Help! Need "RELIABLE" Internet Provider!!!

[legalpickle]

Hi All,

 

It's my turn to ask for serious help! I need a reliable internet service provider. I've been through so many and had so many issues, I just don't know what to do anymore. This is what's happened:

 

BE/O2:

Were great at my old flat where I moved from 2 years ago. After the move I had no end of troubles. Actually at the beginning it was a small billing error which was rectified relatively quickly, and I could have handled that. But then, the whole of Greater Manchester were cut off - only with them - by something going wrong - they claimed vandalism - and from then onwards the "service" dwindled! At one point I waited 2 hours on the phone to get through to them - it was a freephone on loudspeaker - and still didn't get through. So I left them and sued them. They settled for a large proportion - was a "business" service so I sued for loss of earnings as well, which came to over £2k.

 

Wanadoo/Orange:

Actually several years ago - April '05 - but I've been burned once! They connected, but to somebody else's line! And it took me two months for them to stop sending bailiff letters for me to pay them, when they hadn't provided me with ANYTHING!!!

 

UKOnline:

Took over a month till they connected me, and then it cut out every few minutes! Sued them. They settled in full.

 

Tiscali:

Everything from overbilling to slow connection. When I left them I sent them a letter saying as a gesture of goodwill they can waive the less than £20 I owed them or I'll sue them for EVERY SINGLE MISTAKE!!! 5 letters later, I realized I had to sue them, or I will have the bailiff's on my door, as Frederickson had already started sending me threatening letters. So I sued them and they settled in full minus the less than £20 I owed them.

 

NTL/Virgin:

April '06: I had their "service" at my parents house. I had problems with their bills so they disconnected me. Eventually they cancelled all my bills which was good, because I actually agreed I owed them something but not everything they wanted. I would probably use Virgin cable because I prefer cable internet, despite the risks, but my road doesn't have cable, despite both larger roads to either side, that run parallel to each other and most of the rest of the local area having cable access. I'd put up with the bad "service" for reliable internet, which cable usually is, more than DSL, but can't get cable.

 

Thus/Demon:

Hell! Nothing went right. They first gave me compensation of £25 and things were Ok for a couple of weeks, then everything went haywire and I sued them. They settled in full.

 

Nildram (also part of Tiscali):

When I moved to them they delayed connecting me and caused me some minor troubles. They refused to compensate so I sued them for £9.97 + court fees which they settled in full. I was being ripped off for not such a fast product, and NO customer "service" so I got my MAC code and left. I'm issuing proceedings on Monday for some more problems with them.

 

Companies I have sued or taken to the cleaners (Ombudsman & Adjudication services or settled without issuing) [brackets are for where I have needed to sue or take to the cleaners more than once]:

 

BT [2004] [2005] [2008]

Wanadoo

ParcelForce

NTL

Royal Mail

PageOne

Lloyds TSB [2006x2] [2008]

One.Tel landline

Pitney Bowes

National Express

1stforfinance

IV Response

Halifax

Tiscali [2007x2]

Orange

Barclays [2007] [2008x3] [2009x6]

Individual 1 [2007]

Viking Direct [2007x2] [2008]

The Phone Coop [2007] [2008x2]

Tesco

Boots

Argos [2007x2] [2008]

UK Office Direct

UK Online

TalkTalk landline

Thus/Demon [2008x2]

T-Mobile [2008x2] [2009x1 so far]

Individual 2

ICS

FOS [2008] [2009x2] (Through Independent Assessor)

Individual Courier Company

Nildram [2008]

PurelyGadgets

DHL

Which?

Shop Direct/Littlewoods [2009x1 so far]

PC World

RBS

Individual 3 [2009]

MyCarCheck.com

Vodafone

ASOS

Early Learning Centre

 

Current ongoing claims, including issuing this week:

Plusnet

Shop Direct/Littlewoods (1 issued, 1 issuing)

Royal Mail

Euphony

Nildram

T-Mobile

 

These are claims I have issued for MYSELF. They don't include claims I've helped others with, both on and off forums. [They exclude claims I have lost for myself of which there are unfortunately 3].

 

As you can see I have had no end of issues at times. It's probably because I don't let them screw me once they've already tried to take advantage of me.

 

I want an ISP that knows customer service. Every company has problems and nobody can be perfect, but one reason I've been back to The Phone Co-op is for landline services they aren't too bad. But I don't like to put all my eggs into one basket and therefore don't want two services from them (I already have my two business lines with them). Some of the companies above I will go back to, as they have been one-off issues and they have resolved them satisfactorily, eventually, but not the ISP's.

 

So can anybody recommend a reliable internet service provider that knows what customer service is???

Edited August 23, 2009 by legalpickle

[Guest Old_andrew2018]

Sorry I cant, however have you considered internet service from a mobile network.

 

andy

[legalpickle]

Sorry I cant, however have you considered internet service from a mobile network.

 

andy

There are two sorts of internet through mobile companies.

 

One is through a dongle which would be problematic because the dongle depends on good reception & I have consistently bad reception with every network in my flat, and all 3 blocks where I live are the same, though outside it's fine. This is the same for every network.

 

The other is ADSL. I have a rule of not using a provider for two services, as if something goes wrong on one, then it is likely to go wrong for the other. I'm currently with Vodafone for my mobile, and have had serious issues with all other mobile providers besides for Virgin & 3 - but too many friends, family & colleagues have had issues with them.

 

Who are you with?

[Guest Old_andrew2018]

we are with virgin, our daughter uses vodaphone via a USB Mobile she has not told us of any connection problems.

[banker_rhymes_with]

Hello LP!

 

I'd recommend the Big Thief, BT.

 

Rock solid in our case, no complaints at all. Service has been down for less than 48 hours in maybe 4 years.

 

I know someone will have had a problem with them, that is always going to happen. But, they are probably a safer bet than most.

 

Cheers,

BRW

[legalpickle]

we are with virgin, our daughter uses vodaphone via a USB Mobile she has not told us of any connection problems.

Virgin Cable or DSL?

 

Your daughter probably doesn't have bad reception where she connects.

 

Hello LP!

 

I'd recommend the Big Thief, BT.

 

Rock solid in our case, no complaints at all. Service has been down for less than 48 hours in maybe 4 years.

 

I know someone will have had a problem with them, that is always going to happen. But, they are probably a safer bet than most.

 

Cheers,

BRW

Lucky for you banker_rhymes_with!

 

British Trouble have been sued by me in 2008 and I previously had serious troubles with them in 2004 & 2005 - all eventually settled. They now claim my company owes them cancellation fees, but it's a limited company and I've told them to get stuffed, and if they want them they can sue the company and I'll vigorously defend and seek costs! The bailiff's gave up because I wrote them nasty letters back. As it's a limited company there's no credit record as such for them to affect without suing, so they'd need a CCJ to cause troubles, which they won't get because in the unlikely event they'd succeed, I'd pay up.

 

British Trouble also own PlusNet or P/i/s/s/Net who I am now leaving and suing. I access a site in Israel that I require access to very often and for some reason they are the only provider who have ever caused me trouble with it, despite it being entirely legitimate. Comparable UK, US & Australia sites access no problem. I therefore must leave them.

Edited August 23, 2009 by legalpickle

[Bookworm]

I hate to say this, and they don't fulfill the whole of your brief (can't think of anyone who does!), but VM do provide a good service where available. Their customer services however are pure and complete sh*te.

 

But, for my money and stability of service, for all that I am permanently at war with them, VM still gets my vote. You have NO idea how much it hurts to even say it. :-|

[legalpickle]

I hate to say this, and they don't fulfill the whole of your brief (can't think of anyone who does!), but VM do provide a good service where available. Their customer services however are pure and complete sh*te.

 

But, for my money and stability of service, for all that I am permanently at war with them, VM still gets my vote. You have NO idea how much it hurts to even say it. :-|

Are you on Cable or DSL with Virgin, Bookworm?

 

The whole Zen post seems to have disappeared. Probably because of the commercial link. Zen is whoppingly expensive! They have usage restrictions, so their 5gb package is out for me. Their 25gb package is £24.46 till the end of the year when the VAT change back to 17.5% will make it £25!

[Bookworm]

Cable. XL package. Will throttle you in the evening if you d/l too much, despite their "unlimited" claims. But you can haggle for prices ;-)

[legalpickle]

Cable. XL package. Will throttle you in the evening if you d/l too much, despite their "unlimited" claims. But you can haggle for prices ;-)

But I can't get cable on my road. If I could I would as cable is substantially more reliable than DSL.

[shining Light]

Legalpickle, wow! I thought I had problems with other companies.

 

Personally I would recommend UW. Yes, i am a distributor but I have also been a customer for 7 years without any major problems and have never experienced any problems with the internet.

 

This month UW were highly recommended by the "Which" magazine (for the 3rd time I believe).

 

Company is UK based so you won't be speaking to a rep in India.

 

Around 90% of calls are answered within 15 seconds however...should you call at a busy time you will get a message saying for example, "your call will be answered in approximately 3 mins" then you have the choice to wait or ring off and try later. Nothing I hate more than waiting endlessly saying "your call will be answered shortly" and never knowing when that will be.

 

"Which" magazine also showed UW as "no 1 company" for customer service and satisfaction.

 

You are right however, no company is perfect and I read a while ago on the forum of a couple of people who did have a problem with UW (although not the internet)..it can happen but as a rule, UW are good and customers I have introduced and who I call every 6 mths or so have been very happy and many have even recommended them to friends.

 

Worth a look at. If you want to know more or ask me anything then PM me.

[legalpickle]

Legalpickle, wow! I thought I had problems with other companies.

 

Personally I would recommend UW. Yes, i am a distributor but I have also been a customer for 7 years without any major problems and have never experienced any problems with the internet.

 

This month UW were highly recommended by the "Which" magazine (for the 3rd time I believe).

 

Company is UK based so you won't be speaking to a rep in India.

 

Around 90% of calls are answered within 15 seconds however...should you call at a busy time you will get a message saying for example, "your call will be answered in approximately 3 mins" then you have the choice to wait or ring off and try later. Nothing I hate more than waiting endlessly saying "your call will be answered shortly" and never knowing when that will be.

 

"Which" magazine also showed UW as "no 1 company" for customer service and satisfaction.

 

You are right however, no company is perfect and I read a while ago on the forum of a couple of people who did have a problem with UW (although not the internet)..it can happen but as a rule, UW are good and customers I have introduced and who I call every 6 mths or so have been very happy and many have even recommended them to friends.

 

Worth a look at. If you want to know more or ask me anything then PM me.

Yes, I've not been the luckiest of people. Part of it may - and I hate to admit this - be me, as some of the issues other people would probably forget about. Some of my complaints have been relatively minor, and caused me losses of £10 or less. But I pursue them all to the end.

 

I assume you're talking about Utlity Warehouse, otherwise known as Telecom Plus?

 

Problem there for me. I had a mobile with them a few years back and had a dispute on the bills. I refused to pay unless they sorted it out. They didn't. They haven't been paid. I'd rather let sleeping dogs lie, as if I wake them up, they'd cause me hassle as well. I reckon I do owe them something, but not what they want, so till they attempt to make reasonable contact and amends [they have my details] I'm not paying a thing.

 

If I tried connecting to their broadband, then I reckon I'd wake them up from their deep slumber, and as at the moment I'm not too good financially, I'd rather they slept just a little bit longer! Otherwise I may have considered them.

 

Oh, and some things Which? do are good, but I'd take a lot of what they say with a few large tablespoons of salt. As you'll see above, I've sued them! I think I recall Martin Lewis of MSE once saying that they have good intentions but he doesn't agree with all their methods.

[shining Light]

"Yes, I've not been the luckiest of people. Part of it may - and I hate to admit this - be me"

 

Didn't like to say but it did cross my mind. It is a shame you had that problem years back but looking at your list I have to ask the question, "is there anyone you haven't had a problem with or taken to court?

Where do you find the time for all these actions?

 

Looking on the bright side there are a number of providers out there which is probably just as well because it may not be a case of "who can I go to" but "who will want you as a customer?"

 

Anyway, I wish you well with whoever you decide on.

[legalpickle]

"Yes, I've not been the luckiest of people. Part of it may - and I hate to admit this - be me"

 

Didn't like to say but it did cross my mind. It is a shame you had that problem years back but looking at your list I have to ask the question, "is there anyone you haven't had a problem with or taken to court?

Where do you find the time for all these actions?

 

Looking on the bright side there are a number of providers out there which is probably just as well because it may not be a case of "who can I go to" but "who will want you as a customer?"

 

Anyway, I wish you well with whoever you decide on.

Thanx for being so flattering!

 

If you read the whole post you will see that any of it that is me, is only some of it. At the end of the day when I did pursue these companies they did do things wrong causing me to lose some money, even when it was for less than £10 on occasions. Because it's me I took it the full way. But the way you write it above is as if it's all my fault.

 

The issues with UW were not my fault. They were probably T-Mobile's - which is who UW buy their mobile service off and resell under their own name, but ultimately T-Mobile are responsible for all technical aspects of the "service" - but UW were hopeless in sorting them out!

 

And the issues with the ISP's have mainly been them, in only one such case did I take an ISP to court for less than £10 and that was Nildram.

 

You say it's probably a case of "who will want me as a customer?". The answer is any company that has good customer service. Because when they treat me right I am probably the best customer available. I pay my bills on time and introduce other good customers. Any company that has consistently bad customer service will not want me near them, and I don't want to be anywhere near them, and that's the way it should be with every consumer.

 

Yes, there are loads of companies I haven't issued proceedings against, or even complained to. Note that a few of those cases were not court proceedings but either Ombudsman/Adjudication proceedings or just a few letters, but most were court proceedings.

 

If it's a matter of putting things right for myself, I'll find the time.

[shining Light]

"But the way you write it above is as if it's all my fault"

Certainly not what I was suggesting.

"You say it's probably a case of "who will want me as a customer?".

Sorry you took my comments so personally, it was just an attempt (obviously not a successful one) at a little lighthearted humour:)

[locutus]

A problem can be "Virtual" providers. Lots of companies don't actually own any hardware, just resale BT's broadband. Then when you hit a snag, it's BT's fault, and BT say it's your provider who needs to sort this out etc and you end up playing ping pong.

 

I'd sugest checking whats available on the exchange you live at and find a suitable package. SamKnows Broadband - Availability - Exchange Search

[legalpickle]

"But the way you write it above is as if it's all my fault"

 

Certainly not what I was suggesting.

 

"You say it's probably a case of "who will want me as a customer?".

 

Sorry you took my comments so personally, it was just an attempt (obviously not a successful one) at a little lighthearted humour:)

Sorry for the misunderstanding.

 

A problem can be "Virtual" providers. Lots of companies don't actually own any hardware, just resale BT's broadband. Then when you hit a snag, it's BT's fault, and BT say it's your provider who needs to sort this out etc and you end up playing ping pong.

I know. I operated a telecoms company in 2006. We only did WLR & CPS, but I know the way it works. The confusion given to customers is that they view BT as one big company, which whilst that is partly true - i.e. they are the same company on the stock exchange - there are several divisions and most customers call BT Retail when their company says it's BT's fault, but BT Retail only deal with BT customers. BT Wholesale deal only with the provider direct, and BT Openreach are called by BT Wholesale to visit premises when there's a fault, unless the company has it's own technicians in that area (which a few companies do in certain areas).

 

The exclusions to this are Virgin Media Cable & Kingston Communications, in Kingston-upon-Hull and surrounding areas (elsewhere both providers offer BT Wholesale products & services).

 

[To make it more confusing, some providers only resell the "last leg" from BT Wholesale, that is from the exchange to the property, but the connection to the exchange is to their equipment, others resell capacity on BT Wholesale's equipment].

 

So when a customer has a problem, even if it is a BT Wholesale issue, they have to contact their provider, as BT Wholesale & BT Openreach [save for when the engineer comes to one's property] don't deal with customers of the providers.

 

I'd sugest checking whats available on the exchange you live at and find a suitable package. SamKnows Broadband - Availability - Exchange Search

Their site isn't entirely accurate. Some providers offer their LLU service in this area and their site claims they haven't set it up.

 

Thanks, I will look around though, this gives a few suppliers names that I hadn't heard of.

[locutus]

I worked for BT Retail, so I got lots of complaints when people were on AOL or Tiscali (before they were LLU's) and explained they needed to talk to their own ISP's as it's BT Wholesale that would have to deal with it, and they only deal with other ISP's... Confusing to say the least!!

[Tezcatlipoca]

I can strongly recommend my own ISP, Eclipse.

 

I've used a lot of providers in my time, and have found these guys to be pretty much the best of the bunch. Specifically, which is important for me at least, they:

 

* don't port throttle or traffic shape

* offer generous monthly bandwidth limits, and, if you exceed it, simply charge a flatrate £1 per extra gig you use

* don't use Phorm

* run an online control panel which runs on packet headers, thus allowing you to shape your own connection to your own tastes

* have reasonable costs

* allow overnight downloads free of charge

* are reliable. I've been with them for nearly two years and had just one connection outage in that time. They informed me by text and email, and the systems were back online within 24 hours

* have a technical support team who actually are techies

 

You will need a BT landline to use Eclipse, so you will also need to factor this in if you intend to use them.

 

All their packages are first rate, but I personally use their most expensive package as I use a ton of bandwidth each month.

Edited August 24, 2009 by Tezcatlipoca

[legalpickle]

Thanx Tez. You don't actually need a BT landline, but a BT wholesale landline, so it can be with any provider except for cable.

[Tezcatlipoca]

That might well have changed. Certainly when I started with them you needed a BT landline, but good to hear they are now available without one.

[legalpickle]

That might well have changed. Certainly when I started with them you needed a BT landline, but good to hear they are now available without one.

Nope, that's always been the case. They say you need a BT landline but that's technically, i.e. it needs to be a regular landline & not a cable one, and as the landlines are operated by BT Openreach & BT Wholesale, you need a "BT" landline, but it's not a BT Retail landline, i.e. you can use another provider such as Euphony, TalkTalk, Tiscali, etc... for landline services, but not Virgin cable or Kingston cable (only in Kingston-upon-Hull).

[Tezcatlipoca]

Interesting to know, thanks.

[spitfire650]

Having tried several, I found the best by some way was Zen. They are however quite expensive, but I guess its a case of getting what you pay for like anything else. Technical support is all UK based and excellent.

[bigpaddy1754]

hi, i have been with aol for many years, yes you need a bt line but with a bit of haggling you can get a good deal. my aol with free calls costs me £9.99 per month. bigpaddy