It's time to leave talktalk, but who should I change too

Kevin H

Kevin H

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Hi, since talktalk took over tiscali I'm having nothing but problems, customer service is useless, so it's time to move on, any advice on which ISP to change to would be appreciated, thanks :)
 
What do you want from your ISP?

"Bundle" deals on phone / internet / TV / kitchen sink?
Cheapest is best?
Good customer service, knowledgable people and front line support that doesn't read from a script?

If the latter then I will recommend A&A, which I use at home. However they are expensive, nerdy and don't do bundles on TV and phone lines. Because they are just an ISP, run by geeks.
 
onomatopoeia said:
What do you want from your ISP?

"Bundle" deals on phone / internet / TV / kitchen sink?
Cheapest is best?
Good customer service, knowledgable people and front line support that doesn't read from a script?

If the latter then I will recommend A&A, which I use at home. However they are expensive, nerdy and don't do bundles on TV and phone lines. Because they are just an ISP, run by geeks.
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thanks for reply, not really after a package, just reliable internet & emails, with
"Good customer service, knowledgable people and front line support that doesn't read from a script?", reasonable price :)
 
The best for customer service, and more, is the utility warehouse. Always v highly rated by which?

Have a looky at save5percent.info and navigate to the Internet packages from there. Can't give you direct link as I'm on my phone in a hospital waiting room.

And they can transfer you from talktalk llu - which I don't think many can as yet but I may be wrong.
 
A&A are expensive, especially if you use the net a lot during office hours as they charge based on useage and the weekday daytime charge is much higher than evenings and weekends. We use Eclipse at work, who are cheaper and when I have needed to talk to them their support has been good - as in unscripted and the person I was talking to clearly had a clue about networking.

Over the last nine years or so that we have been with them on broadband here we have had three major daytime outages lasting several hours each though. At least two of them were ISP problems rather than BT exchange problems.

Demon are good but these days you need to have one of their business ADSL products to get UK front line support. That said, they aren't much more than the consumer ADSL.

I'm sure there are others, those are just the ones I have experience of.
 
I have been with Virgin for 3 years now. They have always been helpful . . . although I have had the od difficult operative on the other end of the phone . . . ask to speak to their supervisor . . . supervisor comes on, all is sweetness and light, its people, not the service?

I have had 3 issues with Virgin in the 3 years, all have been sorted amicably. The most recent last week, off line for 5 days, it was, in my opinion, sorted very quickly considering a weekend was in there as well. An engineer came and sorted the green 'in street' box and replaced a dodgy modem. All running supper fast now. I also use their phone and TV service which I am also happy with . . . :thinking: not as good as Sky . . . not as expensive either, but then I'm not into sport :)

I might be able to save a few pence here or there elsewhere over the year, but on the whole, I understand the Virgin system, 'why change what ain't broke'?

I have also upgraded my AVG anti virus this week, to the 'free 2011' version, it has sorted a few computer issues, running even faster now . . . (y)

CJS
 
I use bethere, they know what they are talking about, not too expensive, great product, knowledgable staff.
 
I moved from Tiscali/TalkTalk to the free package from Sky and so far it's been great. Can't compare the customer service as, unlike with TalkTalk, I haven't found the need to call them on a weekly basis.....

To be fair I have a policy of avoiding anything that Carphone Warehouse are involved in (AOL, OneTel, TalkTalk etc) as the level of service invariably drops dramatically as soon as they get their hands on it.
 
I am leaving virgin in the next couple of weeks, on the whole not a bad service until I found out we had been paying double what we should have been paying for the last 6 months, they have refunded the over payment and I am taking my custom to sky.
 
Funny innit - been with TalkTalk since they brought out the free broadband with the phone package a few years ago and after a few issues at the begining have been virtually trouble free with free broadband at around 8-10Mb.
BT used to cost me £25 a month for broadband and £hundreds for the phones - I've saved £thousands on phone and broadband since moving to TalkTalk and havn't really needed their useless support reps.
 
I'm with Virgin ( ex NTL cable ) and have to agree overall they give good service.

I'm on cable and can't go to ADSL because BT refuse to replace my 60 year old phone line. That means i get les than 1mb with ADSL.

Only gripe with virgin is they refuse to match deals for new customers for old customers like me, that I think is unreasonable. By that I mean I can't get the same offer as those who have gone past their initial 6 months of cheapy deal. They still pay less after their offer runs out.

I have Phone, BBand and tv with them and other than 2 1hr outages and a 7 hour outage in 5 years I won't grumble.
 
Take a look at O2 broadband. I moved to them 4 years ago after terrible service and prices from AOL. Only had to contact them once over a minor issue, it was sorted immediately over the phone by people with accents I could understand. Since then its been spot on giving me an average of 8meg when they only advertise 6meg as normal. I use them for my mobile too so get a good discount. I wont be moving in the forseeable future.

EDIT: just checked the price, am paying £7.50/month. This year they gave 2 months free renewing the contract for a further 12 months making it £6.25/month.
 
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I'm with TT at present. IN my opinion there aint anyone that good. I have Orange as backup though, all depends how good they are?

With TT you need to get to second level customer service.

People are quoting these fantastic speeds, im sure that's only the deal speed.
 
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Yv said:
Is anyone using plusnet? Considering changing to them as the package deals are good, BUT would like some feedback about them.
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They seem to be advertising a lot lately on tv
 
O2 are very good if your exchange is equiped and your on a O2 mobile.(y)
 
Wheels said:
They seem to be advertising a lot lately on tv
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I know, thats what alerted me to them, but so far, the internet reviews are less than positive...hmmmmm....probem of course is that only discontented customers report things on the internet so always difficult to know for sure :shrug:
 
another vote for o2. you get discount if you have mobile with them as well.
never had problems with them.
o2 is know as 'be' as well ;)
 
I'd second/third/mutliple the comments about both O2 and BE (bethere).

They have been the same network since O2 bought BE about three years ago, and I've never had anything other than excellent service with BE having been with them since their inception.

My Ex had Plusnet, and had a huge number of problems, mainly due to her internal wiring and the local BT loop. The Plusnet customer service were excellent in trying to get it resolved, but had the usual probs with BT Wholesale.

If I was looking for a simple internet supply or LLU at the moment, I'd go for either BE or O2 in a shot, and choose between them by the best current deal, and their local supply (there are a couple of minor differences).


Edited to add:

If you are on O2 mobile, it's a no brainer to use them rather than BE, as you get £5 off the monthly fee.
 
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I've used BT since the old King died and am reasonably satisfied with the service.

However, if I was looking for a change, I would have a look at Zen Internet, who, I believe was voted best by PC Pro lately.
 
I've been with madasafish.com for about 6 years now and had no problems at all
Dave
 
We had talktalk, we moved after the umpteenth call to customer services telling us to change the inline filter.

We move to o2. What a breath of fresh air. We had internet that didn't go down daily. When we did need to call they responded and called us back the day after to check it was still ok, then again the week after. Can't best that on service.

We then moved back to BT as our area is within their infinity fibre optic coverage. Same deal - it's on and stays on. Havent needed to call them yet. And it's super fast for uploads which is great. Web gallerys take under an hour now rather than a day or two!
 
I've used Zen Internet for years. They've always been 100% reliable. Whenever I've had an issue (through my ignorance as opposed to their problems), I have found their customer service to be excellent.

Paul
 
Yv said:
Is anyone using plusnet? Considering changing to them as the package deals are good, BUT would like some feedback about them.
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Yep we are with plus-net haven't had any major problems with them and the small problems we did have were always sorted problems out and there call centre is based in the UK (y)
 
YosemitePaul said:
I've used Zen Internet for years. They've always been 100% reliable. Whenever I've had an issue (through my ignorance as opposed to their problems), I have found their customer service to be excellent.

Paul
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:plus1:

Likewise, I've been with them for a few years now. A few months ago I started having speed/connection problems, ZEN customer service could not have been more helpful, they are UK based and seemed genuinely concerned to help me fix my problems, phoned me back when they promised to every time.
 
Been using BT for over seven years. Not the cheapest but I've lost connection for about 8 hours in that time.

Hardly know what their customer service is like because I have only used it once - the speed dropped, I 'phoned them. Engineer turned up two days later, and two days after that I was back up to 6.5Meg.
 
Yv said:
Is anyone using plusnet? Considering changing to them as the package deals are good, BUT would like some feedback about them.
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yes - for some time

crap overhead flimsy line from BT Sub-station to farm, which - when line tested showed i could only expect 500kb

complained on Plusnet website only recently that speed had dropped to 300kb

they updated my query with lotsa tech info, and how to test my line inside and outside house
and confirmed they had done so via text confirmation

line speed up to 1029kb tonight ...well pleased with service...:D
 
Another vote for sky, never had any issues and recently got sky+HD upgrade for only £2.50 a month extra (y)
 
Zen has been voted the best overall for sometime now, they are UK based & all calls are UK. Technical support is excellent although a little more expensive I have a number of friends who have been with them some time now & a couple have moved over all singing their praises. I will move over as soon as my contract is up.Zen.co.UK
 
gramps said:
Funny innit - been with TalkTalk since they brought out the free broadband with the phone package a few years ago and after a few issues at the begining have been virtually trouble free with free broadband at around 8-10Mb.
BT used to cost me £25 a month for broadband and £hundreds for the phones - I've saved £thousands on phone and broadband since moving to TalkTalk and havn't really needed their useless support reps.
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Not funny in the slightest!

5.5mb with Tiscali after a few run ins with their "Helpdesk"....

.....now 3.2mb and can't be bothered trying to sort it.

I don't think there is any answer to the Thread question, for me, because Talk bleedin Talk are so much cheaper!
 
Stay far away from Plusnet, I paid out of my contract to get away. There's a reason they're advertising so much....
O2 is let down by shockingly bad CS and hardware (modems and firmware=total carp). Frequently leave me with a useless connection.

BT (surprising to me) has been really good, and Zen are always a guaranteed win.
 
another vote for Be, very good fast service and a very helpful forum. I currently get around 14Mb DL for £17 PM. I could get it a bit faster if I did the master plug stuff, but happy with 14Mb.
 
We have Fastnet at work and it seems decent. Quite a small company i think. Couldn't reccommend Zen myself; they always give us the runaround when we call to log a fault - and that's as business customers!
 
I'd recommend o2 also, been with them a couple of years with no issues.
And if your exchange is adsl2 configured, you can get a 20mb deal (I get around 16mb), and as mentioned, if you tie in your mobile phone, further discounts.
 
I've been with BT for about 8 or 9 years (since our exchange was enabled for ADSL)

Initially I had a few problems which I needed to talk to customer services about and they were ok (though a lot can change in 8 years)

Since the teething problems its been more reliable than the connection at work which costs over £200 a month! Its reasonably fast considering I live out in the sticks pretty much and apparently were getting infinity Dec/Jan time.

A girl I know is on talktalk and had issues since day 1. I went round and spent over two hours on the phone to India going through a script which had nothing to do with the problem. I tried explaining that I work in IT but made no odds... 3 months later and shes still no better off.
 
been with TalkTalk since they took over Wannadoo or whoever it was at the time. No problems whatsoever with them, but then again I am only 400mtrs from the exchange :D My Sister in law who lives two doors down were with Tiscali, when it change to TalkTalk there were a few minor issues. He has just been credited £140 as they were taking payments for Tiscali and TalkTalk each month.
 
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