The Nice People Thread, No.16: A Universe of Niceness.

PasturesNew

I'm trying to use the MSE comparison page... what a nightmare that is. Information overload.... but all very confusing.

For phone calls, as I've got unlimited calls, I tend to phone people about 3-4x a month (say), with a call lasting just under the hour (as I've always believed that you get charged for the whole hour if you go a minute over) ... looking at the first/cheapest broadband it offered me on MSE, calls were "at cost" - which I then looked at and 1 hour would cost £8. (13½p per minute). So, if I were to pick that, I'd have to never call anybody ... or phone them quick, shout "phone me back" down the line and hang up

Unless I choose a different type of connection (e.g. choosing fibre) how can anybody else offer a faster speed than I already get as, surely, they'd be using the same wires/cabinet as I currently have, that serves me a !!!!!! deal.

I don't "want" fibre/other ... but as "standard broadband" on the MSE page is defined as 10MB ... I'd like a bit of that with what I've got.

I've just decided that the MSE page is far too complex for me.... pure information overload... and all that talk about getting money back, and receiving cards and faffery .... too hard.

Whatever happened to the good old days when the price was the price and no tom foolery and jiggery pokery.

Taking just one item on the MSE page... if I select under "Contract" on the left "1 month", I'd expect the results to display providers who offer what is effectively a "no long contract" deal - so why am I seeing "18 month contract" prices too? Well "only" actually, there appear to be none that don't want to tie you into a contract at all... so why doesn't the page say "0 at the moment, below are long contracts"

Utterly useless.

More feathers to spit.

chris_m

PasturesNew wrote: »

So, really, I'm back to square one in that: I still have no idea what the heck I've got You'd think the Accounts tab, when logged in, would clearly say "You have XYZ Package, here's a link to what you've got. Would you like to compare that to what else we've got?"

Go to Billing and download your last bill. That will detail what you have - at least, it does mine.

PasturesNew

chris_m wrote: »

Go to Billing and download your last bill. That will detail what you have - at least, it does mine.

I've been to billing. I looked at all sorts of stuff (after he pages finally ended up loading as they're so slow)... still no clues.

I avoid downloading thing as a rule as it takes way too long to download to be able to look - and I'd not expect it to say any different to what I see online.

Mine's with BT, who don't even give you a phone number to call and ask. They expect you to go to their unfathomable nasty slow website ... and find it all out - but 99% of their site is just sales pages and sales guff and marketing department "awe" headlines... and no actual:
What've I got
What can I have?

chris_m

PasturesNew wrote: »

Unless I choose a different type of connection (e.g. choosing fibre) how can anybody else offer a faster speed than I already get as, surely, they'd be using the same wires/cabinet as I currently have, that serves me a !!!!!! deal.

I don't "want" fibre/other ... but as "standard broadband" on the MSE page is defined as 10MB ... I'd like a bit of that with what I've got.

Bung your postcode and phone number in here to see what is available.

https://www.productsandservices.bt.com/broadband/availability/

You might find that fibre is and for about the same price as you're paying.

Looking at your speed I suspect that you are rather a long way from the exchange so, if there is fibre available, it'll be faster because part of the distance will be replaced by fibre which does not limit the speed in proportion to the distance.

For example, when I moved here the best I could get was around 3Mb/s, about right for the distance to the exchange in the local town, connected by a mixture of copper and wet string I suspect
Then they put a fibre cabinet in at the other end of the village, about a mile away, and I switched to the fibre package, getting between 10 and 18Mb/s depending on the weather.
More recently, they put another fibre cabinet only about 150 yards up the road (approx 200m actual line length) and switched me to it without even asking, let alone charging me more - and I now get a rock solid 39Mb/s, no matter what the weather

chris_m

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've been to billing. I looked at all sorts of stuff (after he pages finally ended up loading as they're so slow)... still no clues.

I avoid downloading thing as a rule as it takes way too long to download to be able to look - and I'd not expect it to say any different to what I see online.

Unfortunately, the online view only gives you what they consider a "pertinent summary" - the downloadable pdf bill shows the lot, just like the old paper ones did.

I agree that it's not ideal - and I used to work for them

My biggest gripe with the paperless billing is that thney send me an email each month telling me that the bill's ready but that I have to log in to see the amount. Why the hell they can't/won't include the amount in the email I know not (*) - it's not as if it's a security issue to to say "Your bill comes to £xx.xx, please log in if you want to see the details". All I normally want is the amount they'll be taking from my bank account, I only need to see the rest if it's more than I expected.

(*) actually I have a pretty shrewd suspicion why - it's so they can push adverts for other products at you :mad:

PasturesNew

chris_m wrote: »

https://www.productsandservices.bt.com/broadband/availability/

That's not very helpful. Clicked that and counted.

White Screen
30 seconds later a single purple button appeared
70 seconds from starting the top red/purple splash image appeared
90 seconds page was loaded.

I put in my postcode and waited.... another minute and a half for it to load up the results.

18 month contracts all round .... and the bottom one (which is probably what I already have) calls itself "Standard broadband", which is £45.49/month after that initial 18 months.

Superfast Fibre Unlimited is £29.99/month, rising to £52.49/month after 18 months.


The issue I have is this:
I am going to sell the house, but I don't know when, so "no contract" is what I need.... so I don't get "trapped" in a situation I wish I'd never got into.

PasturesNew

Right. I logged onto my BT account - and I downloaded an actual bill - and there was a phone number, so I phoned to whinge.

"£50/1.3MB????" I said....

The official answer is: "Yes, your speed is 1MB to 3.5MB and you're within that".

So I said "And what about your webpage that tells me that I can get 10MB under the standard broadband?" and she said "Ah, but not at your house" ... although I'd put my postcode in and selected my house from the dropdown, this doesn't apparently do an actual line test.... which would be needed.

So, the bottom line is this, the choices are:
1/ You've got what you've got, now quite your whingeing. Nothing can improve it.
2/ Sign up for Fibre, which is an 18 month contract, and when you move house you can have a bit of flexibility (1-2 months max) if you're "between houses", but that doesn't help if where the new house is doesn't have fibre.

PasturesNew

Mobile tethering.... might have to look into how that all works..... it's a phrase I've heard years ago and kind of "understand what that is/means" ... but I've no idea what "deal/package" I have on my phone or if that'd be any faster, or any good.

I just want.... what other people have... even 1/10th of what they get would be a step up.

chris_m

Very true - best thing is to put up with it until you move, then look into it at the new place.

chris_m

PasturesNew wrote: »

Mobile tethering.... might have to look into how that all works..... it's a phrase I've heard years ago and kind of "understand what that is/means" ... but I've no idea what "deal/package" I have on my phone or if that'd be any faster, or any good.

Be careful, you can easily end up using more data than you expect, because many sites have a web version and a mobile version, the former of which uses more data than the latter - and many mobile providers don't like you doing it unless you pay a premium rate.