In reply to a post by Matt182:

... still don't know that any other ISPs supply a fibre/FTTC product similar to Infinity.

That's because there simply is none, well for the same price anyway.

On the 40GB package there is. Especially if BT count upload - I haven't checked that.

At the moment I get 15GB peak, 45GB off-peak at £23.39pm. No TM or slowdowns of any kind, excellent CS and no call centre or press button n palaver. I've had an absolutely trouble-free year.

ADSL24 do 30/unlimited for £21.90.
Plusnet are £16.49 for 40/unlimited.

Edited by RobertoS (Sat 28-Jan-12 16:01:06)

they pay your wages

Wages is too strong a word for it.

The efficiency of the engineers is crucial to net profit margins, and any failure to support them properly is lunacy.

Oh they strive for efficiency OK, trackers, a myriad of nonsense stats, tool budget slashed etc, but support ?? Hmm.

We're getting quite a lot for what we pay.

You?

In general over the last 10-12 years, customer care has gone down the doldrums in the name of profit.

it started with the great clamour to outsource to india, pakistan, etc, and now even such countries as south africa are used.

The banks i think have been the first to recognise that customer care is wanted.

Personally i would gladly pay an extra £5 on top of a bill, if it guarenteed great customer care.

In reply to a post by Moradin:

In general over the last 10-12 years, customer care has gone down the doldrums in the name of profit.

it started with the great clamour to outsource to india, pakistan, etc, and now even such countries as south africa are used.

The banks i think have been the first to recognise that customer care is wanted.

Personally i would gladly pay an extra £5 on top of a bill, if it guarenteed great customer care.

Nothing is guaranteed,

You are welcome to pay your £5 as long as the rest of us don't have to pay it.

You have to remember that the overwhelming majority of customers do not use then support lines,so this would lead to a massive increase in profit to the company and your £5 would lead to a large percentage increase for all customers , most of whom if they don't use the support would not benefit.

BT do offer UK based support, you just have to take out their Business packages.

You are welcome to pay your £5 as long as the rest of us don't have to pay it.

You don't have to.

My (and other people that want a good service), £5 put towards Bob the IT guys salary who sits indoors at his home and provides great customer care for selective customers.

All BT and and companies like them, that offer services that people really really don't want to go wrong, have to do is Offer the service.

I'm sure Bob would get a really really great salary.

In reply to a post by Moradin:

Personally i would gladly pay an extra £5 on top of a bill, if it guarenteed great customer care.

Surely this is looking at things the wrong way round. If you need to use the support services of your ISP, then they've already failed in some aspect to your detriment. Paying extra for this "privilege" seems wholly ridiculous.

If you mean customer care as in "giving a [censored]" then I'm sorry to inform you that companies care not one bit what you think. It's a money game and there are no feelings involved. If they were a worker owned cooperative of sorts then they might. Alas no ISP seems to exist in this mould. If they did I'd likely use them simply for ideological satisfaction even though I'm more than pleased with BT and their service over the past years.

Consider that BT Infinity is far and away the most popular FTTC/P service in the UK and has been since its launch.

Consider that it is generally accepted to be the "best value" in terms of what you get for the price you pay.

Consider that there is no discernible difference in the number of complaints relating to the service on these forums as an example. There certainly aren't multiple times more complaints about BT's service given it's far larger user base, as you might logically expect.

There is a trade off in any situation where money is provided in return for a service. Currently BT seem to be capable of providing a service that meets, or exceeds, the expectations of their customers with comparable reliability to any other ISP you could care to name. You could define these expectations losely as "fast" "reasonably cheap" "stable".. They also seem to be capable of doing it at a lesser price.

Users of other ISPs often try to use BT's less than perfect technical support as a stick to beat. They use it as a sort of justification for paying larger sums to their ISP because their support is better. But as a user of BT's FTTC service for nearly 18 months and of their ADSL services for years before that, I've had very occasional issues with my service and therefore have not been disadvantaged. In fact, I've been advantaged by not spending so much money each month for what is an equal or superior product.

Who is the winner?

Edited by orly (Mon 30-Jan-12 22:04:49)

As an example...

Most people i know, would prefer a slightly higher monthly bill, if it means customer support was based in the UK rather than India.

because ofc, you can actually understand the guy in the UK, (mostly), and ergo, have more chance of getting your problem dealt with quicker.

When the service is as reliable as i've found it over the last 18 months, the tech support could be in french for all I care

BT have pitched it perfectly and other ISPs have been found wanting.

Edited by orly (Fri 03-Feb-12 17:57:02)

Yes, thats a good point i think. ie: is fibre basically just more reliable than copper?

my gut feeling is that it would be, but i dont have any data to support it.

Does the installation of a FTTP/FTTC network, mean ultimately, much less repair / maintenance costs for BT/Openreach ???? and higher end-user reliability ?