Internet Service Provider Change

[vladic]

Hi Guys,

First off wanted to say that I know this is part technology and part serious, but I figured a better response would be aquired from the technology side of things and that any and all opinions will be considered in a none biased manner.

So background details, well we have been with Virgin media for close to 5 years now and as many have noticed the prices over the last year have jumped several times by varying percentages meaning our bill has rose to £45 in the last 2 increases, my stepfather who payed the bill soley is needless to say not a happy man was going to axe it and go with Sky, this would however result in returning to a phone line connection and our phone lines in my region of living rankly suck, not to mention the speed reduction, limitations etc so to prevent this I offered to pay half the monthly bill, but as I have also come to realise we do require a replacement.

At current we are on a Fibre connection with Virgin Media that has 20mb connection, unlimited usage, Calls and a bunch of other stuff we frankly dont use or dont remember about, now at current I am looking into BT infinity as it has become viable in our location of living, and whilst I have been viewing there easy to find deals I would be interested in knowing of any alternative providers (fibre connection prefered as said our phone line sucks something chronic) or better BT infinity deals you fine folks can find.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Vladic

[GhostMjr]

I am afraid talking to the usual contact centre at virgin towers is like squeezing blood out of a stone.

All I do is regularly check the website and see the price changes and ring them up on a Sunday to get them to drop the price which the asian operators are pleased to do, however if you call and get through to a UK call centre both the normal advisor and supervisor won't be willing to budge on prices.

The more services you have with them the more they will be willing to negotiate. the account holder needs to ring them and ask to speak to 'retentions' they'll give you a deal but if your not satisfied contact the ceo's office and they'll drop the price.

My price before all the increases was £34.75 it went up to £36.75 then the ceo's office dropped it down to £30.75 for a 120mb down 10mb broadband only package. They always make existing customers pay more or implement increases as they don't think people check their bills. I have been with them about 8 years I guess.

Another quick trick is that you don't need to have a phoneline with TV as the TV actually comes down the same cable as the broadband the telephone is a separate second table but only the engineers know this and its not common knowledge.

Let me know how you get on.

[Benny]

My TTB FTTC runs like a greased whippet and whilst I know their support is dire, I have shortcuts in (that I've never had to use).

To be fair, the support from everyone else is bad too, TTB just have a skoda image now.

[Tutonic]

My two pence: I have unlimited 20mb ADSL from PlusNet, and it's £12.50 a month. Rolling 30 day contract, no other strings attached.

I've never needed to contact their support, so I can't comment on that side of things but their customer service is top notch.

I know you were only initially looking for cable/fibre suggestions, but I've been so impressed by Plusnet as an ISP that I thought I'd give them a plug.

[Niel]

Bt Infinity will still be on your phone line from the local street box - they can't put it down the nice fibre that you use for Virgin.

BT's support is awful.....really bad

Plusnet - i know several people using Plusnet....and to date i have heard only good about them.....no idea why.

[Switchback]

I had nothing but trouble with bt. Their customer service was terrible.

They promised higher speeds due a new exchange being put in, yet they were slow and I had constant dc's. they tried charging me for extra usage even though I was on the unlimited package.

I had enough and swapped to sky. Bt then decided to charge me a years line rental and for the router. I canceled about 35 days before that contract was up, yet they wanted over £300 from me. After lots of angry phonecalls and a few letters I didn't pay for anything.

Had no problem with sky, the occasional dc and such. My router died on a Saturday an engineer turned up with 1 on the Monday. Much faster than bt when bt said it wouldn't be.

To sum up : bt was slow and customer service was a pile of manure.
Sky is great in my area and can't fault them.


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[smilodon]

To add to the conversation, I have 30mb broadband from Virgin and a phone I don't use but no TV. For £21.00 I'm quite happy. As mentioned virgins customer services are about as hopeless as everyone else's but their broadband is rock solid and I get exactly the speed they claim. No "up to 30mb" I get 30mb. I think wherever you go your going to find pros and cons.