ADSL ISP Sticky

Author
Discussion

DonnyMac

3,634 posts

202 months

Wednesday 5th August 2009
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Virgin suck - 6 months without a decent service at home, but when it works, it works (wireless result) -


Pappa Lurve

3,827 posts

281 months

Saturday 8th August 2009
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Sick of BT at the moment as they have not repaired a fault on my landline for a week now so using a sodding mobile dongle to get online (O2, rather good actually!). I cant get cable here and my mobile is with Orange. I want unlimited downloads, a landline which I use mainly for occasional calls and a few calls to France, the US and Israel and broadband of at least 8m (thats a real 8, not what they say is possible on a good day!). Had Sky and was not impressed. Reccomendations for best combination of value and performance please, and if there is a way I can avoid even having a BT line, so much the better!

Thanks

captainzep

13,305 posts

191 months

Saturday 15th August 2009
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Not a great start with Virgin (ADSL -not cable). Signed up June 30th with MAC, swapped over Aug 8th but wireless router never arrived. Rang up, told there had been a delay and I could expect the kit this weekend. It did turn up, but opened the box to find a broken seal on the internal packaging and a router with the aerial snapped off.

Additionally, there was no mention of the wireless dongle/card for my desktop PC not included in the package. And the installation cd was missing from the pack. And their website 'track your order' section didn't work. And I've had to do all the chasing, no attempt at email communication from them on the delay etc. And so far the best speed hooked up to my old ADSL modem is about 3Mbps, at times no more than 1MBps despite their 5-6Mbps estimate for their 8meg service.

Not happy thus far.


Scraggles

7,619 posts

223 months

Saturday 15th August 2009
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captainzep said:
Not a great start with Virgin (ADSL -not cable). Signed up June 30th with MAC, swapped over Aug 8th but wireless router never arrived. Rang up, told there had been a delay and I could expect the kit this weekend. It did turn up, but opened the box to find a broken seal on the internal packaging and a router with the aerial snapped off.

Additionally, there was no mention of the wireless dongle/card for my desktop PC not included in the package. And the installation cd was missing from the pack. And their website 'track your order' section didn't work. And I've had to do all the chasing, no attempt at email communication from them on the delay etc. And so far the best speed hooked up to my old ADSL modem is about 3Mbps, at times no more than 1MBps despite their 5-6Mbps estimate for their 8meg service.

Not happy thus far.
Pity you had not done some research, virgin internet seem to be a bunch of muppets when it comes to customer service, looks like you got a return, it had the correct name on it, so must be ok ?

worth checking out samknows.com for your local area....

was it price or speed that you went for ?

captainzep

13,305 posts

191 months

Saturday 15th August 2009
quotequote all
Scraggles said:
captainzep said:
Not a great start with Virgin (ADSL -not cable). Signed up June 30th with MAC, swapped over Aug 8th but wireless router never arrived. Rang up, told there had been a delay and I could expect the kit this weekend. It did turn up, but opened the box to find a broken seal on the internal packaging and a router with the aerial snapped off.

Additionally, there was no mention of the wireless dongle/card for my desktop PC not included in the package. And the installation cd was missing from the pack. And their website 'track your order' section didn't work. And I've had to do all the chasing, no attempt at email communication from them on the delay etc. And so far the best speed hooked up to my old ADSL modem is about 3Mbps, at times no more than 1MBps despite their 5-6Mbps estimate for their 8meg service.

Not happy thus far.
Pity you had not done some research, virgin internet seem to be a bunch of muppets when it comes to customer service, looks like you got a return, it had the correct name on it, so must be ok ?

worth checking out samknows.com for your local area....

was it price or speed that you went for ?
I have no idea what the deal was with the router. All I know, the aerial was hanging off, and the stickered seal on the bag inside the box was broken. Presumably a sub-contractor/supplier fk up.

I think they couldn't handle the amount of people who signed up after the ISP report, not that the report swayed me particularly. I looked at a couple of compare the meerkat style broadband sites and Virgin seemed to come out favourably.

Their phone support has been very good to be fair. But I sense a 'rush' on their service which they weren't ready for.

We'll see. If they sort this by the middle of the week I'll be happy enough. Plus a dab of super-glue and I'll have a serviceable back-up router considering they haven't asked for it back.

With regards to the speed, I've had second thoughts, waiting for the naked lady to appear slowly is all part of the tease. N'est pas?




Scraggles

7,619 posts

223 months

richuu

9 posts

219 months

Wednesday 19th August 2009
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captainzep said:
And so far the best speed hooked up to my old ADSL modem is about 3Mbps, at times no more than 1MBps despite their 5-6Mbps estimate for their 8meg service.
Could be that your old modem is only ADSL spec, not ADSL2+. Also, try plugging directly into the 'test' socket on the BT Master socket - the faceplate should be split in half - undo the 2 screws and remove the removable half and you will see another BT socket behind. This should disconnect any additional internal extensions and therefore any internal interference from your line, giving you the best possible signal.

LongQ

13,864 posts

232 months

Saturday 5th September 2009
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An on-going saga here - I'll write the book later but here's the preface.

A couple of weeks ago I was tempted into signing up with a company that is being quite agressive in the market place at the moment but warned the sales person I wanted to check a couple of things first.

Turned out that, like for like, the savings were not as presented since my current supplier had recently cut prices BUT MAINLY because they couold not offer VoIP with a dedicated number. I use the second number for work related stuff. When I asked the questions of the sales person I got a slightly vague response - henmce the check.

So I cancelled within 24 hours and at that point had seen nothing more than a welcome email.

Some days later a letter arrived confirming the changover plus one from existing vendor saying 'sorry to lose you'. I rang both and was by the cancelled 'new' supplier that the order had sort of been cancelled but they found some other things they could cancel as well. Existing supplier the order was still current and there was nothing they could do until the day before the switch over should it be necessary. More information arrived - another call to the new people - showing as cancelled but existing supplier still had it as active.

Modem arrived. Another call - no still cancelled they said andput me through to get a return for the modem actioned. I have a Returns Authorisation Number ...

Existing supplier says the order is atill active but If I call on 2nd Sept they can block it.

Called on the second and was told it would have to be the 3rd since the schangover was still scheduled for the 4th. Called on the 3rd and went through the process of logging the Ofcom record that the new potential supplier (who were still claiming the order was cancelled) for unfair trading. Was assured that that wouold be enough.

Mid-day on the 4th and the Broadband link stopped working. Called existing supplier who said the transfer was in progress and there was nothing they could do except set up a NEW ACCOUNT with the terms of the old one and likely a new telephone number, new VoIP tel number and so on.

The potential new supplier still claimed the order had been cancelled but it was clear that I was now connected to thier service. Not wanting to install their modem I spent a could of hours trying to get the orignal one to work and then reverted to my spare - bought when the harwars form the original BB installation failed to arrive on time in the first place ... rolleyes

At least that meant the WiFi settings were already in place and most of the machines in the house could connect without being reset.

Apparently both parties are working off the same database so quite how this situation can arise I really don't understand. Heaven knows what will happen in a few week's time when it all transfers back.

Heaven help this country if these two major players in the game are representative of not only the the Telecoms industry but large businesses in general.

Whilst the staff on both sides have been unfailingly polite and indeed seemingly very sympathetic helpful and efficient, the fact that a simple cancellation well within the known and standard 14 day 'change you mind' period can go so wrong causing so many people to waste so much time and effort to achieve less than nothing is truly frightening.

Moral of the story - unless you are really serious about changing supplier don't even start the process and don't expect the simple things - like retaining a long existing phone number - to be guaranteed.

Whatever process Ofcom has had put in place to deal with opening up the telecoms market in the UK is obviously ludicrously incompetent. I find it doubtful that both parties are actally working on the same database but I could believe that they are, in theory, seeing near real time updates from it. So based on my experience either the updates are not working (at all), the coding is wrong or someone somwhere is lying. In fact since I was assured by several different people at the potential new supplier that the order had been cancelled I would have to assume that it is not individuals who are lying nut the corporate systems that they work with.

So, be warned. I doubt that mine is the only experience like this. I will report again as the month and the return transfer progresses - or doesn't as the case may be.

miniman

24,827 posts

261 months

Friday 27th November 2009
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Moved over to Eclipse today from Sky (not the proper LLU Sky service, their BT Wholesale service).

With Sky I was just about getting 0.5Mb, and their tech team insisted that there was a fault in my wiring.

And our survey said:




Scraggles

7,619 posts

223 months

Saturday 28th November 2009
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left eclipse after years of piss poor service, culminating in the best speeds for years when the power supply to whatever was nerfing my speeds blew up, went from 0.5 mb upto 7.1 mb and back to 0.5 mb in small stages so that would not notice

eclipse forums on thinkbroadband.com have a lot of people with speed issues

hairyben

8,516 posts

182 months

Tuesday 8th December 2009
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Used virgin the last few years, product's fine but when there is a problem you'll get so mad at their ineptitude you'll want to leave.

Used zen before that, +1 to the excellent product/customer service reported. Ring up, speak to technical guy straight away, technical guy fixes problem straight away. yeah it costs more but you pays your money...

langy

565 posts

238 months

Saturday 19th December 2009
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10mb connection, pretty good.

Edited by langy on Saturday 19th December 13:42

telford_mike

1,219 posts

184 months

Wednesday 23rd December 2009
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Here's mine, and this is on a good day.



I live in a densely populated part of Telford, our local exchange is about 5km away. Is this typical?

Edited by telford_mike on Wednesday 23 December 00:50

lost in espace

6,136 posts

206 months

Thursday 24th December 2009
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Seems a bit low to me, give them a call.

I made the mistake of going with plus.net's £5.99 per month offer a couple of months ago. Seems the cap of 10gb it way to low for me, £50 to cancel and find another isp. Looking at either be broadband or o2 both uncapped. Luckily for me I got cashback from plusnet and will get some more from my new isp so the cost to change is covered. If you go over the limit is is £2 per 2 gig with plus.net, can get expensive.

oobster

7,065 posts

210 months

Tuesday 19th January 2010
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Currently on orange broadband, pay £17.99 per month. I have been with them since they were freeserve.

Any suggestions on a cheaper alternative that will give me similar or better results?

Edited by oobster on Tuesday 19th January 15:09

LongQ

13,864 posts

232 months

Wednesday 20th January 2010
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Oobster, have you run multiple tests at different times? Is the result you posted Mon. Max or typical? Have you tried different test servers?

If that is 'typical' and you are on an 8Mb service I looks reasonable for a middle of the afternoon test.

When I check with Speedtest I find the choice of test target server makes a lot of difference, which is to be expected. My nearest server, these days, prompt as Birmingham and Coventry area. When I first ran the tests they did not exist and Maidenhead was the default for everything. Maidenhead still gives me generally faster results than the closer Midlands locations - plus of course the continuity of performance comparison since broadband installation.






Late afternoon tends to give this sort of result but it can be much lower.




My impression is that the only way to get regularly fatser connections would be to consider cable or BE/O2. I can;t get BE but a pal of mine a few miles away can and has. Last time he mentioned it I think he said that the speeds are good (but he had a business oriented 1Mb package before so not a fair comparison ...) but they are not at the top of the potential offered. As I recall BE do mention that their advertised top speed is aspirational rather than expected but still expect to be able to outperform others come what may. If you can get their service ....

oobster

7,065 posts

210 months

Wednesday 20th January 2010
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Thanks for the info LongQ - i'll try doing tests at different times of the day & different servers. It's a 2MB service i'm on (I live quite a fair distance from the nearest exchange) and i'm reasonaly happy with the speed, just wondered if there was a comparable (in terms of speed) provider who might be a bit cheaper.

LongQ

13,864 posts

232 months

Wednesday 20th January 2010
quotequote all
oobster said:
Thanks for the info LongQ - i'll try doing tests at different times of the day & different servers. It's a 2MB service i'm on (I live quite a fair distance from the nearest exchange) and i'm reasonaly happy with the speed, just wondered if there was a comparable (in terms of speed) provider who might be a bit cheaper.
Crikey, looks like you are getting somewhat more than the advertised service. Your upload speed is impressive as well - it's usually about 5% of the max speed reliably available.

I'm not sure you can guarantee performance from lowerprice deals. If they are attracting people they may become oversubscribed for the local bandwidth available. But having said that some may offer a lot for the money whilst others maybe not so much once you get into the small print. If you just want a basic service and are not too concerned about tech support there may not bne much to choose between them. If you need something a bit more specific as a service combination the game plan changes.

I was always under the impression that, over a period, Orange were one of the more competitive options. Times may have changed of course. My exercise last year, trying to cut a few quid from the bill, turned into a nightmare that I have no wish to repeat.

911newbie

598 posts

259 months

Monday 1st February 2010
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We were having enormous problems with Virgin.net (ADSL) and left last month. We would get a connection for about 2 mins then it would drop. Sending emails from home was like Russian Roulette !

We went to Zen and it's been fatastic. I've done a few speed tests since and we consistently getting about 12mb down and 0.7 to 1mb up. Not bad for £18 per month. Their online payment systems is a bit poor though, we're with Lloyds and their online system simply cannot cope with Lloyds sort codes. (A real person on their suport team could though)

What makes me furious is that all the time we were with Virgin they kept telling us the problem was with us. When we calle dup to request our MAC code they blatantly lied to us, telling us that another ADSL service would experience the same problems.
Apparently that wasn't the case.

So I'm convinced the mega big companies are a dad loss, and it's better to buy ISP and phone from different companies.


oobster

7,065 posts

210 months

Thursday 18th February 2010
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oobster said:


Currently on orange broadband, pay £17.99 per month. I have been with them since they were freeserve.

Any suggestions on a cheaper alternative that will give me similar or better results?

Edited by oobster on Tuesday 19th January 15:09
Decided to go with Sky, they were doing their unlimited package free for 6 months then a tenner a month thereafter.

I expected problems with the swap over but it all ran VERY smoothly, here are the results I am getting now (test done on a Thursday early evening - 6:15pm UK time):