The Internet Service Providers Association is an important industry body for Internet Providers, and does a lot of good work, but I am really not sure if there is much benefit in A&A staying in ISPA.
The main thing that has really pissed me off is that we were told, with almost no notice at all, that the ADR scheme provided as part of ISPA membership was moving from CISAS to The Ombudsman Service. Having dealt with the latter and concluded that they can, in my humble opinion, burn in the fires of hell (if such a place existed), I was not amused at this change with no notice or consulation at all.
We have signed up with CISAS directly, and that has removed one of the benefits of being an ISPA member.
Do customers put any stock in whether A&A are an ISPA member or not?
Is it worth staying a member?
I guess I need to decide soon as membership renews 1st April.
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What's the cost? £50? Probably worth it. £10K? Less likely...
ReplyDelete£3k, may be £4k for us soon.
DeletePersonally I don't care, I couldn't tell you if any of the ISP's I've been with over the years are members or not, Word of mouth recommendations is far more important, I would expect that most A&A customers are the kind that can make an informed decision for themselves anyway, particularly if you have a page explaining why you're not a member any more
ReplyDeleteThe biggest reason I'd want AA in ISPA is to add your voice to theirs for issues such as fighting Theresa May's latest proposed legislation.
ReplyDeleteI guess it's almost like the EU. It costs us money and has many downsides but it does give us more of an international voice.
Indeed, but ironically I have been adding my voice in my own right on the latest issues and doing so more prominently than ISPA! We are also in LINX which has an excellent public affairs team. So I am not sure that is such a good reason any more. It is one to consider though.
DeleteSurely you wouldn't want to be a member of the kind of club that would have you as a member? :-)
ReplyDeleteI'm an A&A customer.
ReplyDeleteI didn't even know you were a member of ISPA, in fact I don't think I'm even aware of the existence of ISPA. So I think it's fair to say I don't see it as important for A&A to be a member.
For what it's worth...
ReplyDeleteNot one of our customers has ever asked if we're a member (we're not).
I don't personally look for, or care which ISPs are, or are not members when I've been looking for consumer connections.
I've never looked when looking for a business connection for our company in previous employments.
I doubt it offers you any benefit in customer terms.
> Do customers put any stock in whether A&A are an ISPA member or not?
ReplyDeleteNot me.
If you don't get £10/day worth of value, sounds like time to leave.
Don't give a monkey's chuff whether my ISP is in ISPA or not - only that they are competent (rules out BT then ...)
ReplyDeleteI have had the "pleasure" of trying to escalate a complaint through Ombudsman Services and suffering at the hands of their utter bumbling incompetence. I raised my complaint it in July and it's still trundling on as I get excuse after excuse. I very much doubt their claims of impartiality at this point.
ReplyDeleteAt this point, I would unfavourably on an organisation that used Ombudsman Services as their ADR provider, so it's nice to see that A&A won't touch them with a bargepole either.
Indeed, we are happy to try and resolve disputes with customers without using either ADR.
DeleteAnother A&A customer here.
ReplyDeletePersonally I know nothing about ISPA and don't care if A&A are a member or not. However I make this argument from a position of ignorance so take it with a pinch of salt.
What's good about A&A is I can communicate with the MD (or whatever your title is) as easily as this whether through this blog or via IRC.
The only worry I have is what happens to A&A when you decide it's time to give it all up for a spot of gardening. A&A seems to be run very much according to your world view and as this seems to accord very much with my own I'm quite happy about that but are you a single point of failure? Would ISPA provide any advantage in this circumstance? I don't know, just think aloud really.
No, that is not really anything to do with ISPA. We have plenty of staff well trained with a very similar view if I was unwell or did something odd like retiring :-)
DeleteAnother A & A customer here. -- Agree with ContextSwitch fully.-- It doesn't matter to this customer whether you are in ISPA or not. Just keep on doing The Right Thing™
ReplyDelete