Changing internet supplier

[Emanresu]

I change providers of utilities regularly and generally can save a few quid. We're with Vodafone currently and pay £21 for a basic internet service.

Like others we check then change if there are savings. We've moved to Vodafone but still on the Openreach infrastructure so the difference in price (£300 over two years) is simply the difference in profit margins.

A company called Trooli have recently installed fibre in the area and could be an alternative. Prices look good.

 

[PeteXXX]

I've been with Vodafone for several years now and have always had a reasonable deal from them. Full Fibre @ £31 pm

I have more hassle updating everything that connects to it!

 

[wafter]

I'd leave BT just because of their disgustingly disingenuous "justification" of their pricing in the face of expecting double from you versus their charge for new customers. Unless it's a tempororay promo thing (which in itself would be a bit sneaky) their pricing appears to be a cynical, explotitive manipulation - sod rewarding that with any more of your money.

Have you considered Plusnet? IIRC they use BT's inftastructure but are typically cheaper and better to deal with...

EDIT: I see Plusnet doesn't have a great rep either - we've used them for years and never had a significant problem but it may be that they're getting worse..

 

[Ming the Merciless]

The other sneaky trick these companies do

1. You can sign up online really easy
2. To cancel you have to ring them up.

It ought to be banned. Cancelling should be as easy as signing up.

 

[Webbo2]

We had BT at the last house. They were truly awful when they were connecting us to the phone system/ internet and on principal we didn’t want to use them when we moved.
We now have Sky which is cheaper and their help line respond quite quickly if there’s any issues.

 

[presta]

The top three suppliers rated best by Which are Zen, Plusnet, and Utility Warehouse, in that order. BT are eighth of twelve, Sky ninth, and Virgin bottom of the lot. I've been with Plusnet (copper wire) from the start, and they don't seem to be jacking up prices that much, although I've been paying more the last couple of years just because I'm out of contract, and haven't renewed.

Internet providers, TV package providers, motor insurance providers, you name it, it all seems to be the same sort of racket.

Blame the internet. When the web came along we were all told it was going to cut prices because you can find the cheapest in seconds, but that was never going to last, so it just resulted in price confusion, loyalty penalising, cancellation penalties, and anything else that thwarts people looking for the lowest price.

It was Martin Lewis who was on the media every other day telling people they could get big discounts by threatening to leave, and all that got us was fixed 18 month contracts with penalty charges that cost as much as keeping the contract.

 

[Binky]

Full fibre? What's that!
I'd happily pay for it(although I think BT are a bunch of clowns, the hassle we had getting out of a business contract years ago was a freaking nightmare).

We only get fibre to cabinet which is 1 mile up the road then it's copper wire to house. Quickest I get is around 36Mb/s. Like living in the Dark Ages...

Edit: We've been with Plusnet for years and been very good. Any issues we've had been pretty quickly resolved Inc getting BT Open reach engineer to house to check stuff.

 

[Alex321]

I'd leave BT just because of their disgustingly disingenuous "justification" of their pricing in the face of expecting double from you versus their charge for new customers. Unless it's a tempororay promo thing (which in itself would be a bit sneaky) their pricing appears to be a cynical, explotitive manipulation - sod rewarding that with any more of your money.

I'd be willing to bet it is a temporary Intrductory offer, most likely for the first 6 months. Half price for a few months as a joining offer isn't particularly uncommon.

Have you considered Plusnet? IIRC they use BT's inftastructure but are typically cheaper and better to deal with...

EDIT: I see Plusnet doesn't have a great rep either - we've used them for years and never had a significant problem but it may be that they're getting worse..

Plusnet always used to have a good reputation, and the few times over the years I have had an issue, their customer service has always been good.

We have been with them for probably around 20 years now. The oldest email I still have from them is from 2010, but we had been with them a while then.

 

[Alex321]

Full fibre? What's that!
I'd happily pay for it(although I think BT are a bunch of clowns, the hassle we had getting out of a business contract years ago was a freaking nightmare).

We only get fibre to cabinet which is 1 mile up the road then it's copper wire to house. Quickest I get is around 36Mb/s. Like living in the Dark Ages...

Until we moved in December 2019, the house we lived in could only get about 2.5-3Mb download speeds. Good thing we moved just before COVID hit, because I couldn't really have worked from home with that.

Where we are now, like you we get fibre to the cabinet, but it is much less than a mile, and we are getting something like 65Mb. We will be moved over to full fibre (with no landline) some time this year, whether we want it or not.

I'll be looking at one of the voice over IP providers, hopefully keeping our number when that happens, because we rely on the landline - mobile reception here is very poor (if I go outside I can sometimes get 2 bars, never inside), I usually have to use the calling via WiFi facility.

Edit: We've been with Plusnet for years and been very good. Any issues we've had been pretty quickly resolved Inc getting BT Open reach engineer to house to check stuff.

Yes, similar here.

 

[Binky]

Until we moved in December 2019, the house we lived in could only get about 2.5-3Mb download speeds. Good thing we moved just before COVID hit, because I couldn't really have worked from home with that.

Where we are now, like you we get fibre to the cabinet, but it is much less than a mile, and we are getting something like 65Mb. We will be moved over to full fibre (with no landline) some time this year, whether we want it or not.

I'll be looking at one of the voice over IP providers, hopefully keeping our number when that happens, because we rely on the landline - mobile reception here is very poor (if I go outside I can sometimes get 2 bars, never inside), I usually have to use the calling via WiFi facility.



Yes, similar here.

We are without landline now as that is system although we haven't got full fibre. Fortunately mobile signal good so no problem unless a power cut which knocks out mast along with local power whereas with a landline it still works.
We're set back about 50metres off a quietish A road so Open reach putting in full fibre shouldn't be a big issue but despite requesting updates on plans I haven't heard anything yet.

 

[nogoodnamesleft]

I'd happily pay for it(although I think BT are a bunch of clowns, the hassle we had getting out of a business contract years ago was a freaking nightmare).

Some years back when County Broadband were proposing building FTTP (Full Fibre) to the village people had to sign-up in advance and I did. Eventually they came round to propose a fibre from road to property and couldn't come-up with an acceptable route that would be approved at least not unless I paid them for the install and they'd own the install!

So they decided they couldn't install but would not release me from my contract for them to provide full fibre. Took ages, loads of long phone calls, loads of e-mails, etc. until eventually they agreed to release me from having signed exclusive to them (even though they couldn't ptovide). In my experience terrible company to deal with.

 

[nogoodnamesleft]

re: Separation of BT (Consumer) and OpenReach (unrelated to OP's question)
Some years back I was having massive issues with my old ADSL phone line (caused by above ground cables running through trees and movement having worn through insulation ...). eventually I got their sp[ecialist Chief Exec's office involved and got a personal manager handling the issue (somebody who I once asked "Can it be escalated? to which they said "There is nobody above except CEO".

She was brilliant and kept organising OpenReach with "Get it sorted". One day whilst engineer present and taking all sorts of line measurements she called and asked me questions, I asked engineer, he replied, I passed message to BT and quickly said "I'm giving phone to engineer, daft me repeating everything" to which I got "No, no, no you mustn't. I can't talk to them. ..." and when I ignored that there followed between BT person and OpenReach engineer "For the record I'm not talking to you now and you are not talking to me so this discussion never took place ..." and they they went through what each needed to know. They were both paranoid about talking to each other.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

The other sneaky trick these companies do

1. You can sign up online really easy
2. To cancel you have to ring them up.

It ought to be banned. Cancelling should be as easy as signing up.

I change from Sky to Virgin and viceversa every time my status of "new customer" ends.
I only need broadband, got both sockets at home, so not even the engineer is required.
Last time I changed, about a year ago, surprise surprise one doesn't have to talk to anybody!
I just picked the new Virgin deal, automatically the interwebs did the rest via email.
Sky even disconnected itself once Virgin was active at my address.
Nobody called, lovely!
I did get a mail from Sky saying they would not increase their price if I went back to them, but couldn't be bothered.
I like this new system!

 

[stephec]

Silly question, are you married or co habiting?
Get your significant other to open the new, cheaper account.
When providers do that sort of promotion thing I tend to move just on principle. Usually to someone running a new customer only promotion.

The silliness is that then their marketing people claim to have generated all this new business. Also they expect to screw in years 2 and onwards.
Hey ho, we're just the suckers in the process.

This is what we did with Virgin, I left and Mrs stephec joined as a new customer but because their system was confused by the same address we were left without a phone for two weeks.

When it was finally connected they contacted us to say they were giving us the Ofcom recommended amount of compensation per day, without us even having to ask for it, and it worked out that we got the first two months of the contract for free.

 

[vickster]

If you're in London and can get...I switched to Community Fibre a few years ago from Virgin. I upgraded to 500mb...£24 a month, very reliable. Just measured using Speedtest with iphone standing by the router, 500 or thereabouts up and down.
No ultra fast openreach here and Virgin would be at least double the cost for awful customer service!
CF are very good at warning of any outages in advance, usually during the night.
On and the first 5 months were free and the switchover was seamless