Are all broadband providers rubbish?

VisionMan

You know, as good as this forum is (which it is) cheap usually means crap.

JJ_Egan

You get very few posters asking for expensive broadband . The common point is to drive the price down .

AndyPK

I guess people want reasonably priced broadband with something they consider important to them. That maybe speed or good customer service

mac.d

Just be aware that even paying out extra to get the superior customer service of a company like Zen, they rely on BT's infrastructure and while they will do more to chase up problems (like jas88 mentions in his comment about A&A), it doesn't mean you won't ever have any problems. Dealing with tech support or customer service at these ISP's is like a breath of fresh air in comparison to Sky, BT, Talk Talk, Virgin etc.

Though in saying that, I'm now back with BT using Infinity, and my only issue is the price! *touch wood* service has been excellent so far, so have had no need to contact them, thankfully!

Im_just_careful

In answer to the original post, to some degree, yes !

Personally I've been pleased with Plusnet in terms of price for performance and I would recommend them.

I've had a couple of faults over the decade I've been with them and the support experience has been good.

onomatopoeia99

I'm another that uses and is happy to recommend A&A.

mgfvvc

AndyPK wrote: »

I guess people want reasonably priced broadband with something they consider important to them. That maybe speed or good customer service

It's about priorities. The cheapest broadband isn't money saving, if you work from home and your network is unusable.

I dumped Virgin cable to avoid having to deal with their call centre. Unfortunately I ended up with BT for a while which wasn't a great improvement.

I have now moved to Zen because of their reputation for customer service. I am sure that I could save on their fees by constantly swapping cheap providers and I would regret it when there are problems. In short Zen may not be cheapest, but I think they are better value than the cheap providers.

DavidP24

davidgmmafan wrote: »

It would seem so given the reviews here

http://www.broadband.co.uk/broadband/reviews/

Virtually all the recent ones seem to say don't join x company! This makes me wonder if they are all going for growth service standards be damned...

I'm looking at this for a relative who wants to leave Talk Talk but this makes pretty depressing reading. The difference (s) in cost are marginal and there seems to be nothing to pick between them in terms of service.

Are they any well kept secrets I need to know about?

For the headline question, the answer is YES, pretty much!

The market is messed up, there is no loyalty to exisitng customers

Prices have been set artificially high and a system of introductory offers means that you basically need to jump ship every 12 months.

Each company has good and bad service elements, Sky insist with BT that they get 14 day install and they only charge £20 for it, Plusnet decided to just reduce expectation by saying it will be 4 weeks and they charge £49 for the privilege.

I have had horrendous experience with TalkTalk, I do not like their values and complete disdain towards customers. Culture comes from the top as so many have complained and they do not seem to want to change.

However, if you want a secret it is to have leverage, others have posted on here how they got a deal by saying they were leaving to get the Sky £61 for the yeat deal which ends Friday.

You have to call and be Angry, you have to speak to the right call centre (not Philippines and ideally South Africa) although some in India will do deal.

The first person you speak to is a waste of time, you need to let them give you their kwap deal and then still angry say "that is rubbish, put me through to a manage I want to complain about you", you go through it with them and be prepared to leave.

You always know a bad deal necause

Ask them "why should I stay one more day when I can join SkyBB for £61 for the year, I have seen online that you are doing deals for people at £27 for 18m line rental, BB and Anytime calls. So who do I need to talk to at TT to get that because either you get serious or you lose this customer and I will tell all my friends and social network how dire you are.

If they do not help ask for a call frm the Chief Exec's office, rinse and repeat.

If all else fails go with Sky at £61 http://!!!!!!/skybb61

jenniewb

I wouldn't always say more expensive is better.
I frequently had internet outages with BT and called up about them when they happened (around 1-4am) I was told each time someone would check things and get back to me. They never did.


On several occasions I was told their checks showed up no issues and that it was the wireless connection at fault. So I put back the cables to make it a wired connection. Still the same issues. I was then told it was common for the internet to shut down at night and basicly should just put up with it.
I had the Open Reach people visit but despite being with BT, they didn't arrange a visit any sooner than when I'd been with Sky, Talktalk, O2 or PlusNet (The man blamed it yet again on degraded cables outside my properly, under the road- I usually get told this is the issue and it never gets repaired due to costs).


By now I'd decided it was the router at fault- having never once picked up there was no internet until I manually restarted it and then eventually the connection would restart. I asked BT for a new router but was told they checked and there was nothing wrong with my router (I will add that no one visited to check my router or even offered to replace it.) I was told every time I phoned that the issue was either non existent (they couldn't see it) or it was due to cables inside my home (despite having replaced them after they suggested this the first time). Totally disagreed with the Open Reach team who for the last 10 years have been saying the same thing!


So I moved to another BB supplier- so far 1 month in I've not had any outages despite it disconnecting with BT in previous weeks, several times a day and sometimes several times an hour, fixed only by restarting the router.


BT asked for their router back and I only hope they don't intend on recycling it because to say it's not fit for purpose is not an infuriating enough description!

wongataa

jenniewb wrote: »

I had the Open Reach people visit but despite being with BT, they didn't arrange a visit any sooner than when I'd been with Sky, Talktalk, O2 or PlusNet (The man blamed it yet again on degraded cables outside my properly, under the road- I usually get told this is the issue and it never gets repaired due to costs).

Openreach are not allowed to have any favouritism towards BT over other ISPs. They may be owned by BT but they are a separate division from the retail ISP division and by the terms of the regulations they operate under they have to provide the same service levels to every ISP that uses their infrastructure. This is why Openreach did not do anything more quickly when you were with BT.