Sainsbury's Save On Brandband

kah22

Hi guys, a few days ago I picked up a leaflet in Sainsburys's entitled: 'Save On Broadband, digital TV, and Home Phone.'

On the face of it it seems to be a price comparison type site where they will find the cheapest package for you, organize the switch, and presumably that is where they get their cut. Fair enough no difficulties with that, as long as I'm not paying for it.

I made contact with Sainsbury's and one of their selling points was that it was a completely independent service - they'll offer you the best package available. It surprised me, however, that they were able to jump right away to Talk Talk without even getting my full details! Though I must admit that the guy on the telephone line seemed to be pretty much on the ball and had answers for a few questions I had.

The purpose of this post then is to pose two questions:
How to find the cheapest broadband offer?
Is Sainsbury's a truly an independent service? I'm thinking that if they don't include ALL major ISP's then how can they offer the cheapest package.

It also occurs to me that the broadband market is quite fierce out there and I'm wondering if I were to get a quote from say Talk Talk and then go back to my current ISP (f2s) and tell them I'm switching will they make a better offer. A bit like how to haggle with Sky which I'm sure most have read in another thread. As well as them acting as my ISP they also host a number of small websites/blogs for me.

There are a few other points I'd like to make but maybe it is best to keep the opening remarks straightforward.

Kevin

note to admin: feel free to move this post if it is more suitable somewhere else. Kevin.

macman

This service is just a Sainsbury branding of SimplifyDigital:
http://www.simplifydigital.co.uk/
There are many comparison sites that offer a similar service, look at the MSE section on price comparison sites in the Utilities section.
Of course the best source of info on BB deals is this board...

Sooler

Whether the service you get from their cheapest supplier is any good or not is another matter

kwikbreaks

Picking the cheapest specific product (eg a Panasonic TV model FF237AG) is often a good idea although even there if the product is complex you maybe should consider the aftersales service.

Picking the cheapest class of product (eg wine) will usually result in a disaster - especially if the cheapest is uncle Ted's homebrewed turnip.

Broadband isn't a single product it is a class of product. Buying cheap will usually but not always give you a product that will prompt later posts here asking why it is so slow.

The only cheap broadband services that are up to much are the O2 or Sky LLU products. You can't even just say Sky or O2 because their non-LLU BT based products are both abysmal.

Other cheap ADSL can be OK if you are willing to accept a restricted download of just a few GB a month or a service where downloads are throttled heavily in favour of browsing (unless of course you want to download).

All I'm saying here is don't buy broadband on price. Recognise how you intend to use it (gaming, heavy download, just browsing, etc. etc.) then go to a specialist broadband forum and ask for advice there where there are large numbers who can give good answers rather than here where you'll likely get a lot of well meant but poor advice.

I'm not going to post links to other forums here as I think that is bad form but the names of two suitable forums off the top of my head are ThinkBroadband and DSLZoneUK

Leopard

kah22 wrote: »

I made contact with Sainsbury's and one of their selling points was that it was a completely independent service - they'll offer you the best package available. It surprised me, however, that they were able to jump right away to Talk Talk without even getting my full details! Though I must admit that the guy on the telephone line seemed to be pretty much on the ball and had answers for a few questions I had.

By remarkable coincidence, Sainsbury's mobile 'phone service is operated by Carphone Warehouse - which owns Talk Talk. :cool:

DCFC79

Leopard wrote: »

By remarkable coincidence, Sainsbury's mobile 'phone service is operated by Carphone Warehouse - which owns Talk Talk. :cool:

dont sainsburys do a landline service as well which is linked to talk talk as well

Inactive

Sounds like a Sainsburys/Talk Talk stitch up to me, I am surprised at Sainsburys getting involved with a company like Talk Talk.