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Author Topic: Origin  (Read 2094 times)

chenks

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Origin
« on: November 29, 2018, 06:14:23 PM »

if anyone uses Origin as their ISP i'd maybe start looking at alternatives.
looks like they getting ready to dump another bunch of employees... twice in not a long period of time doesn't smell right to me.
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kitz

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Re: Origin
« Reply #1 on: November 29, 2018, 09:20:34 PM »

Shame really because I believe they had good intentions and it can't be easy for any of the smaller ISP's trying to compete these days.
They got stung badly with Digital Region... which was hardly their fault.   So they then pick themselves up and try again using Vodafone backhaul which then in some areas was plagued with contention issues.   Problem being someone who went with Origin is likely more tech astute and likely will complain louder than the average VF customer who possibly wouldn't notice the contention.    Time will tell if they can ride this storm too, but I doubt customer and staff will like being treated the way they have :(
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Weaver

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Re: Origin
« Reply #2 on: November 30, 2018, 12:16:37 AM »

I seem to remember hearing good things about them?

Are they having trouble with their finances?
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kitz

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Re: Origin
« Reply #3 on: November 30, 2018, 01:36:04 AM »

They were using vodafone for their backhaul provision which unfortunately since the early part of this year has been seeing serious congestion in some areas.   This caused a lot of complaints and people started moving away.   
Then they got rid of some staff, which in turn caused some deterioration in CS response times.   I know a few years ago they were quite good and would usually answer in minutes and they were building up a good reputation.   Unfortunately though if you have customer's seeing congestion and your response time start to go down, then it can affect new business.. especially if you're a small ISP. 

I believe they recently moved away from Vodafone and starting using TTB for backhaul....  this in itself has caused further problems.  Plus it seems they may be having problems serving users on certain smaller exchanges and had to terminate contracts for users on those exchanges which they can no longer serve.    They used to use Plusnet white label to fill in those exchanges they couldn't serve using 'LLU', but reading between the lines I wouldn't be too surprised if they found those customers financially unviable.  It's my guess they decided to say bye bye to any EU who they can't provision using TTB. 

Last year they were supposedly doing ok - even invested in new and much larger business premises because they were expanding. Now things aren't looking too rosy.
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chenks

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Re: Origin
« Reply #4 on: November 30, 2018, 07:43:40 AM »

this will be their second round of redundancies in a fairly short period of time.
also certain customers receives letters telling them they had 30 days to find another ISP before they were disconnected - for whatever reason (i'm guessing they were in areas that they deemed were no longer viable to them).

i did seriously look at moving to them about 2 years ago, but something didn't smell right at the time during conversations with them (and at that point they were essentially just reselling plusnet so i didn't see the point).
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renluop

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Re: Origin
« Reply #5 on: November 30, 2018, 09:25:55 AM »

FWLIW!
15/11 legal chargeregistered.

The accounts to 31/3/18 are due next month.
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kitz

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Re: Origin
« Reply #6 on: November 30, 2018, 11:43:08 AM »

also certain customers receives letters telling them they had 30 days to find another ISP before they were disconnected - for whatever reason (i'm guessing they were in areas that they deemed were no longer viable to them).

As per my post above, they used a Plusnet White label product for the exchanges where there was no Vodafone presence.   Because of problems with VF congestion they decided to move over to TTB.  I think Carl can testify just how seriously congested a lot of (what was the old C&W) network is/was.
It is fairly obvious that they have re-evaluated their wholesalers.   Moving from Vodafone to TTB and ditching any EU's where there is no TTB presence, thus ditching Plusnet.   They are not the only ISP to have moved from using VF to another wholesaler this year. 

Quote
i did seriously look at moving to them about 2 years ago, but something didn't smell right at the time during conversations with them (and at that point they were essentially just reselling plusnet so i didn't see the point).

I had a couple of fairly lengthy convo's with them.  At the time their network provision consisted of (1) their own 'LLU' in parts of Yorkshire. (2) Vodafone  (3)Plusnet for area's not covered by the other 2.  ie mostly adsl on 20CN type exchanges.    The future looked good they were expanding and taking on a lot of the more techie type users, rather than people who would go direct to VF.   The 'reselling Plusnet' was only a tiny portion of their customer base.

It's no secret I was looking at both VF and Origin a couple of years back to try save some £.   In the end I didn't but that was down to factors such as static IPs, and (at the time) VF insistence you use their modem...  and finally the fact they use DLM Standard profile rather than Speed profile.   

Also as above up until last year things were looking very good, they were growing at a rate faster than they projected. They also have some fairly major contracts. They took on additional staff and moved to brand new larger premises and had new investors.   Whatever has gone wrong /going wrong is more recent.


There's a rather nice summary of their business here dated June this year.

FWLIW!
15/11 legal chargeregistered.

The accounts to 31/3/18 are due next month.

Can't view that link so used this one.  Not too concerned about legal charges as it something most businesses will have.   It also dates at about the time they moved to new premises so probably be something to do with that.  Zen will no doubt still have a large one from when they moved to their new premises at Sandbrook Park. 
More interesting on there is the directors appointments & resignations this year.   Looks like there's been some shuffling around at the top
 

 
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