I'm writing again after a break. Look out for some serious churning!
I'm writing again after a break. Look out for some serious churning!
Member since:08.09.2000
Reviews:102
Members who trust:56
OK I'll start by admitting that my Internet addiction is getting out of hand. Yesterday when I found myself with 5 hours to kill in London whilst waiting for my passport I knew straight away that I had to go to EasyEverything for an Internet session. Sad really, I could have waited till I got home and surfed for free, after all I've already paid for this months access. Not me though, I couldn't wait I needed to check my email and how many reads my opinions had!
~~~~ The Company ~~~~ EasyEverything is allegedly a chain of the "Worlds Largest Internet Cafes". These palaces of joy are brought to us by Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the man who gave use cheap flights (EasyJet), cheap car rental (EasyRentacar) and a nice new online price comparison service (EasyValue.com). This Guru of the business world had seen how popular cyber cafes were but viewed them as a "cottage industry". By applying "supermarket economics" EasyEverything have been able to reduce the costs and provide a high quality service to people who want internet access. This access is offered 24 hours a day, seven days a week so you will always find an EasyAnything open. Oh and I think he's single girls, rather good looking and totally loaded – just remember I saw him first!
~~~~ The Cost ~~~~ I will start by admitting that I can't tell you the cost of online time at EasyEverything, that’s because its dependant on how busy they are. If the terminals are all full you will be paying more. I purchased a £2 credit which bought me about 35 minutes of access, the staff will tell you roughly how much time you will get if you ask them. In the small hours of the morning you get a lot more online time for your money. EasyEverything say that the average price paid for internet access is £1 per
hour, of course for me it was closer to £4 per hour.
~~~~ Getting Online ~~~~ To get online at EasyAnything you need to buy a credit for a minimum of £2, you can buy as many as you want of course and there may be special offers for bulk purchases. Your £2 buys you a little ticket which is valid for 28 days from the date of purchase. Printed on your ticket is a user ID, which is unique to your ticket. You just find an empty terminal displaying a certain screen (the staff tell you what to look for, after all if a terminal is just empty the user may have nipped to the loo!). At the terminal you click the Continue button, then the Logon button. You are then required to input the user ID from your ticket and set a password for that ticket. There is a leaflet which tells you in six different languages how the logon procedure works and if you are still stumped a member of staff will be happy to help you. You can't miss the staff, who else would be wearing orange? Except the Dutch of course. Once you have logged on you just surf as usual.
~~~~ How Long Have I Got Left? ~~~~ This is not a major worry as the bottom of the screen always displays how many minutes are left on your ticket, together with how much money is left on your ticket. If you are there in the middle of the night one of these tickets must last for hours but you don't have to worry about using all your credit. When you logged on you set a password for your ticket, simply log off and you can return and use the same ticket anytime within 28 days of your purchase. This sounds like a great concept to me, people who regularly use EasyAnything can take advantage of special offers for buying multiple tickets and then pop in and out throughout the month.
~~~~ The Hardware ~~~~ When you are logged onto the net you are sitting in front of a keyboard and mouse with a flat screen mounted in front of you. There are also sockets for headphones and every terminal has a webcam, so you can take pictures and send them to your friends. The keyboards are standard Windows keyboards and the mice are nice ergonomic scrolling mice. Because EasyAnything are bulk businesses (the smallest seats 200 and the largest 500) they can afford state of the art equipment and have fibre optic cable installed to maintain high speed connections. I can honestly say I have never had an internet connection anywhere near as fast as the one I found here, I whizzed through everything I looked at in speeds I have only ever dreamed of. They even replace the mouse mats monthly!
~~~~ More Orange! ~~~~ The sight of so much orange, logon screens, staff uniforms, mouse mats can get a little tedious. Just to remind you how wonderful orange is, you get popups on your screen! I hate popups as much as the next person, but somehow I didn't get too annoyed with the popups in EasyEverything. One appeared on my screen approximately ever 5 minutes, mainly they were reminders to keep your belongings between your feet (not so easy when you've just been shopping believe me!). I also got a useful popup for Hotmail users (which I was using) to tell you to wait for the screen to load fully with all the underlines before moving on as otherwise it can crash the machine. Lastly I got a couple of popups reminding me I was nearing the end of my credit. I have no idea why I found these less annoying than usual but I did.
~~~~ Food & Drink ~~~~ Its good to know they have covered all the angles. Imagine if you were in EasyEverything in the small hours to get some cheap online time, you would want a cup of coffee wouldn't you. Who wants to keep logging off and back on again just to go and get refreshment, not me. That’s no problem because there is a little phone next to your screen. Just pick it up to ask for assistance or to order food and drink. Your refreshments are brought to your terminal very quickly. As I only had 35 minutes access I didn't get the chance to try this out but the guy sitting next to me did and his coffee was there with impressive speed. There was also a staff member wandering round with a basket selling sandwiches and very yummy looking doughnuts.
~~~~ Extras ~~~~ As well as surfing the Internet EasyEverything offer a handy range of extra services, at an extra cost of course. They offer in-house printing services and also sell disks and CD's so customers can upload and download data. Services like this must be very handy if you don't have internet access at home.
~~~~ Locations ~~~~ There are currently 21 EasyEverything cybercafes located around Europe and one in New York. Because of their size they are all located in areas where they will attract vast numbers of customers, so you are not likely to see them in a local town like Basildon. Expansion plans are considerable as they offer a franchise deal for this service. Such a deal has just been signed in Greece with a mobile phone retail. For details of store locations and more visit the EasyEverything website at http://www.easyeverything.co.uk.
~~~~ The Bottom Line ~~~~ EasyEverything really do offer a fantastic service to us sad 'net addicts. Their statistics show that they are used by a lot of people like me who are temporarily separated from their Internet access. I would definitely use them again, just to experience their terrific connection speeds. I found the cost to be reasonable and the service excellent, I am sure they will go from strength to strengh.
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Well written on another business Stellios has expanded in to. No doubt everything is bright orange... Cheers, danieletheridge.
paule23 24.05.2001 14:46
Great review! I didn't realise these centres were open 24 hours a day. And they keep it quiet the fact that the amount of time you get for your moeny varies. The adverts I've seen imply it's £1 per hour!
kazziebears 25.04.2001 22:44
Excellent op!! If only someone would serve me coffee and sarnies...i might never have to leave this chair?*sigh!* Kazzie!
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Advantages: Good value at the right time of day, lots of terminals, quick download speeds, Disadvantages: Pickpockets, poor attention to after-net services (CD writing, printing), no toilets
xr2i16v 27.12.2000 (19.01.2001)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of easyeverything
Apr 24th, 2001
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