Changing Broadband Supplier - Help

[gscrym]

My contract with the vile people at AOL runs out next month and I'm going to change supplier. Could I get some recommendations about packages and which gives good service. Thanks for any help.

bumping for you

I DON'T recommend Talktalk

Bad: Virgin, Pipex, Tiscali. BT
Good: Zen, Andrews and Arnold
Maybe: O2, Sky, Newnet

Reviews and comparisons at www.thinkbroadband.com/

We went with Telewest who have since been taken over by Virgin. They've been fine, aside from very intermittent and occasional problems with the network being overloaded or something. Literally two or three times, for a couple of hours at most, in four years.

Before that we were with BT, and I never miss an opportunity to tell people how unremittingly shite they were. Lost net access one day and it went on for SIX WEEKS. Their call-centre spun one story after another about the reason, and aaaargh! - it was like pulling teeth. I made 23 (23!!) calls to various call-centre numbers, every time getting a different person, every time having to go back to the beginning and be talked through stages I had been through over and over - re-booting, testing router in a different phone socket, etc.

I tried to get them to reimburse me for loss of earnings during the time I was offline, but nothing came of it. Worst customer service I have ever, ever encountered.

That was what eventually persuaded me to change suppliers.

virgin BAD, sky GOOD

Sky are good if you already have a sky package - only a tenner for Max (up to 16mb depending on your exchange) or free if you don't need a lot of bandwidth. Tech support not bad - Indian call centre at first but 2nd tier support is UK and they know their stuff. With Sky you have to use the router they send you out (which I've not had any probs with) and there is a good online community (skyuser) which can help - lots of knowledgable people on there.

I have another 6 months to wait till I can leave AOL total shite

We're on Be part of o2 apparently. I dont know much about it as its my brother who organised it, but we haven't had any issues yet(touch wood) plus the speed is blissful! Used to be on aol ages ago and would never go back!!!