Great Hunt: What stops you switching broadband?

wendywaugh

The main reason I don't switch ISP is because I don't want to have to change my e-mail address (although I understand that this may not necessarily be the case but I don't want to risk it). I'm with BT and whilst they're not the cheapest, they are reliable you can usually haggle a deal at renewal time.

boliston

if you can "haggle a deal" then the odds are they are overpriced to start with

Kaz_the_gas

I was offered an excellent deal when I threatened to leave.:T

Melancholie

I just did switch. Been with PlusNet for 2 years, paying up front for the line rental for the year, and getting their fibre package. The service was sluggish though, and I've switched to a smaller company where I'm getting better speeds. It's cheaper line rental but more expensive fibre, but as my husband works from home and his company pay for our broadband, the cost of that bit isn't really a consideration for us.

There shouldn't have been any downtime as migrations are supposed to be seamless these days, but PlusNet messed up and took us out of commission a day early. Poor husband had to tether to his phone for a day. Good job he gets unlimited data on his SIM only deal!

menshevik

The reason I'm still with Plusnet is their call-centre. Previous experiences with BT and with Tiscali/TalkTalk convinced me that price-led decisions are fine until something needs human intervention. That's when you find out what a company's really like and then it's down to the people in it, their knowledge and their level of empowerment. In fairness, Openreach (BT in disguise), seem to have pulled their socks up a lot in the last few years - younger engineers doing the fieldwork seems to be a good thing. And since I switched to internet connection via fibre broadband there simply haven't been any issues, or is that tempting fate?

Cycrow

Chino wrote: »

I hadn't been aware that webmail providers such as Yahoo! or Google allowed people to use their own domains for e-mail.

Some do.

However, you can simply forward emails to another service.

so if you have your own domain, you simply setup a forward to another address, which could be your isp email, or one of the free providers. Then if you ever change your isp you simply change the forward to the new isp's server.

most of the big domain registrars offer free email forwarding, there are also plenty of other places that offer it for free to

mgfvvc

I'm another one that wasn't moving moving because I work from home and I couldn't afford a major outage.

The new simplified transfer process has finally got me to move off BT. I'm not sure I'm saving money, but I'm prioritising service over price and I have moved to Zen Internet. I have a slightly cheaper fixed cost, but I lose bundled weekend calls and unlimited downloads. The 50GB download limit is more than adequate and I didn't make a lot of use of the bundled calls, so it probably still saves me a pound or two.

I timed the move so it would happen while I was away for a week and on my return a quick router reconfiguration got everything back up and running. It couldn't have been much easier.

So far Zen have been great to deal with, so I'm a happy customer.

Moneyer

esuhl wrote: »

Why would you need to do that when there are free services around like GMX, Yahoo, GMail, etc.?

(1) At least some (all?) of these providers harvest data from your emails for marketing purposes. As somebody said, if you don't pay for the product, you ARE the product.

(2) Without a contract you have no right to service: they can (and sometimes do) withdraw service from people instantly (hence cutting them off from their mail) without even telling them why.

I'd much rather pay a few pounds per year for a proper contractual relationship that makes me a customer with rights….

Grumpy_auld_yin

slbhill wrote: »

I did just switch, but it took a long time to do it. What held me back, in order of priority;


1. Hassle factor (too many options, broadband, call costs, tv tie in), or perhaps just simple laziness


2. Concerns about speed in my slightly remote area (I was on TalkTalk years ago and it was snail-speed but that didn't become apparent until I'd already got the contract)
3. Got attached to my TiVo box
4. Wasn't sure how hard it would be to get "normal" tv back because the Virgin engineer cut through the wire from the aerial when he installed their new cable. (I didn't realise at the time, or would have got it dealt with then).

Beware of engineers offering to tidy up or remove that "unsightly" old wiring from your previous provider especially if they are working for a "cable " company . As you have discovered it may make a future change more awkward and costly . I used to work for a major national telecomms provider and this is a common way of tying you up .:mad:

minislim

for me its what attracts me to move.
the best lowest price for broadband and line rental wins every time.

big no no's are the fact that all providers seem to fiddle their market by only offering good deals on bundles. separate line rental and broadband doesn't seem to exist much.

another no no is providers sneaking up contract terms from 12 months up to 18 and now 24 months. for no real reason?

this is what happened to the mobile phone market. initially because handset costs were going up and contract prices going down. but that leveled out around 2009 and since then its been stagnant in that marketplace. contract terms should really be reducing again these days.

my third bug bear is line rental in general. its a bit of a monopoly that BT still holds on to for maintenance of the infrastructure. but it should be scrapped. everyone has to pay it if they want broadband.
their recent hikes have nothing to do with infrastructure at all. its more to cover the £15 million bill they've got to pay for champions league rights.