Internet Service Providers. Are they all as crap as mine?

[ILoveLightnings]

Just come back online after 13 days cut off by Aol/Talk Talk. Customer service was terrible, from a misdiagnosed faulty router to out and out lies and being passed from one "technician" to another. Finally got someone to take notice and once the call came back to the UK I got re-connected last night but at only 2meg instead of 6

So enough is enough. I have 6 days of a colling off period left to request a MAC code and get away from these idiots. But where to?? Anyone got any suggestions??

Thanks,
Pat

[Dragon Rapide]

In changed from BT to Sky about two years ago and have no problems at all.

[Kokpit]

Been with BT for 5 years, not a problem, a couple of tech issues over those years that have been resolved quickly over the phone.

I think you get what you pay for to be honest, these larger than life offers that drag people in are really not there for the consumer!

Anyway, now looking to upgrade to BT Infinity, you can check the actual speed on your line, it would take me from 4 to 5 Mbs up to 38 MBs for not a lot more a month.

Kev.

[Dragon Rapide]

These Mbs figures are more hope than reality aren't they? The speed is dependant on so many variables that it is not possible to make a blanket determination. If you DO achieve 38 I will be astonished.

[Cimmerian]

I use Virgin at home and I've had no problems with their Internet over the last three years (different matter with their phone service but that's another matter). Switched to the 50meg wireless service last Christmas with no trouble, it's been very good. Both my Mum and the mother-in-law are with BT and are without Internet fairly regulary.

I was with AOL when I first got Internet and gave it up very quickly, it was crap.

[Southendnick]

Also got Virgin paid for the 2meg free upgrade to 10meg and its always hitting that rate. Had one or two problems but the service support was very good getting the problem sorted quickly, when the modem gave out they had a new one deliverd and fitted the next day, which I thought was very good.

[DerekF]

Been with BT for about 10 years now and have had no real problems. I use my own router now rather than one provide but it is good service provider.

[Sea King]

cut off by Aol/Talk Talk.

Yeah, sounds like they've done you a favour...

[Craig]

Been with BT for about 10 years now and have had no real problems. I use my own router now rather than one provide but it is good service provider.

I think that sums up BT somehow. When they're fine they're good. When things start to go wrong though they're an utter nightmare.

[UKTopgun]

Yes bt is not a bad choice imho ... just make sure you don't touch Plusnet with a barge pole

[Trembler]

Have been using Sky for a while now and no problems. Line rental + £5 a month for calls and £7.50 unlimited broadband.

[Sea King]

Been with BT for about 10 years now and have had no real problems. I use my own router now rather than one provide but it is good service provider.

I think that sums up BT somehow. When they're fine they're good. When things start to go wrong though they're an utter nightmare.

Sorry? I don't think Derek was suggesting things had gone wrong, at all - if he was, the post has been poorly worded. Using your own router is hardly a stick to determine the quality of your service provider, or that things had gone horribly wrong. What a bizarre post, Craig -- still bitter that BT didn't work out for you?

[Craig]

Been with BT for about 10 years now and have had no real problems. I use my own router now rather than one provide but it is good service provider.

I think that sums up BT somehow. When they're fine they're good. When things start to go wrong though they're an utter nightmare.

Sorry? I don't think Derek was suggesting things had gone wrong, at all - if he was, the post has been poorly worded. Using your own router is hardly a stick to determine the quality of your service provider, or that things had gone horribly wrong. What a bizarre post, Craig -- still bitter that BT didn't work out for you?

Bizzare? Hardly. More that BT provide a good service when it works, they just have extremely poor customer service when it doesn't. Does it annoy me that as a result of their incompetence I was without the internet for a month? Well what do you think?

[Sea King]

Been with BT for about 10 years now and have had no real problems. I use my own router now rather than one provide but it is good service provider.

I think that sums up BT somehow. When they're fine they're good. When things start to go wrong though they're an utter nightmare.

Sorry? I don't think Derek was suggesting things had gone wrong, at all - if he was, the post has been poorly worded. Using your own router is hardly a stick to determine the quality of your service provider, or that things had gone horribly wrong. What a bizarre post, Craig -- still bitter that BT didn't work out for you?

Bizzare? Hardly. More that BT provide a good service when it works, they just have extremely poor customer service when it doesn't. Does it annoy me that as a result of their incompetence I was without the internet for a month? Well what do you think?

I've never had a problem. Therefore, it must have been an 'isolated' incident, unfortunately -- but you were definitely hinting at a lot more in your reply to Derek; almost on the verge of trolling BT's very own service - a first, anywhere! Sure, you're frustrated at your problems with BT, but I definitely noticed you bringing up how awful they were during the conversation with Derek. It probably wasn't needed, considering it had no place in the reply.

On a more serious note, I'm sorry you had no service for a month. Clearly, that is not acceptable.

[Craig]

Been with BT for about 10 years now and have had no real problems. I use my own router now rather than one provide but it is good service provider.

I think that sums up BT somehow. When they're fine they're good. When things start to go wrong though they're an utter nightmare.

Sorry? I don't think Derek was suggesting things had gone wrong, at all - if he was, the post has been poorly worded. Using your own router is hardly a stick to determine the quality of your service provider, or that things had gone horribly wrong. What a bizarre post, Craig -- still bitter that BT didn't work out for you?

Bizzare? Hardly. More that BT provide a good service when it works, they just have extremely poor customer service when it doesn't. Does it annoy me that as a result of their incompetence I was without the internet for a month? Well what do you think?

I've never had a problem. Therefore, it must have been an 'isolated' incident, unfortunately -- but you were definitely hinting at a lot more in your reply to Derek; almost on the verge of trolling BT's very own service - a first, anywhere! Sure, you're frustrated at your problems with BT, but I definitely noticed you bringing up how awful they were during the conversation with Derek. It probably wasn't needed, considering it had no place in the reply.

On a more serious note, I'm sorry you had no service for a month. Clearly, that is not acceptable.

When you get a OP asking for opinions on ISPs because they want to leave theirs on the basis of poor customer service, I'm not sure quite how my reply is irrelevant. I've never said that BTs product is poor and would not-it's not the case! Derek is happy with BT because he's never had any need to use their customer services. I was too. But if things start to go wrong then the situation the OP described is not unlikely to be repeated. Was it isolated? Could well be, but when 4 different Indian call centre operatives are merrily parrotting that you're line is fine when it clearly isn't, well you do wonder if their fault finding is as sharp as it ought to be...

[iaint]

Been with BT for about 10 years now and have had no real problems. I use my own router now rather than one provide but it is good service provider.

I think that sums up BT somehow. When they're fine they're good. When things start to go wrong though they're an utter nightmare.

Sorry? I don't think Derek was suggesting things had gone wrong, at all - if he was, the post has been poorly worded. Using your own router is hardly a stick to determine the quality of your service provider, or that things had gone horribly wrong. What a bizarre post, Craig -- still bitter that BT didn't work out for you?

Bizzare? Hardly. More that BT provide a good service when it works, they just have extremely poor customer service when it doesn't. Does it annoy me that as a result of their incompetence I was without the internet for a month? Well what do you think?

I've never had a problem. Therefore, it must have been an 'isolated' incident, unfortunately -- but you were definitely hinting at a lot more in your reply to Derek; almost on the verge of trolling BT's very own service - a first, anywhere! Sure, you're frustrated at your problems with BT, but I definitely noticed you bringing up how awful they were during the conversation with Derek. It probably wasn't needed, considering it had no place in the reply.

On a more serious note, I'm sorry you had no service for a month. Clearly, that is not acceptable.

Just because you've never had a problem, then Craig's must have been isolated? I bet you'll find many disgruntled ex-customers that encountered similar problems if you go looking around the relevant forums...
Seeing how the thread is titled 'ISPs, are they all as crap...', then I'm sure that Craig has every right to express as much dissatisfaction as he likes going by his experiences.
Your posts get stranger by the day, to consider what is essentially a consumer complaint as trolling has to be up there with th strangest, joins the rest of your trolling accusations!

Iain

[Sea King]

Been with BT for about 10 years now and have had no real problems. I use my own router now rather than one provide but it is good service provider.

I think that sums up BT somehow. When they're fine they're good. When things start to go wrong though they're an utter nightmare.

Sorry? I don't think Derek was suggesting things had gone wrong, at all - if he was, the post has been poorly worded. Using your own router is hardly a stick to determine the quality of your service provider, or that things had gone horribly wrong. What a bizarre post, Craig -- still bitter that BT didn't work out for you?

Bizzare? Hardly. More that BT provide a good service when it works, they just have extremely poor customer service when it doesn't. Does it annoy me that as a result of their incompetence I was without the internet for a month? Well what do you think?

I've never had a problem. Therefore, it must have been an 'isolated' incident, unfortunately -- but you were definitely hinting at a lot more in your reply to Derek; almost on the verge of trolling BT's very own service - a first, anywhere! Sure, you're frustrated at your problems with BT, but I definitely noticed you bringing up how awful they were during the conversation with Derek. It probably wasn't needed, considering it had no place in the reply.

On a more serious note, I'm sorry you had no service for a month. Clearly, that is not acceptable.

Just because you've never had a problem, then Craig's must have been isolated? I bet you'll find many disgruntled ex-customers that encountered similar problems if you go looking around the relevant forums...
Seeing how the thread is titled 'ISPs, are they all as crap...', then I'm sure that Craig has every right to express as much dissatisfaction as he likes going by his experiences.

Iain

I'm sure I would find others who aren't happy -- certainly in this thread, given the fairly positive attitude towards BT, you could argue it was isolated. Therefore I dimiss what you say.

However, voicing his concerns on top of a reply, which was never being critical of the service, seems strange. No harm in posting a separate response, or even separating the quote? It just seemed that it was a blatant attempt at trolling BT and encouraging more people to join in the disgruntled attitude towards them. On top of a fairly positive attitude Derek took towards his ISP, it seems a little out of place.

And thanks for the interest in my posts.

[Thumper]

I did have Sky unlimited (25MBps) broadband for £7.50 a month, it was excellent and I still had high speed even during peak times.

You should think yourself lucky, I'm in the process of moving home and having to use a Vodaphone Pre-Pay internet dongle, it's AWFUL, speed is that of dial up, it frequently drops out and you get 2GB's for £15 which runs out in a week of browsing, oh and don't even bother trying to watch anything on iPlayer or Youtube, you may as well set fire to £15 and watch that instead!! *rant over*

[Craig]

Been with BT for about 10 years now and have had no real problems. I use my own router now rather than one provide but it is good service provider.

I think that sums up BT somehow. When they're fine they're good. When things start to go wrong though they're an utter nightmare.

Sorry? I don't think Derek was suggesting things had gone wrong, at all - if he was, the post has been poorly worded. Using your own router is hardly a stick to determine the quality of your service provider, or that things had gone horribly wrong. What a bizarre post, Craig -- still bitter that BT didn't work out for you?

Bizzare? Hardly. More that BT provide a good service when it works, they just have extremely poor customer service when it doesn't. Does it annoy me that as a result of their incompetence I was without the internet for a month? Well what do you think?

I've never had a problem. Therefore, it must have been an 'isolated' incident, unfortunately -- but you were definitely hinting at a lot more in your reply to Derek; almost on the verge of trolling BT's very own service - a first, anywhere! Sure, you're frustrated at your problems with BT, but I definitely noticed you bringing up how awful they were during the conversation with Derek. It probably wasn't needed, considering it had no place in the reply.

On a more serious note, I'm sorry you had no service for a month. Clearly, that is not acceptable.

Just because you've never had a problem, then Craig's must have been isolated? I bet you'll find many disgruntled ex-customers that encountered similar problems if you go looking around the relevant forums...
Seeing how the thread is titled 'ISPs, are they all as crap...', then I'm sure that Craig has every right to express as much dissatisfaction as he likes going by his experiences.

Iain

I'm sure I would find others who aren't happy -- certainly in this thread, given the fairly positive attitude towards BT, you could argue it was isolated. Therefore I dimiss what you say.

However, voicing his concerns on top of a reply, which was never being critical of the service, seems strange. No harm in posting a separate response, or even separating the quote? It just seemed that it was a blatant attempt at trolling BT and encouraging more people to join in the disgruntled attitude towards them. On top of a fairly positive attitude Derek took towards his ISP, it seems a little out of place.

And thanks for the interest in my posts.

Erm, no. Derek said the BT service was good, and as I said, I agree. What I was pointing out though was that while the product is good (as Derek said) their customer service is less so. A blatant attempt at trolling? I think you need to have a good look at what "trolling" is-I certainly wasn't looking at stirring up any trouble merely adding a counter argument to what Derek had posted! The OP takes or leaves my experiences as is his perrogative, but it's certainly not "trolling" in any form!

[Kokpit]

These Mbs figures are more hope than reality aren't they? The speed is dependant on so many variables that it is not possible to make a blanket determination. If you DO achieve 38 I will be astonished.

No I don't think so. Check it out yourself on BT's website, if your area has, or is about to have, BT Infinity fibre optics, it shows you the speed you will get.

Edit: Just tried the site from work, with my home number, and here's the result. They look pretty explicit to me. Their front page says 'Up to 40 MBs' so this seems to tie-in to me.

BT Infinity 32.0Mb download
10.0Mb upload

BT Total Broadband Between 4.0Mb and 8.0Mb
(Estimated speed: 6.0Mb)

[Dragon Rapide]

In which case I retract my comment. I remain sceptical simply because there is often a gap between what is promised and what is achieved. But good luck anyway! Let us know how you get on.

[Kokpit]

Let us know how you get on.

Just been connected to BT Infinity, getting 38 Mbps download and 8 Mbps upload. Well impressed, and the download is even faster than the figure they stated that I'd get.

Kev.

[Steve_W_1962]

Yes bt is not a bad choice imho ... just make sure you don't touch Plusnet with a barge pole

I've been with Plusnet for nearly a year now, and have found their broadband service more reliable than my previous provider (Sky), and when I left Sky, I had all sorts of issues with them including not giving me a MAC code, for which I lodged an official complaint with Ofcom.
I've had many letters / phone calls from Sky, trying to tempt me back with "better" offers, there's only one place for these offers and the sun doesn't shine there