Broadband?

[stowie]

Hi,

My first post in Electric Cafe, so please be gentle - I hope this is the right place.

I have just been presented with a £50 bill for my broadband usage last month by BT. As you can imagine I am not happy. I use Mozy backup and it automatically backed up a whole load of videos which took me over the limit.

So, I decided to kick BT into touch as it is expensive anyway, and look around for a better deal. I cannot get out of my phone line deal until March 2011, but I can get rid of Broadband right now.

Problem is that I have looked around and read reviews, and every single broadband supplier has been slated by the reviews. I was about to phone up Plusnet until I saw the reviews - one actually pleaded with the reader not to use them!

I haven't had a problem with BT broadband outside the price.

So, has anyone had any good experiences with broadband service providers? How are Sky and Virgin? Or should I swallow my pride and sign up to a bigger download package with BT?

If I take notice of all the reviews, all providers are complete rubbish and it would be easier and quicker to communicate via letter.

 

[JamesAC]

Hi,

My first post in Electric Cafe, so please be gentle - I hope this is the right place.

I have just been presented with a £50 bill for my broadband usage last month by BT. As you can imagine I am not happy. I use Mozy backup and it automatically backed up a whole load of videos which took me over the limit.

So, I decided to kick BT into touch as it is expensive anyway, and look around for a better deal. I cannot get out of my phone line deal until March 2011, but I can get rid of Broadband right now.

Problem is that I have looked around and read reviews, and every single broadband supplier has been slated by the reviews. I was about to phone up Plusnet until I saw the reviews - one actually pleaded with the reader not to use them!

I haven't had a problem with BT broadband outside the price.

So, has anyone had any good experiences with broadband service providers? How are Sky and Virgin? Or should I swallow my pride and sign up to a bigger download package with BT?

If I take notice of all the reviews, all providers are complete rubbish and it would be easier and quicker to communicate via letter.

Zen

 

[2Loose]

The BT Infinity package is supposed to be pretty good, although by the sound of it you just need ANY unlimited* broadband package to stop billing surprises.

I have used Virgin for a number of years and can only speak highly of them. However, I have always known that I am high bandwidth and low latency user and so chose my package with them accordingly....

For an ADSL based internet connection, then James above has listed probably the most highly regarded ISP in this country. Not the cheapest, but they do have a number of techie options that make their service stand out, oh, also great customer service should you ever have a problem.


*Nothing is truly unlimited. Restrictions will exist, but vary from ISP to ISP.

 

[4F]

Which BT Broadband package have you got ?

 

[Dan B]

Zen

I used to recommend Zen to everybody, until the most recent time I had to get their telephone support on the line. 30 minute hold queues :-(

Hopefully they have recruited some more technical support folk since then or something, and next time I ring them (I'm still with them) I look forward to a less painful wait. The current published queue length is about 4 minutes, so it looks like it may have been a one-off


http://www.zen.co.uk/support/contact-us/telephone-statistics.aspx

 

[Carwash]

See also the responses on this thread: https://www.cyclechat.net/

 

[HJ]

I would suggest that you have a look at the PC Pro Reliability & Service Awards, the results are based on the ratings given by over 12,000 people. They use a straightforward star ratings: six out of six is exceptional, one out of six very poor, interestingly the one company has come top in the broadband category for seven years in a row (the awards have been running for 13 years)...

 

[stowie]

Which BT Broadband package have you got ?

Broadband option 1 @ £14.99 and 10G limit. Daft of me not to read the small-print, but even so. Worst was that Mozy - although brilliant - automatically backs-up my drive and I synchronised a whole load of home videos to the PC without thinking that it would then be busy backing them up via the broadband connection.

BT are offering 40G @ £17.99, but I don't feel in the mood to give them even more money...

 

[Davidc]

Most providers seem able to get bad reviews from someone, and I won't recommend on the basis of just my experience.

I changed to Demon after Tiscali got taken over and I met Talk Talk's customer service. I've had to use Demon's customer service twice and can say that it's the best I've come across from any telecoms company.

Answered within 3 rings
UK based (as far as I could tell Scotland so I couldn't understand one of the people on the other end - no change there then).
Able to act immediately - and did both times.

The package is £13 a month + VAT and although they reserve the right to act if you behave badly they haven't complained at me transferring 60GB in a month (yet). The Demon part has been totally reliable and consistent, the BT part slightly less so.

 

[davefb]

Broadband option 1 @ £14.99 and 10G limit. Daft of me not to read the small-print, but even so. Worst was that Mozy - although brilliant - automatically backs-up my drive and I synchronised a whole load of home videos to the PC without thinking that it would then be busy backing them up via the broadband connection.

BT are offering 40G @ £17.99, but I don't feel in the mood to give them even more money...

not gunna sound like having a go, but this is how it works, on the isp side, they will often be actually paying by the byte, so (like a phone contract with minutes per month) gamble on using just 10gb , go over, you're gunna have to pay .

how much did you go over by? ( just thinking , if it's <40gb could say to em 'right i'll upgrade if you waive this fine' , dunno if they'll bite, but to me 10gb/month is pretty low )

What i would say, if BT (whoever) sell a limited deal, then i'd expect it to stop at the 10gb, then i'd have to phone up, or at least have the choice that it does this!!

I have virgin, cabled, with that, you will get throttled to 'half speed' if during a specific time you use 'too much'... its not normally a problem.. Even if it is, half speed is still good enough. ( not like 28k modem )

 

[stowie]

not gunna sound like having a go, but this is how it works, on the isp side, they will often be actually paying by the byte, so (like a phone contract with minutes per month) gamble on using just 10gb , go over, you're gunna have to pay .

how much did you go over by? ( just thinking , if it's <40gb could say to em 'right i'll upgrade if you waive this fine' , dunno if they'll bite, but to me 10gb/month is pretty low )

What i would say, if BT (whoever) sell a limited deal, then i'd expect it to stop at the 10gb, then i'd have to phone up, or at least have the choice that it does this!!

I have virgin, cabled, with that, you will get throttled to 'half speed' if during a specific time you use 'too much'... its not normally a problem.. Even if it is, half speed is still good enough. ( not like 28k modem )

As I understood, BT reserved the right to move your package to the bigger one if you were regularly exceeding the limits. As it is, apparently they can charge £1 per G over the 10G. So, I used around 46G that month.

They say they send an email, but I never got it - although if it is to my work address the spam filter may have got it.

I would expect some kind of throttling to happen, but apparently not. I cannot gauge my usage, so am looking to an unlimited package - the Be broadband packages look excellent.

I have never gone over before. I asked about whether I got get retrospectively bumped to 40G and then I would continue, but no. I also asked for a refund on all the bandwidth I didn't use in previous months - but apparently this isn't an option either

I have looked through the website - no mention of £1 per G as far as I can see. Surprisingly enough they don't seem too keen to advertise it.

 

[swee'pea99]

FWIW I had a similar experience with BT (in my case triggered by my eldest daughter downloading manga movies), and what I did (not wanting the hassle of changing supplier, and having overall been very happy with BT over the years) was to find the best competitor deal I could using one of those comparative websites - was it moneysupermarket? can't remember - then ring up BT and say I wanted my 'MAC code'. (This, I discovered, is the magic word - like abracadabra, but shorter - it means you're not just temporarily pissed off: you're serious.)

The moment I mentioned the magic word I got put straight through to 'someone who might be able to help you', who persuaded me to stay with BT by offering me a cheaper price than the competitor (at the time, O2) as well as unlimited downloads. The upshot being, unlimited downloads (rather than 10Gb/month) for quite a lot less than half what I'd been paying. And no hassle.

 

[stowie]

[quote name='swee'pea99' timestamp='1285942977' post='1416229']
FWIW I had a similar experience with BT (in my case triggered by my eldest daughter downloading manga movies), and what I did (not wanting the hassle of changing supplier, and having overall been very happy with BT over the years) was to find the best competitor deal I could using one of those comparative websites - was it moneysupermarket? can't remember - then ring up BT and say I wanted my 'MAC code'. (This, I discovered, is the magic word - like abracadabra, but shorter - it means you're not just temporarily pissed off: you're serious.)

The moment I mentioned the magic word I got put straight through to 'someone who might be able to help you', who persuaded me to stay with BT by offering me a cheaper price than the competitor (at the time, O2) as well as unlimited downloads. The upshot being, unlimited downloads (rather than 10Gb/month) for quite a lot less than half what I'd been paying. And no hassle.


[/quote]

Well, I have just had a bit of a result as well. The £36 has been refunded, and I have been moved to 40G per month at no extra cost.

This comes in at around the Be Broadband price (although this is unlimited) for no extra hassle.

I would like unlimited but they weren't going to go with this without me paying the full unlimited price.

I will keep Be in mind when the contract expires as the deals look really good. I am unlikely to exceed 40G per month as this is the first time I have ever been charged for going over 10G.

 

[stowie]

Thanks for all the responses on this - appreciate the help!

 

[soulful dog]

I would suggest that you have a look at the PC Pro Reliability & Service Awards, the results are based on the ratings given by over 12,000 people. They use a straightforward star ratings: six out of six is exceptional, one out of six very poor, interestingly the one company has come top in the broadband category for seven years in a row (the awards have been running for 13 years)...

Another site worth having a look at is thinkbroadband.com, very easy to see how different ISP's have been rated for speed, reliability etc. As per the link HJ posted, Zen and Be Unlimited are regularly amongst the top rated ISP's.

I looked for three things when changing ISP: The obvious decent reliability/speed, and also contract length and flexibility. I looked for a company that didn't tie you into a 12 month contract (in case I was stuck with a rubbish connection!), and though I'm not a high bandwidth user, I did want the flexibility of being able to buy additional bandwidth if I was going to need it. Zen ticked all those boxes for me. I had to phone their support a few times when I first switched and never had long to wait for an answer and in comparison to BT, their support is delightful! I'll probably continue to stick with them, but Be Unlimited would have been my second choice!