Broadband Advice (longish post!)

macman

m3kx wrote: »

Hello! I'm a long term reader of the forum but haven't posted until now (as you can see from my join date!). This post might get long but I'm going to try my best to keep it short and simple (it hasn't worked, I'm sorry!)

Until now the only Internet and phone provider in my area has been BT but on Monday TalkTalk came to the door offering free Internet. They informed me that our lines are being upgraded and TalkTalk are now renting lines from BT so they were going door to door offering a special deal to our neighbourhood. Anyway they done a line check and offered me the following plan:

Broadband Plus: £0.00
Line Rental: £13.80
Phone: £7.25
Totalling £21.05 a month for 12 months.
Plus an one off connection fee £30.00

This is what we would get:
Unlimited calls to UK landlines, 0845/0870 numbers. Free router, unlimited downloads and free antivirus. Calling features boost (call waiting, diverting etc).

This all sounds good in comparison to our current BT package (I'm reading this from my account online, presume I'm in a contract of some sort not sure but I joined almost 5 years ago):

Broadband option 3: £23.60
Line Rental + calling plan: £16.90
In the past 3 months we made 76 calls, 36 were free the rest cost us £13.63.
We pay £46 a month.

This is what we get:
Unlimited calls to UK landlines after 7pm on weekdays and all weekend, Inclusive calls to 0845 and 0870 numbers after 7pm on weekdays and all weekend, Up to 3 calling features for no extra cost, 24/7 help and support for your home phone. Unlimited downloads, free email addresses, digital vault

(I should say we would make more calls with the landline but the line is awfully crackly, a lot of our neighbours have the same problem.)

Now I like BT, I want to stick with BT, I've had no problems and because I've heard bad things about TalkTalk I want to stick with BT more so but I could do with the cheaper price! So my question is... Should I try to haggle BT down to a better price? I feel like we are in a good place to do so, this is the first competition BT has had and like I said I've been with them since I moved in, almost 5 years, so surely I have some sort of long term customer something... I can't think of a word.. I know it's nothing special but I thought being a long term customer would help?

Does anyone have any advice on haggling with BT? Or anyone have any good things to say about TalkTalk? I'm not the best haggler but I was just going to call up and tell it how it is as I have done to you, this is what I've been offered can you match it sort of thing?

Thanks in advance for reading my post and any advice you can give me.

Kim

Having written all of this I have just checked SamKnows.com and according to that I can also get PlusNet. It is £23.48 a month, 60gb download limit free router as well as free connection if I take a 12 month contract. Calls are evening and weekends or an extra £3.50 for any time calls. Oh this is confusing!

Sorry but this is entirely incorrect. There may be no LLU providers on your exchange (until the arrival of TT), but there are dozens of non-LLU providers offering a service that is generally better and cheaper than BT. Plusnet is just one example, there are many more. samknows does not list non-LLU providers, because they are available on any exchange.