Switch from BT Broadband

Yes, a subsidiary of BT, Plusnet - and there the similarity ends. Good deals on offer that can include line rental and a Sheffield call centre. Highly rated by Which.

All good so far.

Mick

I had the experience of shutting down a BT Broadband for a friend earlier this week. He, partly because of being Polish, and part because he is very polite, could not make head nor tail of the ways of BT, and said that he would need help to deal with it. I almost lost my cool with the operator, but bit my tongue ... just.

They just don't listen to what is being said to them. The conversation was series of non-sequitors.

To convince the operator, I said that I also was with BT, and unless she co-operated exactly with the request I was making on behalf of another, then I would consider terminating my own contract. As I pointed out, that would be one customer lost through company incompetence and another due entirely to her own intransigence. She woke up a bit at that as the calls are recorded as I understand it ...

Plusnet sounds like a good alternative, which I shall investigate when my initial contract is due for renewal ...

ATB from George

Could not resist the opportunity for a bit of BT bashing. 

My ex-neighbour was a BT techie chap.  Always doing something with his broadband and always managing to slow my bb down to a trickle.  Now that I have moved to Sky I have experienced no problems. I am happy to recommend them. Other neighbours have also moved away from BT.

When I gave them notice that I was taking my business elsewhere BT called my wife and had the cheek to ask her to get me to call them to discuss the situation.  With customer service like that it's no surprise thaat people are moving to alternative providers.

regards

TMWNN

Sheffield call center ? So we will still need a translator.

Ah yes give Sky even more of my money why didn't I think of that?

For Broadband try Atlantic Gas,i kid you not. Google and check out their website.

Mista h

I threatened to switch from BT and was offered a big discount, I'm now paying less than I was 3 years ago and less than any other provider that services my area. Basically I rang up informing them of my intention to switch and I was immediately transferred to a pleasant young lady who asked what it would take to change my mind.

and all you could think of was a discount?

I have been with BT forever and apart from one incident, have been happy with their price and service! I seem to be the only one in Britain from the posts I have read over the years!

Everyone else I know can give me stories of grief from their provider. Most recently Talk Talk convinced my 85yr old father to swap from BT because his contract was up. It wasn't and had six months to go. When this was pointed out to them, and that swapping now would cost him,  TT still ploughed on with the sales pitch.

Staying with BT also means I have had the same email for 20years or so and i don't have to go around informing everyone that it has changed.

My gripe? Their web based mail, which i use to make sure i can access from where-ever I am is pretty carp!

Seems they have 2 peeps still with them lutyens ...........  I am still hanging on

My BT experience has been excellent within the confides & frustration of an old wire system that is over due for replacement with a new optical system in a few months.  The support system works,  can't say more. 

Yes it's very annoying when it goes down for no reason,  but a hub reset most times fixes it.

My neighbour was not so laid back about it & changed to another provider - problem was they used the same BT wires - oops.  

The other reason I am reluctant to jump ship is another hobby is run like a business & I am not prepared to change e-mail & the implications that entails

+1 to wot Mike-B said

i went over to BT about 6 years ago because beforehand whenever something went wrong the service provider would blame the telephone network and the telephone people (BT) would blame the service provider.

Having both the same means they must sort something out when you phone India.

Usually the problem is my local exchange [pictured below] which maybe a little outdated : (

looks like an image from 50 shades of grey

I have been with BT forever and have not really had any problems... Apart from the time that there was a lightening strike in a neighbours garden 4 doors away.

The telephone pole is outside that house and all the cables got melted along with set top boxes and other electrical gear in the area, like my router. Luckily I saw it coming and switched off/unplugged everything in the house. So the Naim gear was ok. It took Openreach ages to rewire everything but they were much quicker than Virgin (NTL at the time). The engineers said that if it was a wooden pole rather than an aluminium one it wouldn't have been so bad. Apparently the wooden poles have a fuse that would have blown. I doubt that it would have stopped the insulation melting on the cables because it even melted a telephone extension in my house on the side closest to the strike.

Anyway back on topic, I have been thinking about what to do when my contract ends. I'm going to try the "I'm leaving" strategy to get a reduction and if they don't come up with the goods go for Plusnet. They seem to be highly rated with good customer service and prices. But it would be a pain changing email addresses. Almost as bad as moving house!

BT here and have been since home internet first started, we as BT employees got it free or very cheap as we were road testing it.Unfortunately we soon had to pay. 

Do Plusnet offer anything like Infinity? 6/30 mega thingies is what I get now.

 btInfinity 80mb  /hub 3 never fails    runs perfect no problems with naim streaming/downloading etc 

I think they do BigH47. My area has just been cabled for infinity and when I did a line check on Plusnet yesterday it was available as 80Mb.

Apart from the very good Plusnet problem reporting and tracking system that enables the customer and Plusnet chaps track the progress of the problem or transfer etc. The Plusnet staff also monitor the Plusnet Community Forums at something like

community.plus.net

and also at the Broadband Forums at the ThinkBroadband web site.

The guys monitoring the above forums are very proactive and very quick to help resolve a customer's problems. 

Oh and Yes Plusnet can offer a FTTC (Fibre to the cabinet) service (assuming BT Openreach have enabled your local cabinet). I am getting a download speed of about 66MbS and an upload speed of 17Mbs

I have always been very happy with BT but this thread did make me check what I am paying.  After a painless on line chat the person phoned me and then put me through to a salesperson with the net result I am now paying £12.40 per month less.  Apparently my contract had expired and I had reverted to paying top rates.  Definitely very remiss of me to let this happen in the first place but my expereince does show that BT can be efficient and helpful.

As the saying goes "Speak of the devil and he shall appear". I had only started doing my research yesterday and then this forum discussion and I get a call from BT. They tell me that my exchange is now wired for FTTC (I already knew as I was talking to the guys doing the work). They are offering me BT Infinity1 and unlimited calls for £3 more per month. I told them I'd think about it as I have only just started looking at the current market. They said they would keep the offer on my file and call back if I'm interested.

Truth is I'll wait a while, they clearly want people in our area to start using the service, now that they have put it in. They'll call back then I'll be ready.

I don't think this is exactly off topic, but can somebody answer a possibly stupid question.

Is broadband it bit like the supply of gas and electricity.  That is, does it always come down the same wire regardless of who supplies it?

For example, here in York I am lucky enough to be on cable.  Supplied by Virgin at 20MB/S standard.

If I change to another cable supplier - is there one? - will it come down the same cable, or would it need the road digging up again?

Sorry to be stupid.

Don  overcast downtown, cabled, York.

Here in the States, each broadband supplier has their own wires above or under the street, and from the street to your home.  Here, if not laid when the home was built, then switching could well entail laying cable from the street to the home.  If a providers cable is not at the street level, then it's simply not an option to the homeowner. 

In most metro areas where I live, there are only two choices for broadband.  Mine are Comcast and FiOS.

Don, Ithink your analogy to gas is a good one. I believ tht the government usually awards contracts for the laying of the infrastructure networks, which can then be utilised by a variety of service providers.

I would have thought though that quality of service is dependant on a wide variety of issues, such as mocavity transmission capacity a supplier has, as well as number of users accessing that capacity, which slows down the data rates