Hi

I'm with BT currenttly, (just out of the contract period) and tbh am quite fed up with their useless billing system and seemingly endless inability to set up a direct debit correctly.

As such I'm quite keen to switch to something else (preferably a bit cheaper). I don't need huge speed or download limits but do need a reliable service as often have to work from home via VPN etc.

Oh, and I'm not in a cable-area either..

Looking on tinterweb there seems to be myriad bad reviews for pretty much all of the providers.. Orange, Talk Talk, AOL, BT etc

What are your thoughts/ experiences then peeps?

ta

If you have sky try them for both phone and internet, had them years and no issues that i can remember

Hi, nope not got SKY and don't want it tbh (I'm bad enough flicking channels on freeview!)

… talk talk looks like a good all-in package..??

If you work from home then I'd recommend staying well away from Sky. We're outside their main service areas so were stuck on Sky Connect. This means they throttle all shh connectivity between about 11am and 11pm and also means that in the evenings you can forget about watching iPlayer / Channel4OD as they're slowed down to unusable speeds. Their 'technical' support is laughable too.

As soon as we can afford to we'll be switching back to Zen.

Plusnet are owned by BT but cheaper for the same service…

OK I'll avoid SKY then! Actually that ties in with what a colleague was sayinf re his SKY connection and dropping the VPN all the time…

Plusnet actually owned by BT are they, is that a recent thing?

o2 are great if they have installed their equipment in your exchange. £7 a month for 8mbit down / 1 up and I actually get this (I got 4.4mbit down with Sky)

Any views on Talk Talk? I notice that their package includes free weekdend/evening calls to 08455 numbers.. which is useful when phoning bank etc

I've got talk talk, which is fine now. If you need to talk to them though its not a local call center, which did cause a few issues when changing to non-paper billing.

OK speed, 6meg rather than the 8meg quoted.

Something like £25/month all calls included except mobiles incl line rental. I think you can add mobs on for a flat rate.

My mate has Talk Talk they are utterly useless he's had nothing but problem and they have been hopeless with everything. He wanted to switch back to BT but of course there's the charge for going back.

I use BT and ADSL24 they have both been excellent when the odd time I've had a fault.

If you can get it use Be broadband, by far the best/fastest service you can get.

+1 for Zen. Had it for years without any problems, and customer service is stellar.

I'm with BT currenttly, (just out of the contract period)

Have you told them you don't want to renew your contract? IIRC BT were guilty of automatically putting people back onto 12 month contracts if they didn't tell them they were cancelling. It was in the small print a couple of years ago but it may have changed.

Hmm, I'd best check that then! ta

Unfortunatetly I can't get BE broadband…. seems everyone knows someone who's had problems with their providers.. :-S

I switched from bt to talk talk a couple of months ago, a lot cheaper for phone and broadband, all went smoothly……………

If you are after brilliant service, being able to talk to a real person that actually knows their stuff then I can't recomend Zen high enough. You pay for the service but that is the case with most things in life. Also no contract period, just a monthly rolling contract. I might be forced by money to swap to anpther ISP but don't relish it at all.

… talk talk looks like a good all-in package..??

does look good i agree, what they fail to tell you is that they are probably the worst company it will ever be your misfortune to deal with.

should you have an issue with the broadband (chronically slow, constantly drops connection, no connection at all during peak periods etc etc) their technical support is a farce both in terms of service and getting through (i was on hold for an hour once).

i could go on for ages about how shite they are, but suffice to say if you go with talktalk good luck as you will need it.

I,m with Orange & have been for about 3+ years, I originally took up the offer they had combing mobile & broadband in the same package, after the contract period was up I left Orange mobile as it was crap, but hung onto the broadband and it costs me £10 per monthand its around 8meg so quickish.

Hmmmmmm

tricky… lots of opposing views here! Tbh I struggle to imagine that Talk Talk's customer service can really be any worse than that of BT –

I once had a duff router (and working in network design) I made this clear at the start of the call, in nice, simple terms such as " I really think the router isn't working".

Two hours of discussion and " fault finding" later, they finally conceded that it was f00ked and agreed to send me a replacement.. :-/

Two hours of discussion and " fault finding" later, they finally conceded that it was f00ked

nothing, i had 12 months with talktalk like that. seriously…

them: the prob is your router
me: but i had the exact same problem before i had the router when it was just your modem and indeed called multiple times trying to get it sorted.
me(2 days later): ok, i've had YOUR modem plugged directly into my main socket and monitored it for 24 hours as requested (for the 3rd or 4th time) and guess what, still got the same problem.
them: its your router
me: the router ain't even plugged in.

eek, not sure where to go now!

As far as I can tell it's all down to luck of the draw, really… we've been with Tiscali and now TalkTalk for the last ~4 years and the only niggle we had was a bit of a mix-up when we moved house, but it was sorted fairly painlessly.

I'm a bit miffed that since TalkTalk bought them our bill has gone up two quid, but meh, I can't be bothered to change.

Another vote for Zen. I've worked from home for over 10 years. The odd times i need to speak to support their people actually know what they're doing. Their response times to newly open tickets is good.

I only pay £12 a month for phone and broadband with sky. Got the free internet from them and I was getting speeds equal to the expensive virgin one