'Should I Stay or Should I Go?'

Can't remember who sort of sang that! Anyroadup . . .

When I renewed with PlusNet last time they gave me a really good rate. That was largely because I was genuinely toying with VirginMedia, who were much cheaper than PN's first bog-standard offering. As I wasn't comfortable with VM's pushy sales approach, and happy overall with PN service, I took the coward's way out. No regrets.

So here I am 18mths later in the same situation! VM have somehow picked up that renewal is due and I am being hassled. Their one year offer looks good, so today I enquired about PN's bestest. Sadly, it's not so attractive. Two year contract? I think not, but shorter is dearer. As mentioned, I've generally been content with PN, but am concerned about some of the recent posts here.

OK, you guys can't decide for me. Hmmm . . . decisions . . . decisions . . .

The Clash https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqH21LEmfbQ

Probably a minor point but if you 'migrate' off the BT network to VM cable you'll be liable for a £30 'Cease fee'.

What type of package do you have already with PN, fibre broadband and line rental?

As well as BTr can you get Sky and Talktalk broadband (LLU) from your exchange, if so PN might/have been known to price match broadband from any other ISP to keep you as a customer, not sure about the line rental side of things, you'll need to get in touch with the Customer Options Team (not CS) for a chance of that to happen.

In reply to a post by Al1264:

Probably a minor point but if you 'migrate' off the BT network to VM cable you'll be liable for a £30 'Cease fee'.

£30 not minor in my book, and how much to get back if you don't stay?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMaE6toi4mk

Had virginmedia, slowdowns everyday. Paid for 200Mbps, got 15Mbps max at peak hours, down to 0.5Mbps some evenings.

Online gaming was always a struggle.

Superhub AC has an issue where every 4 to 5 days it drops the connection for as long as 15 minutes as NETGEAR coded the firmware poorly:

You see the message in the logs:

"DHCP RENEW sent - No response for IPv4" however in router mode it only sends the request 4 or 5 times (can't remember off the top of my head), it needs to be more times, effectively it does not try for long enough to renew, so whenever it goes to renew the public IP address the connection drops out.

So you will then see "No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out" error, and a drop out...

It will then drop for a while, then come back online. I found it did this at critical times such as during a webex work meeting.

Overall much happier with other ISPs, just my two cents.

Have you any issued with Plusnet's performance or services (support or billing)??

If not then I would probably stay put, however if Plusnet are not willing to renew your contract without the 24 months tie down, I would look elsewhere for two reasons...

1. better offer elsewhere and maybe something extra tha may be useful

2. Good weapon to use against Plusnet to get them to tailor a deal.

Also what do you typically use Broadband for, Virgin's headline speeds may be tempting but their upstream speeds can suck... however Plusnet lower fibre package 'these' days has a measly 2mbps upload... this may not be a concern for you though...

Also Virgin isn't that great for online gaming due to the amount of jitter on its network due to the shared cables instead of the dedicated cable to the network...

Do you use a phone line, do you want TV (TiVo).... Virgin is a good alternative if you want Broadband only... however this isn't going to be made too attractive when it comes to an offer.

Also note Broadband equipment requirement's ... do you use your own, some providers aren't too happy for you to use your own.

Currently I'm pretty happy with BT, BT may have some offers on that might interest you, however its worth looking at the other providers too... you could always get Virgin to test too...

Virgin allow you 14-30 days from activation to test there services and cancel it free of charge if you don't want it anymore, during this time you can test the living daylights out of it to make sure its sufficient... and you can keep your Plusnet line ticking along besides it if it don't work out.

Can't remember who sort of sang that! Anyroadup . . .

The Clash innit !

Go with VirginMedia if you want fast broadband.

Go with VirginMedia if you want fast broadband.

And hope it doesn't get the high levels of contention at peak times that some people report.

In reply to a post by 961a:

£30 not minor in my book, and how much to get back if you don't stay?

£30 is only 'minor' relative to the savings the OP may make by moving (though it will take a chunk out of those savings which is why I mentioned it), I thought most providers still offered free 'installation/activation/line provision' nowadays though you may have a point that getting back on the BT network once the VM offer period has expired could also have costs associated.

Unless they've changed in recent years VM don't tend to make particularly good retention offers so there may be an incentive later to move back.

In reply to a post by Al1264:

£30 is only 'minor' relative to the savings the OP may make by moving (though it will take a chunk out of those savings which is why I mentioned it),

Also, very often ISPs will offer at least £30 in cashback via cashback sites, and that's before even considering the offers on the ISPs site.

Not had that problem in the 4 years that I have been with VirginMedia. Maybe my download might drop from 156 to 120 occasionally but not seen worse than that.

Sadly, I'm moving house to an area that is not VirginMedia cabled. I looked at Plusnet but sadly they would restrict my upload to 2 when the line is capable of 8 upload.

Good to hear, shame its area dependant and moving just a few streets over can have a detrimental affect on utilisation levels....

have you heard about Pn new network upcoming ??

I've not long renewed with PN ( 2 year contract - no install fee's or cancellation fees of old line ) in a completely different area, and tbh its the same as my last area.

Random spikes, Laggy issues for games, Increased ping times, by about 10 - 20 ms..

But other than that and a useless few staffing issues all has been well.

speeds always been there but speed isnt always everything hey.

The new so called plusnet network is supposed to be a noticeable difference or so the talk about it seems to make it out that way and for the better! .... Hopefully

Thanks, guys, for all your thoughts.

In reply to a post by 961a:

In reply to a post by Al1264:

£30 not minor in my book, and how much to get back if you don't stay?

VM have mentioned picking up transfer up to £30. I've been with PN for some time now and haven't really had any major complaints. Current package is up to 40/20, and the 37/13 I'm normally getting meets my needs fine. Just a nasty pain in the wallet department this year, and less flexibility so far from Customer Options.

Could certainly go to talktalk, but do I truly want to?

In reply to a post by mlmclaren:

Have you any issued with Plusnet's performance or services (support or billing)??

If not then I would probably stay put, however if Plusnet are not willing to renew your contract without the 24 months tie down, I would look elsewhere for two reasons...

1. better offer elsewhere and maybe something extra tha may be useful

2. Good weapon to use against Plusnet to get them to tailor a deal.

Also what do you typically use Broadband for, Virgin's headline speeds may be tempting but their upstream speeds can suck... however Plusnet lower fibre package 'these' days has a measly 2mbps upload... this may not be a concern for you though...

Also Virgin isn't that great for online gaming due to the amount of jitter on its network due to the shared cables instead of the dedicated cable to the network...

Do you use a phone line, do you want TV (TiVo).... Virgin is a good alternative if you want Broadband only... however this isn't going to be made too attractive when it comes to an offer.

Also note Broadband equipment requirement's ... do you use your own, some providers aren't too happy for you to use your own.

Currently I'm pretty happy with BT, BT may have some offers on that might interest you, however its worth looking at the other providers too... you could always get Virgin to test too...

Current OK package is fibre 40/20 with anytime calls and caller display, which VM say 'isn't a prob' (although I need to find out what that actually means) but no TV or gaming requirements.

The 2yr contract for lowest price was the first thing that rang alarm bells. Also I'm not sure whether that U/L drop to 2mb/s would be applied and, if so how significant it would be for me. VM's U/L doesn't looks significantly better than that.

Reverted to bog-standard Openreach+Plusnet kit when I moved to fibre.

Sadly, I had a painful experience with BT some years ago, so although I've looked at current offers I'm unlikely to consider seriously, but many thanks for your considered response..

In reply to a post by Yves:

Go with VirginMedia if you want fast broadband.

..except when you most want it during the evening.

Virgin Media can be pretty expensive for phone package...(£8 Anytime Calls)

Sky's Anytime calls package is £8 but include calls to mobiles too...

If you agree a new deal with Plusnet they will more than likely reduce your service to the 40/2 package which is what happen to many when they changed the package for new customers.

If your using bog standard kit then maybe look at Sky, there Hub isn't as high spec as the likes of BT Hub 5 or Virgin's Superhub 2/3 but is pretty stable 'in my experience'

Sky will probably do you half price fibre for the whole 12 month contract too.. though their current online offer is £10 for 6 months then £20 for the remaining 6 months, plus line rental at £17.40 per month, you could also get £70 cashback through Quidco by signing up to Fibre Unlimited without TV and chances are they'll give you more if you take a bundle with TV or even add the extra calls package.

How much is your Plusnet package now your out of your deal?? Do you require the calls package and the line features?

PS. Looks like offers are going to update at midnight!

Edited by mlmclaren (Thu 31-Mar-16 23:01:10)

I have used both Vm and Pn and been reasonably happy with each but in this day and age it is all about value as none of the providers seem to have any idea about customer loyalty. In fact being with a company for a long time seems to go against you as they offer better deals to new customers!

Look at what you need in terms of phone, broadband and tv and ask the isps what they can do for YOU. They are all fighting for new custom.

I am on Plusnet Business Fibre, with a 24 month contract, plus phone and caller display.

I was really pleased with the way that Plusnet fought with BT to get my ADSL -> FTTC upgrade done at the tail end of last year. Due to glitches in BT systems and Kelly's incompetence, this took around 6 weeks from the point of order, 3 engineers appointments (one no show due to the glitches, one Kelly - claimed to be unable to get in to the cabinet, and one BT OR who did the job). I was previously happy with the amount of effort Plusnet put out in to getting the best possible (but still poor) ADSL Annex M performance, arranging several engineer visits.

I use a hacked HG612 with an 80/20 sync and good real world, Samknows and TBB speed tests results.

The only problem is that sometimes I end up on a poorly performing gateway with high latency and sometimes massive packet loss. Hopping gateways (by dropping and re-establishing the PPPoE session) fixes that.

So, I am a happy Plusnet user, with good performance and good support when I have needed it.

TalkTalk Business

I also have a works supplied TalkTalk Business ADSL line. Only 8 Mbps down but usually rock-solid. There are very occasional lost connections / lost routing incidents lasting for an hor or so. The line once became noisy (deafening when I plugged a phone in). Reported it to work, who reported it to TalkTalk, and within 24 hours BT OR were working in a nearby chamber to fix the fault, so I am quite happy with TT, especially as they are free for me, and nowadays I only use the line as a back up. Both modems plug in to a tiny pfSense firewall which does the failover.

Previous ADSL ISPs:

Pipex - dire.
Demon (before they sold out) - excellent.
Nidram - were good but became poor.
Sky - appalling. Lied to me for 3 months when they knew that they had an exchange problem.
BE - excellent, until they announced that they were being bought by Sky when I jumped to ...
BT Business - totally unbelievable incompetence Far worse than anything I have read about BT Retail..

I did for a while have BT ISDN (no problems) and elsewhere NTL cable (technically fine, but administratively both inept and arrogant.

Plusnet Charges:

1	Call charge for the period to 06/03/2016	£0.15	£0.03	£0.18
1	Ultd Business Fibre Dual (24 Month) - Market 2/3 charge for the period 06-03-2016 to 05-04-2016	£33.00	£6.60	£39.60
1	Caller Display charge for the period 06-03-2016 to 05-04-2016	£0.99	£0.20	£1.19
1	UK Anytime (24 Month Contract) charge for the period 06-03-2016 to 05-04-2016	£10.50	£2.10	£12.60
1	Call Plan charge for the period 06-03-2016 to 05-04-2016	£4.00	£0.80	£4.80

Net Amount	£48.64
VAT Amount @ 20%	£9.73
Invoice Total	£58.37

I can't agree with your having rated Pipex as dire

I was with the original Pipex from March 2002 and they were a great company - I'm still friendly with a then senior staff member.

I left them in July 2007 when they were about to be sold for a second time.

Went to Plusnet and still there