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[broadstairs]

Thanks for all the comments. I should say that I think it is very unlikely we would ever have satellite TV at least not paid for satellite TV, we cant watch everything on Freeview right now anyway so why have more (not a sports fan).

I am not that bothered about moving especially as we have another 6 months of contract anyway - time to see how (if at all) things change, however the Significant Other does seem keen to move. I will take a lok round and see what takes my fancy.

Stuart

[NewtronStar]

Just a note if you stay with the same provider for years you are not considered as a new customer by most ISPs you will notice there are cheaper deals for new customers and a free modem.

ISPs are like car insurance if you stick with same the same company you will lose out in the long term so keep switching ISPs and car insurance each year and just hate any ISP that gives you a minium 18 month contract.

[sevenlayermuddle]

In my own opinion, ISPs can be divided into two categories... those that use foreign, non English-speaking call centres, and those who use UK based, native English-speaking call centres.

Based on my own experiences (with Demon and, briefly, TalkTalk), it became my opinion that the foreign, gibberish talking call centres, were never intended to provide any service at all.  Their main purpose may be to make the customer go elsewhere, perhaps to resort to online forums, or even to migrate to another ISP.   An ISP that is deliberately providing a bad (but profitable) service won't care about losing the odd customer - especially if it earns them an exit fee.

On above, I'd say A&A based on reputation, or Zen with whom I am now a happy customer.

Didn't PN bring have UK call centres recently?   Do they still?

[Weaver]

A service provider like A&A provides a lot beside just a utility-type internet service like water or electricity. They used to provide static IPv4 address blocks, until IPv4 ran out (choose you sense of the word). They give you IPv6 address blocks as much as you want, VoIP, 3G data SIMs that give you a single static IPv4 address per SIM. My point anyway is that AA support isn't just there for mending things when they break, they hopefully won't break. Someone remarked on kitz that AA's support wasn't worth paying for because she never called tech support anyway. AA are there to talk to to help you expand what you can do with the service and with the kit that you can get from AA. It's highly likely the AA staff know more about <topic> than you do, never mind offshore call centres. There are times when you want to make changes, and AA's staff make that easy. For example, I wanted a larger IPv4 address block, job done in less than five mins.

That's my point anyway, AA offer a very rich service, and many users won't need such riches, in which case fair enough. But it's a mistake to think of AA tech support as just the "mend-it department". They can guide you and can make changes for you very efficiently.

I have also used Zen, tried them for a year at another site, good but not anywhere need as rich as AA's service. I also got a bit fed up with constant "coming soon" from Zen about IPv6, delivery of which which was running about ten years late compared with A&A. Zen - definitely worth a look.

[Weaver]

In many companies, "support" departments' only function is to keep customers away from the important people who know what's what, to protect and screen the valuable people who can actually help, because these valuable people will get pretty fed up if customers actually manage to get through to them, the gurus, the gold-dust staff. (From personal experience.)

[Ronski]

7LM, PN have always had UK based call center's.

[renluop]

I guess only the fortunate and affluent will have access to A&A or Zen and their like, if my exchange in a town that serves (approx):   9,065 residential premises, 655 non-residential premises. Our choice is
LLU operator presence
C&W; Sky; TalkTalk (CPW); none of which inspire.   

[WWWombat]

In many companies, "support" departments' only function is to keep customers away from the important people who know what's what, to protect and screen the valuable people who can actually help, because these valuable people will get pretty fed up if customers actually manage to get through to them, the gurus, the gold-dust staff. (From personal experience.)

That's certainly the job of first-line support - to field all the dumb questions, using cheap staff who are trained just sufficiently to handle dumb questions.

Larger corporations want their better staff, who are paid more, in second-line support, where they only have to field the tricky questions. If you know you have a tricky issue, your best strategy is to work out how to get past the person who answered the phone, and put onto someone who can understand you (and, if the issue goes on, to be kept in contact with the same person). The focus is on tricky, but still relatively standard stuff.

Third-line support usually involves the staff who actually make the products. They get involved when equipment stops working in the way it should, and bugs need squashing. These are your highest-paid staff, and you really don't want to waste their time with issues such as using the wrong cable in the wrong socket.

There is another level of support, somewhat unnamed. These are the best development guys who don't normally get involved in support work at all. They come into play when, say, the likes of Vodafone's MD calls Ericsson's MD to complain about an issue. All hell breaks loose in the company then 

Small companies, however, don't have (or need) this depth behind them. The good staff man the lines.

[sevenlayermuddle]

It's not just 'support' as in tech support, I also had major problems with Demon's foreign staff just trying wind up the contract when I moved to Zen.    Even though I had obtained and activated a Mac, and given notice of termination, I still faced several long phone calls just persuading them I'd actually 'gone'.

Similarly when winding up the estate after my father died.  He'd been a customer of TT.   They did initially let me deal with a UK based bereavement specialist of some kind which helped, but confusion soon set in and then I was back in the hands of the foreign call centre.  Last thing I needed, really.

[jelv]

7LM, PN have always had UK based call center's.

They did have a support centre in South Africa for a while as a result of the Brightview acquisition.

[Ronski]

But did Plusnets own customers ever use that call centre or was it just for the Brightview brands. I've been with PM since 2003 and I don't remember anything about foreign call centres, they always made a point that their support is UK based.

[jelv]

Yes, some Plusnet customers did end up talking to Durban (not always a happy experience as sometimes they were as useless as some of the Sheffield support are now). Some calls were automatically routed there from the one support number.

See http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/2010/11/18/plusnet-uk-shifts-its-broadband-isp-telephone-support-staff-back-to-sheffield.html

[Ronski]

Well I've either completely forgotten about it or was never aware, and both are quite possible