recommend me internet providings

[levemircento]

currently with virginmedia with a medium broadband,tv and phone at 42 monthly [out of contract]

now, we dont even have a landline connected to a socket, dont even own a housephone, we rarely watch the tv package as its crap, it was useful for recording tv, or series etc, but in reality its hardly ever used and we mainly watch freeview

the broadband is what we use the package for, 70mbps, we run 2 x pc, tablets etc, and occasionall a media centre pc for netflix or anything that can be watched on the internet

obvously VM comes via fibre


we just want broadband only, its a bloody minefield looking at other ISP's! dont really want via phone line as speeds can be much lower than expected, many years ago we were on Orange Broadband via phone line, had nothing but trouble because of a poor line

so ideally want to be on fibre

dont want tv or phone

any recommendations?

 

[varesecrazy]

As you will know.

Virgin..was NTL.. which bouğht up lots of regional Cable tv Outfits

So cable..and GOOD cable

Most others piggyback on Bt's OPENREACH network.

Its supposedly half decent.. but depends on region : kit


Why not try a broadband speedchecker website

See who is getting what in your direct area.

You always have the option of phoning Virgin..and seeing how low you can push.

 

[varesecrazy]

currently with virginmedia with a medium broadband,tv and phone at 42 monthly [out of contract]


so ideally want to be on fibre

dont want tv or phone

any recommendations?

How did things compare?

 

[DaveMcT]

I get a consistent 35Mbit on a Utility Warehouse line (piggybacked BT fibre to the cabinet). I used to live about 1/2 mile away and could only get 2Mbit. Fibre was not even an option due to the terrible copper to the house connection. Virgin were cabling the street as we moved out.

if you can get it, Virgin Fibre is faster.
https://www.broadbandchoices.co.uk/broadband/only-deals

 

[varesecrazy]

levemircento ...

 

[levemircento]

I have been reading

mrs levemircent will try and negotiate a better deal with VM, I have looked at other providers but in the case of the cheaper ones, calls to the customer services are very expensive and the service rubbish, for example talktalk 18p a minute, reviews state that you can get passed from pillar to post with no successful outcome for an hour

in that respect, VM is free to call from our mobiles, the equipment is 100% reliable so it makes sense to stay.

 

[Eklipze3k]

If you want to stick with fibre then, unless you live in a few lucky areas, I'm fairly sure VM is your only option. All other ISP's rely on using the BT network.
With that in mind, if you ever did think about switching to an SL based provider, I can't recommend Zen enough. Yes, they're more expensive than larger suppliers but their customer service is UK based and they consistently ranked as one of the best in terms of customer service. They also don't do any traffic shaping, throttling, or any other kind of content control so you can download/stream anything you want at full speed. The hardware they provide is also great - reliable and full of features.

 

[dombooth]

Plusnet. - End of thread.

 

[Eklipze3k]

Plusnet. - End of thread.

Plusnet used to be my goto until 2007 when they got bought up by BT.

 

[dombooth]

Plusnet used to be my goto until 2007 when they got bought up by BT.

Meh, BT own them but their customer support is still exceptional (and in Yorkshire!)

 

[varesecrazy]

I'll never pay for a BT service by name..

Got stitched up many years ago.. absolutely apalling.

They all have issues.. but generally speaking.. the customer is perceived to be right.

 

[DaveMcT]

I had PlusNet in my office until 2017 with not a single problem.

However even though we were just 100 metres from the BT exchange the service was just about adequate. It was the same local loop capacity issue (which BT refused to bother with) that put my home (2 miles away) down at 2Mbit.

If you want a properly fast service it has to be fibre to the house.

 

[levemircento]

been on with this today, wont be staying with VM, package deal [tv,phone,bb] is £40pm, I asked about bb only, which was just £1 less.

talktalk is cheap, but the reviews are shocking, and its premium rate customer service line, often with no fix after an hour of being on the phone

plusnet seems good, £24pm, plus a install fee to switch from VM phone line to the original bt one, I asked about the customer service line and its free to call.

can I have more plusnet reviews, that would be great, ta

 

[Eklipze3k]

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.plus.net

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/zen.co.uk

 

[levemircento]

ta
nothing is ever easy is it, reviews of all the main providers are showing terrible service, perhaps reviews should be ignored after all nobody ever posts a positive review do they?

bloody hell :bang:

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Years and years and years ago we bought our first freezer (think it was Currys) and part of the deal was a free Sky package for a year (think it was called the family pack but maybe that was later on) This was in the days when Sky was analogue - we were hooked. Then when we bought our first laptop it seemed natural to just stay with Sky for our internet - which then became broadband. So we had our TV, landline and broadband all with Sky and the price seemed reasonable. Over the years we added a few things like the F1 channel and HD.

About two and a half years ago Mrs Jock said to me one evening "Do you realize our Sky payments now cost us more than our heating bill"? We went on line and checked it all out and thought "I wonder what life without Sky TV would be like"? So, after Christmas, once all the relatives had gone home, we shut off the Sky HD box and watched Freeview on our TV instead for about a month. The TV's program guide/interface is an early version and diabolically horrible to use, but we realized we could get pretty much everything we wanted on Freeview so we cancelled our Sky TV subscription. I actually threatened to cancel everything so they passed me through to their retention team and after about 20 minutes of careful, calm, determined negotiation I came away with the standard wired, unlimited broadband (what we'd had all along) and my unlimited calls to landlines and mobiles and, at that time, US calls (to my sister and daughter) all for £18 a month. Oh, and they sold me their latest Q hub for £15 too. That was a bit of a bone of contention though because I couldn't get it to work on my home network. They wanted to send an engineer at £65 so I just left the hub in it's box and carried on with the old netgear router but slightly worried about it's security.

Then I bought a HUMAX Freesat box which has a very good program guide and all the rest of the bells and whistles (catch up, recording, pause live tv, etc, etc) which gives us just about as good an experience as the Sky used to.

Just before Christmas the contract came to an end and Sky warned us our contract was increasing to a quite ridiculous figure. I forget now but it really was ridiculous like about a 200% increase. I genuinely believe that the previous £18 deal we had with them was quite exceptional and they did it to retain our custom so was not expecting to get such a good deal this time but, as we are generally very pleased with their service I decided to try negotiating.

Having told them how offended I was by the ridiculous amount of money they were going to be charging us and that I wanted to cancel I was passed back to the retention people again and after "playing silly games" with them for about a half hour, maybe more, and getting them to agree to send an engineer for free to sort out the new router, I had the whole thing renewed for 18 months @ £24 a month. I dropped the US deal as we can skype/facetime my sister and my daughter and family are back over this side of the pond now.

I'm pretty ignorant about all this tech, don't really know how to check my download speeds but I do know we can do catch up and download TV stuff with me on my laptop and Mrs J on her iPad without anything slowing down or Buffering (I think that's the word?) When my daughter comes up with her family they all have iPads/phones/laptops/etc and we still don't get any problems so that'll do us just fine - don't seem to need this fibre stuff.

So my experience is to find a supplier you're happy with and then negotiate, quietly, politely but determinedly and in a civilized manner, but don't give in and don't get frustrated if it takes some time. I'm not that fanatical about chasing the very last pound I just keep gently chipping away at them and don't let them put the phone down 'till I get a reasonable result.

 

[levemircento]

So my experience is to find a supplier you're happy with and then negotiate, quietly, politely but determinedly and in a civilized manner, but don't give in and don't get frustrated if it takes some time. I'm not that fanatical about chasing the very last pound I just keep gently chipping away at them and don't let them put the phone down 'till I get a reasonable result.

My next door neighbour works for VM [sadly, he cant get a friend a better deal], during my call to VM today they seemed happy to lose a customer.

You can get same deal as a new customer for £27pm, but they told me that to be classed as a "new" customer we must have left the service 60 days prior, something along those lines, ridiculous really.

I have to give 30 days notice to end, our neighbour thinks they will contact us a week or so after we do that and offer a deal, but in all honesty I doubt they will, it would have to be £20 less than it is now.

My other half will make that call, she is better at that sort of thing, but VM is good at what they offer I would never dispute that aspect, we have no downtime, good speeds, and its free to call customer service, its just that they dont offer a deal in our price range.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Interesting to hear of your experience with VM. My pal round the corner has had a very similar experience. He has also had problems with the service, especially his TV experiencing breaks in service and it seems to be because so many people in the area are with them? Regarding their indifference to you threatening to leave, I may well be wrong, but I think their attitude is that, with their completely separate infrastructure, it seems to be more problematic to swap to a different (wired) provider? So they play it down to the wire more "enthusiastically" than others. I'm actually very pleased with Sky but I do wish we didn't have to do this silly "dance" with them at renewal time. The only amusing thing is that you can tell that the person you are negotiating with is well aware it's all a big game too. I find the two of you can have a few jolly good laughs over the "sillyness" of it all - which all helps to break the ice and make negotiating more pleasant.

 

[chris3234]

been on with this today, wont be staying with VM, package deal [tv,phone,bb] is £40pm, I asked about bb only, which was just £1 less.

talktalk is cheap, but the reviews are shocking, and its premium rate customer service line, often with no fix after an hour of being on the phone

plusnet seems good, £24pm, plus a install fee to switch from VM phone line to the original bt one, I asked about the customer service line and its free to call.

can I have more plusnet reviews, that would be great, ta

Talk talk don't use a premium rate support line there free phone and 03 numbers to call
Support on the forum is good if a little slow
Phone customer service if mostly untrained monkeys that won't go off there script however

 

[levemircento]

so, the mrs spoke to VM today to give 30 days notice to end, but they have offered us broadband only for £32, she was happy with that so we are remaining