Free Laptop with AOL now! (merged)

ziffius

vjain wrote: »

I disagree, they are just using it as a form of differentiation. Companies can use anything to do this from price (low or high), to free gifts to higher or lower speeds. Its all about what you are looking for. If you want the cheapest deal cable or something like TalkTalk work out very good value. However, if you fancy a laptop now but without having to pay for it all at once, then the Aol offer could be quite good for you.

I agree with Inactive on this, a decent ISP doesn't need to give away a Laptop or tie people into a 2 year contract. Plenty of ISP's now have a 1 month contract. There is an ever enlarging wide gulf between ISP's, with the likes of Zen, BE, Entanet etc at one end that are fast but very expensive and capped and at the other end you have the likes of orange, aol, eclipse, tiscali etc that are cheap and unlimited but are heavily traffic shaped and often very slow. With Aol, orange giving away laptops this is going to get even worse and other ISP's like Tiscali etc are bound to follow suite.

An 24 month contract is to long, maybe the 18 month orange contract might tempt me. An orange 18 month unlimited contract works out to £330, and then they are going to give you a free laptop. I think most people would prefer they spend this money on improving their service.

I live less than 500 metres from my exchange and still suffer from slow speeds, broadband speeds in this country just aren't upto scratch. Cable's great, but they only serve certain areas.

Inactive

vjain wrote: »

I disagree, they are just using it as a form of differentiation. Companies can use anything to do this from price (low or high), to free gifts to higher or lower speeds. Its all about what you are looking for. If you want the cheapest deal cable or something like TalkTalk work out very good value. However, if you fancy a laptop now but without having to pay for it all at once, then the Aol offer could be quite good for you.

Fair enough, if that is your criteria, mine is to have a reliable, fast connection, with a UK based Call Centre where the staff answer the phone within 3 rings, know what they are taliking about and sort issues immediately, also a one month contract at a fair price.

I value my BB connection to much to entrust it to one of these Mickey Mouse outfits that cannot attract new customers by reputation.

If I want a laptop, I can buy one.

VIJAY_FROM_KENT

Can you find a single ISP that fits all the criteria above? I doubt you will find any UK company let alone ISP that answers phones within 3 rings!

I've personally been with AOL for about 5 years and I am totally happy with them. I didnt like the way their software used to be compulsory but thats sorted now... I am considering TalkTalk though as its such a good deal...

mellowfellow69

vjain wrote: »

Yep I agree. They have a bad name, etc but I have found the connection very reliable. I am just wondering whether I will be able to get the free laptop as my 12 months is over...

my aol contract is up on 10/8/07 i was wondering the same thing , i called them today and was told if i stayed with them for another month on my existing contract then i would be able to get the lap top deal when it comes out in september.
i pay £17.99 for 8mb but even another £2 per month over 2 years for a £400+ laptop seems a pretty good deal to me , we have a 3pc home network and have never had any probs with connections or downtimes.
so i would rate aol pretty highly , for those folk who hate their software, dont use it , use IE 7, firefox or safari for browsing .
:T

Inactive

vjain wrote: »

Can you find a single ISP that fits all the criteria above? I doubt you will find any UK company let alone ISP that answers phones within 3 rings!

QUOTE]


Yes, I am with one, they also answer emails in about 20 minutes.

Not the cheapest by any means, but you get what you pay for with ISP's.

BTW, as you probably know, AOL ( UK ) is now part of Carphone Warehouse so basically the same company as Talk Talk, both have dire customer reviews on the BB sites, as do most of the cheap and nasty ISP's.

mostly

vjain wrote: »

Can you find a single ISP that fits all the criteria above? I doubt you will find any UK company let alone ISP that answers phones within 3 rings!

I've known of 2.

VIJAY_FROM_KENT

mostly wrote: »

I've known of 2.

So please share with us all! Who are the 2 companies that are:

• reliable
• fast connection
• with a UK based Call Centre
• the staff answer the phone within 3 rings
• know what they are talking about
• sort issues immediately
• also a one month contract
• charge a fair price

mostly

Entanet resellers & zen not cheap but you get what you pay for at the end of the day.

mbailey

vjain wrote: »

• the staff answer the phone within 3 rings

Any company paying staff to sit around waiting to answer phone calls with in 3 rings is surely going to cost a fortune?

Inactive

mbailey wrote: »

Any company paying staff to sit around waiting to answer phone calls with in 3 rings is surely going to cost a fortune?

They don't have to be " sitting around " they may just put their customers needs as a priority.