UK based Call Centres

Can anyone recommend a broadband ISP with good telephone help for non-computer-literate people. Call centre must be based in UK or Ireland as the users-to-be are elderly and with imperfect hearing.

BT

or the Post Office. Although they're in Ireland.

You sure? Much of the BT Total Broadband support is based abroad and on VoIP lines that seem to less than perfect, or very poor headsets are used

remember reading recently that BT were dumping their offshore call centres to keep their british work force employed.

O2
Zen
IDNet
Newnet
Plusnet
UK Online

to name a few, though if UK Online or O2 LLU is not avalilable then avoid as the BTW flavours of their respective services are dire.

Regards,
Steve

Edited by sjr (Fri 31-Jul-09 14:28:28)

In reply to a post by sjr:

O2
Zen
IDNet
Newnet
Plusnet
UK Online

to name a few, though if UK Online or O2 LLU is not avalilable then avoid as the BTW flavours of their respective services are dire.

Regards,
Steve

I believe that some of Plusnet's support calls are routed to South Africa.

You can add Entanet, and their direct resellers including UKFSN, to that list.

I know that Madasafish have their call centre in SA but I wasn't aware that some calls to Plusnet were routed there too. Thanks for pointing that out.

AAISP - they don't have a call centre as such, you actually speak
directly to their Technical Staff based in the UK!!!

In reply to a post by reserved:

I believe that some of Plusnet's support calls are routed to South Africa.

SA accents are fine and understandable, and their natural language is English.

Thank you for that list sjr: that's quite a few
Pls could you tell me what do LLU and BTW mean?

BTW = BT wholesale. It means the ISP uses BTs equipment at your local exchange
LLU = local loop unbundled. Means they have their own equipment there, which is usually better than BTw.

Enter your postcode or phone number at this website to find out if you can get LLU.

Great. Thank you 12eason.

If you can get llu, then O2, Be or Sky are some of the best to go for.

Thanks 12eason

You cna't beat IDNET for helpful, freindly and easy to understand support and help..all based in Letchworth UK

ukonline

dont go with; BT, AOL, Tiscali, UKonline, Pipex, Demon Internet, Eclipse as they all suck in one way or another.

imho currently the best value for money is O2 (ipstream), BeUnlimited (LLU)

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

dont go with; BT, AOL, Tiscali, UKonline, Pipex, Demon Internet, Eclipse as they all suck in one way or another.

imho currently the best value for money is O2 (ipstream), BeUnlimited (LLU)

We kind of know you don't know what your going on about as you have recommended O2 Access (ipstream) , UKonline LLU is actually very good as is O2/Be LLU .
Both company's , O2 and UKonline , suffer bad publicity from there IPstream products as do Sky also imho

I have been recommended UK Online for having very good UK based help lines. However, it is NOT available at the local exhange as LLU. I am still tempted to go with UK Online: so pls could you tell me exactly what is the problem with their service though BTW?
Thanks.

Have a look at this thread on the UK Online forum.

Regards,
Steve

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

In reply to a post by reserved:

I believe that some of Plusnet's support calls are routed to South Africa.

SA accents are fine and understandable, and their natural language is English.

I wasn't questioning their accents or language, the original OP asked for UK based centres and I was pointing out that some of Plusnet's calls were routed to SA!

I have dealt with Waitrose & Greenbee whose support is in SA with no problems.

In reply to a post by Voy:

I have been recommended UK Online for having very good UK based help lines. However, it is NOT available at the local exhange as LLU. I am still tempted to go with UK Online: so pls could you tell me exactly what is the problem with their service though BTW?
Thanks.

Their main thrust and investment is on their own equipment service (LLU). The number of exchanges they have that in is relatively small, so to exist as a national ISP they have to use the BT Wholesale service everywhere else.

To use the BTW service they have to install several "BT Centrals" at their premises. They cost over £1m pa each.

They don't have enough of them so at busy times - like all evening and weekend - the speed can be very poor. O2 is similar - LLU great, BTW (O2 Access) dodgy.

the post office support was based in my hometown in n.ireland, sadly stream lost the contract for this and 250 redundancies have been announced last week, no idea where post office support will be located in future.

Oh dear, best of luck to those affected, not the best of time to be made redundant.

Sorry to hear that - I hope their jobs aren't being moved overseas. Based on nothing scientific whatsoever, I'd imagine the average PO broadband user is older than your average user as the PO is a name that they trust - they will not be amused if their support call suddenly terminates in Tuvalu.

In reply to a post by sidneyk:

AAISP - they don't have a call centre as such, you actually speak
directly to their Technical Staff based in the UK!!!

Do their technical wallahs still include {R}?

He was at Gradwell too

Post deleted by MrSaffron

Swearing even when using * to remove a letter is frowned upon on this bbs

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Swearing even when using * to remove a letter is frowned upon on this bbs

Please see my email.

The rules

Inappropriate or Offensive Language
thinkbroadband is a friendly environment and to this end we do not accept foul language. We employ an automatic filter to cut out some bad language but this does not stop users from trying to get around the filters. Doing so will result in action against the user(s). It is not our goal to vet every link or post and it is not acceptable to make excuses such as "if a moderator feels this is inappropriate, please remove" and these will simply be treated as posters knowingly breaking rules.

Although we do not claim the forums to be child-safe we do not want to get a reputation for foul language, etc. As such we do not want to have links to adult material. Obviously we do not accept racist comments. There is a fine line with what one person considers offensive and another considers everyday language so discretion is advised.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

The rules

Inappropriate or Offensive Language
thinkbroadband is a friendly environment and to this end we do not accept foul language. We employ an automatic filter to cut out some bad language but this does not stop users from trying to get around the filters. Doing so will result in action against the user(s). It is not our goal to vet every link or post and it is not acceptable to make excuses such as "if a moderator feels this is inappropriate, please remove" and these will simply be treated as posters knowingly breaking rules.

Although we do not claim the forums to be child-safe we do not want to get a reputation for foul language, etc. As such we do not want to have links to adult material. Obviously we do not accept racist comments. There is a fine line with what one person considers offensive and another considers everyday language so discretion is advised.

Thank you. I had already seen that and I suggested you read my email as I had hoped to avoid having to reply in the forum but, as you have insisted on posting a further 2d worth...

I will merely repeat what I pointed out in the email - that the pejorative expression to which you objected was the name of a domain formerly operated by {R}ichard Ashton. He did not, however, run any site at [censored].tm - as your system changed my posting before I replaced the vowel.

If you consider the scope and nature of that site to be offensive or defamatory, you may understand why I sought assurances that he was not involved with A&A.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Inappropriate or Offensive Language

I'd also like to add that I consider swearing or the use of vulgar argot to be generally unnecessary by anyone with even a modicum of intelligence which is why, even in rather racier forums, I hardly ever (almost never) use crude language to refer to people or parts thereof.

I simply don't need to.

Nothing at all to do with the content of the site, which I have not visited, so have nothing to say on the sites content.

Looking back at the original post there was no indication that the word in question was part of a domain name, and even then just because it is a domain name does not excuse you from the rules otherwise.

Say what you want to say, but do it in a different manner.

In reply to a post by Artisan:

I'd also like to add that I consider swearing or the use of vulgar argot to be generally unnecessary by anyone with even a modicum of intelligence which is why, even in rather racier forums, I hardly ever (almost never) use crude language to refer to people or parts thereof.

I simply don't need to.

Likewise myself .

I frequently also see words in The Times that are banned here.

However I also agree with the site rules and I am sure like me you will have no difficulty in staying with them. Just unfortunate that what you wanted to post fell foul of them. That's a very rare occurrence.

Does sound a bit childish for the guy to have that as a domain name, as you said in your previous post.

Anyway - welcome to the forums .

i just moved from BT to sky cause BT broadband tech help was not as helpful as the should have been, sky upto now i would give them 4.5 outa 5

In reply to a post by 12eason:

remember reading recently that BT were dumping their offshore call centres to keep their british work force employed.

Nope, its an automated system that shoves you through to someone in India.

That even happens if you try to report a line issue or potential illegal fiddling with BT wires as what MAY have occured in my street last week.

Edited by deleted (Wed 23-Sep-09 12:15:50)