Telephone/Broadband Pirates...

[Wigsie]

Are there any decent ones out there?

Left Virgin last month... great broadband but customer service was shocking beyond belief! Had a complaint closed as "dealt with - customer happy" by the very rude cockfaced peanut manager I was complaining about with me knowing nothing about. !

So I Joined TalkTalk last month, was connected 3 weeks ago, still using my Virgin account and have not plugged in the phone or broadband yet. Got a bill this morning for £95! £59.99 was a phantom new line fee and connections charge (was already a BT line in so no connection/new line charge needed according to sales guy).

The worse bit was the fact there was 15 calls on my bill! including a 26 minute call at midday on mothers day (we were out at my mothers house!) have not even plugged the telephone in yet!

Anyone on a good telephone provider???

Can't use SKY so is there anyone else?

 

[Aperitif]

I use Virgin Media! And I suckered fro a phone at £5 per month extra...all I see when I arrive home is the phone flashing, and the messages are for the 'parents of 'xxxxx McBride, we would like you to contact the school so that we can discuss her behaviour'.
I have tried so hard to put the assorted teachers at their ease and redirect their anger, but... - virgin obviously gave me a 'previous' number. I never use it - I'm the fool!

 

[Wigsie]

I use Virgin Media! And I suckered fro a phone at £5 per month extra...all I see when I arrive home is the phone flashing, and the messages are for the 'parents of 'xxxxx McBride, we would like you to contact the school so that we can discuss her behaviour'.
I have tried so hard to put the assorted teachers at their ease and redirect their anger, but... - virgin obviously gave me a 'previous' number. I never use it - I'm the fool!

The speed of Virgin Broadband by me is Awesome! but I had to leave on principle.... Month after month they screwed up the direct debit dates and account to draw it from and kept adding charges, saying they were wrong and that they would remove them, then saying they had no record of the conversations and they would still be charging me!

At one point I was doubting my own sanity!

 

[domd1979]

I'm with Virgin Media and never had any real problems with them in ten years going back to Telewest before Virgin took over. They've definitely got a better grip than NTL ever had. Wouldn't say they're perfect but don't believe the grass is greener either. Virgin have the advantage with broadband as well.

I had the problem of getting allocated a number previously someone else's and got it changed for free without any bother.

The couple of times the broadband has gone pop it has been fixed no problem at all.

 

[upsidedown]

Been with AOL for about 7 years now. Get 8 meg for a tenner a month, never had a problem with them.

 

[HLaB]

I've got a bit cheesed off with Virgin lately too. I got a new Windows 7 laptop so I couldn't use their modem through USB, the ethernet socket on the modem was not working. They sent me out a new cable despite me telling them the problem wasn't the cable; I used it with my parents modem OK. Several phonecalls later I eventually got a Irish call centre and it got sorted (new modem).

When it is working it has been very stable and I decided it be more hassle switching (plus I've not got a BT land line; BT wanted £150 connection so I've got virgin which was free)

 

[marinyork]

I'm with Virgin Media and never had any real problems with them in ten years going back to Telewest before Virgin took over. They've definitely got a better grip than NTL ever had. Wouldn't say they're perfect but don't believe the grass is greener either. Virgin have the advantage with broadband as well.

I had the problem of getting allocated a number previously someone else's and got it changed for free without any bother.

The couple of times the broadband has gone pop it has been fixed no problem at all.

I agree with this. There were a lot of legacy issues after the merger from a lot of NTL customers, not least the billing systems. As we speak some of the legacy tv issues are being sorted out.

I do think their fixed line phone service sucks a bit but you have to bear in mind they make very little money from the tv side of things.

 

[fossyant]

I switched to AOL about 2 years ago on the free laptop deal. Got laptop, saved some cash from Pipex, phone bill went down. Renewal up recently and they knocked me down another £10 a month. I don't use AOL software though, configured the connection manually.

AOL was dodgy a couple of years ago after they did some deal with Carphone warehouse - dropped connections for a few months, but it's been rock steady since with good speeds.

Don't use the AOL software though - it's nasty...........

 

[dellzeqq]

Eclipse. Expensive, but completely reliable.

 

[Dan B]

I have absolutely nothing bad to say about Zen Internet. They're a bit pricey - actually they're a lot pricey compared to the big players like Virgin and Tiscali - but their customer and tech support is consistently great in a way that I have never experienced from any of the bigger ISPs

Bytemark is another company I'd generally recommend as honest and quick to put their hands up if they make a mistake, although I can't speak for their adsl offering - my experience with them has been for hosting.

 

[4F]

bt broadband option 3

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

We're with TalkTalk and desperate to move from them. Customer service is a joke. We've registered an email address to avoid paying their Paper Bill charges (1.50 a month, IIRC) but they still keep sending the paper bill and charging us, even though they've emailed to say that they are in error and will refund the charges.

Also seem to have issues with the Broadband connection being dropped like a whore's drawers each time we want to use it.... hopeless! According to our Account on their website we are still down as "Due for connection, September 2006" (or similar) which is rather bizarre. They don't seem to know there ar$es from their elbows!!

 

[XmisterIS]

I've been with BT ever since the early days of ADSL in the UK and I've never had a problem with them. In the years that I've been with them I have only ever had two drop-outs of more than a few minutes. Their customer service is excellent and they fix things pronto.

 

[MacB]

Virgin here, originally NTL, and have had about 12 years of nearly hassle free service. Agreed that customer service isn't the best interface, though much better now than under NTL. But I've never had any of the issues that seem to prevail with other providers.

 

[Crankarm]

O2 for me. Never had a problem. Their Broadband is fast and reliable. It has never dropped. The only one occasion I had to call them was right at the start, about 2 years ago, they were polite, friendly sorting out my issue instantly. Post Office does the line, never a problem with them either.