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[burakkucat]

BT is fine .....until the word support crops up,then you are diverted to the sub continent(say no more) 

That I appreciate, Uncle, but surely with access to the resources of the inhabitants of the Kitz fora, TD should never need to use BT retail's so called telephone "support", from the script readers in the Asian sub-continent of India.

[burakkucat]

@ burakkucat .........BT  .......a trawl through this thread http://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php/topic,9154.0.html will illustrate how BT treats it's customers in this village.

Now that you have mentioned that thread, b*cat remembers it. Indeed a certain black cat even caterwauled within it. However, that was a past event and knowing what you know, along with the resources available to you -- including remote diagnosis by Mr Pag, surely BT retail is worth your consideration?

I am with the most despised and hated LLU CPs (full MPF), TalkTalk. Yes, their telephone support is abysmal and should be avoided at all costs. However their on-line forum support is good -- if one (a) should need it (b) is able to get on-line to access it. In the four years that I have been with TalkTalk I have never needed their support -- possibly because I am able to resolve my own problems.

[UncleUB]

I see Zens Homelite plan is only 2p more that your existing plan with VM......Its only 1 month minimum contract and UK based support

http://www.zen.co.uk/home-office/broadband/home-office-broadband.aspx

[tuftedduck]

Thanks guys for the continuing input and advices.

Yes, Zen looks good........still looking at others to see what is on offer...

[waltergmw]

Hi TD,

The difficulty with vendor comparisons is attempting to discover vital aspects which are almost always not published as well as they might be. Zen for instance have a first-class fault reporting and logging system. In their case they don't necessarily tell you that they have fully trained support staff who actually listen and respond accordingly. They adjust their responses depending on the degree of knowledge they observe the end users have. They also have one engineer per shift who is responsible for all communications with their provider, thus avoiding most of the "Tower of Babel" confusions. Zen will tell you of their user-accessible fault log which is a godsend for avoiding call queues.

EDIT - just in case you're interested I've attached below expurgated details of the first entry in a Zen fault report. I think it is quite apparent that ever-so-polite Asians would be totally overwhelmed if they were expected to investigate and record that type of technical detail. However it would not be beyond the capabilities of the business faultfinding team in Dundee were they so encouraged.

Plusnet have a similar on-line logging system although it seems rather slower to be processed.

(Some may say that on-line systems are useless if you don't have a connection but many people now have web browsing smart-phones or friends with internet connections.)

Kind regards,
Walter

[attachment deleted by admin]

[UncleUB]

One or two more good isp's to throw into the mix

Vispa

http://www.vispa.net/home-saver.php

aaisp

http://aa.net.uk/

Aquiss

http://www.aquiss.net/

[bbnovice]

Have just looked out my current agreement with VM...........the current rate is for me is £18.35 pm ( did not realise it was as high as that), and it will be going to £23.35 pm from October.
At that level of cost I would certainly be better switching to the likes of Zen.......where I suspect I would get my full money's worth.

I could go to an all round cheaper source, but I would think that most ISP's will want a price hike soon.......where to go ?   

edit to add............

@ roseway. You are probably correct. I quote from the letter.....

quote " Of course, if you'd like to move to another broadband company, we'll be sorry to see you go, but we'll do everything we can to make sure the switch goes smoothly"

I'm interested in what you say as I'm on Virgin National Broadband as well (no Virgin phone). I'm currently paying £15.30 per month (inc Vat) for an up to 8Mbs service with 4mbs actually being delivered. But I've not received any notification of a price increase.
 
Also on the Virgin website I can't find a tariff (new price) for £23.35.

So can I ask which tariff Virgin have told you that you are actually on?

Even at my rate of £15.30 per month the price is marginally uncompetitive with BT. They recently offered me Infinity which turned out at about the same monthly price as Virgin once the BT line cost (which I already pay) was taken into the equation.

Regards bb   

[tuftedduck]

Good morning, bbnovice, and thank you for you comments.

My Virgin Media contract is years old and the package descriptions when I first signed up seem to bear no relationship to the currently offered packages.
I started on the "ADSL Bundle2"......and am still on that as far as I can see ( they have never told me otherwise)............but that no longers appears on the Virgin tariffs.
I have no idea what the current equivalent of that......all I can say is that my package is adsl only, unlimited (sic) downloads, sync. speed 8Mgbs, using my own router and without any Virgin security bloatware.

As to their recent notification to me, I will.........if I can get my scanner to work properly....post a copy of the letter.

edit to add........thank you, too, to the other guys for their comments and advices.

Yet another edit to add..image attached.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[bbnovice]

Hi td,

I like the justification for the price increase in the letter! Do I smell cow poo?

I'm in exactly the same boat as you (nearly). As I said before I've been a customer since the old dial up days so I too am on a tariff (un-named) which does not appear on their website. Thats why I asked you the question. But I've not had a letter like yours (yet?).

I suspect they may have tons of "legacy" customers and are trying the "rationalise" (ie increase) the base prices to ease their tariff management/marketing.

Funnily enough BT phoned me again today about Infinity. If the Virgin price goes up by £5 per month then I'm off despite the customer service and related concerns others have with BT. In my experience Virgin customer services are a lot better than they were a few yaers ago but are hardly "class leading" by any stretch of the imgaination and aint worth an additional £5 per month.

Keep us updated on what happens.     

[kitz]

>> £23.35 pm from October.

Ouch :/
You may as well go with Zen, the only downside is no 24/7 support, but IMHO they are one of the best.

Someones already mentioned Plusnet..  most of their bad rep in the past was due to the Ellacoyas, but I never had a problem with my usage.. just make sure you choose the right package.

aaisp/xilo/aquis good alternatives to look at.

[Wildy]

I seem to remember when I rang VM for a mac code back in the day and when asked why I said I was off to Sky on a much cheaper deal, they offered to match it.  Might be worth asking the question if you're happy with the service you're currently getting, this was a couple of years ago now though.