Cheap Basic Internet...

[Coby.]

Moving out soon and will be needing to set up Broadband.

Check speeds and seems I will only get around 7/8mb download so no point trying for anything fancy.

Girlfriend and I will use our mobiles to make calls so just want a basic non fibre deal.

Plusnet seem a decent price with good reviews.

18 month contract.

£0 + £15.95 line rental for 12 months
£17.49 + £15.95 thereafter for 6 months.

Anyone know of a better deal with anyone reliable??

Cheers.

 

[sbridgey]

Basic virgin media is usually cheapest from what i've seen.

 

[Coby.]

Just checked, Virgin don't offer anything in my Village

 

[Coby.]

Talk Talk are out as well, Stupid little village life.

 

[glowworm105]

https://m.sales.talktalk.co.uk/prod...iliate?portalId=GOO_BBKW&v=1&deviceDetected=1
Seems cheap, I've had talktalk before and it worked fine , the only issue I had was if I had to ring them , the language barrier was sometimes a problem

 

[Chrisgti6]

Without knowing where you live it's hard to say. Try somewhere like http://www.broadbandchoices.co.uk/
Will you be having Sky TV? If so don't they offer a free BB connection, just pay the line rental?

 

[Coby.]

Postcode is PE32 2AF

I don't think we'll bother with Sky as neither of us have had it in years.

 

[alistairolsen]

Dont touch sky with a shitty stick.

 

[Coby.]

Options are limited to BT or Plusnet it seems so thinking Plusnet wins on price.

 

[JonnyK]

plusnet are cheaper, however they do not allow filesharing/p2p/torrents and throttle your speeds, whereas BT do not. So if you don't download via torrents etc.. then go with plusnet. If you do, go with BT.

 

[Coby.]

I just do a bit of Streaming via CartoonHD and a bit of catchup TV.
Should be ok??

 

[Chrisgti6]

Dont touch sky with a shitty stick.

Why's that exactly?

 

[H182]

Plusnet will be the cheapest. You can pay the line rental 12 months in advance and works out around £13.50 PM. I think you can drop the free weekend calls and make it even cheaper still if you wont be using it. You could when I ordered in March anyway.

 

[Coby.]

Yeah think I'll be going with Plusnet, Only issue now is I don't know if there is a line to the property or the number.

Can I still call up and sort it or will I need to find out the number first?
It's not a new build so almost certain it'll have a phone line.

 

[H182]

Not sure tbh, best to call and ask them.

 

[alistairolsen]

intolerably poor approach to customer service

 

[Amos91]

plusnet are cheaper, however they do not allow filesharing/p2p/torrents and throttle your speeds, whereas BT do not. So if you don't download via torrents etc.. then go with plusnet. If you do, go with BT.

I've never been throttled with P2P. Whilst they do have active traffic management there has never been an impact.

Coby you will be fine. I use all those services you mention & Netflix etc and always had a faultless service.

intolerably poor approach to customer service

Plusnet? Once again UK call centre staff have been great for me, and their forum support has always been extremely useful! In fact, I told them that that the router was syncing so they immediately activated my line a few days early.

 

[JonnyK]

plusnet do throttle p2p. call them and ask. they will say yes. you clearly just haven't ever noticed it enough to care.

my original point still stands. p2p=bt, no p2p=plusnet.

however I would agree that plusnet have better customer service and I am biased as i worked at bt for over 5 years.

 

[CrippsCorner]

PlusNet are awful.

As far as getting around torrent sites, just make the URL secure and everything works... someone gave me that tip and haven't had a problem since.

I was with EE at my mums, and now I'm with TalkTalk at my flat... actually I rate EE quite good on customer service. Haven't had to deal with TalkTalk yet apart from their installation engineer who was a muppet!

 

[jenic]

plusnet are cheaper, however they do not allow filesharing/p2p/torrents and throttle your speeds, whereas BT do not. So if you don't download via torrents etc.. then go with plusnet. If you do, go with BT.

The opposite is true ime. We had BT Inifiniti (back when it first came out), p2p was basically pointless at anytime other than the early hours. Now with Plusnet fibre at both my rented house and my parents house, both get full speed p2p whatever the time, have BT changed their policies recently then as my parents are thinking of going back to them as it works out cheaper with BT Sport (which costs them extra on plusnet atm).

 

[Gally]

Plusnet are the best company I have dealt with since I left home. Highly recommended and zero issues with torrents etc.

 

[Amos91]

plusnet do throttle p2p. call them and ask. they will say yes. you clearly just haven't ever noticed it enough to care.

my original point still stands. p2p=bt, no p2p=plusnet.

however I would agree that plusnet have better customer service and I am biased as i worked at bt for over 5 years.

Indeed they do on paper but I've not seen congestion that has limited my speed. Downloaded an average of 12gb a day so far over the last few months and haven't noticed it on my ADSL connection. Full 24mb down torrents at peak time.

 

[DannyR]

I've dealt with most broadband providers with my profession.

I would recommend Sky, they're have their own LLUs in most cabinets now so it's a dedicated service for sky customers.

Talk talk/plus net etc... All use the BT parts so you'll effectively be splitting speeds with everyone else.

Sky are also all English call centres if you have an issue. You don't need Sky TV either.

 

[alistairolsen]

Plusnet? Once again UK call centre staff have been great for me, and their forum support has always been extremely useful! In fact, I told them that that the router was syncing so they immediately activated my line a few days early.

No, Sky, as I said above.
@DannyR - doesnt matter what language the call centre staff speak if they're incompetent.

It's just a shame that Sky bought Be, who IMHO were almost perfect from both a performance and customer service point of view and then ruined it.

 

[DannyR]

I'd rather speak to an incompetent person that can at least understand me and not have to read of a script.

ALL BT residential call centres are based abroad, if you have a problem off script then they can't help. The only thing they have on script is no adsl filters in other sockets and fault front plate, any other issues they have no clue.

Oh and when they say they're doing a line test, no, that checks that there is nobody messing around at the local exchange which could be five miles down the road

 

[Amos91]

No, Sky, as I said above.
@DannyR - doesnt matter what language the call centre staff speak if they're incompetent.

It's just a shame that Sky bought Be, who IMHO were almost perfect from both a performance and customer service point of view and then ruined it.

I was with Be* from start to the end. They were great for support, no traffic shaping and price.

 

[JonnyK]

I'd rather speak to an incompetent person that can at least understand me and not have to read of a script.

ALL BT residential call centres are based abroad, if you have a problem off script then they can't help. The only thing they have on script is no adsl filters in other sockets and fault front plate, any other issues they have no clue.

Oh and when they say they're doing a line test, no, that checks that there is nobody messing around at the local exchange which could be five miles down the road

Not ALL.

 

[Gally]

Yeah having a good system is fine but the staff are utterly useless. I have never once phoned Plusnet and had to be passed to anyone else or any f**king around. They seem to just deal with things.

 

[DannyR]

Not ALL.

All point of contact residential calls are diverted to India, business on the other hand are based all over the UK

Yeah having a good system is fine but the staff are utterly useless. I have never once phoned Plusnet and had to be passed to anyone else or any f**king around. They seem to just deal with things.

It's the experience I've had with Sky too, never an issue just gets fixed.

 

[dajones]

I'd rather speak to an incompetent person that can at least understand me and not have to read of a script.

ALL BT residential call centres are based abroad, if you have a problem off script then they can't help. The only thing they have on script is no adsl filters in other sockets and fault front plate, any other issues they have no clue.

Oh and when they say they're doing a line test, no, that checks that there is nobody messing around at the local exchange which could be five miles down the road

Everytime i have spoken to BT over the phone, I have spoken to somebody British?

 

[DannyR]

Everytime i have spoken to BT over the phone, I have spoken to somebody British?

With residential? In the last 2 years?

I've made hundreds of calls and never once got a good English speaking person

 

[The Chubby Pirate]

Why's that exactly?

Because they're c***s?

 

[dajones]

With residential? In the last 2 years?

I've made hundreds of calls and never once got a good English speaking person

Yea residential, when i first set it up and then was having issues with delivery (my end) so called them a few times now. About 4 or 5 months ago

 

[CrippsCorner]

Plusnet are the best company I have dealt with since I left home. Highly recommended and zero issues with torrents etc.

Just don't try and leave them! That's when the s**t begins...

 

[alistairolsen]

It's the experience I've had with Sky too, never an issue just gets fixed.

I'm currently on hold (14 mins so far) so speak to their "escalations team" after a missed engineer visit yesterday where I say in half the day waiting for them and they never showed. I called last night and was promised a call back before they closed which needless to say didnt happen.

This wouldnt be so bad, but its the second missed visit and 5th call since my internet synced at 160kb.

I wont start on the 5 months it took to get a connection in the first place.

They are a shower of useless idiots with a call centre structure designed to pacify and obfuscate without actually solving anything and if/when I eventually get through I will be voting with my money and making sure no one I know has this displeasure again.

 

[Ben]

Whichever one you go for check for cashback rates too, I signed up to a new deal with BT last week and got £140 cashback through Quidco and part of the deal with BT was a £100 pre-paid VISA card.

 

[charltjr]

@alistairolsen have you tried going via the forums?

Unfortunately all the line installs, site visits to fix issues etc are in the hands of BT as with any ISP who uses their infrastructure. Their engineers are a total frigging lottery, I have long and painful professional experience of that

I've been with PN for ages, never had an issue with their customer service other than their online issue management system is rubbish.

 

[JonnyK]

All point of contact residential calls are diverted to India, business on the other hand are based all over the UK



It's the experience I've had with Sky too, never an issue just gets fixed.

i'm sorry you are incorrect. it depends on the department.
sales and customer options teams. always UK based. Billing or Technical support, luck of the draw. however if you call after UK working hours you are likely to get someone overseas, go figure.

 

[JonnyK]

Just don't try and leave them! That's when the s**t begins...

unless you have seen the contract through to it's end and there would be no issues whatsoever..

 

[H182]

No issues leaving PN myself last year, changed to sky as they were offering it free as a TV customer. Didn't even need to contact PN, ordered on line and sky changed everything over. This year I've changed back to PN as my free sky contract had expired, same experience there. Thought sky would balls something up but they didn't.