Which provider should I go for

poly1

I live in a rural area with very little choice of broadband providers, I am now out of contract with AOL (!) and talktalk (for phone). Last year when I called AOL to end my contract they offered me a great deal by discounting my talktalk bill too, this year they say they no longer offer discounts on talktalk only on their own services and offered my three months for free after putting up my broadband bill to £25 a month :eek:. I said no thanks asked for my MAC which they were happy to provide. I now only have a few options BT, Sky, or Plusnet. I tried the Sky deal MSE had blagged but Skys site says:
Sky Broadband & Talk availability

The Sky Broadband item you've selected is not available in your area, however we can offer you the following:

You've selected:
Sky Broadband Unlimited (£0 a month)
Our recommendation:
Broadband Connect
(£17 a month)

Which is ridiculous as if I go to their website and put in my details, Sky unlimited is available!
Anyhow I have a choice between Sky, BT and plusnet all of which will cost me roughly £26 a month for landline and broadband, there is not alot in it, so which would you choose?

brewerdave

Plusnet -don't go with Sky if there is no LLU availability -their Connect service is dire.

poly1

Is there a reason I should go for Plusnet over BT, is it customer service? What is the BT home hub like?

kwikbreaks

BT use an offshore call centre as first point of contact.

Plusnet use a UK based call centre but last I heard there are very long wait times. You can use their online forum and ticketing system. I've been with them about a year now and never had to call although I did use the forum on day 1 as they hadn't set any account for me so it wouldn't authenticate.

The BT HomeHub 5 has a good reputation. The Plusnet technicolour less so. I use my own router.

If this were me I'd check the costings carefully and also checkout what cashback is available (Topcashback + Quidco).

You will also have the option of a plethora of other BT resellers.

I can't believe that BT works out as cheap as your other options.

The_Biff

If you get PlusNet thro Quidco there is a £150 (yes £150) cashback.

macman

Plusnet every time over BT. BT owned but (so far) run independently.
You have dozens of other options, but they'll be BT resellers, not LLU.

brewerdave

As kwikbreaks says -PN are currently having problems with waiting times both via phone and ticket reply BUT when you do get thru at least you are talking to someone in their own language.Also their online forum is very good for helping problem solve.
Having had to contact BT on quite a few occasions(a couple of years ago admittedly), I got extremely frustrated with 1. the communication difficulties and 2. having to explain everything from scratch each time - and don't get me started on the numerous promises to phone me back!:eek: