Worst broadband providers...

I live in Hull and the ONLY broadband supplier we can use is from kingston communications who have the monoploy over the are as they are the only telephone providers in Hull and surrounding areas, As there are no BT lines in Hull we can not benefit from the wide range of internet prividers the rest of the country have on offer, ie virgin BT Bulldog 02 etc etc, the karoo internet signal is to a good standard and is connected 99% of the time, and rarely has any problems with xbox live or when using heavy data, the only problem is customer services, as they know we have no other choice so must stay with karoo they literally dont care when you ring up about a problem or bill queery.

As soon as Hull jois the rest of Britain and opens up their network to other providers then i for one and probably 90% of other karoo users will leave this poorly run but monopolised provider.

Rebecca's article on Broadband prompts me to share my experiences.
I joined my current provider BT approx 3 yrs ago. One a few occasions I have encountered problems. Using their online help desk will soon resolve the problem.
Should I have a situation when I am not online the BT Broadband number puts me in touch with their technical team who speedily guide me through the problem and if the need arises they will call me back to confirm all is OK.
Friends and family members often comment on the poor service they receive from other providers, but they joined them because they were cheaper! You can not beat quality service even though my have to pay that little bit extra!!

My ISP is BT and for many months I had problems with slow broadband and receiving messages such as"Broadband connection problems". I phoned the help line and BT carried out the speed test of my broadband which turned out to be 4.8 MB instead of 10MB for which I am paying £14.99 a month. I was charged £23 for exceeding the broadband speed limit for downloading films. I was also charged £88 for a new BT Home Hub 2.0 which BT said was necessary.

The technical problems were not solved. All BT did was to sell me a new Hub for £88 and if I wanted a higher broadband speed of 20MB, it would cost me £19.99 a month.

As a consumer I am not at all sure whether I am getting good value for my money and whether I should look for another ISP?

I've been with Virgin for a few years now using their broadband and phone services and have been happy until I recently discovered that they still charge 10p / minute for 0845 prefixed calls. I don't know of any other big providers still charging this rate and although I've complained to Virgin about this practice, of course nothing has changed. When you consider the numerous organisations such as hospitals and banks (to name just two) that now have 0845 numbers it is obvious that Virgin is making a killing with this rather underhand practice at the cost of it's undervalued and uninformed customers.

I was with tiscali, who are now joined with talk talk. When I wanted to cancel my package the no given to ring to cancel was just a joke!!! I was left listening to music over and over again!! Obviously they don't want you to cancel!!! I rang the customer advisor no, only to be told to ring this same no again, I was furious, I told her that the no given was just playing music constantly!!! I told her to put comments on my account that I would be getting in touch with ofcom. I did just that!!! Ofcom no is easy to find on th web. I got advise for the customer complaints dept for talk talk and wrote them a letter with Ofcoms referance no they gave me. Within 3 days I got a response. Talk Talk and Tiscali sorted my account out and closed it imediatly!! I recomend anyone having problems with their service providers to ring Ofcom and you will get it sorted quickly!!!!
I am now with plusnet and have had good service with them and I am very satisfied with my package!!!!!

I'm with virgin and their webmail is poor - delete a message from your home computer and it does not delete from the webmail - makes it virtually unuseable.

I have helped many people with computer and broadband problems. Sometimes they complain about "indian" call centres. It certainly IS true that some Indian call centre staff are less than expert. It is also true that many of the complainants are so uninfomed about computers that they cannot understand sensible (if technical) advice.
I note someone above complaining about Orange. I know seriously satisfied Orange broadband customers. ~I'm not currently one - I use Plusnet.
I also know seriously dissatisfied customers of virtually every ISP.
The SIMPLE fact of the matter is that perhaps 75-85% of computer and broadband users have not a CLUE about computers or safety and so so many even balk at paying for even basic anti-virus . BIG mistake.
Result? Well some of these people just buy a new computer when it totally fails and then go on to make the very same mistakes with their new machine. STUPID is hardly an adequate description. It is equivalent to buying a new car, never having it serviced, and never even checking oil and water and then complaining when it fails. Neither a computer nor a car are the technoligical equivalent of a toaster!!!

I acknowledge that SOME helplines are less than helpful but with the best will in the world they cannot ever sort out the problems of those who fail to take even basic precautions.
EVERY computer is different. It may well have started out the same as every other same name machine but the minute a website is visited, or a program downloaded, then it becomes unique.
NO ISP can ever deal with that. So DEAL with your own inadequacies. I managed to get my telephone line sorted. Why exactly can't you. Do you lack commitment and expect everyone else to act for you

I was contracted to Orange Broadband for 18 months until last summer, and forewarned them that if they did not reduce their monthly rate, I would move to another provider. This I did without problem, and TalkTalk presently goes well at a greatly reduced rate. Whereas previously I was paying monthly line rental to Post Office and £15 to Orange Broadband, I now pay around £21 all-in for line rental, broadband connection and most of my telephone calls. I am fortunate that I live quite close to my local telephone exchange, so broadband speed is mainly acceptable, but I suspect that BT do their bit to slow things down for non-BT customers!

I am with TALK tALK for broadband and phone.No complaints if I ahve had any probelms like changing to wireless router they have helped.Very competitive.

I was with Virgin i have cable to the flat likewise i had problems went to BT easy same day tranfer,

Oh my god orange I switched to sky because of them, trying to get a mac code made us shout with frustration. Never ever go with orange.

I'm with Tiscali( now taken over by Talk talk) & have nothing but praise for the service provided.The Billing each month is not only accurate but excellent value too.I did have a problem about a year ago with a crackling phone line connection but they resolved that (somehow) very quickly & even followed up with a courtesy call a few days later to confirm all was well.The broadband connection is perfect, especially since having a router installed,by-passing the modem which used to give the occasional problem. My only concern now is that Talk Talk may increase the charges.

I am currently with O2, who I must say are absolutely brilliant, high speeds, excellent customer services and not one single problem (famous last words!) I have an O2 top up mobile (SIM only) and pay £12.23 a month. If I topped up £10 every quarter my bill would be less, around £7 a month I think? HOwever I do live in Greater London and have not had too many problems with speed. In more rural areas (My Dad lives in Kent) I know he has struggled with speeds. I have also been with Carphone Warehouse/ Talk Talk (awful, avoid at all costs) and they were on the slow side and appauling customer services. Also used Virgin in the past & they were fine (although this was when they were Telewest). Hope this helps some people!

I have been with BT total broadband for over 2 years and so far have found their service first class.
When i have contacted them with queries or problems i shuddered at the thought of the Indian call centre but i was most surprised at the knowledge and efficiency in the help that they provided and of course the call was free so am i the only lucky one.?.SO FAR I AM NOT MOVING.
I do not work for BT !!!

I FULLY agree with snowscreen
ORANGE are a Giant con and pain in the Gluteus Maximus, although i didnt have the problem with increasing prices thats just wrong !!!
But what i had was that orange tried to sign me up with on of those cheaper broadband with monthy mobile phone contract jobs !!!! When i found out i coundnt as the contract was about to expire i told them there and then (when they phoned me about it) that my contract on my mobile was going to expire so i was not interested in the cheap broadband offer.
But when it came to finishing the mobile contract i found out that they had restarted my contract when they phoned about the broadband offer and the cheek of it was that i had NO correspondance to say my contract had been restarted !!!! SO with that i destroyed my SIM card in the thought that i had finished my mobile contract, and took Orange small claim courts where they instantly backed out and fully apologiesed for their mistake.

However the twist in tail went when we tried to cancel out broadband, made sure that it was fully paid up to the end of the month then cancelled there and then.
Orange then truned around 2 months later and said they were missing a 1 months broadband payment so we double checked our finances right the way back to when we were with FREESERVE and found we had not missed a single months payment.

Orange refused to believe this and put a TAG on our line so we are unable to switch to any other broadband provider!!!! We tried to resolve this problem but kept being bounced around between call centers where no one had a clue at what they were doing and kept reffering us to other departments!!! So we gave up !!!

My question to anyone out there is can broadband providers put a TAG on your line and is it legal !? Also how can i get about resovling this problem !? Its been two & half years since this problem started !!!
Any help would greatly appreciated!!

I use talk talk but started witjh aol. I've had connection problems especially slow downloads and also email from my inbox and files has disappeared. The slow download problem took two separate one hour phone calls talking to India . You are guaranteed to be waiting at least 15 mins before they pick the phone up. I find it difficult to understand the accent but in the end the problem was not resolved with talk talk blaming internal wiring.

The disapparence of my email has not been sorted with Aol and talk talk passing the buck to the other which is a bit rich considering talk talk own aol.

I ciuld not recommend this service and shall be leaving it asap when I find a provider who respects the importance of customer service.

TalkTalk must be the worst provider. Whilst I was with them I had many problems with the connection dropping out, especially in the evenings. There was at one time a fault with water in a connection which took them six months to acknowledge and repair despite my telling them from the start that there was a history of water problems.

Worse was to come when I tried to move to another provider. I tried four times to move, but each time the change was stopped and the company assumed I had changed my mind. Finally the older method was used successfuly. I got a text with the change over date from the new provider, BT, and within two hours I could not receive incoming calls!!! This continued for two weeks, despite daily phone calls of complaint, until the change over when miraculously the problem was resolved.

Since moving to BT the broadband connection has never dropped out, I can use the wireless router and a problem with the line was fixed quickly. What an improvement on the terrible service from Talktalk.

I was with Tiscali and was reasonably satisfied. However TalkTalk have taken them over and now the service has deteriorated noticeably. Seeking any response is also wasted time. At the moment weighing up options of where to place my custom. 

I have been with sky now for well over a year and have had no problems, In fact they are far better than my previous provider pipex.

Don't ever go with Tiscali or whoever they are calling themselves now. It took me 12 months of hell and an OFCOM mediator (which they had to pay for) just to get my account cancelled and to stop them billing me. I had lived abroad for 8 months by the time this happened. I got the best advice on how to sort them out from the following website: http://tiscalisucks.blogspot.com/ which will be useful to all the providers who most are basically corrupt and thieves. By the way. Until I needed to cancel I had no problems. Another tip. if you are paying your broadband supplier by credit card monthly then STOP. THis is what they want. change it to your current account. I had to completely cancel a credit card to stop paying tiscali. Much more hassle than cancelling a DD or STO.

After a number of years of good service by Tiscali I'm also looking for an alternative.
I've been advised by TT of a price increase as of 15/02 so see it the time to move on.

Pls keep me advised of your discoveries.
Regards,
Robert.

I have a BT landline and use Pipex for broadband on the BT Line. Pipex very helpfully upgraded my speed to 8 mb and charged me £14.99 per month for doing so, only then for me to discover that my line will only take 2 mb. Only by checking the speeds on a regular basis have I now found I am paying for something I will never have. Pipex blame BT and say it's nothing to do with them, it's just overusage of the line in my area, BT haven't bothered to answer. I am tempted to ditch both of them and go with Virgin Media and cable in order to benefit from 20 mb speeds but I wonder if it is worth the hassle of changing. Virgin Media will charge me just a bit more for broadband, phone and tv than I currently pay for just phone and broadband. Any advice out there?

every body complains about BT but hey Iam not computer litret they can sort out your problems quickly they take control of your computer and sort things I proberly pay alittle extra,but the service is v/good would recomend BT any time.

every body complains about BT but hey Iam not computer litret they can sort out your problems quickly they take control of your computer and sort things I proberly pay alittle extra,but the service is v/good would recomend BT any time.