New ISP needed. Recommendations?

[TonyVianoAmbiente]

We are currently with Tiscali Broadband, getting 8 MB for £14.99 per month. When it works it is great, with download speeds averaging 12 to 16 MB, but we had 48 hours without service earlier this week and Tiscali's customer service was atrocious. It is all based in India.

First they alleged a router problem (our router, not a free one) and then a cabling problem in our house. After checking cables and replacing one, and rebooting the router dozens of times, finally they admitted that there was a server problem at out local POP in Milton Keynes.

It was impossible to get any sensible answers, we were just fobbed off with the standard platitudes. Grrrrr!

So it's time to move on. We are looking for an ISP with excellent reliability and excellent customer service when things go wrong. That seems to rule out Sky, TalkTalk, AOL and BT whose customer ratings appear to be just as bad as Tiscali's.

Can anyone recommend a reliable ISP, not too expensive, with customer service based here in the UK? We need 8 MB and are prepared to pay £20 a month.

Almost forgot. We are victims of Local Loop Unbundling and Tiscali refuse to give us a migration code. Does that limit our choice of ISP?

 

[davidjpowell]

Sorry to say I suspect that they are all as bad as each other!

David

 

[masqueraid]

Tiscali refuse to give us a migration code. Does that limit our choice of ISP?

Get hold of Offcom or at least tell Tiscali that's what you are doing. Without a MAC you are effectively tied to Tiscali

 

[Ratz]

As far as I understand it Tiscali are legally bound to give you the MAC code - it isn't a choice!!

I have found BT to be pretty good on the whole, only one telephone conversation where I appeared to have found the bad apple.. Connection has been 100% reliable and you can get BT Fusion which is pretty good - £30 for a freeview box with 160Gb hard drive & on demand TV.

One not to go for is Pipex, after ringing me to ask if I wanted to change provider - to which I answered no thank you - they used my bank details(which they had from a contract years earlier) to start taking money from my bank account 3 months later. Took me a further 6 months to get that money back!!

 

[whitenemesis]

BT seem reliable. Been getting 8-9mb download routinely. Never had a "down" day in the past 2.5yrs
Also have BT Vision very good too

 

[Ratz]

BT seem reliable. Been getting 8-9mb download routinely. Never had a "down" day in the past 2.5yrs
Also have BT Vision very good too

BT Vision - that's what I meant .

 

[Jon_F]

Virgin Media have caused me no problems. I am looking to move my TV package away from them though since they lost SKY ONE and i'm a big LOST fan

 

[HughJarse]

Im afraid Im with SKY and and have never had an outage in 2 yrs and have found customer service great - especially now they are making all numbers 0845 or 0800.

Orange have some good deals on at the moment too.

 

[gbjeppm]

I am with TalkTalk, and have had no issues at all, although it seems I am in a minority

EDIT: Apart from their stupid DNS servers, but repoint to OPEN DNS and all is fine.

 

[Dragon]

Depend what you really want out of it. Sky is the best follow by Virgin Media. If you really want a low cost one TalkTalk. BT is OK and service are improving. They sacked 2K managers and replace with engineers with customer focus. You can't get away from Indian based system. They all are I am aware off. I called up Swiftcover part of AXA for a windscreen replacement instead of expecting an Indian call center it now based in Chesterfield with an English woman. They don't used Indian call centre now, as I was told.

 

[verytalldave]

Recently switched to Virgin Media. I never had one outage when I was with my previous ISP and now it happens 2 or 3 times a week some nights. I wondered what was going on when it first happened.
Also, my speeds arent half of what I was lead to believe I would get. I was told I would be on "up to" 4MB but its usually more like 1.3 most evenings.
Not very happy and might have a moan soon.

 

[Ratz]

Also, my speeds arent half of what I was lead to believe I would get. I was told I would be on "up to" 4MB but its usually more like 1.3 most evenings.
Not very happy and might have a moan soon.

I have the opposite from BT, they promised 1-2Mb & I usually get 5+ .

 

[A-AvantGarde]

I was with PlusNet (now owned by BT), found them to be great but expensive. Now get 8MB for £7.50 from o2 as an o2 customer with free WiFi router. UK customer care good level of support.

Had heared good things about Orange Braodband, IIRC free if you're on a pay monthly tarrif of over £25 / month?

 

[crockers]

Speed????? what is a fast speed????

I live in the back of beyond according to BT....in otherwords the line passes us by to the other village then loops back to us so by the time it gets here its 1/2 mg max.....if only I got my full 1/2....lol...

I dream of a full one...let alone 2-8 ..wowow:bannana: :bannana: :bannana:

 

[Godot]

I am with TalkTalk, and have had no issues at all, although it seems I am in a minority

EDIT: Apart from their stupid DNS servers, but repoint to OPEN DNS and all is fine.

We are with TalkTalk, apart from a few teething problems, all is fine £10 a month with options of various bits & bobs. Speed adequate, not been "down" once in the last 18 months. Good value.

Long for our exchange (only 250 yards away to be "unbundled" then we would get the free Broad Band.

All in all, very very happy :bannana::bannana::bannana:

 

[TonyVianoAmbiente]

Thank you very much to all who replied. It's really good to get such a range of views.

When Tiscali installed their equipment in the local telephone exchange (local loop unbundling or LLU) the service was appalling for about a week, but it has improved since then to a very high standard. We pay for (up to) 8 MB but seem to get 12 to 16 MB most of the time, probably because we are within a mile of the exchange.

The only problem with Tiscali is a big problem: when things go wrong, as they did last week, their customer service is atrocious. Their Indian call centre staff simply read out prepared responses to queries. There is no attempt to identify what is wrong, and promises to call back are never kept. We have spoken to supervisors and even to managers but they simply parrot the same phrases over and over again, in perfect but completely useless English.

We are thankful that we kept our BT telephone line and Sky TV, because replying on Tiscali for phone and TV in addition to internet would be so stressful!

As to the migration code (MAC) issue, local loop unbundling apparently excuses Tiscali from the legal obligation to provide a MAC code. We don't know whether it makes it easier, more difficult or downright impossible to change to another ISP. Any ideas on that front would be very helpful.

 

[grober]

Have a look at this site. You can run a comparisons of several ISPs you are interest in. http://www.thinkbroadband.com/

heres a comparison of bt broadband,tiscali,demon internet and plusnet for example http://www.thinkbroadband.com/isp/compare.html?isp_7=1&isp_10=1&isp_77=1&isp_23=1&commit=Compare
remember thats the current situation and things change from day to day especially after a takeover

 

[grober]

As to the migration code (MAC) issue, local loop unbundling apparently excuses Tiscali from the legal obligation to provide a MAC code. We don't know whether it makes it easier, more difficult or downright impossible to change to another ISP. Any ideas on that front would be very helpful.

Who told you that? was it Tiscali?
2 things
1. do not terminate your broadband contract with tiscali until you get your MAC unless you are an existing customer they don't have to provide you with a MAC.
2. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS write to your provider do not communicate over the phone.

If they still refuse a written request for a mac code then your next option is this

Cancel your contract in writing giving the required period of notice and then do this (taken from the ofcom site)

Problems with your internet service -
My new ISP says there is a Tag/Marker/ Incompatiable product /ISP already on my line

In the first instance we advise you to re-contact your ISP and ask them to confirm that a cease order has been placed on your line with BT Wholesale and on what date your line will be cleared.

If you have already done this and it is 20 days since your ISP advised you that a cease order has been placed and your recent attempt to order broadband was rejected, you can now check directly with BT Wholesale when the Tag will be removed.

Currently BT Wholesale is a very busy department and you may experience some waiting time in getting through to them.

BT Wholesale
Tel: 0800 169 0934

Monday – Saturday 7.30am – 10pm
Sunday – 9am – 6pm

 

[jeremytaylor]

We used to be on Ntl (now Virgin Media) at home. Useless. Now with Orange. Seems OK, and is certainly cheap (free) bundled in with a mobile package.

 

[Brian WH]

We used to be on Ntl (now Virgin Media) at home. Useless. Now with Orange. Seems OK, and is certainly cheap (free) bundled in with a mobile package.

I would agree NTL-Rubbish, now Virgin of course.

I have Orange OK for broadband.

I also have Orange for Emails and I am having problems sending Emails at the moment, which is not software related as Orange insist, but in my opinion is load/Capacity related. The Emails won't go during the day, but will the next morning before the Email traffic builds up.