hi everyone,my girlfriends recently had a problem with her broadband supplier,to the extenet that the company has placed what they termed a marker on her phone line,this prevents her from signing upto a new company,she relies heavily on her internet conection for work,and contact with her family gp and internet banking.Whenever she attempts to conect to a new supplier,the message no dial tone detected appears,yet the lights on her modem are both on....is there a simple solution to this anybody dean hutchinson sheffield yorkshire

Not sure what the laws are in your area, but AFAIK (and INAL) that's illegal. They can't prevent you from switching to another provider, and if they're stopping the modem from contacting someone else to keep her as a customer, I'd consider it extortion (or something else equally evil).

Not knowing all the details, I'd recommend talking to a lawyer. The first visit should be free so you can probably figure out an easy way to solve the problem. Maybe just threaten them w/ a lawsuit if they continue to disable your Internet connection.

Even if she signed a contract w/ them, she should still be able to break it. Normally there's a clause stating that if you don't keep the service for X number of months, then they get a large amount of money to cancel the contract.

That's all I can tell you, based on the info you gave. Hope it helps.

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thanks for that,i kind of thought it may b illegal,she says her provider put a patch on her modem,rendering any attempt to get online pointless as the modem couldnt detect a dial tone,i dunno how to take the patch off,iv tried all the troubleshooters and windows help,but nothing works.maybe if i pay trading standards a visit,they might have encountered this before and be able to help....thanks for all your help,much appreciated dean