Thinking of changing from BT to the Post Office – advice appreciated..

magpie2008

We live in a rural area and currently have a BT land line and broadband; the local exchange is not LLU and we don’t have cable, so our options are a bit limited

We are currently on option 2 broadband (with 40gb download limit per month) plus line rental which gives us free weekend calls; our average quarterly bill is around £110.

I have just discovered that the Post Office is offering a phone and brandband package with unlimited download and inclusive weekend and evening calls for only £25.50 including line rental, which is quite a saving at around £80 per quarter.

However, having been with BT forever, I am a bit apprehensive of changing to the Post Office, and would really appreciate feedback from anyone who has used them.

Also, if we did find it wasn’t as good as BT, how difficult / expensive is it to move back to BT (after the 12 month minimum term)?

macman

You are not limited, you may not have any LLU options, but you still have dozens of reseller ISP's to choose from-almost any of them would be better than BT. Maybe look at Plusnet?
To move back will cost you nothing.
How do you manage £110 a quarter on Option 2?-the current price is £29.53pm or £88.59 per quarter, this suggests that you are making a lot of exclusive calls.
The saving would be £4.04 pm or £12.12 per quarter-where do you get an £80 saving from?

Ste_C

I think they mean at £80 they're saving quite a bit as opposed to paying £110.

Mp42010

Have you looked at Sky?

Or if you own a mobile phone with 02 - they give you internet for £7.50 per month

macman

Mp42010 wrote: »

Have you looked at Sky?

Or if you own a mobile phone with 02 - they give you internet for £7.50 per month

Not on a non-LLU exchange they don't.

magpie2008

Thank you for your replies.

Macman - many thanks - I have just looked at Plusnet and they are even cheaper for a similar phone/broadband package.
We are currently paying BT £33.78 per month (£20.99 pm Option 2 broadband + £12.79 pm phoneline/weekend calls), which works out at a basic £101.34 per quarter, with all other calls "on top".
The PostOffice looks to be under £80 per quarter, which would save us about £25 a quarter.
Plusnet is even cheaper, at under £70 per quarter - thank you, I am seriously looking into this option now.

My only remaining concern is regarding what sort of support you get outside of BT. We live in a very rural area and have mainly overhead telephone cables, and can get line problems due to cables coming down, etc.

When this happens BT can take several days to resolve these problems - would we end up with a slower/delayed response if we were going via another ISP? I realise BT would still be carrying out the maintenance, but would they prioritise the work less if we were with Plusnet or the PostOffice?

macman

No. All the physical line work is done by BT Openreach, who are a separate company to BT Retail. Openreach have the same commercial relationship with BT Retail as they do with any other ISP, so BT Retail don't get any priority treatment when it comes to line maintenance. It makes no difference.
Plusnet are actually owned by BT, but run independently.

PS: current Option 2 price is £17.99 + £11.54 line rental =£88.59 per qtr