion of premium-rate
services. Email: secretariat@icstis.org.uk
4. General philosophy
Netkonect was founded in 1994 and now supplies leading communications
technology to thousands of customers across the UK. We are committed to
providing sophisticated and resilient solutions to our customers, to ensure
success for all. We continually invest in the latest technology to ensure
that our network offers the most sophisticated service available in the
UK and is totally future-proofed. Netkonect is focused on offering professional
and personal services to support its customers through every stage of
the ordering and post-sales process. Our achievements have been independently
recognised with awards from The Sunday Times Fast Track 100 and Tech Track
100, and Deloitte and Touche Indy 100. Netkonect is still a privately
owned company and remains financially secure.
5. Services
a. Telecoms Solutions Range
Call Management Solutions – call routing to the location you
want at the time you want, menu systems and call queuing.
Competitions - uses a premium rate telephone call or SMS text message.
Ideal for supporting
magazine or newspaper competitions
Data Capture - National or Premium Rate lines for the collection of
contact information for future
marketing campaigns or information request services
Voice-to-email and Fax-to-email - automated forwarding solution forwarding voice message to emails or converting faxes to emails
Pre-recorded Information Solutions - providing Betting Tipster, Tarot
Lines or User Instructions
Support and Information Lines - available on National rate or Premium
rate lines, enabling you
to recover some of the cost of providing customer services via the telephone
Content Provision – including Premium Rate Wind Up Joke Service
and SMS Horoscopes
For more information on any of the solutions above, please visit http://www.nktelecom.com
b. Internet Solution Range
Connectivity (with Call Revenue Share) - dial-up accounts with 0845,
0870 – Dynamic or
Static IP and Premium Rate dial-up (Garden Wall service only)
DSL - Home User/Office and Business User ADSL services and SDSL
Dedicated Bandwidth & Bursting - leased Lines or other Internet
solutions. Dedicated mixed or
split bandwidth and optional bursting.
Hosting Services - domain registration or transfer / email / web /
database / secure server. Email Anti-Virus. Windows advanced web and
database (SQL) hosting options
Co-Location & Managed Servers - rack space in Telehouse London
with dedicated bandwidth
and managed dedicated server solutions
Hardware - modems and routers (Alcatel, Westell, Cisco and Netpilot)
and Firewalls (Westell,
Servgate, NetPilot and Netscreen)
For more information on any of the solutions above, please visit http://www.netkonect.net
6. Customer Service
We continually strive to ensure that we provide the best service possible
by seeking and listening to feedback from our customers. We are also committed
to ensuring that the purchase and implementation process for our products
is as quick and easy as possible. We hold regular update and training events for our network of accredited
channel partners to ensure that they are fully briefed about our solution
ranges and customer care policies.
7. Sales
Netkonect solutions can be purchased online, via our in-house direct sales
team and through our network of accredited channel partners. Our solutions
can be purchased through the following websites:
www.netkonect.net
- telecom, broadband, hosting, dial-up and mobile content services
www.nkdsl.co.uk
– broadband services
www.nkhost.co.uk
– hosting services
www.worldcaller.co.uk
– call over the world
www.nkreg.co.uk
– domain registration
www.nkchannel.co.uk
– for our channel partners
www.nkmobilemedia.co.uk
– provision of mobile content (for channel partners only)
Sales Practice
Netkonect’s sales are mainly handled reactively – marketing
campaigns are in place to drive potential users to our websites or to
call our Sales Team. We do operate some telesales activity. However, all
marketing and sales activity is to business users only, and we source
potential user information from accredited list brokers using opt-in mailing
information. We strictly follow the procedures laid down by the Data Protection
Acts of 1984 and 1998 to protect all user information. No subscriber information
is intentionally used or distributed outside of Netkonect Communications
Plc.
Quality of service
Connection speeds to the World Wide Web vary and are dependent on many
factors. Unfortunately, some of these factors are out of our control but
we strive to offer customers an excellent quality of service at all times.
Here are some points on service reliability.
· All of our services are available 24 hours every day, and
are consistently monitored by automated programs and skilled engineers.
· Redundancy and resilience is built into all our products and
services prior to their release to our customers.
· All planned maintenance and service upgrades are scheduled
for completion outside normal business hours.
· Network service status can be checked 24 hours a day by looking
on our website www.netkonect.net and selecting the network status option.
Our pre-recorded network status message can be heard on 0845 638 2222.
· We do not offer any service-level guarantees, and under our
terms of service we are not liable for indirect or resulting losses.
You can view our acceptable usage policy on our home website at www.netkonect.net.
Pricing
Up-to-date prices for our products and services are always available
on the relevant websites or by calling our Sales Team on 0808
163 0000.
Billing
Home broadband access products can be paid by Direct Debit, or credit
card (Visa, Visa Delta, MasterCard). We can set up our billing system
to take payments automatically every month, for your ease and convenience.
Disconnections and cancellation of services
We reserve the right to suspend or cancel your service within the contracted
timescales - for example, if you do not pay your bill. To find out more
about the methods we use to disconnect or suspend customers' accounts
and the reasons why we do this, please see our Terms & Conditions
on our home website at www.netkonect.net.
Complaints
All complaints must be put in writing and either e-mailed to support@netkonect.net
and commercial@netkonect.net or posted to:-
Commercial Department
Netkonect Communications plc
Opus House, Manor Court
Herriard RG25 2PH
Dispute resolution
If you have followed our complaints procedure and are not satisfied with
the outcome you have received, an independent ‘dispute resolution'
process is available. This is managed by the Communications & Internet
Services Adjudication Scheme.
Privacy
We take your privacy very seriously and we strictly follow the procedures
laid down by the Data Protection Acts of 1984 and 1998 to protect all
user information. Our Privacy Policy sets out the personal information
we collect about you and describes how we may use that information. No
customer information will be intentionally used or distributed outside
of Netkonect Communications Plc, and we have a strict policy of not selling
customer details to outside marketing agencies without your permission
to do so. Our privacy policy also contains details of how you can opt
in and out of receiving our marketing information.
8. Communicating with you
We try to make it as easy as possible for you to contact us at any time
by telephone, email, fax or post. All contact details are published on
our web site. We have to tell you about any changes that affect the Terms and Conditions
of our service, giving you 14 days notice of any changes.
Our current Terms and Conditions are available online at http://www.netkonect.net/use/ctr.html
We will also keep you up to date with more routine service changes that
do not affect our Terms and Conditions of service. We send all our service communications to the email address that you
supplied us. We strongly advise, as detailed in our Terms & Conditions, that you
regularly check for any important service information from us at your
primary email address for your account with us.
Receiving marketing and other information
Apart from communicating with you about matters that affect your service,
we will give you the opportunity to receive other information, including
our customer e-bulletins and information about special offers. You can
opt in and out of these communications at any time by following the instructions
in the email you have received.
Potential customers are contacted via letter, email or telephone using
lists which have been purchased from accredited list brokers who adhere
to the various preference schemes in place.
Access to our code of practice
Customers can access this code of practice from all our websites or by
requesting a copy to be posted, faxed or emailed to them.
Data Protection
We strictly follow the procedures laid down by the Data Protection Acts
of 1984 and 1998 to protect all user information.
9. Social Responsibility
We want your use of our service to be an enjoyable experience. For the
benefit of all users of our services, our Acceptable Use Policy contains
guidance on good behavior and the steps we may take to prevent anyone
abusing the service. Netkonect works closely with industry bodies to ensure that it adheres
to all guidelines in place for the protection of users. Wherever possible, we aim to reduce the impact of our business on the
environment, by communicating using paperless methods.
We have also situated our head office in the countryside to provide a
pleasant and rewarding environment to our staff.
We value your feedback
This code of practice has been approved by the Office of Communications
(Ofcom), the regulator for the UK communications industries. The code
will be regularly reviewed in line with Ofcom's requirements. We take pride in ensuring that our customers remain important
to us and we value your feedback. If you have any suggestions or questions
about this code of practice, please email us at commercial@netkonect.net
and marketing@netkonect.net
|