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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to want to know if there is a broadband company not run by bastards?

53 replies

Gone2far · 01/05/2019 19:42

We set up our Talktalk account 5 years ago, and now want to close it. I couldn't get into my account to do that as I'd forgotten which email address I used, and the password.
No phone number.
When I found a number, I was kept waiting for 15 minutes, then cut off.
The only way I got to speak to a human was by saying that I wanted to upgrade my package.
We went for the company partly because, at the time, Orange had a really bad name.
Is there any broadband company that lets you talk to humans when you've got a problem and has good customer service?

OP posts:
Lifecraft · 02/05/2019 13:56

My current broadband company is run by cunts. The last one was run by wankers. So yabu, they are not all run by bastards, there's plenty of choice out there.

H0tterthanecpected · 02/05/2019 14:01

I've been with BT for years never had an issue
My neighbour had Talk Talk & had lots of issues
However, I believe that Talk Talk still runs off the BT network ?
I believe that Virgin provides the fastest, but you need to be in a Virgin cabled area

claragolightly · 02/05/2019 15:57

Another for Plusnet. I've been with them a few years and have moved house twice. No problems, very helpful, everything gets sorted straight away.

Had a nightmare with TalkTalk.

SaskiaRembrandt · 02/05/2019 16:00

Talk Talk are awful, just awful. I would never use them again and I always warn people about them.

EE seem good though, we've been with them for over three years and haven't had any problems.

Macaroonmayhem · 02/05/2019 16:07

We were with Plusnet, changing to BT next week as our contract expired and BT had a good deal plus cash back. We’ll prob go back to Plusnet when this deal is up!

LeatherFace · 02/05/2019 16:10

Plusnet WERE great. Last few months - catalogue of errors (by them) that I won’t bore you with, but four phone calls waiting on hold for around 2 hours each got me very pissed off.

Sky (evil empire) are the dogs bollocks. You get what you pay for.

MRex · 02/05/2019 16:14

We've been happy with Plusnet. Virgin were a nightmare.

nessnessness · 02/05/2019 16:16

Zen without a doubt.
Not the cheapest but by far the very best.
Fantastic customer service and great technical support. Wouldn't never change!

HildaAlida · 02/05/2019 16:24

Watching with interest - we've had Virgin cable for 2 years, but the broadband has been horribly temperamental over the last few months. It cuts out dozens of times during the day and I work from home - and although I keep phoning them, they test it and say everything is fine, we have the most up to date router, perhaps we should try a booster.

It's not fucking slow you morons, it CUTS. Out. There is no connection. They refuse to send an engineer.

Ready to give up and go elsewhere, we don't need virgin TV as we have a smart TV anyway. DH wants to go back to BT but I'm resisting as I think they're worse than Virgin. Don't even get me started on those Sky wankers...

I'm off to look at Plusnet.

Elphame · 02/05/2019 16:25

Another very happy Zen user here too. We've been with them around 20 years now and no plans to change.

Not the cheapest but it's worth it to have real proper support on the few occasions we've needed it.

DontCallMeShitley · 02/05/2019 16:55

Another vote for Zen.

Plusnet are BT though aren't they?

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 02/05/2019 17:08

AAISP are the ones usually quoted as being the absolute best, but you will have to pay for it.

I was about to say this. We're with them and wouldn't dream of moving. Yes, they do cost a bit more and help is only available on the phone during office hours (although they often hang out and are contactable online on various platforms as they're all geeks - they have a huge dalek in their office!), but they have no call centres as such - just UK offices where a highly techy person who knows what they're talking about and actually wants to help you sort it will assist you based on whatever level of techy knowledge you do or don't have. Having said that, we joined them in 2011 and, other than setup assistance and a time where I made a very foolish error myself, I haven't needed to call them for the last 6-7 years. It just works. No broadband company can guarantee perfect uninterrupted service, but their logs usually show uptime of at least 99.9% of uptime each month.

They monitor your connection (NOT the content) every second and will contact you if they detect an enduring problem. Getting texts from them is quite a handy way of knowing if you've had a power cut when you're away from home.

They don't have any throttling, monitoring or censorship controls (you're very welcome to set up your own for your house). They use BT wholesale lines (I think you can also choose TalkTalk too) for backhaul, but they're very well-known in the industry for their knowledge and tenacity i.e. they will contact BT, tell them exactly what their engineers need to do to fix the problem, and hound them until they do.

I think it speaks volumes that they have a very clear 'How to leave us' link on their homepage. In my experience, companies who are so obliging in helping you to leave them, should you wish to, are the ones who know that very few people choose to.

They can provide a line for you if you're happy to make all/any landline calls through VoIP. If you want to keep PSTN/POTS (traditional landline calls) facility, then you'll need to rent the line from elsewhere (we're with Phone Co-Op, as recommended by a PP); also, they don't do any TV services, so you'll get a cheaper bundle from elsewhere, if the very lowest price is your priority rather than reliability.

I don't work for them, but am just an extremely happy customer who is highly unlikely to ever consider leaving them.

If you haven't already done so, check out ispreview.co.uk for a good overview of the market with plenty of helpful reviews. Obviously, they're subjective, but it's an interesting comparison to see the list of the 10 biggest ISPs (by customer base) alongside the list of the 10 best-rated ISPs. In the latter list, with the possible exception of Zen (which are usually well-rated) and Phone Co-op, 99% of people would never have heard of any of them. Also, be aware that big-brand ISPs (from supermarkets etc) are usually just one of the big boys with exactly the same service but with a household-name wrapper on it.

arethereanyleftatall · 02/05/2019 17:13

Sky are terrible. Really naughty. Ask you so many security questions, takes about half an hour, that you give up the will to complain about anything. Then accidentally get disconnected off chat if it gets difficult. Clever really. Technically they tick the customer service box though.

kitkat6 · 02/05/2019 17:15

I use utility warehouse and been really impressed with them over the years.

NetballHoop · 02/05/2019 17:17

As others have said, Zen. They are MUCH better than any other company I have used. www.zen.co.uk/

CherryPavlova · 02/05/2019 17:17

We have a brilliant service from Bill who runs a tiny satellite broadband company. Day or night he’ll arrive and sort problems. For a bacon sandwich he’ll clear the gutters whilst up his cherry picker and debug our personal desktops.

PJMasksAreOnTheirWay · 02/05/2019 17:29

EE for me.

Really? I’ve been trying for 7 years to change my maiden name to my married name. I’ve given up.

Virgin media are shocking.

MeetMeInMontauk · 02/05/2019 17:32

Another vote for Zen here. Been with them for >5 years now; incredibly stable service and almost trip over themselves to rectify issues on the very few occasions that things go awry (including, on one memorable occasion, giving me a free upgrade to their current gen router worth about £150 when the old one died on us). As others have posted, they aren't cheap but you truly get what you pay for in this particular market.

LakieLady · 02/05/2019 17:48

I have a longstanding boycott of Murdoch businessses so that rules out Sky for me. And since Virgin Media contractors ruined my life for six weeks by digging up the roads for 12 hours a day, every day bar Sundays (when it was 8-5), for 8 weeks I boycott Virgin products too.

BT tech support is pants. We switched to BT because it was the only way we could watch MotoGP for free, but we have to pay extra for it now so are going to switch to Plusnet. I'm waiting till they've paid us the £250 compensation they've agreed to for unreliable service though!

usernameusername01 · 02/05/2019 17:49

Plus net!

Moved house, no issue. Every time we renew they just ask us to find a deal with any other company and they'll match it no problem. Customer online chat is brilliant and they're are always so helpful.

ForalltheSaints · 02/05/2019 17:54

Communications companies are allowed to get away with bad service, because there are analogue laws and regulations to deal with digital services. BT are allowed to have morning or afternoon appointments for businesses, not 2 hour slots, for example, and have a monopoly on parts of the infrastructure.

It is a matter of least worst.

Bringbackthestripes · 02/05/2019 17:54

Plusnet for us. We have been so happy with them we now all have mobile sim only contracts with them too. We have always been able to speak to someone on the phone, not that we have needed to often just with queries when getting sim cards sorted.

Prior to that we were with talktalk-appalling!

pinkandstripey · 02/05/2019 17:55

NOT PLUSNET. They have been having 'system issues' which means I haven't have a correct bill - or some months any bill since we signed up in September. Google plusnet customer reviews and read the recent ones.

I came back to them as I had a great experience years ago, considering paying to get out of my contract now - it's that bad.

Theknacktoflying · 02/05/2019 17:58

Zen internet ... expensive but fab service ... and UK based

darkriver19886 · 02/05/2019 18:07

Sky has been decent for me. I have never had an issue with services going down etc.

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