Switching from Plusnet to EE

dreamypuma

My current 12month free broadband deal with Plusnet is due to expire on 21st May. Historically, I've not known Plusnet to offer great retentions deals so I'm anticipating a switch from them.

Plusnet charge a £30 cessation fee for line terminations or switches to LLU services. This I want to avoid.

Would I be correct in thinking EE are nolonger offer an LLU service? Checked with Sam Knows and there appears to be no EE equipment at my exchange (Just TalkTalk, Vodafone and Sky)

Appreciate that there can be differences in speeds depending on the type of ADSL supplied ie ADSL v ADSL2. Am I likely to notice any or much difference in service between EE and Plusnet? - In the absence of any EE LLU am I going to effectively get the same service as Plusnet?

EE / Orange Broadband used to have a pretty dire reputation. Has this improved any over the years?

Would appreciate any advise from those in the know. I would like to get a good, cost effective ADSL Service. Thanks in advance.

kwikbreaks

When I tried for a retention deal with Plusnet they price matched a special offer from SSE (iirc) with no pressure at all and I ended up paying just a bit over half price.

I doubt anybody offers anything other than ADSL2+ these days and sfaik the only reason for a termination charge is if the bb service is ceased. Moving to LLU is not a cease.

Your headline speed will be the same from most ADSL providers - there could be detail differences in the case of LLU operators as their line management will be different from BT's. The performance at peak times used to vary widely between operators - especially those using BTw backhaul because one way of saving costs was to provide less bandwidth per customer than those giving a good service. I think this must have ceased as dissatisfied customers voted with their feet - at least I haven't seen much in theway of complaints about peak time slowdowns for quite a while.

In short try for a price match and if that fails go where you like and hope you don't need any CS because they can all be pretty poor.

dreamypuma

I'll try retentions before committing to a switch. The last time I tried Plusnet retention was about 3-4 years ago, things may have changed.

When factoring cashback from Quidco on the best new customer deals, I find that it's rarely worth sticking with the same provider. The exception to this was when I renewed with TalkTalk a few years ago. They just love to haggle.

Never used EE, but I guess if I've been with TalkTalk I've probably experienced the worst customer service possible, it cant be much worse. I'm hoping the service itself is up to scratch.

macman

EE is a resold BT Wholesale product, so your switch is simply from one non-LLU provider to another. EE has a fairly dire reputation for mobile CS, can't comment on the broadband side as it's relatively new, but I would not expect it to be as good as PN.

VickiLou

As a customer who was with Freeserve, who were bought out by Wanadoo, who were bought out by Orange, who then morphed into EE, and stayed with them through all of that, I have to say it was always great UNTIL it became EE. We 'upgraded' to fibre and had nothing but poor broadband and service after that, and we left them in December. The package price was good but I was very unimpressed with performance and customer service. That said, we changed to BT and are not hugely impressed with them so far... I'm starting to think maybe they are all equally awful.

JJ_Egan

(That said, we changed to BT and are not hugely impressed with them so far... I'm starting to think maybe they are all equally awful.)

I would suspect a problem if you have poor connection with two suppliers .

Neil_Jones

dreamypuma wrote: »

My current 12month free broadband deal with Plusnet is due to expire on 21st May. Historically, I've not known Plusnet to offer great retentions deals so I'm anticipating a switch from them.

Plusnet charge a £30 cessation fee for line terminations or switches to LLU services. This I want to avoid.

Cessation fee only applies if you cancel broadband totally - ie not to move to another provider. It doesn't apply if you move to another provider that comes over a BT line.

I moved from PlusNet to TalkTalk and didn't have to pay a penny apart from whatever was outstanding at the time of the move.

dreamypuma

I moved from plusnet to TalkTalk llu in 2013, and was charged the £30 fee. Complained and they would not waive the charge, refering me to their t&c's. One of the reasons i want to be more cautious this time.

dreamypuma

Whilst i'm quite tolerant over poor Customer service, i can't accept a poor product. TalkTalk suited me just fine, but currently offer no great deals or cash backs.

kwikbreaks

dreamypuma wrote: »

I moved from plusnet to TalkTalk llu in 2013, and was charged the £30 fee.

That would almost certainly be the fault of TalkTalk. In 2013 you would have needed to get a MAC and the chances are TT just ordered a cease and reprovide instead of going through the correct procedure. I think I've seen similar complaints before but if done correctly there should be no cease charge.

Given the MAC is no more if you decide to go to TalkTalk get them to confirm there will be no cease charge imposed or if there is that they will reimburse you for it.

dreamypuma

I recall TalkTalk advising that they didn't need a MAC code at the time. Though this was odd as previously I seem to recall using a MAC when with o2