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I had a snail-mail letter from my ISP last week trumpeting the fact that they're changing their name from Freeserve to Wanadoo. Apparently they wanted me to be one of the first to know, although they must have felt the same way about my partner too, for two such letters were received in this household and millions more were doubtless in the same situation throughout the country. The letter went on to say that my e-mail address would be staying the same and that in fact, I don't have to do anything differently at all. So why are they wasting my time by writing to me?!

I couldn't care less what my ISP are calling themselves now, although I have to admit that Wanadoo is a pretty stupid sounding name. All I care about is the quality of service I receive from them. They said that I may have already heard of Wanadoo because it's Freeserve's parent company, but now Freeserve is magically “becoming Wanadoo”. I'm sorry but I don't see the distinction, and why are you bothering me with exposure to your internal politics?

As far as I'm concerned the best service companies are the ones that provide a service to cost ratio that's right for me. Also, after I've entered into an agreement with them they're effectively invisible because they don't bother me with dumb letters telling me about their new name and inviting me to look at their new logo.