The complaint pertains to an online campaign initiated by OzEmail on November 30, in which Froggy customers are offered a waiver of the normal $20 registration fee. Not to be out done, iPrimus has offered Froggy customers that decide to switch camps a waiver of the first month's usage charges, and similarly advertised the campaign through its Web site.
Froggy spokesperson, Russell Cunningham, told ZDNet Australia it is -regrettable" that two of Australia's leading ISPs have chosen to single out Froggy as a target.
-It just seems unfair that both companies have singled out Froggy," Cunningham said. -Neither is offering new customers a deal which can compete in price with our offerings."
Cunningham also claimed that the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) had reviewed Froggy Internet Services in the wake of Karl Suleman Enterprises passing into voluntary administration and had given the company a clean bill of health.
However, iPrimus general manager Ash Chopra said the online campaign was in response to a dramatic increase in the levels of customer enquiries.
-After the whole One-Tel collapse customers are a lot more wary about who they deal with," Chopra said. -When the news broke that Karl Suleman's investment company was in administration, and that Froggy owes them AU$13 million we became inundated with calls."
Chopra denies any assertion of collusion between OzEmail and iPrimus, saying that he had not spoken at any time with OzEmail staff about the campaign.
-I saw what OzEmail was doing on their site and I realised it was a great way to take the pressure off the call centre," Chopra said. -We have had a tremendous response so far."
Froggy's Cunningham says that the fledgling ISP will not respond with an offer aimed specifically at OzEmail and iPrimus customers, as the company's rates are already cheaper than what each of the ISPs are offering.
Froggy has squared the blame for becoming an OzEmail target at ZDNet Australia. Froggy consultant John Karasmanis has repeatedly claimed in recent e-mail correspondece that ZDNet Australia's recent story "Fifty fired as Froggy fries" , which detailed the company's recent sacking spree, sparked OzEmail interest in acquiring the struggling ISP's customer base.
"We [Froggy] were contacted by Ozemail as a direct result of your article, as they assume we are broke and for sale and quote your Article as the reason for their contact," Karasmanis told ZDNet Australia in an e-mail last week.
OzEmail has previously denied this is the case and said it had been considering initiating talks with Froggy prior to the article being published.
OzEmail has yet to respond to further requests for comment.
Their Internet service is a load of crap, don't use them or you will be sorry like me.
The sooner they go bankrupt the better.
(Less customers will become suffers.)