moving -- broadband and line rental with no tie-in

diriso58

Hello,

I'm moving to a new address in a couple of weeks's time and am considering changing the arrangement I currently have for phone line (BT) and broadband (plusnet). The reason is I anticipate having to move again in approx. 6 months' time and I don't want to get tied down to a 12-month contract with BT. I have searched the various options and it appears that the £5.74 broadband + line rental plusnet offering is quite appealing, however when I called them today about it I got some rather confusing answers.

First off, let me clarify that when I signed up for plusnet I paid the £65 no-contract fee. However when I called them today I was told that if I moved my broadband to the new address I would have to either sign up to a 12-month contract or pay a further £65 no-contract fee. In addition, if I take the 12-month contract option but move before the expiry of that period, I will have to pay £65 even if I decide to take my broadband to the new address! On the other hand, if I decide to cancel my plusnet service altogether, I'll have to pay a £25 cessation fee unless I migrate to another provider.

I've looked at other providers but the picture looks grim. O2 has an excellent reputation but offers its best deals to O2 mobile phone customers and I'm not one. Virgin Media has a 18-month contract with enormous cancellation charges (£13 per remaining month on the product I searched). Primus and TalkTalk are out of the question -- too many horror stories. The only other option I can think of is to get my phone line from the Post Office (no minimum contract) and get broadband from one of the lesser known ISP providers such as Xilo that have received good reviews and offer a one-month rolling contract. I can see two problems with this option: 1) bad reviews about the Post office customer service and 2) I would still have to pay plusnet the £25 cessation charge as I don't think there's enough time to migrate to Xilo while in my current address.

Sorry if this is terribly complicated but I've researched the various options for hours on end and I'm now at the end of my tether. Is there any forum user who has been in a smilar situation to mine and could advise? Have you got experience with the Post Office customer service? Are there any other options I haven't considered? Any help will be very gratefully received!

ioscorpio

Just bear in mind that the Post Office broadband's contract has just gone to Talk Talk, so things may change.

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/5255-post-office-phone-and-broadband-services-to-move-to-talktalk-network.html

diriso58

Gulp! Thanks for the tip-off, ioscorpio, I wouldn't touch TalkTalk with a barge-pole!

I'm now considering either plusnet (broadband and line rental) or Virgin. Does anyone know whether I'll have to sign up to a similarly priced product if I go with Virgin and take the service with me when I move home? In other words, will I be able to take advantage of any offers they might be having at the time or will I be stuck with a possibly expensive product?

Second: I make phone calls abroad using the cheap international numbers (e.g. DiscountDial). Does anyone know what the charges for using these numbers are on plusnet? I've used the InternationaCallChecker and the plusnet tariff guide but to no avail. (I've raised this question at the International CallChcker discussion thread 2 -- sorry if this is causing confusion).

diriso58

Just a quick note to say that the second issue I had using cheap international numbers with plusnet has now been resolved through a helpful post on the International Call Checker discussion thread. If anyone has had experience of moving while on Virgin contract, I'd be very keen to hear their experience.