Sky broadband?

[Andrew_5105555]

I currently have tiscali broadband and up until december never had a great deal of problems with them,now all of a sudden for the last 3 mths its been dropping out and difficult to get onto the net.Anyway sky have been offering me their broadband for free(i currently pay 14.99/mth) because i have sky tv,Is sky broadband anygood or should i stick with tiscali?Is it better the devil you know?I don't want to change and have set up problems and numerous costly phone calls.

ta andrew.

 

[Jeff-Pontypridd]

I've heard bad things about Sky's broadband service from the only two people I know who have it.

Go for BT - costs more, but much more reliable.

 

[DeliDave]

i,ve got Orange for a fiver and had no probs was paying 23 a month with pipex

 

[TonySharon]

Hi Andrew ,we did have sky and was supposed to be on a 12 month contract with them but the level of service we received or should i say did not receive from them we were able to get out of the contract 9 months early , i would not recommend sky to anyone, with sky broadband connection was always a problem and when we did get connected it was off again after an hour or so we asked for them to send us a new modem but its not their policy to replace under 12 months old so how do you know where the problem lies they were no help and we spent a fortune on phone calls to them my advice stay well clear ...

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

Agree with Jeff, I've had no problems with BT.

My son in law is on Option 2 with BT and was coming to the end of his contract so rang Sky who told him to get a MAC from BT. When he rang they asked him what they could offer for him to stay with BT. He said try me so they reduced his monthly payment by quite an amount. He hummed and arghhhed and then told them that I had a broadband phone so they gave him one of those free as well, he already had the hub.

What I have read about Tiscali is the problems people have dumping them. Even after they have migrated to another ISP they continue to charge. ComputerActive very often has complaints about them.

 

[Jo-AnneFairway5402010]

hi, i am with sky for my broadband and have been with them for 4 months now and so has my in laws. i can honestly say hand on heart i have never had a problem with them. i was with bt for year and with my phone bill and broadband together including my calls it was

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

hi, i am with sky for my broadband and have been with them for 4 months now and so has my in laws. i can honestly say hand on heart i have never had a problem with them. i was with bt for year and with my phone bill and broadband together including my calls it was

 

[Ray R]

Hi, I'm with Talk Talk and regardless of any bad press they may have had I can honestly say I have had no problem whatsoever. we first took their phone package 2 years ago and then upgraded it to include broadband when they started doing it free about 18months ago, we pay

 

[cokey1970]

Hi Andrew,

It would be worth your while having a look at www.thinkbroadband.com which has customer ratings on ISP's. You can also compare ISP's with each other and carry out speed tests.

I have also heard some bad stories about Sky Broadband particularly regarding their customer service.

I was with NewNet which is a consistantly highly rated ISP and paid

 

[Angus1]

We`ve had Sky broadband for about 5 months with no problems at all.

Again, I don`t pay anything at all beacuse I already have Sky, but got a wireless hub and 12 months McAfee anti-virus (neither of which I got with B.T).

That saves me 25 quid a month on what I was paying. Thats nearly three weeks sites fees over a year!

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

You must have been on the basic BT then Angus because BT have Norton Anti-Virus and Firewall as part of their package.

 

[Angus1]

Basic at

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

When I first had a computer and got an ISP it was Screaming Net, now I believe it's Tiscali and from what I read in the press not improved much from those days. Like the present Tiscali people now, I couldn't dump them then, they continued to charge and could never get through to their help line.

Since then I've been with BT with rarely any problems and probably about two outages in about 12 years.

I've always upgraded, from dial-up to broadband and now wireless with homehub and phone. Since being on broadband they have given me the hub and phone and reduced my payments without me threatening to migrate. All I did was sign for 18 months instead of 12 which I was happy to do. I can't remember when Norton became part of the package but it's been for some time now although I don't like Norton so don't use it.

I do use the free B.T. online storage/backup for music/photos though.

The only tempter that would cause me to change is the Sky T.V. but as I hardly watch T.V. and Her Ladyship says she doesn't want it theres no point in changing. She is happy with the hub phone where she can phone her friends in the U.S. and Oz for 1.5p a minute. I'm happy because I don't get outages and I know I have no limits on download useage.

Each to their own though and everyone has different experiences.

 

[Meister]

I too am with BT and must say that on the whole their broadband and phone products do exactly what they say on the tin

BUT

Oh dear what an absolute nightmare if anything goes wrong and you have to speak to their call centre in a far off foreign land.

I had a problem with the line dropping out causing loss of broadband connection recently and I might as well have been talking to someone from the plant Zog as I could hardly understand what on earth they were saying.

Their accents were so heavy (not their fault). Even when I could understand it was clear that they were reading from a script and were unable to deviate from it.

In the end I wrote a stinking letter to BT HQ and the line problem was sorted within a week.

Shame really because poor customer service lets down what is otherwise a good product.

Steve

 

[Oldfogey]

The speed of your broadband relates almost entirely to the length and condition of the line to the exchange - very little the ISP can do about it.

I (and some friends I advise) have gone with PLUSNET. This is owned by BT, but run seperately. Their call centre is 0845 no in Newcastle (so still a problem with accents).

What I like is that I have signed for the basic package at 10.99, which gives me 1Gb of download a month, each extra Gig at

 

[MikeAce]

Hi all, i am with Sky, the

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

I read somewhere that BT are closing the centre in India. Probably to Poland :O)

Avon are closing their centre in the UK and moving to India. Surely with some moving back here it should send a clear message to those who are still thinking of moving that it doesn't work.

In fairness to the BT centre in India, the few times I've called them I've had no problems. Only once did someone fail with my problem but that was remedied with a second call.

What I did notice though was that they were all polite, something lacking at times in this country.

When was was altering the configurations remotely we had a good old chin wag.

 

[Chaps]

We're with Tiscali, having originally being with Line One who were then taken over by Tiscali and haven't had any problems with them.

Claire's brother did have problems with Tiscali and wouldn't touch them with a bargepole - same probs as previously mentioned above, they charged him after the contract ended and he had trouble getting his money back.

Claire's brother also had awful problems with Orange. Rob's Dad is still in dispute with Wanadoo.....the list goes on.

We thought about going to Sky but heard bad things about them too so stuck with Tiscali. Did manage to get a free wireless router valued at about

 

[peter_374235415]

I too changed from Tiscali to Sky and guess what I had the problems with Tiscali still charging but did get a refund in the end. Tiscali was great until I cancelled it.

Sky so far is great, no problems at all, its free and we have free evening and weekend calls. Our phone bill is now about

 

[robert_374349805]

I too changed from Tiscali to Sky and guess what I had the problems with Tiscali still charging but did get a refund in the end. Tiscali was great until I cancelled it.

Sky so far is great, no problems at all, its free and we have free evening and weekend calls. Our phone bill is now about

 

[robert_374349805]

Changing to Sky from Tiscali is in my opinion a must.

What are Tiscali charging ??? Sky charge me

 

[Oldfogey]

Just to add a further point about paying for ongoing services (of any sort).

Never give them a debit or credit card number. This is known as a "continuing authority", and cannot be stopped by speaking to your bank, unlike a direct debit, where you give them the account number. You are 100% dependent on the company stopping charging. Even cancelling the card is no good.

Under no circumstances will I ever give a continuing authority, no matter how much I want the service.