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Disgruntled Hebrides.net customer told he is on heroin 6/7/09
A North Uist man furious after he was labelled a drug addict by HIE’s selected internet supplier.
Gilbert Ferrol of Sponish said he angry to receive a string of offensive e-
Scotnet’s boss Stuart Glendinning alleged that Mr Ferrol used hard drugs including heroin.
Glendinning’s internet service firm holds a monopoly on the broadband network across most of the Western Isles with the blessing of Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Comhairle nan Eilean Siar.
Mr Ferrol struggled to get an his money back after overpaying the firm and issued indignant requests to the web company.
The 50-
He claims Scotnet dragged its heels in returning his £150 and then unleashed a wave of insulting messages alleging he abused drugs.
He says he was told he was on smack and smoked crack.
In one bizarre message Glendinning told him to “put the crack pipe down for a minute... I will try and use small words so that you can understand.”
Mr Ferrol was told: “A drug problem seems like the only explanation for your bizarre unwillingness to follow the instructions given to you.”
Another e-
But Stuart Glendinning of Scotnet hit out at Mr Ferrol’s behaviour.
He said that Mr Ferrol initiated the situation after and became highly abusive in response to a simple polite request.
Mr Glendinning explained that a series of errors was caused when Mr Ferrol’s wrongly sent them a cheque for £152. The cheque was made out to someone else but was cashed by the Bank of Scotland , and passed through the clearing system without anyone noticing until was too late.
However, a clerk at Scotnet picked up the error and contacted the Ferrols to arrange for repayment.
The bank’s legal department advised that the Ferrols should arrange repayment into their own bank account.
Mr Glendinning said they contacted the Ferrols and asked for instructions but were astonished by the reply.
He said Mr Ferrol immediately threatened court action.
He added: “Mr Ferrol was irrational and abusive.”
He accepted: “The conversation did digress into banter that was a little bit childish.
“The customer was initiated the whole ill-
“I had various e-
“He said wanted to fight with me.; he was up for a face-
Mr Glendinning stressed: “This is not reflective of the company nor of the level of customer care we provide our customers.”
While the rest of the UK can chose a wide number of suppliers the rural residents of the islands are locked into Scotnet. They pay prices higher than elsewhere and there are gaps in the service availability.
The monopoly was created after the authorities choose Scotnet to deliver the front end of its publicly funded connected communities network.