John Lewis broadband which is run by Plusnet, would have been cheaper.

Yes I spotted that last weekend it is £20.00 a month for ADSL and LR etc. at the moment.

In reply to a post by Vorlon:

I do favour PlusNet's UK call centres over those of BT, but is the trade-off your broadband speed?
ideally I'd prefer to be with Idnet/Zen/AAISP, but as with others it's down to affordability .

Actually, Zen have got a very good offer on at the moment, in association with The Big Deal which makes their pricing very competitive.. There is a £35 activation fee but you get a free Fritxbox 3490 which you can either keep or sell. It's only on for another few days though.

Bear in mind though, it's a 2 year contract. Personally, I don't mind that because it's Zen and I have been very happy with them for years. (The offer is also open to existing customers, who effectively just get a price reduction.)

Link

In reply to a post by lodge:

In reply to a post by Vorlon:

I do favour PlusNet's UK call centres over those of BT, but is the trade-off your broadband speed?
ideally I'd prefer to be with Idnet/Zen/AAISP, but as with others it's down to affordability .

Actually, Zen have got a very good offer on at the moment, in association with The Big Deal which makes their pricing very competitive.. There is a £35 activation fee but you get a free Fritxbox 3490 which you can either keep or sell. It's only on for another few days though.

Bear in mind though, it's a 2 year contract. Personally, I don't mind that because it's Zen and I have been very happy with them for years. (The offer is also open to existing customers, who effectively just get a price reduction.)

Link

I just tried a quick trial order with Zen and for me they were around £10 more per month than I'm currently paying Plusnet and appear more expensive than Idnet. Personally I do put it down to you get what you pay for as I have been a customer with Idnet & Zen in the past - both excellent imo.

My Current Package (with PlusNet) and Requirements:-

Package Fibre 80/20
Line Rental included
Anytime calls
1571
Caller display

Right now I'm deciding come December if I should stick to Plusnet or to move to BT, providing costs are reasonably comparable.

Do you know the number of calls and total length of the calls you make on average each month? Are many of them to mobiles?

In reply to a post by jelv:

Do you know the number of calls and total length of the calls you make on average each month? Are many of them to mobiles?

Not sure on the amount of calls I make a month but the upto 1 hour "free" is an option I've taken up for many years now. Interestingly if you are having a "marathon"call and you go over those 60minutes by mistake some providors can really sting you on the cost per minute. Of course the idea is that you hangup prior to the end of the hour and redial if you wish to continue.
Also I've noted the big ISP's usually making the most of the Landline addons like caller display and 1571 (which i use) whereas I think IDnet for example bundles half a dozen or so in with their plans.

I make no calls to mobiles off my landline. Rarely I may make calls abroad, but not enough to really warrant an extra addon plan. I think some years ago BT had a low cost option for dialing to certain countries which was priced reasonably low.

I'm pretty sure now I'm going to have to stick with one of the large ISP's and I've looked at Plusnet again (who I'm currently with) BT and Sky. For some reason I've always side stepped Sky and I feel the same about them now. Not sure what makes me negative about them to be honest.
So I'll probably decide between BT and Plusnet.
I'd be happy to have a 55/10 service too, as opposed to the 80/20 I have at present, especially if an offer at that rate can bring the costs down.

In reply to a post by Vorlon:

For some reason I've always side stepped Sky and I feel the same about them now. Not sure what makes me negative about them to be honest.

Coming to the end of a 12 month contract with Sky and apart from a small glitch at the beginning, I've had no problems with them. They have provided the service at the agreed price, unlike EE for example.

Tried to sign up with Plusnet again, but they make things so difficult. Their one off £5 for a fixed IP was great, but their doing away with 24 hour support and unacceptable call waiting times really do put a dampener on what otherwise is a reasonable service.

Over the past few years I've been with Sky, TalkTalk, Plusnet and now Origin.

I usually pay annual line rental in advance but TalkTalk, Plusnet and Origin have all attempted to charge me monthly line rental in the second month! In the case of Plusnet they actually cut off my line for 3 days when I refused to pay again for something I'd already paid for.

Customer service is generally appalling. Sky have an impossible to use web-site where everything is directed towards selling you more. Plusnet can only be contacted by phone, where they make you wait for up to an hour at a time before cutting you off. It's possible to e-mail Origin, but they do not reply and phoning leaves you hanging there for long periods. TalkTalk allowed my personal information to be stolen so now I get calls two or three times a day from scammers in India attempting to get me to compromise my computer - just had one as I write this!!

Only Plusnet has managed to give me close to the speed I know my line is capable of. All the others have been way short, with Origin only giving 50% of the speed I was getting with Plusnet. Origin has also been unreliable, with no connection to the internet for hours on end. Sky, very annoyingly, force you to pay for and use their router.

As for retention offers, they have been very poor too, which is why I have moved so much!

It is a mystery to me why these companies give initial contracts at one price then up the price ludicrously at the end of that contract. All that happens is that the vast majority of customers simply leave.

Stop going with the cheapest then!

Contract ends in December and PN offered me to continue paying £2.50 for BB for 18 months. I paid line rental for the year back in June. Quite happy with what they said except when I mentioned whether their Hub 1 will work on a standard ADSL line; they said no.

But I've been told previously it would, so not sure where I stand. I haven't taken up their offer just yet. I'm going to see if they'll include the Hub 1 regardless since I'm starting on a new contract.

What are the chances they'll do that?

https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Router/Will-Hub-1-w...