Yes. Zen seem reasonably priced (but not cheapest) with a good online portal, support that understands technical queries and a reliable connection.
Worlds apart from my previous supplier Origin. Constant drop outs, non existant support and a clunky portal. Cheaper is not always better value.
Yes. I'm with Virgin now, it's not perfect but all the others in my area are based around Openreach copper to the home and regardless of who I was actually with a fault on the line somewhere had reduced my service to less than 1mbps - and this is in a built up area which should otherwise have been capable of some form of ‘superfast’.
Happy enough with the Virgin broadband but not so much with package cost (TV, phone, BB).
What I'm really not happy with is constant incremental price increases, and I don't just mean the end-of-intro-deal hike. That, I knew of in advance and was expecting.
What really annoys me is the way it keeps creeping up, when they add new channels that I don't want and then use that to justify a price increase and, after a while, you look at the bill and think how the did it get that high?
Okay, before anyone says it, yes I know, ring and ask for retentions and threaten to leave and, probably, we'll get a price cut.
My point is that I really, REALLY object to the type of sharp, disreputable (though legal) business practice that relies on customer inertia to gouge that customer and, to my mind, it entirely depends on automatic, on-going payment systems, on “subscriptions” where it renews automatically unless you actively cancel. And it isn't just broadband - everybody is at it, from magazine subscriptions to car breakdown to all forms of insurance.
Okay, getting a bit off-piste (just fir a change) but you'd think that the billions and billions of pounds banks etc have had to pay over PPI mis-selling would have issued a red-flag to this kind of obnoxious-but-legal practive but it seems not.
It seems companies like charging us for things we haven't said we want. For example, adding on insurance (yes, Scan, I mean you …. among many others) we haven't asked for, unless we explicitly turn it off, until legislation makes that sort of disreputable practice illegal … eventually.
But in the meantime, it leaves a very bad taste in consumer's mouth. It is why I haven't used Scan for years, and why, though the broadband itself is fine, I am starting to get very angry with Virgin over being treated like an idiot.
So on the vague off-chance that someone senior at Virgin, or my insurance company, or the AA, etc, reads this, I do not want to spend half my spare time looking to see how's gouging me this month. Yes, I know I can ring, moan and get a reduction but I just want a quiet life, not to spend it auditing the latest rip-off wheeze from companies I use regularly.
So, happy with broadband, sure. Virgin? Nope. Not at all.
/Here endeth today's rant.
I've never had incremental price increases on virgin except for the Retail Price Index increase.
The only thing that frustrates me about Virgin (and any company that does this badly) is outsourcing to India and let their culture of KPI chasing run wild.
Been on my current ISP for a year and am overall pleased with the service. Speed is consistently higher than advertised by an average of 10% (typical 220-225mbs down for advertised 200mbs) and about same 10% on upload too. Ping is very nicely low in all games and reliability is high with only 2 times in the last year down for a couple hours each time, both times due to weather and understandable.
Our price hasn't changed at all since signing up last year, so that's been nice too. No data caps on my service. I did have to replace the router the ISP supplied me with with my own because it was kinda a piece of junk that only did the basic job of routing, and couldn't port forward to save it's life. Putting my own router in place worked fine with the ISP service, so that too is a positive.
Overall nothing negative to say about Spectrum internet and cable, but am on the Time Warner side of it, apparently Spectrum isn't as solid on it's Charter side. Time Warner Spectrum is great, Charter Spectrum not so much, I've heard.
Zen, no problems so far. Had to reboot my router only once in over a year.
My upload speed has been a little lower over the past couple of weeks, but apart from that, very happy with Virgin Media.
Saracen999
Happy enough with the Virgin broadband but not so much with package cost (TV, phone, BB).
What I'm really not happy with is constant incremental price increases, and I don't just mean the end-of-intro-deal hike. That, I knew of in advance and was expecting.
What really annoys me is the way it keeps creeping up, when they add new channels that I don't want and then use that to justify a price increase and, after a while, you look at the bill and think how the did it get that high?
Okay, before anyone says it, yes I know, ring and ask for retentions and threaten to leave and, probably, we'll get a price cut.
My point is that I really, REALLY object to the type of sharp, disreputable (though legal) business practice that relies on customer inertia to gouge that customer and, to my mind, it entirely depends on automatic, on-going payment systems, on “subscriptions” where it renews automatically unless you actively cancel. And it isn't just broadband - everybody is at it, from magazine subscriptions to car breakdown to all forms of insurance.
Okay, getting a bit off-piste (just fir a change) but you'd think that the billions and billions of pounds banks etc have had to pay over PPI mis-selling would have issued a red-flag to this kind of obnoxious-but-legal practive but it seems not.
It seems companies like charging us for things we haven't said we want. For example, adding on insurance (yes, Scan, I mean you …. among many others) we haven't asked for, unless we explicitly turn it off, until legislation makes that sort of disreputable practice illegal … eventually.
But in the meantime, it leaves a very bad taste in consumer's mouth. It is why I haven't used Scan for years, and why, though the broadband itself is fine, I am starting to get very angry with Virgin over being treated like an idiot.
So on the vague off-chance that someone senior at Virgin, or my insurance company, or the AA, etc, reads this, I do not want to spend half my spare time looking to see how's gouging me this month. Yes, I know I can ring, moan and get a reduction but I just want a quiet life, not to spend it auditing the latest rip-off wheeze from companies I use regularly.
So, happy with broadband, sure. Virgin? Nope. Not at all.
/Here endeth today's rant.
I completely agree with this rant. The default ripoff / Loyality penalty should never been allowed. it started with Car insurance and has spread all over the place.
My parents had an issue with sky recently. they had a sky + box which was around 9 years ago. I suspect the hard drive was failing as it kept on freezing and being non responsive. all they wanted was a working box with the same channels. Sky wanted to charge them more for a sky q box with less channels. they have been a customer for around 13 years. it cost over £20 for the phone bill just to contact them due to the time he was put on hold.
I am currently with plusnet and havent had any issues so far. I have been with plusnet before and other than a major outage affecting the whole network i havent had any issues. I could of gone with virgin but i have heard enough had stories about them that i didn't feel the faster speed was worth it espically concidering how often they seem to trottle the speed anyway.
Not really. Was on BT infinity then switched to talktalk faster fibre as costs started to spiral with bt. Talktalk connection is poop, cuts off quite regularly, have to reset router at least once a week. My 2 year contract came to an end so thought I'd go back to bt. Says i can get infinity, then at checkout it says i can't have it and tries fobbing me off with standard broadband. So i'm stuck on talktalk now
With talk talk, everything works, nice and cheap, not the fastest but more than fast enough.
ADSL with Zen here.
Started with Sky since moving to our home 7 years ago. I've had issues on my line for the last 2 years, started with increase in speed at the cost of high ping. When asked why my ping had increased & spikes when gaming they said “well you can download faster!”. Needless to say that didn't go down very well, the line was investigated by a fat old Openreach engineer who said “you've got a fault under the ground, don't know where. Deal with it”.
To be fair Sky were really good & I had no issues with them asking for the fault to be escalated.
I decided to try another ISP in Zen after recommendations from other users.
Next issues were disconnecting randomly, my routers log showed pages of line drops ! After going through the usual internal tests (again & again) they said the failure is external & said basically “deal with it because Openreach won't”.
I've got only 1 month left & my only option is Virgin. Luckily they've just fitted a new fiber optic line so fingers crossed that works.
Currently with Zen but dissatisfied with their pricing. The rest of the broadband isp technical support must be horrendous as I feel Zen's technical support is overrated. Looking to jump ship to Hyperoptics - get rid of telephone clutter cord.
I'm in a Virgin cable area but there is no way I'll get their broadband. The dark days of ntl have left its scar on me.
Happy with Plusnet Fibre. No downtime. No need to contact support.
Price is a bit steep £20 for BB and that ever increasing fkn Line rental. Think I paid £13/m last year.
I'm with Virgin and whilst I agree it expensive for the package I actually get what I want. All in pay £100 a month. 2 boxes, telephone line and broadband. Supposed to be on Vivid 200 but actually get around 275 down and 27 up….
So all in all - expensive but I can justify it when we sit down to watch something like the footy or F1 in 1080p through our projector and surround sound. The missus is disabled (said it before) and recent changes to the pubs and cinemas round here mean it's much better to just sit at home and watch stuff these days
With Sky, no issues with the service provided aside from it using the poor Openreach network with super slow speeds compared to my old VM connection from years ago. Copper, just wish they'd get rid of it entirely.
And, almost as if they were listening, my upload is back up…
Its not so much that I particularly dislike my current provider (Sky, it was cheap) but I am getting increasingly frustrated with Openreach and their refusal to add fibre capacity to any of the two cabinets I can be connected to.
I placed an order to upgrade to fibre over 5 months ago and I'm still waiting………
Zen, VDSL 80Mbit/20Mbit, very happy.
I usually work from home so require a fast & stable line with fixed IP. There have been a couple of faults in the local BT kit, Zen have got them fixed with a minimum of fuss.
I'm on Orange and am happy enough, I only get 8-9 Mb download speed but I do stay out in the sticks. I get occasional cuts in the phone line when the weather is bad and the orange box/router needs a reboot once a month to ensure it hasn't fallen asleep, because when it does fall asleep my phone goes down first then a few days later the internet goes down.
I guess thats what we get with modern tech though, so I can't complain, at least they aren't always trying to push other products on me all the time like so many other service providers.
I've never had a problem with the service I get from EE, and I get more speed than I pay for (~80). But it still lacks compared to what Virgin offer and the gigabit internet now standard in many countries. But this is an issue with Openreach infrastructure and the way the industry is controlled.
Had a terrible experience with Virgin media. They lied about the price they were initially going to charge.
Then later, when we tried to cancel. The one month notice perioid required to give them wasn't applied by them and they cut us off 2 days later rather than 4 weeks later.
Now with plus net, all seems well with them. And after agreeing a date to change over 4 weeks after talking to them. They were actually able to react when VM cut us off early and get us back online about 10 days later. More than 2 weeks ahead of the origional live date.
So very happy with plus net, wouldn't touch VM with a barge pole.
Yes I am. Had been with BT for years but, this year they would not negotiate a decent discount and my downstream speed had dropped to 16.5Mb/s. Switched to Plusnet, several weeks ago. Price cut 25%, connection speed up to 27.55Mb/s and stable, best we have ever had.
A very happy Virgin Media Broadband only customer with 350MBPs speeds and I have been using them for years…Only complaint is the occasional customer service call that can sometimes be a bit trying…But overall, I can never compalian about the speed and quality of the service. I am actually recieving just over 381.00Mbps consistantly…
I am but…. We've got fibre into the house, It was a brand new system & we were one of the very first to be connected. when it was installed a little over a year ago we had an amazing 900mbs which lasted for about six months. Then following a major outage this dropped to 500mbs. It has now gradually dropped to around 350mbs which is still brilliant but my concern is how much more will it drop.
Just quit of my land line and broadband. Can not get fibre no matter what, even my next door neighbour got fibre but not me. Just sign a contract for a mobile broadband with 3mobile and I so pleased I did it.
I'm with Vodafone and the speeds are up & down like prostitute's keks, mostly around 35Mb/s but should be 65 & frequently drops to 10 or less . Really annoying & when this current deal is up I'm off and back with Virgin Media. Dont give a toss if the wife complains about them digging up the drive.
And the speed test in my sig is my work connection, not home. :)
Happy? no not really - I am capped at 45mb no plans to upgrade the exchange and only have openreach to pick from in terms of 3rd party suppliers. No cable at all in the area therefore no competition and I am far from in the middle of no where, although it would appear that I am in the no-where middle that constitutes the classic UK 40-50mb on offer to those not in a large city.
We all hear about rural areas in the news and with those people I thoroughly sympathise if they can only get a 4/5mb service but our broadband infrastructure overall in the UK is p1ss poor in comparison to many other countries. We have 3 kids and us so sharing 40mb across 5 users ain't great - Help me OBI one….
NO _ optimum online (cablevision NJ) .. Prices keep going up up up while service goes down. They nickel and dime people to death on a regular basis. Too many channels that are useless yet we are stuck paying for them due to their “Package programs”. I'm also sick and tired of the price wars between providers and cablevision. I'd rather they make these price grougers and extra channel and let those who want them pay all the extra fees rather than just upping everyone's bills.
YES…but, I recently moved to live in NZ now and I get 1000/400 with Stuff Broadband for $80 NZD per month, no contract, cancel anytime. Stonkingly fast.
Whereas when I lived in the UK I was on EE getting 80/20 for £42.50 per month on a 18mnth contract.
Mauley
YES…but, I recently moved to live in NZ now and I get 1000/400 with Stuff Broadband for $80 NZD per month, no contract, cancel anytime. Stonkingly fast.
Whereas when I lived in the UK I was on EE getting 80/20 for £42.50 per month on a 18mnth contract.
Over here in Australia, I'm on a 100/40 FTTC (Fibre To The Curb) plan, getting 95/33 through Aussie Broadband. It costs me $99 per month with Unlimited downloads.
We look at what you are getting over there, and we are jealous. Send us Jacinda Ardern, and Chorus, and we will send back Scott Morrison, and the NBN…
I've been with PlusNet Unlimited Fibre (35/9) for a couple of years, since fibre to the cabinet became available and generally very pleased with it. (Though things do sometimes die around 09:00, which may be a general internet morning peak as many log on at work.)
They are however one of the more expensive, and I do look at the new SSE (my electricity supplier) Unlimited Fibre including line rental for £23 and wonder…
Happy with my VM BB 250 down 10 up.
I'm in Texas, and our AT&T U-Verse gets ~24 down/3 up. Supposedly there's a 1TB cap before extra charges, too. Actually trying to decide whether to switch to AT&T Fiber (~100 down) or Spectrum Fiber ~200 down) for about the same monthly cost ($90-100 USD because we also need a landline). We're not huge fans of AT&T, but we see mixed reviews of Spectrum, so for now we stay on 24 and hope we don't hit the cap.
markzero
I'm in Texas, and our AT&T U-Verse gets ~24 down/3 up. Supposedly there's a 1TB cap before extra charges, too. Actually trying to decide whether to switch to AT&T Fiber (~100 down) or Spectrum Fiber ~200 down) for about the same monthly cost ($90-100 USD because we also need a landline). We're not huge fans of AT&T, but we see mixed reviews of Spectrum, so for now we stay on 24 and hope we don't hit the cap.
Hit that cap last 7 days and counting
;)
Saracen999
Happy enough with the Virgin broadband but not so much with package cost (TV, phone, BB).
What I'm really not happy with is constant incremental price increases, and I don't just mean the end-of-intro-deal hike. That, I knew of in advance and was expecting.
What really annoys me is the way it keeps creeping up, when they add new channels that I don't want and then use that to justify a price increase and, after a while, you look at the bill and think how the did it get that high?
Okay, before anyone says it, yes I know, ring and ask for retentions and threaten to leave and, probably, we'll get a price cut.
My point is that I really, REALLY object to the type of sharp, disreputable (though legal) business practice that relies on customer inertia to gouge that customer and, to my mind, it entirely depends on automatic, on-going payment systems, on “subscriptions” where it renews automatically unless you actively cancel. And it isn't just broadband - everybody is at it, from magazine subscriptions to car breakdown to all forms of insurance.
Okay, getting a bit off-piste (just fir a change) but you'd think that the billions and billions of pounds banks etc have had to pay over PPI mis-selling would have issued a red-flag to this kind of obnoxious-but-legal practive but it seems not.
It seems companies like charging us for things we haven't said we want. For example, adding on insurance (yes, Scan, I mean you …. among many others) we haven't asked for, unless we explicitly turn it off, until legislation makes that sort of disreputable practice illegal … eventually.
But in the meantime, it leaves a very bad taste in consumer's mouth. It is why I haven't used Scan for years, and why, though the broadband itself is fine, I am starting to get very angry with Virgin over being treated like an idiot.
So on the vague off-chance that someone senior at Virgin, or my insurance company, or the AA, etc, reads this, I do not want to spend half my spare time looking to see how's gouging me this month. Yes, I know I can ring, moan and get a reduction but I just want a quiet life, not to spend it auditing the latest rip-off wheeze from companies I use regularly.
So, happy with broadband, sure. Virgin? Nope. Not at all.
/Here endeth today's rant.
Ditto, Virgin seem to add on an extra £5 every 3 or 4 months.
Actually, in the last few weeks Openreach have finally done their job and delivered FTTC here. It's not mind-blowing but out in the sticks, 2.5MB/s is a luxury!
As to ISP, Plusnet has served us admirably over the course of the last few years, for the most part their support has been excellent, they're fair on prices and actual service has been reliable. I'd certainly recommend them over TalkTalk, BT, etc. The only points they fall down on are reliance on Openreach to get hardware fixes and coverage, and connecting to support during peak times.
Ozaron
Actually, in the last few weeks Openreach have finally done their job and delivered FTTC here. It's not mind-blowing but out in the sticks, 2.5MB/s is a luxury!
As to ISP, Plusnet has served us admirably over the course of the last few years, for the most part their support has been excellent, they're fair on prices and actual service has been reliable. I'd certainly recommend them over TalkTalk, BT, etc. The only points they fall down on are reliance on Openreach to get hardware fixes and coverage, and connecting to support during peak times.
You're aware that plusnet is part of BT, so the quality of provison is unlikely to be any different from the parent company.
Sadly all Internet providers save virgin & a few of the smaller fibre only companies are reliant on Openreach.
spacein_vader
You're aware that plusnet is part of BT, so the quality of provison is unlikely to be any different from the parent company.
Sadly all Internet providers save virgin & a few of the smaller fibre only companies are reliant on Openreach.
well they are part of the BT group, but operate (as far as I can tell) as a separate company with their own support staff, UK based call centre and charging structure.
Like most ISPs though (and as Ozaron states) they rely on Openreach (another BT Group company) for line provision. However Open reach operates as an independent entity from BT retail (obviously part of the BT group) under fairly strict rules from OfCom./
As a wholesale provider, Openreach do not interact directly with the end user.
spacein_vader
Yes. Zen seem reasonably priced (but not cheapest) with a good online portal, support that understands technical queries and a reliable connection.
Worlds apart from my previous supplier Origin. Constant drop outs, non existant support and a clunky portal. Cheaper is not always better value.
this….with bells on, and golden bits… and singing angels… and a beam of light from internet heaven…..
Saracen999
Happy enough with the Virgin broadband but not so much with package cost (TV, phone, BB).
What I'm really not happy with is constant incremental price increases, and I don't just mean the end-of-intro-deal hike. That, I knew of in advance and was expecting.
What really annoys me is the way it keeps creeping up, when they add new channels that I don't want and then use that to justify a price increase and, after a while, you look at the bill and think how the did it get that high?
Okay, before anyone says it, yes I know, ring and ask for retentions and threaten to leave and, probably, we'll get a price cut.
My point is that I really, REALLY object to the type of sharp, disreputable (though legal) business practice that relies on customer inertia to gouge that customer and, to my mind, it entirely depends on automatic, on-going payment systems, on “subscriptions” where it renews automatically unless you actively cancel. And it isn't just broadband - everybody is at it, from magazine subscriptions to car breakdown to all forms of insurance.
Okay, getting a bit off-piste (just fir a change) but you'd think that the billions and billions of pounds banks etc have had to pay over PPI mis-selling would have issued a red-flag to this kind of obnoxious-but-legal practive but it seems not.
It seems companies like charging us for things we haven't said we want. For example, adding on insurance (yes, Scan, I mean you …. among many others) we haven't asked for, unless we explicitly turn it off, until legislation makes that sort of disreputable practice illegal … eventually.
But in the meantime, it leaves a very bad taste in consumer's mouth. It is why I haven't used Scan for years, and why, though the broadband itself is fine, I am starting to get very angry with Virgin over being treated like an idiot.
So on the vague off-chance that someone senior at Virgin, or my insurance company, or the AA, etc, reads this, I do not want to spend half my spare time looking to see how's gouging me this month. Yes, I know I can ring, moan and get a reduction but I just want a quiet life, not to spend it auditing the latest rip-off wheeze from companies I use regularly.
So, happy with broadband, sure. Virgin? Nope. Not at all.
/Here endeth today's rant.
Couldn't agree more with everything you've said in this.
Coupling services together that aren't used (a landline????)
Promotions that aren't open to existing customers who are out of “contract”.
As soon as I've got an alternative for the TV sourced (I need to get an aerial fitted then wired up to multiple rooms), then Virgin can eat my dust and I'll never return.
Great broadband product, but that's all.
Been with Virgin since they were NTL and that's a long time ago. Do the ring up to move to Sky thing every now and then and the package is always reasonable really considering what we get. We have the 350Mbs package but this evening it's coming in at over 380Mbs and last year we downloaded an average of 178GB per month all included in the price. Watching box sets of Game of Thrones does that to the traffic. So yeah, satisfied and not moving anywhere. Might upgrade to the new 500Mbs package when it comes out, just for willy waving really.
https://www.speedtest.net/result/8122482361.png
With Virgin, and am reasonably happy minus the price increases and having to phone up to get put through to retentions ever year
Mostly. With plusnet at the moment, although the speed can be a little variable occasionally. Moving to a BT HomeHub 6 also sorted WiFi issues.
I really miss having HyperOptic though, even their basic 100/100 package was awesome.
