Sky or Plusnet???

christilee95

Thinking of switching to sky or plusnet for broadband.

Sky is £18 a month, £9.95 delivery, £20 to switch phone lines, But comes with a £50 prepaid card. Goes up to £30 after 12 months.

Plusnet is £19.99 but no set up fees. Goes up to £29.98 after 12 months.

So not much in it in terms of prices. So would love to hear opinions on customer service, the product (is it as you expected) ect..... Which would you choose?

Quentin

Why not go to the cheapest and then switch to the other at the end of the minimum term or price increase comes along - whichever is first??

lofielectronic

Sky took over our broadband a few years ago.

Other than some early on teething problems with the speed its not been too bad. It was noticeably slower than our previous supplier but on the whole its been pretty reliable and acceptable.

I've not had to contact them other than sorting out payment issues during the take over. Then though they were very much of the 'one hand doesn't know what the other is doing' school and you have to speak to someone new and go back to square one whenever you contact them. It wasn't a great experience to be honest.

[Deleted User]

I've found customer service good for both but there have generally been shorter wait times at Sky, but that may depend on when you call.

Broadband itself has been good with both.

Sky seem to do better offers when your minimum term is up, but not always. I generally swap between the two when one doesn't offer a good retention deal.

It's easier to use other routers with Plusnet. Sky used to insist you used its router but am not sure of the position now. There are posts in various forums of how to get round it if necessary.

pink_pirlie

I do not think plusnet is that expensive.

I just signed up via MSE yesterday and it was £18.99pcm with a £75 cashback. I paid the line rental up front (c.£198 pa) which works out at about £10/11pcm after taking the cashback into account - this is for the basic broadband not fibre. This was a better deal than via TCB.

I have only ever had plusnet in the past but I have not had any issues.
I always get a decent retention deal but have been without broadband for the past 4 years so things may have changed.

Hope that helps.

teddysmum

I moved from Sky to PlusNet, as Sky wouldn't do a good retention deal.


The Sky service was better than Plusnet (ADSL) but improved near the end of my first 12 months, after mentioning this on their forum.


Sky's modem looks a lot better and comes in black or white, though I was never given a choice.


PlusNet is possibly cheaper than quoted if you opt to pay line rental up front and I didn't have to do along haggle, as with Sky, for a retention deal. I was immediately offered my previous offer, just adding £12 as the line rental had gone up by £1/month.


You have to pay around £30 cease fee to leave PlusNet, unless you go to someone usually BT, that uses the BT network. This fee incudes Virgin, Sky and Talktalk, who have their own network.

MimiJane

PlusNet are cheap, but the customer services is abysmal! You can never reach them by phone (45 min wait when I tried to get through the other day), it also depends who you speak to as to what your "problem" is due to. I had no internet access for 2 days and was told it was internal wiring and my problem; however, when I rang again I was told it was a fault on the line, which they (eventually) put right. They really don't know what they're doing - read the horror stories on TrustPilot!

Robisere

MimiJane wrote: »

PlusNet are cheap, but the customer services is abysmal! You can never reach them by phone (45 min wait when I tried to get through the other day), it also depends who you speak to as to what your "problem" is due to. I had no internet access for 2 days and was told it was internal wiring and my problem; however, when I rang again I was told it was a fault on the line, which they (eventually) put right. They really don't know what they're doing - read the horror stories on TrustPilot!

Not at all my experience of customer service with Plusnet, on the phone or using the Chatline. I am on my second contract and well pleased. Did you register for the Member Centre? Open a ticket with Support there and you are likely to get your problem investigated PDQ.

esuhl

I'm with Sky. I had some really intermittent problems with the line. Fortunately, I'm quite "techie" and was able to give clear information to Sky about what I'd done, what the problem was, etc.


I was expecting to have some idiot reading from a script, but the staff were really helpful, listened to what I was saying, and went through the usual sensible suggestions (new router, cables, etc.), before arranging for BT Openreach to come out to fix the problem.


It did take a number of calls, and BT Openreach had to make a second visit, and I'm not sure how easy it would have been for a non-techie to have got resolved as the issue was so intermittent.



BUT... Everyone I spoke to at Sky was really friendly, cheerful, helpful, listened to what I was saying, and got the problem resolved without me having to chase them up all the time.


I was tempted with an incredibly cheap Vodafone deal, but after an appalling experience trying to switch, I ran straight back to Sky!

anactuary wrote: »

It's easier to use other routers with Plusnet. Sky used to insist you used its router but am not sure of the position now. There are posts in various forums of how to get round it if necessary.

This is something that really annoys me about Sky. I totally understand that they'd need you to be using their router if you have any problems (as their routers send diagnostic information back to Sky). But the "ban" on using your own router is obnoxious. They point-blank refuse to give you the login details you need.



But, you can sniff your login details by using Wireshark, like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdcsmYX7eEQ

Anthorn

christilee95 wrote: »

Thinking of switching to sky or plusnet for broadband.

Sky is £18 a month, £9.95 delivery, £20 to switch phone lines, But comes with a £50 prepaid card. Goes up to £30 after 12 months.

Plusnet is £19.99 but no set up fees. Goes up to £29.98 after 12 months.

So not much in it in terms of prices. So would love to hear opinions on customer service, the product (is it as you expected) ect..... Which would you choose?

Looks like a no brainer, go with Plusnet. Plusnet broadband also has the edge with the BT Sport Mobile App for a fiver a month currently discounted to £2.50p for the first 6 months. BUT if you get Plusnet TV to get the BT Sport App you need the BT Sport channel pack and the HD channels pack which costs £8.00p per month.

The only problem I've found with Plusnet is their "friendly helpful staff" which are supposed to "sort stuff out" cannot do much more than trained chimpanzees would do and also make you wait hanging on the phone for typically an hour. On reflection maybe go with Sky.