In reply to a post by MCM:

Please don't let your seeming total lack of understanding about the underlying purpose of price comparison web sites which is to make money for their operators get in the way of your having a good old pointless rant. Speaker's Corner is where you need to make your speeches rather than here.

No you are quite wrong.

The purpose of these sites and I would assume especially the ones that Ofcom specifically endorses at www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/costs-and-billing/price-comparison should be to give consumers an accurate basis to make an informed choice of broadband supplier whilst also allowing the site creators to make money as well.

But apparently in your world of ruthless 19th century capitalism people losing their hand or arm in the lathe is perfectly fine so long as their well off Lord Of The Manor bosses can earn enough money to keep themselves in the style to which they are accustomed.

Given your attitude I do wonder if you are perhaps a director or or shareholder in one of these incompetent broadband comparisons websites that are negligently misleading consumers and hopefully in due course may be closed down or put out of business (due to suffering large and punitive fines for their misdeeds) by a more competent or proactive telecoms regulator or competition enforcement agency.......

Edited by deleted (Mon 25-May-20 11:35:36)

In reply to a post by Capvermell:

In reply to a post by dect:

The regulars on this forum give their time and opinions for free so lets not shoot the contributors.

No let us very actively shoot them if some of these people have developed a clearly smug and belittling style (apparently unrestrained by the forum moderators) of posting that seeks to demonstrate how much cleverer they seem to think they are are than anyone else who has less hours of their life to waste on making posts in this forum than they obviously do.

I’m guessing the ‘clearly smug and belittling style’ arises from them having an informed opinion ... something you appear not to be troubled with.

The issue your opening post here stems from service providers not wishing to embrace new technology. Excuses like ‘not practical to train support staff‘ ......
Price comparison sites don’t include FTTP for similar lame arsed reasons.

But you’d be aware of this kind of thing if read informed opinion rather than ranting.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

The issue your opening post here stems from service providers not wishing to embrace new technology. Excuses like ‘not practical to train support staff‘ ......
Price comparison sites don’t include FTTP for similar lame arsed reasons.

But you’d be aware of this kind of thing if read informed opinion rather than ranting.

This issue is mainly only applicable to customers who live on exchanges with access to FTTP. Once a tiny and infinitessimal minority but now over 2 million and up to 4 million during the course of next year and beyond after that. We don't almost ever have access to FTTP services (of which there are many providers) and may not have access to ADSL2+ either (of which there are even more providers).

Most people would have not even be likely to know the name of or come across other FTTP providers than BT Retail on their own (even Zen is really only known of by broadband enthusiasts) so that is why it is critical price comparison websites give correct data so people either don't in ignorance not choose FTTP at all or only choose BT because they did decide to visit the BT Retail broadband website as the most obvious place to go.

Why you seem to encourage and endorse companies who do things wrong or the quick and dirty way I don't know?

But perhaps you don't ever seek out companies or organisations who make decent products or do things properly in your own life and just accept the first poorly made product you come across and also have low ambitions and expectations and low standards in relation to everything else in your life?

Ultimately you are another poster who is just trying to belittle someone for having a strongly and clearly held conviction about wanting things to be done properly. As there are so many of you with this unusual psychological profile attempting to knock me down it is tempting to believe that some of you must have a connection with price comparison sites concerned who may be concerned that their "nice little earner" without having to do things properly and thoroughly may soon be under threat..............

Edited by deleted (Mon 25-May-20 12:07:31)

Since you appear to have a problem understanding what people are telling you about these sites why don't you stop wasting our time and take your complaint, as you see it, to someone who really cares and might do something about it for you. Perhaps your MP or even the Prime Minister. This isn't a site for those with a perceived grudge about some other web sites to post about their comprehension problems.

In reply to a post by MCM:

Since you appear to have a problem understanding what people are telling you about these sites why don't you stop wasting our time and take your complaint, as you see it, to someone who really cares and might do something about it for you. Perhaps your MP or even the Prime Minister. This isn't a site for those with a perceived grudge about some other web sites to post about their comprehension problems.

Dear MCM,

Are you a moderator in this forum. No I think you are not. You are just someone with a lot of time on his hands who likes to think he is some sort of expert here by dint of taking up much of his free time making a lot of posts here.

The point of my thread discussion is perfectly valid in the context of a forum section on fibre broadband (arguably there ought to be a separate forum section on just FTTP) but apparently you have some issue with people who want to help consumers make the right FTTP choice and apparently only want there to be techno geek type discussions of things like splicing the cable or the routing path to the exchange rather than stuff that is actually useful to people wanting to get the best value service.

I have every right to start a thread and make other posts related to the accuracy of price comparison websites and their omission of FTTP services almost entirely and their carrying of wrong data re TalkTalk G.Fast services.

If you are not interested in that topic then don't read this thread any more but please stop acting like a troll and a forum bully by trying to lay down what and are not valid discussions in relation to FTTP broadband in this forum section.

If you make any more posts trying to bully me out of continuing discussing the accuracy of price comparison websites for broadband I shall be bringing your posts to the attention of the forum moderators to whom I suspect you are well known for picking on and putting down other forum members who you don't consider to share your own views on what are legitimate topics for discussion here.

You have nothing useful or constructive to contribute to this thread so please stop contributing to it any further before your actions are classified as the flaming, trolling, bullying or harassment that they so very clearly are by those in charge of the forum.

Edited by deleted (Mon 25-May-20 12:27:37)

We other a commercial API solution so if other sites want to access our data for sales purposes there is a system available on commercial terms.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

We other a commercial API solution so if other sites want to access our data for sales purposes there is a system available on commercial terms.

Presumably your API would cost them more than the cheap, dirty and inaccurate data most of these sites prefer to use and I assume will continue to go on using until the inactive and incompetent regulator (Ofcom) in terms of any consumer protection agenda actually starts fining them or shutting them down for offering inaccurate and misleading information to consumers.

It is shocking that these inaccurate sites also include all of the ones that Ofcom actively endorses and promotes as allegedly meeting its standards or requirements.

As the quality of data is now a great deal better for electricity and price comparisons I feel one must lay the blame for this situation and its persistence entirely at the door of Ofcom.

There is no payment to appear on thinkbroadband listings

The reason not all are there is simply that with several hundred ISP it is an enormous task to add them all and a number of business ones do not even list pricing on their own site.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

There is no payment to appear on thinkbroadband listings

The reason not all are there is simply that with several hundred ISP it is an enormous task to add them all and a number of business ones do not even list pricing on their own site.

I think its fair to say that your listings are more complete than anyone else's.

Perhaps the regulator should therefore require that prices for all providers with more than say 20,000 or 50,000 or 100,000 customers are included.

But certainly for a regulator to have a special relationship with some broadband comparison websites that all seem to be small players but do not do the job any better than any of the big boys (who are all getting things badly wrong especially re those of us on FTTP exchanges) is very concerning indeed.

Also can we identify why all the price comparison websites wrongly think that TalkTalk can deliver up to 300Mbps G.Fast services on this ADSL2+ and FTTP only enabled exchange (at postcode RH5 5GA) Most addresses have an FTTP cable passing them, although a tiny number of very remote ones on farms or on the slopes of Leith Hil may have been excluded by BT Retail (who paid for the Race To Infinity exchanges FTTP project) on cost effectiveness grounds)

The BT Wholesale checker definitely does not show the existence of any G.Fast services for my phone number or postcode.

Edited by deleted (Mon 25-May-20 12:33:01)