Broadband, T.V and phone ?

[sfc1971]

I am Looking to change service provider and was after you chaps to let me in on who you use or would steer clear from.

 

Currently I am with Virgin and finding them getting unreliable with poor customer service i.e awful e-mail service and non English speaking operators.

 

Thanks in advance.

[buctootim]

BT, reliable with poor customer with awful non English speaking operators who think any problem is because you dont understand broadband or computers. Had BT for 10 years at four adresses. Mostly very good - ie reasonably fast, stable and problem free. Had a problem getting connected at one address and it drove me banana over weeks having circulalr conversations with script sheet operators in India. Eventually sorted out by staff in UK.

[sfc1971]

Sorry I think I put this in the wrong section. Newbee never saw the tec section.

[Wurzel]

I am Looking to change service provider and was after you chaps to let me in on who you use or would steer clear from.

 

Currently I am with Virgin and finding them getting unreliable with poor customer service i.e awful e-mail service and non English speaking operators.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

If you have problems with Virgin forget the usual channels and contact them on Twitter via @virginmedia . The team on there get things sorted in no time.

[Dimond Geezer]

I'm currently with Pipex, who I'm currently getting bills from for about £35 pm (just bb & phone) . I received a flyer from Sky who are offering phone, tv & bband for £19 pm. Spent the morning reading through the small print (it's quite at work ) and looks to be good value fof money. If you apply on line you also get £25 voucher for M&S, handy for the lingerie dept with chrimbo coming up .

[buctootim]

I'm currently with Pipex, who I'm currently getting bills from for about £35 pm (just bb & phone) . I received a flyer from Sky who are offering phone, tv & bband for £19 pm. Spent the morning reading through the small print (it's quite at work ) and looks to be good value fof money. If you apply on line you also get £25 voucher for M&S, handy for the lingerie dept with chrimbo coming up .

 

Yep but thats proabably just an introductory offer, plus you have to have a BT line connected as well (£18pm) . Add it all up and i found BT was cheaper.

[Dimond Geezer]

Yep but thats proabably just an introductory offer, plus you have to have a BT line connected as well (£18pm) . Add it all up and i found BT was cheaper.

 

I thought that, hence trawling through the small print, but I couldn't find any mention of an introductory offer, only that prices will increase in January, due to the VAT rise, although it doesn't say how much it will increase by. You're right about the BT line rental, but it's only £11 through Sky.

 

I'll be looking at BT this afternoon.

[Pat from Poole]

I am Looking to change service provider and was after you chaps to let me in on who you use or would steer clear from.

 

Currently I am with Virgin and finding them getting unreliable with poor customer service i.e awful e-mail service and non English speaking operators.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

I would recommend staying with Virgin Media, as I have. I nearly moved across to BT a few months ago, but found them to be highly dishonest in what they could offer and gave them a miss. Their staff all seemed to be Scottish as well, I understood the Virgin call centre reps better!!!!!!

 

Not sure what the broadband speed comparison is like in your neck of the woods, but in Poole it's twice as fast with Virgin Media compared with BT.

[Chez]

My advice is when you see an offer you like try to find their telephone number on their website for support should anything go wrong - especially when first establishign a connection. The money you save on line rental can quickly dissapear if you have to spend a £X a minute calling the ISPs support help line.

[dune]

Stick with BT - you get what you pay for.

[EastleighSoulBoy]

I chucked BT and signed up to SKY about 3 years ago, due to shoddy service from BT.

 

I have since increased my services with SKY and now have HD plus SKY+ in two multi rooms.

 

We are still paying some 60% less than we were paying back then to the two suppliers between them.

 

We have had various benefits afforded us, without pressure, for our loyalty including phone line rental reduced by £10/month for the last six months!

 

It does make me wonder what they could affordably provide their services for but all in all we have no qualms with SKY. Good service and technical support when I occasionally foul up, like messing the X Box connection!

[Weston Super Saint]

I was with BT and being charged £23.99 per month for BB. £12 per month for phone.

 

I contacted Orange, and they now charge me for £7 for exactly the same BB package - BT graciously said they would reduce it to £19.99!! - so now I pay £19 instead of £35.99 a month.

 

I don't use the phone line though as have one through work, so saving a fortune a year.

 

Orange has been very reliable for the month I've had it, and haven't had to contact their customer services.

 

Sky does seem to be a good offer, but need to check if you can get it at your address - I couldn't, even though they sent all the info....

[buctootim]

Guess there are lots of varying offers. I pay £14pm for BT broadband. Call are very cheap - especially international, about £1.50 an hour to the US.

[OldNick]

Just this morning i had a chat with Orange regarding their broadband package i have. it was 19.99 but they have reduced it to 15 pm plus 4 months free. They also had some other packages that included free weekend calls etc.

They did say mine is unlimited and then went into a long thing about the extra GB i had compared to others and are sending me some fantastic hub thing.The operator was quite upbeat about it.

I woulod look at them as i have found their staff very good and helpful (Geordies)

[stupandus]

Bt Vision is very good ,although i get mine free as i work for them as a broadband engineer.My personal choice for broadband supplier alone is 02 as their customer service is UK based and excellent

[trousers]

Question: do I need to pay line rental if I only use the line for broadband?

 

In other words, given I use my landline very little, I don't need the phone anymore, just Internet.

 

So, can I get a package that excludes landline telephone rental?

 

Cheers

[mcjwills]

How much are you currently paying, because I have all the services from Sky including line rental, and pay the extra £5.00 a month on the calls that allows all national call up to a hour all day, that with the broadband and TV is still cheaper than any other deal I have researched, a lot will depend on your line speed for your internet and how much you use it, because if I am not mistaken it is free if you use less than 2 Gig per month for the internet but £10 if you use more than that for 3 months in a row. Of course dependant on the TV services you want to take i.e Sports, Film & HD and the various packages you have make a difference. May be worth going to Best Buy as they were giving away excellent deals a few months ago. Only downside compared to Virgin is you do not have the on demand TV you do with virgin.

[Jonnyboy]

moneysavingexpert.com rates one called plusnet for broadband, dirt cheap

[sfc1971]

How much are you currently paying, because I have all the services from Sky including line rental, and pay the extra £5.00 a month on the calls that allows all national call up to a hour all day, that with the broadband and TV is still cheaper than any other deal I have researched, a lot will depend on your line speed for your internet and how much you use it, because if I am not mistaken it is free if you use less than 2 Gig per month for the internet but £10 if you use more than that for 3 months in a row. Of course dependant on the TV services you want to take i.e Sports, Film & HD and the various packages you have make a difference. May be worth going to Best Buy as they were giving away excellent deals a few months ago. Only downside compared to Virgin is you do not have the on demand TV you do with virgin.

 

I have the full package 20meg fibre optic broadband (that is rarely at 3-5 meg unless its 3am) The E-Mail service is forever going down for 2-3 days at times. Sky sports HD ESPN All tv channels mostly repeats the on demand service is pants takes forever to find owt and freezes, The v+Hd boxes are almost useless and at certain times has a mind of its own. The T.V service is always going down normally when a match is on. Cant say the phone is good value as I dont use it. And the customer service ? If you can speak fluent outer mongolian DONT BOTHER !! All this for a mere 90 quid a month.

[saint lard]

I recentley moved from Virgin Media to Sky in August.

The reason being Virgin disabled my Email account when they migrated to using google apps,no warning and they admitted their mistake in accidentally 'losing' the account.

From June to August i phoned many times and i was constantly fobbed off with it will be reinstated in 5 days and the 'engineers' were working on it.

I was paying £20 a month for broadband and that was all.

I then had a sky rep round,i signed up to the £19 per month TV,everyday lite Broadband and free weekend calls from midnight friday to midnight sunday package.

I also too out the TV Knowledge and Variety pack both for an extra £1 per month.

Luckily i had a BT line and box installed prior so they activated it remotely.

All easily set up and i am astounded at the service i have received after using Virgin.

Skys online service is great,(mysky.com)i just added the music channels and kids channels also,just by doing it online and they were on my Tv straight away again a quid each.

You do pay £11 a month for the phone and one thing to be careful of is if you use over 2 mg on the free broadband pack they will upgrade you and you will then pay £7.50 a month.They do inform you in advance and say that if you continue to use over the 2mg for five months you will be upgraded.

All in all i do pay more by about £10 per month but the services i get are great.

I have the Sky HD+ box which is superb thus far.

I was amazed at what Virgin were offering me when i cancelled with them...oh and they said they could fix my email account straightaway,perhaps they should've done that 3 months prior!

[ecuk268]

I get phone TV and broadband from Virgin and have had few problems.

 

Broadband is around 8 to 9 Mbs and my V+ box works fine.

 

My Sky Sports channels started breaking up at the weekend. Phoned them on Sunday and the engineer came yesterday and sorted it out.

 

Maybe I've been lucky.

[mcjwills]

I have the full package 20meg fibre optic broadband (that is rarely at 3-5 meg unless its 3am) The E-Mail service is forever going down for 2-3 days at times. Sky sports HD ESPN All tv channels mostly repeats the on demand service is pants takes forever to find owt and freezes, The v+Hd boxes are almost useless and at certain times has a mind of its own. The T.V service is always going down normally when a match is on. Cant say the phone is good value as I dont use it. And the customer service ? If you can speak fluent outer mongolian DONT BOTHER !! All this for a mere 90 quid a month.

 

Well for £90 a month with SKY you should get the full kitten kaboodle, Sky sports, films the full HD package, skytalk and the broadband and for most of your call except broadband the call centre is Scotland (even if the accent is slightly foreign )

[OVER THE HILL]

BT for me ,phone and broadband no problems.

 

BT Vision box really superb- Sky Sports 1 / 2 and films are available as extra options. BT are fitting fibre optic broadband across our area so they should be beating O2 and SKY for speed soon.