AOL they have got to go but who do i change over to

[hallowitch]

I need to changed my broadband provider

 

I am happy with my broadband i am happy paying the amount i pay no i don't want to enter into a new 18 month contract paying 7.50 for the first 3 months

 

i am sick to death of there sales people how many times do they need to be told NO i will not be entering into a new contract with them i am (was ) happy with things the way they are

 

The one that phoned me today was the straw that broke the Camel's back her attitude is not recommended if they want to keep customers as for her phoning me back after telling her i was going to look into changing providers telling me i may be charged a fee for leaving if i break my fixed term contract what contract that i ask the one you were trying to sell me to keep my custom the one Ive repeatedly refused to sign up to

 

can someone give me a clue what i should be looking for when i change over or who they would recommend been with AOL for more years than i can remember so don't know where to start

 

I don't download anything

INTERNET is on 24/7 if I'm not on here I'm playing poker

[padja]

I'm with VirginMedia I can wholeheartedly recommend them. I have had BT and found them poor, my mum was with talk talk and their net was very poor and slow. with virgin you get a wireless router as standard (mind I think most companies do) I have been told Sky is slow too. If your not in a cabled area I'm told that plusnet are quite good as well

[hallowitch]

no I'm not in a cable area so virgin and sky are out of the equation will have a google at plusnet thanks for that i have never herd of them

[dx100uk]

BT is good £27.99 line+BB+24/7 free calls, mobiles 7PPM

 

dx

[citizenB]

Post Office Broadband is good as well.

[locutus]

If cash is the main concern, plus.net and TalkTalk are probably the cheapest (although ironically you are with TalkTalk at the moment as they own AOL uk). Do not talk to them on the phone unless you record your calls, do any dealings online if you can (you know how sales people can twist things!).

 

May I ask are you paying BT for your line rental? If you pay AOL for broadband & line rental this can throw a spanner in the works with moving supplier (AOL lines do not support the MAC process, and you may need to get line rental from BT).

 

Also worth mentioning, o2 and Orange both offer reduced price broadband if you have a mobile with them so may be worth looking into if that applies.

[hallowitch]

If cash is the main concern, plus.net and TalkTalk are probably the cheapest (although ironically you are with TalkTalk at the moment as they own AOL uk). Do not talk to them on the phone unless you record your calls, do any dealings online if you can (you know how sales people can twist things!).

 

May I ask are you paying BT for your line rental? If you pay AOL for broadband & line rental this can throw a spanner in the works with moving supplier (AOL lines do not support the MAC process, and you may need to get line rental from BT).

 

Also worth mentioning, o2 and Orange both offer reduced price broadband if you have a mobile with them so may be worth looking into if that applies.

 

 

I have BT line and calls £25/7 a month AOL broadband £21 month which i know is expensive but Ive been quite happy plodding along been with AOL for yrs one of the reasons being if I'm on line 24/7 i know its not going to cost me anymore than £21 but i am sick to death of sales calls trying to get me to sign up to an 18 month fixed contact and for the pleasure they will give me 3months broadband at £7.50

I know it may sound silly but i really didn't want to get into a fixed term contract with any provider but if I'm going to have to it wont be with AOL not after todays sales call

 

so its now time to look at whats on offer and see how much i can save only i haven't got a clue where to start

didn't even know the post office had broadband

calls are not a big issue i don't use the phone much i only phone one Mobile number and thats not often i don't have a mobile

 

I have a true call so i need to get my daughter to set it up again for me and show me how it works

[locutus]

The reason they're calling is because it's cheaper for them to move you to TalkTalk servers (and therefor they don't pay for BT servers), but they need your permision to do this. (as stated above, if you accept, in the future it will be hard to swap broadband providers)

 

I am guessing you asked them not to call you? You should make an official complaint by signing into http://www.aolbroadband.co.uk/ and posting a complaint that you requested markting to cease (give a date if you can) and it has continued.

[Slobrob]

Well, before I moved to uni i was with BE (who were bought out by O2 a few years ago although they are operating separately). I must say they are probably the best providers I have had. They have a smaller customer base than most other providers however there support is second to none with a ticket service to report problems as opposed to calling up and also a forum with very technical people on there who can also help out. All of their packages are unlimited usage and this is truly unlimited no traffic shaping or anything. The prices start from £17 for 12mb down / 1.3up.

 

I know you say you don't download anything but you have specified apart from poker what you actually use the internet for or if anyone else uses the internet. It is all well saying you don't download but if other people in the house do or play games online then it would be pointless recommending a limited usage package.

 

What I will say is cheapest isn't always best and my personal opinion is that I would stay away from the major providers (talktalk / BT / Orange etc.) although I have heard virgin are good i just don't like them. You will hear people have both bad and good experiences with providers so its luck of the draw really but I would do some research first before jumping into a contract.

[locutus]

My own belief is small or large, you run about the same risk of an error occurring, however if 1% of 1 million customers have complaints it's still 10,000 people where as if 1% of 1 thousand customers have a problem, it's 10, so the bigger companies errors will be more visible.

 

Empowering yourself with a little knowledge before switching is always good though, and most have an online forum or a presence on twitter or Facebook. See how well they handle complaints.

 

Gaming and forums do not require much in the way of a download limit (online games may have updates to download though), however things like Youtube and BBC IPlayer really sap your download limit if you have one, so a lot of people that don't think they "download" can get caught out.

[Slobrob]

You are quite right locutus in that small or large there will always be complaints and the bigger providers will of course have many more complaints however, for me it is how that provider goes about solving your complaint / issue and also how long it takes to resolve. Be Broadband have an excellent technical support team and they will always get back to you 99% within the same day. Their technical advisor are far far more knowledgeable than any of the other providers I have either worked for or had internet supplied from. Again, they also have a forum in which their users frequently post on there and if you don't get a quick enough response from the tech team you can always post on there and your problems are likely to be resolved swiftly. If money isn't an issue and you want a great quality of service then Be broadband is provider I would go for if they are in the area.

 

Gaming and forums do not require much in the way of a download limit (online games may have updates to download though)

Everything that you do on the internet is classed as bandwidth (usage) depending on what you are doing depends on how quickly that bandwidth is taken up. Gaming is one of the major areas that catch people out as it does take up alot of bandwidth when playing games online through consoles or even those facebook games you can play. Playing on large player servers means that bandwidth will be used quickly as you have to send / receive information to each player.

 

Anything that requires constant streaming or requires constant data updates then this as locutus explains will sap the usage more quickly.

 

there are plenty of usage calculators out there and it may be wise to use that to get an idea of how much usage will be used per month. broadband.org/usage_calculator is an example and also recommends providers based on the usage.

[locutus]

You are quite right locutus in that small or large there will always be complaints and the bigger providers will of course have many more complaints however, for me it is how that provider goes about solving your complaint / issue and also how long it takes to resolve. Be Broadband have an excellent technical support team and they will always get back to you 99% within the same day. Their technical advisor are far far more knowledgeable than any of the other providers I have either worked for or had internet supplied from. Again, they also have a forum in which their users frequently post on there and if you don't get a quick enough response from the tech team you can always post on there and your problems are likely to be resolved swiftly. If money isn't an issue and you want a great quality of service then Be broadband is provider I would go for if they are in the area.

Be are very good with their tech support, I also find the TalkTalk member forum good aswell, and the staff are happy to swap line profiles etc. and they always sort any issues I have within 24 hours, and they are a lot cheaper than most other suppliers, however most forums show TalkTalk to have bad customer service.

 

 

Everything that you do on the internet is classed as bandwidth (usage) depending on what you are doing depends on how quickly that bandwidth is taken up. Gaming is one of the major areas that catch people out as it does take up alot of bandwidth when playing games online through consoles or even those facebook games you can play. Playing on large player servers means that bandwidth will be used quickly as you have to send / receive information to each player.

 

Anything that requires constant streaming or requires constant data updates then this as locutus explains will sap the usage more quickly.

 

there are plenty of usage calculators out there and it may be wise to use that to get an idea of how much usage will be used per month. broadband.org/usage_calculator is an example and also recommends providers based on the usage.

 

Gaming uses less data transfer than many people think, as game creators like things to run smoothly with as low latancy as possible, they achieve this by making it use smaller packets of information, and although it uses lots of them, they still don't use as much as browsing the internet (and only a fraction of watching videos online).

A good tool for seeing how much you use is DLmeter (use the CAG search above to find it). Download it and run it on all computers on the network. The limitation is if you use mobile phones and tablet PC's on your network, their usage will not be taken into consideration.

[hallowitch]

I am guessing you asked them not to call you? You should make an official complaint by signing into http://www.aolbroadband.co.uk/ and posting a complaint that you requested markting to cease (give a date if you can) and it has continued.

 

thanks for that will make a complaint to be quite honest with the exception of the caller yesterday all the other sales staff have been very pleasant and were quite happy to accept no thanks not at this present time

 

I have asked every time they phone to remove me from there sales list

 

Gaming and forums do not require much in the way of a download limit (online games may have updates to download though), however things like Youtube and BBC Player really sap your download limit if you have one, so a lot of people that don't think they "download" can get caught out.

 

I have noticed that sometime when i log on to the porker site i play on there are updates to download (i only play on one site)

Youtube i only go on that if one of the kids (i say kid she is 27) wants to show me something or there is a link to a bailiff behaving badly (have to say i didn't think that was downloading)

 

BBC I player have only used it a few times

A good tool for seeing how much you use is DLmeter (use the CAG search above to find it). Download it and run it on all computers on the network. The limitation is if you use mobile phones and tablet PC's on your network, their usage will not be taken into consideration.

 

have put that DL meter thing on my laptop its a free 30 day trial

I have 3 laptops and a PC occasionally my granddaughter comes to stay and she uses one of the laptops the rest are never used my daughter is always on her mobile phone when she visits which is most days and i know its connected my internet (does this count in my usage)

[locutus]

Mobile phone usage does count when they use your internet. If you changed suppliers to one with a lower limit you'd really need to make sure you didn't exceed their limit (although in most cases I don't think you'd have a problem). AOL have unlimited with a fair usage policy (I believe about 40 gig) so no worries there.

 

All internet usage counts, getting your emails and browsing websites downloads information (and the more complected / graphical intensive / flash adverts on the website, the more of your download limit is used). Run DLMeter on as many devices as you can and add your usage up at the end of the month. I can't see yours being overly high usage tho, but defiantly good to know what products are not suitable and which are.

[hallowitch]

All internet usage counts, getting your emails and browsing websites downloads information (and the more complected / graphical intensive / flash adverts on the website, the more of your download limit is used). Run DLMeter on as many devices as you can and add your usage up at the end of the month. I can't see yours being overly high usage tho, but defiantly good to know what products are not suitable and which are.

 

I didn't know that all Internet usage counted either i thought downloads were when you download games ,music, and films

 

locutus i really appreciate your help thanks i will plod along with AOL for the month add up my usage and take if from there do you think this would be the best thing for me

 

another key factor for me will be if they charge you if you move home when you are on a fixed term contract

[locutus]

Most providers have a "home movers" service, but AFAIK they restart your minimum term from the date you move service.

 

Plusnet have a 1 month rolling contract service if getting tied into a contract is a worry

 

Personally I think you are handling this the best way. You had lousy service from 1 rep... see how they handle that complaint, in the meen time work out how much data you use incase you do decide to switch. (hope for the best but be prepaired for the worst )

[geoff1248]

If you go to this site http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/broadband_speed_in_my_area.aspx and enter your Post Code you can see what actual speeds are being achieved in your area. This is much better than having to rely in the "up to x megs" adverts.