Broadband provider - who's the best?

jibbyboo

I recently signed up to TalkTalk broadband for my new home and had a horrible customer service experience (including them cancelling my order without any warning because I wasn't available to answer them when they called me- and that's just the tip of the iceberg).

Additionally, I organised BT broadband and phone service for my parents and they had quite appalling customer service there too.

Despite being given the option by TalkTalk to re-order, I am loathed to go through that experience again, particularly as I will be signed up for 12 months. If anything else were to go wrong, I don't want to have to jump through even more hoops.

Initially I was going to go with the very cheapest provider, but if I have to pay more to get acceptable customer service I suppose I'll have to just bite the bullet - not that I believe price of a product or service should reflect receiving a decent level of customer service.

So: can anyone tell me about their broadband experiences? Have you had a particularly bad time with a company? But most importantly, have you received exceptional customer service from anybody and would highly recommend them?

- should note that unfortunately I don't have fibre optic broadband available in my area.

JJ_Egan

Try searching the identical question posted many times .
Most surveys put Zen in front .
The pre Sky buyout BE always came out well .

colino

As a long term broadband user (remember timing important document transfers so the modem wouldn't drop half way!) just for sheer laziness we've had AOL (TT sister company) for years. As TT were doing a good offer called AOL to do the haggle and the call centre person was easily the rudest, most incomprehensible liar I've ever spoken to. From the impossibility of changing anything, not believing who the account holder was, not recognising the password to denial of having the service, he was clearly following a masterclass in losing custom. Thankfully he got the message we were leaving and the soothing, lovely voice of the retention lady couldn't have been a greater contrast. AOL is fine, like most others you only notice them when you have an issue, but their call centres and technical staff, Indian based, are easily the worst in the world.

macman

Since broadband is exchange- specific, do an exchange search on www.samknows.com for your LLU options.
Accordingly, there is no universal 'best'.
However if you are on a TT LLU line then you probably can't go direct to another LLU provider.

jibbyboo

Hi macman - I usually consider myself tech-savvy but am completely lost by your post. Can you explain further please?

Thanks colino and JJ Egan for your input!

MillicentBystander

jibbyboo wrote: »

Hi macman - I usually consider myself tech-savvy but am completely lost by your post. Can you explain further please?

Thanks colino and JJ Egan for your input!

I know I'm not macman but in his absence I thought I'd step in Simply click HERE, input your postcode in the box provided. Up will pop your local telephone exchange, click on it and the next screen will display ALL the operators who have equipment (therefore can offer a service) in your exchange. My list looks looks like this:

LLU operator presence
AOL: Enabled
O2 / Be: Enabled
C&W: Enabled as of 20/05/2005
Digital Region: Enabled
Edge Telecom: Not available
Entanet: Not available
Fluency: Not available
KC (Kingston): Not available
Lumison: Not available
NewNet: Not available
Node4: Not available
Pipex: Not available
Redstone: Not available
Rutland Telecom: Not available
Sky / Easynet: Enabled
Smallworld: Not available
Spectrum: Not available
TalkTalk (CPW): Enabled
Tiscali: Enabled as of 15/03/2006
Tiscali TV: Enabled as of 15/03/2006
WB Internet: Not available
Zen Internet: Not available


As macman said, if you are currently getting your service from an LLU provider (effectively any company in your exchange that isn't BT!) then to switch to another LLU provider direct is normally not possible and may involve migrating back to BT first.

HTH

jibbyboo

That's great, thanks Millicent. So as I'm not currently receiving service from anybody, should be relatively straightforward?

This is my list :-/ doesn't look like there's much choice really!

AOL: Enabled
O2 / Be: Enabled
C&W: Enabled as of 13/06/2006
Digital Region: Not available
Edge Telecom: Not available
Entanet: Not available
Fluency: Not available
KC (Kingston): Not available
Lumison: Not available
NewNet: Not available
Node4: Not available
Pipex: Not available
Redstone: Not available
Rutland Telecom: Not available
Sky / Easynet: Enabled
Smallworld: Not available
Spectrum: Not available
TalkTalk (CPW): Enabled
Tiscali: Enabled as of 03/10/2007
Tiscali TV: Enabled as of 03/10/2007
WB Internet: Not available
Zen Internet: Not available

macman

TalkTalk and Sky are the LLU providers on that exchange. You also have the option of dozens of non-LLU providers who are not listed because they are available on all exchanges.

jibbyboo

What does LLU stand for?

Battleaxe44

Have you looked at Claranet.co.uk/ we are with them, BT said originally they could not supply bb out this way..how strange Claranet had no problem and ended up getting BT to extend fibre optic out this way. We were supplying ADSL for the houses around here for sometime before BT got it's act into gear..their excuse we are too far out from the exchange, so it as Dial up or nothing for a lot of people.

We pay a bit more for Claranet, but never had poor customer service they are here in England and they stay on the line until the problem is resolved. We pay £32.00 inc VAt for a month with 50GB download allowance, our telephone line rental is on top of this, but as we never have an outage and neve a slow speed I think it is worth it, especially our neighbours always seem to be having problems with their BB providers including outages and slow down speeds.

Now in 2013 out here, there there is Talk Talk, and all other sorts pf providers, but we stay because we get A1 service from this company.

jibbyboo

Oh that sounds good! Thanks battleaxe44!

I'm hoping that fibre optic comes my way soon, but don't think it's an area that is in great need of it so not holding out.