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[Biglad]

Hi There,

Looking for a business FTTC 80/20 line. I need assurance again packet loss and latency. Making sure that the are not over subscribed on any of their connects to BT infrastructure. Make sure they do not running a red/hot FTTC service.

I need they to have a support desk that can contact if there is an issue and direct connact to BT openreach/wholesale, if i am making sense?

Some one mentioned Zen internet as a good provider? Please can some come back to me with some suggestions?

Many thanks

[Weaver]

Welcome to the forum!

I have been very happy with AA, aa.net.uk for many years. They fit all your requirements I think. Take a look at the ispreview top ten.

[Chunkers]

I have two ISP's (two lines!) Zen and PlusNet and from a connection, speed and reliability standpoint they have both been good.  I have had the Zen connection for around 10 years, the PlusNet one for just over 2 years.

The stand-out difference between the two (in my opinion) is the customer service, Zen are streets ahead and have always been excellent in this area for me.  I like the fact that their helpline rarely has much waiting time, their staff are in the UK, polite and knowledgeable.  PlusNet on the other hand are the opposite, if you need to speak to them then be prepared for long waits and "call volume" recorded messages.

If I had to reduce to one line, I would keep Zen and cancel PlusNet

C

[chenks]

The stand-out difference between the two (in my opinion) is the customer service, Zen are streets ahead and have always been excellent in this area for me.  I like the fact that their helpline rarely has much waiting time, their staff are in the UK, polite and knowledgeable.  PlusNet on the other hand are the opposite, if you need to speak to them then be prepared for long waits and "call volume" recorded messages.

the standout difference between the two is most definitely price!

as they say, you get what you pay for.
only you can decide if the better customer support is worth the jump in price.

remember to compare business package prices though, and not the consumer prices.

[jelv]

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/isps/compare?isp_2=1&isp_16=1&isp_77=1&isp_6=1&commit=Compare

[chenks]

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/isps/compare?isp_2=1&isp_16=1&isp_77=1&isp_6=1&commit=Compare

to be taken with a pinch of salt though of course.
unless you poll 100% of customers you'll only ever get a snapshot of those than decide to give their opinion.

i could easily get a 100% satisfaction rating for plusnet if i was selective about who i asked. on the flip side you'll mostly hear from people that have issues and those that don't will generally remain silent.

[jelv]

But given that it is generally those that are unhappy are more likely to give their rating, AAISP having been at the top of the ratings for probably 10 years or more says something. How often do you see posts from AAISP users who are unhappy? The same used to be said of Zen and their rating was close to AAISP's but I've seen more unhappy posts about them recently and that is reflected in the rating (although still way better than the big 6). Although the actual percentage may not be accurate the relative rating I think is valid.

[chenks]

i'm always sceptical of a poll those shows anyone getting 100% (or very close to it).
AAISP may be unique thought that in their prices are so high that if anyone is unahappy they are more than likely to just leave and go elsewhere rather than complain and keep paying for service.

the plusnet figures look too high IMO.

[jelv]

I think ALL customer services surveys are fundamentally flawed as people who haven't had an issue will rate highly when what they are really thinking about is probably reliability.

If a survey started with "have you needed to contact your ISP for support in the last 3 months (or 6 some other period)" and only asked those who have used support in that period to rate it you would get a very, very different answer!

[Weaver]

I used Zen and they were great. AA won over them because their range of services was better. I never had an occasion to use Zen’s tech support or customer services.

I have to say that the incredibly good ratings that AA enjoy on ispreview and elsewhere are statistically biased in a sense. The big ISPs will have a vast number of ordinary customers some of whom are inexperienced or are even clueless or morons or nasty pieces or work. That is just how things are. And they will be complaining a lot. So that is just the big ISPs’ bad luck, that they have to deal with the confused, the whingers and the thickos.

AA on the other hand tends to attract a number of extremely clued up people for whatever reason. There are indeed some normal users there and from my experience staff seem very happy to deal with normal customers and don’t have inappropriate expectations. But I would say that statistically, AA has a relatively easy time of it and simply do not have the vast numbers of difficult customers who are more likely to get fed up. So BT et al’s poor ratings relatively speaking do not fairly reflect reality. AA’s users are loyal fans, indeed I would say that it is a cult. :-) :-)