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Author Topic: Leaving Plusnet - Andrews & Arnold, Pulse8 or other?  (Read 1835 times)

colonel_panic

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Leaving Plusnet - Andrews & Arnold, Pulse8 or other?
« on: October 18, 2020, 10:20:11 PM »

Hi folks. After a bit of advice.

Our family business has been run from my dad's home in Hampshire for the last ten years (I am the only employee). He was gradually retiring over the next few years, but with covid things have had to change fast. He's basically retired now.

We both have Plusnet, who we've been with for years. They used to have really good customer service, but I think it's fair to say they aren't what they were. I pride myself on doing really good customer service and deliberately support businesses that I can talk to when there is a problem. Obviously price is a always a consideration, but I feel that companies that don't have reasonable support aren't really giving a full service.

I'd like to find a replacement for Plusnet for me and my dad. I'd like to have his number (which we have used for the business) ported so I can take his calls at my house. I don't use my own landline - the connection to my broadband drops if I receive a call on my landline, which I have never got round to fixing. I suppose whoever we switch to would need to help me get this sorted out.

I am not sure what the best way to do this. There seem to be a lot of companies that can give me access to the phone number from an app (like virtuallandline, as I'm new here I won't post a link), but feedback seems to be a bit varied. And the website has no mention of how you get your number back if you decide to leave.

I had a good email conversation with someone at Andrews & Arnold who said they can do it, but I'm a bit worried about the 300GB cap and in spite of what I said they are really expensive.

Pulse8 seem to have good reviews too, and are much cheaper. But I'm a bit bewildered by all the choice, frankly.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.
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underzone

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Re: Leaving Plusnet - Andrews & Arnold, Pulse8 or other?
« Reply #1 on: October 18, 2020, 10:40:31 PM »

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Weaver

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Re: Leaving Plusnet - Andrews & Arnold, Pulse8 or other?
« Reply #2 on: October 19, 2020, 06:06:24 AM »

I use Andrews and Arnold as do a few other people here and I thoroughly recommend them. They’ve been superb with me.

Talk to them about what concerns you. I don’t have a cap on my lines; I can use as much as I want and I just get charged for what I use.

Take a look at Zen too.

The thing about the DSL link dropping if you get a phone call makes me think that you have a bad microfilter. Need change that out for a good one, which we can recommend - one of the faceplate type not the dangly ones. That’s the job of the microfilter, to isolate the telephone part of the system from the DSL high frequencies.

If you use AA this won’t be an issue anyway as they don’t provide analog telephone service if you get a line from them; they port your number to VoIP and so there’s no such thing as analog telephone calls coming in and confusing the microfilter.
« Last Edit: October 19, 2020, 06:31:04 AM by Weaver »
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jaydub

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Re: Leaving Plusnet - Andrews & Arnold, Pulse8 or other?
« Reply #3 on: October 19, 2020, 10:34:25 AM »

AAISP, Uno, IDNet & Zen should all be fine.  You pay a bit more, but the customer service experience should be significntly better as a result.

Uno's pricing does not include VAT on their web site so you need to add 20% on.

I am with IDNet and have no complaints whatsoever about their service.  They have swapped me between TT, Zen and BT backhaul to try and resolve single thread speed issues.  They also do an annual contract which gives you one month free if you pay up front.
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aesmith

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Re: Leaving Plusnet - Andrews & Arnold, Pulse8 or other?
« Reply #4 on: October 29, 2020, 03:16:59 PM »

I had a good email conversation with someone at Andrews & Arnold who said they can do it, but I'm a bit worried about the 300GB cap and in spite of what I said they are really expensive.

We moved from Plusnet to Andrews and Arnold.  At that time they were basically the same price, but had a usage cap which Plusnet didn't.  The price comparison may be different if you're in town, we're on a "Market A" exchange so don't get any of the ISP special offers, for example making Zen or Pulse 8 more expensive than A&A.

Regarding the usage cap, A&A now have a system where you roll over half of the unused allowance, so that means you can build up a safety margin.
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