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78 days, and still no broadband (Sky/Openreach, UK)

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Re: 78 days, and still no broadband (Sky/Openreach, UK)

#11

Post by tomlong »

arethuza wrote: post #2

All ISPs I have dealt with in the UK seem to be in a race to the bottom to provide the worst possible customer service. We recently had a problem with BT Broadband and got the run around for a few weeks and only got any attention when I submitted an official complaint. Does anyone have any recommendations for UK ISPs that have decent customer service?

Hugely reccomend The Phone CoOp[1]. I pay ~£33 a month for 80/20. It's properly unlimited, and I pay an extra £0.60 a month for a static IP.

Been really stable for me for a long time, and I have been using them for years for mobile + broadband. They are a really straight forward what you see is what you get organisation.

+ When you ring them up they just answer the phone which can be a bit of a surprise.

- The router they sent me was junk but I just use it as a modem and have some ubiquiti stuff sat behind it.

- Not sure what their opening hours and stuff are like for support, I think it's not far off 9-5

[1]https://www.thephone.coop/personal/home-broadband/

Re: 78 days, and still no broadband (Sky/Openreach, UK)

#12

Post by tomlong »

tomlong wrote: post #11
arethuza wrote: post #2

All ISPs I have dealt with in the UK seem to be in a race to the bottom to provide the worst possible customer service. We recently had a problem with BT Broadband and got the run around for a few weeks and only got any attention when I submitted an official complaint. Does anyone have any recommendations for UK ISPs that have decent customer service?

Hugely reccomend The Phone CoOp[1]. I pay ~£33 a month for 80/20. It's properly unlimited, and I pay an extra £0.60 a month for a static IP. Been really stable for me for a long time, and I have been using them for years for mobile + broadband. They are a really straight forward what you see is what you get organisation. + When you ring them up they just answer the phone which can be a bit of a surprise. - The router…

I sold them a bit short there:

https://www.thephone.coop/help-resources/contact-us/

Tech Support is 24/7, anything else is 08:30-5pm Mon-Fri.

Re: 78 days, and still no broadband (Sky/Openreach, UK)

#13

Post by docflabby »

The mistake was not using BT for a new connection - Openreach is 100% owned by BT- Sky is one of their main competitors. My experience is that BT installations get prioritized and dealt with more efficiently and go the extra mile, everyone else gets dealt with in the statutory minimum way "by the book"

Re: 78 days, and still no broadband (Sky/Openreach, UK)

#14

Post by qz2 »

arethuza wrote: post #2

All ISPs I have dealt with in the UK seem to be in a race to the bottom to provide the worst possible customer service. We recently had a problem with BT Broadband and got the run around for a few weeks and only got any attention when I submitted an official complaint. Does anyone have any recommendations for UK ISPs that have decent customer service?

I use Zen and when there was a cable cut between the cabinet and my house recently, between them and OpenReach we were back online the next day.

Had zero problems in the last 5 years.

Re: 78 days, and still no broadband (Sky/Openreach, UK)

#16

Post by Anther »

arethuza wrote: post #2

All ISPs I have dealt with in the UK seem to be in a race to the bottom to provide the worst possible customer service. We recently had a problem with BT Broadband and got the run around for a few weeks and only got any attention when I submitted an official complaint. Does anyone have any recommendations for UK ISPs that have decent customer service?

I can thoroughly and whole-heartedly recommend plusnet. Not only do we get the full advertised speed at all times, but the couple of times I have had issues, they explained clearly what was happening and were not afraid to indulge in more technical chat when they found I knew what I was doing.

Re: 78 days, and still no broadband (Sky/Openreach, UK)

#17

Post by 1_player »

qz2 wrote: post #14
arethuza wrote: post #2

All ISPs I have dealt with in the UK seem to be in a race to the bottom to provide the worst possible customer service. We recently had a problem with BT Broadband and got the run around for a few weeks and only got any attention when I submitted an official complaint. Does anyone have any recommendations for UK ISPs that have decent customer service?

I use Zen and when there was a cable cut between the cabinet and my house recently, between them and OpenReach we were back online the next day. Had zero problems in the last 5 years.

I was extremely happy with Zen, so happy I upgraded from 76 to 330 Mb in June. Which requires a G.Fast modem and having to deal with OpenReach.

Since upgrading I've been having a couple 30-seconds long disconnections every day. Zen delegates any responsibility to OpenReach, and the latter has sent an engineer [1] which hasn't found anything wrong _on my end_ (of course), so I have to pay them 165+VAT for the call. And the disconnections are still there.

It's perhaps not Zen's fault, but I went to the most stable Internet I've ever had to one that disconnects randomly, while being 200m away from the cabinet and no-one can tell me where the problem is. Fun.

1: the engineer actually did a thorough job to make sure my line was OK, so the problem is elsewhere.

Re: 78 days, and still no broadband (Sky/Openreach, UK)

#18

Post by Aeolun »

Meanwhile, getting my 2Gbit fiber cable installed and connected (in Japan) took only a few days.

I’m continually surprised by these kinds of stories.

Also by nobody seeming to have any idea about the situation. How hard is it to add a note to the customer file (and read it)?

Re: 78 days, and still no broadband (Sky/Openreach, UK)

#19

Post by 1_player »

3dbrows wrote: post #6
arethuza wrote: post #2

All ISPs I have dealt with in the UK seem to be in a race to the bottom to provide the worst possible customer service. We recently had a problem with BT Broadband and got the run around for a few weeks and only got any attention when I submitted an official complaint. Does anyone have any recommendations for UK ISPs that have decent customer service?

AAISP has an excellent product. Their sales team wasn't the easiest to deal with (pretty brusque in my experience), but in the ~15 months I've been with them, the connection has been rock-solid and never throttled. You do pay for it though (£45/month bottom line for ~75Mbps).

Sounds expensive, and looks like they have monthly download limits. I've been using Zen (though I explained my issues in a sibling comment) and I've never been throttled either, nor capped, with excellent latency round the clock. Miles ahead than any Virgin offering, that's for sure.

What does AAISP do better to be so expensive compared to the competition?

Re: 78 days, and still no broadband (Sky/Openreach, UK)

#20

Post by chrisseaton »

arethuza wrote: post #2

All ISPs I have dealt with in the UK seem to be in a race to the bottom to provide the worst possible customer service. We recently had a problem with BT Broadband and got the run around for a few weeks and only got any attention when I submitted an official complaint. Does anyone have any recommendations for UK ISPs that have decent customer service?

It must genuinely be extremely hard to provide good customer service.

You must get a huge number of people phoning up with unfathomable problems related to their computer set ups that waste your time and aren't actually something that is your fault.

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