Cheapest Broadband Provider Discussion Area

Former_MSE_Webmaster

This is the Forum for comments and feedback on Martin's article: Cheapest Broadband Provider.

To ask a question or discuss this, please click Reply.

Tony_H_3

Yeah go on then I've got something to say!! Having spent the last 7 1/2 years connected via Freeserve I am utterly disappointed with the change-over to Wanadoo. They don't want to admit it, but they have stuffed up a good proportion of their customers account details (billing).

I received a letter in June 04 stressing that they were not able to take payment for my broadband account as I had changed my credit card, I could either ring the 0870 number of login to my account online (What a joke, the online account doesn't / hasn't worked ever) "This could be to encourage "profits" from the 0870 number. Upon ringing the number and being onhold for 15 minutes I explained that my credit card was unchanged, I questioned whether or not the had been a problem with the recent changeover. I was assured everthing was in order and that I would be billed next month as usual.

July arrives along with a repeat of the previous months leter and also a rather abrupt e-mail telling me that I had changed my payment details and could I please supply my new details. Once again on the phone and explained the same as the previous month. Once again I was assured that the error was on my part. To say I was annoyed was an understatement. I told the customer advisor that I wanted a CBUK code so that I could migrate to another ISP but was informed that this was not possible due to the arrears. I told him that I had spent a total of 90 minutes on the telephone (0870) to find out what was happening with this and suggested compensation for my losses, he laughed.

I suggested to him that I had no alternative but to terminate my contract and told the advisor that he had my express permission to take payment for the arrears and to close my account. It was at this point he chooses to inform me that customer payment details became damaged when they were sent over from the previous "Payment company - World Pay".

If they had been honest from the start they would still have my business and I would have re supplied my current credit card details. I have not at this stage paid the arrears and have sent a letter of to management for claim of compensation, we will see what happens. I am now with NTL (750kbps), boy is it quick.
I just want to add, before you sign up to a 12 month contract check how far you are from the telephone exchange as you could be limited to a maximum connection speed of 512kbps as in my case.

aharrold

Interesting article!

But for the dedicated Moneysavers (aren't we all?), you could make a saving on the activation fee for Metronet - or any other provider who charges for activation - by signing up to Virgin.net broadband for one month.

Virgin.net is offering free activation with only one month notice period for £24.99 . Then you just have the migration fee of £19.98 to pay to Metronet.

So, £45 versus £69.95. (And of course the £45 includes 1 month of actual broadband usage)

Or is there a catch that I am missing???

peter_the_piper

since mid July I have been trying to get a MAC number from Pipex to migrate to Metronet as these seem one of the cheapest, Can get 1meg for pipex cost 512. However I cannot get answers from Pipex only auto responses. Any idea how to get a real person to answer?

paul666

Doh !
pipex offer unlimited 512k for £23.44 with no setup/activation/migration costs for existing customers and free equipment for new customers.
It's also very reliable in my experience.

Not sure why Martin missed this one.  :(

Big_Dazza_2

Can anybody give me the heads up whether Metronet is any good ??? The price looks reasonable but I am reasonably happy with Aol Broadband for £20.00 p/m and although there is probably a saving to be made, I would like some further comments.......Any advice for a novice Broadband user?? Thanks

Dazza

Finishrich

I signed up last week with Metronet. (was using dial up with Wanadoo and was tempted to go with them) After reading some stuff I preferred having a router with hardware firewall for the extra protection rather than the "free" modem from Wanadoo, plus with the router I can connect other PC's to the same connecton.

Anyway, I phoned metronet first just to make sure they would help if I had any problems setting up and they said yes they would. I bought the Netgear router and microfilters from ebuyer.co.uk. It was quite easy to set up, I had one problem but phoned netgears help line and they sorted it out and that was it. Surfing the web at the speed of sound!

After 1 week I've had no problems at all. I quite like the fact you can log into your metronet account and checkout how many Mbs you've been using. Although there was the inital cost of the router and line activation, long term it will definatley be cheaper for us.

I feel quite pleased with myself now ;D as I'd already signed up with Mertronet, then I saw that Martin was going to be doing an article on the cheapest broadband provider. So I'm quite happy I've made the right choice.

qprfact

I'm on one of the old unlimited contracts with Wanadoo at the moment, although that expires in a few months, and was wondering about metered usage versus unlimited.

Anyway, I did some searching and found a utility called Net Meter (website is http://home.iprimus.com.au/miclone/ ) which apparently monitors the levels of downloads you are doing and therefore enable you to see if metered makes sense!

Seems to work OK, though for some reason is very slow to go through set-up routine!

Odyssy

I've been on metronet's Paygo dsl for well over a year and it really is excellent.
My biggest bill has been for about £17 and I send and receive quite large files (10 - 20MB)
Metronet customer service is brilliant (no premium rate numbers) any were great when my original usb modem developed acute paranoid delusions.

There were some problems during May and June when they were upgrading equipment but I think that was more down to BT than Metronet, and they kept customers well informed throughout.
If you use the Adsl guide comparator - http://www.adslguide.org.uk/isps/compare.asp and
choose possible providers, you get a comparison of users votes on speed, customer service and reliability. You will notice a fall off in Metronet scores during these months. This is not the norm and I certainly was not affected at all. One result of these problems is that they have slightly reduced the cost per additional Mb from 0.25p to 0.225p - not much, but it all helps.

They also offer a customisable firewall at their end, and since I changed my browser to Mozilla Firefox, NO popups, and only very few (3-4 a week) trojans, worms, etc. (Norton AV on automatic update, + weekly scans with Spybot and Adaware)
I have recommended Metronet to many people and have heard no complaints.

Iskin

I am using Tiscali Broadband (heavy internet users at home) 15.99 per month, I had free modem and free set-up but their customer services is crap.

I am thinking to ditch them when the one year contract is over.
1. I have been told that they will be reluctant to give the MAC number for Metronet. Anybody had such experience ?
2. Can you use Metronet with One Tel or Talk Talk ?

Thanks to let me know ! Cheers

t_i_g_e_rr

I have been with metronet for about 6 months and am very, very pleased with them. Metronet always scores highly on speed on adslguid.org.uk, and my experience is that it is very quick. Their customer service is great. They answer emails quickly. They did have a problem a month or two ago, but communicated their progress to customers very well. No need to bother with the expense of a hardware firewall with metronet (unless you are protecting a business or something) as they have a firewall at their end and you can have a software firewall at your end (e.g. Zonealarm, etc) for extra protection; this is what I have done with no problems. I am a moderate internet user and I have never been billed more than £13.00. If I wasn't with metronet ::) I'd switch today.