Fed up with BT

[Blues]

As it says in the title... what's the local SASer's preference for land line plus decent speed broadband? Anyone happy with SKY

[hewlett]

Sky have been really good, fast broadband, no issues with the phone and TV package, the helpline have been good at resolving the 2 minor issues we had (TV stopped working twice, just needed a software update which was easily done)

[twiglove]

I far as I am concerned Sky are as bad as BT (well nearly)

I have just setup an account with Talk Talk for phone and internet, currently getting 6mb DL when others around are on 3mb.

You could try them, But saying that i'm sure they are all as bad as each other once they have your money..

Maybe Plusnet??

[M3]

O2, 20M but I am near exchange, tenner per month, no problems (famous last words)

[SVTRick]

Infinity from BT / Openreach

37m D/L
9m U/L

Good

[MX-5 Lazza]

It's a funny old world.

I was with Talk Talk for 18 months during which I had nothing but problems. The connection speed was dire (as high as 300k at best) and with constant drop-outs. Trying to talk to someone at TT who actually knew what they were talking about was a painful process as you have to go through 1st line (they take notes), 2nd line (they take more notes and tell you to change the in-line filters) before you get to talk to 3rd line who are the only ones you really want to talk to. Once they think the issue is resolved (or they just want to close their call) they reset you so that you can only talk to 1st line again and you have to go through the whole painful process again. All I wanted from the start was for them to send Openreach out to sort the phone line. I knew the line was the problem but 1st & 2nd line can't call Openreach, only 3rd line and I only got to talk to them once in 18 months.

I gave up and switched to BT. 2 days after switching an Openreach engineer was at my door and since that day I have had a solid reliable 1.1Mb DL (I'm a long way from the exchange so that's as good as I could hope for).

Sorry if that turned into a bit of a rant but TT really did give shockingly bad support & service for me.

[twiglove]

Hmm, lets hope I don't have any probs with TT then I am just glad I had other choices other than BT

[theboyfold]

I'm on a BT Phone Line with Be Broadband.

I don't think I've ever used the BT line to call out, so can't comment on them. However, I'm a big fan of BE. Good customer service, good speed and have never had any issues with them.

[nonuts]

Demon were good but expensive, plusnet seem to be okay but I'm sure they're not as fast as Demon was (yes I realise it's basically part of BT).

No serious issues with either and we get ~17Mb connection speeds looking at the router.

[Blues]

Hmmm, i don't know.

I have just got totally fed up with over-priced BT (or their agents/partners) ringing me trying to sell stuff that i don't want, at all times of the day and evening. Had fun with their Blokey today.

Him "I'm calling from BT. Is that Meester Hugs"
Me "What nationality are you?"
Him "I'm calling from BT"
Me "yes, I know, you told me that. I asked what nationality are you?"
Him "I don't understand"
Me " Precisely! So, what country are you calling from?"
Him "I'm calling from London"
Me "so why can't you pronounce my surname?"
Him "I'm French!!!"
Me "You are French, and calling me to sell me something? I suspect that this contravenes the Telephone Preference Service. We have nothing further to discuss, good bye!!"

Cheeky cheese-eating surrender monkey

[nonuts]

Blues said:

Cheeky cheese-eating surrender monkey

That's the real issue isn't it, send them a letter saying you don't want anyone French calling you

[M3]

You musn't judge them all by their speed camera discrepancies..

[Smiler.]

No suggestions for telecomms, but:

[Bensonv8]

David,
You should register with the Telephone Preference Service

http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/

Its free and legal.
If someone rings like BT or British Gas or the sky box warranty companies cold calls you, just tell them you are on the TPS register and it is illegal for them to ring you. They then have a legal obligation to remove you from there database and they won't ring again.
I think it works quite well as i get very few unwanted phone calls.
It is only applicable to British companies though
as I seem to win a free holiday in America from time to time !!!


There is also the Mailing Preference Service

http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/mpsr/

This stop companies sending you junk mail, but it doesn't stop the postman from delivering it !!!

[vxsmithers]

Hmm might try this myself - keep getting calls from Barclays asking for Mt Erlando Erlantham... It was funny for the first 6 months

That name is now etched in my brain

[Kinky]

Lord Blues,

I have been a very happy BT Broadband customer for c. 10 years.

I have been a very happy BT Vision customer for c.1.5 years.

I have been a very happy BT landline customer for god knows how many year.

Until last October.

Our broadband went down; and very rarely came up. Speaking to BT support was a complete waste of time and immensely frustrating. Had numerous engineers out and they could never find a problem at 'their' end. What was suspicious is that broadband always came back up the night before the engineers always came.

Anyway - BT were blaming my hardware; which I knew for a fact was not the case. This dragged on and on and on. It will be 6 days now since it's been 'fixed' where the fault was (alledgedly) traced to a dodgy circuit board on the exchange (like JR had).

But it's all too little too late.

I've been looking around at what options are open to me - and the best package available is Sky. And get this .... the fully monty TV package, with HD, with unlimited broadband, and Sky landline with unlimited calls is about £220 cheaper a year than BT

I'm about to make the switch - but need to sort out my Sky dish first (as per my thread on Sky installers).

The key thing to confirm is that Sky are LLU enabled on your exchange. If they are not; then you'll be totally buggered for broadband access from about 4pm-11pm.

So if you go for Sky - you won't be alone. I'm totally dreading it (better the devil you know, and all that) - but we sure as hell ain't going back.

[Blues]

Interesting stuff chaps, thanks.
I've been registered TPS for years, still doesn't stop the little buggers. I have two land lines at home, and get calls on both of them. Even got one little st threatening me, with the "I know where you live..."

My biggest bone of contention is that BT seems to cost so much more than the others. I'm thinking I'll move to SKY and see how I get on with them, but I'll make that check first, tha
nks K!

[Kinky]

Stick your postcode in here and it will tell you: http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search

You are looking for Sky/Easynet with a green tick on the list on the right-hand side, under the map (in the table called "LLU operator presence")

[Kinky]

Oh, and if you sign up via Quidco, you get up to £100 cashback (depending on which option you go for)

[Kinky]

Forgot to mention

If Sky are LLU'd on your exchange, then before you sign on the dotted line, get them to absolutely confirm that there's a slot available for you on it. If there is not, then you'll end up with the naff service which is not worth it.