Changing Internet Service Provider

[Lateralthinking1]

If you have a contract that starts, say, on 21 January and, quote, "will expire" on 20 July, should you ask the new service provider to arrange the switch over for 19, 20 or 21 July?

I want to avoid being billed for early termination and avoid having my service cut off.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

At the risk of stating the obvious, have you asked the providers about this? Otherwisse I would switch on the 19th or 20th. A day's charge would be minimal - under £1.

[Anna]

Lat, I changed last October and, even though I wasn't tied in to a contract this nearly caught me out "The day you request your MAC code will also be the start of your 30-day notice period and any cancellation charges will be collected" the MAC code is valid for 30 days, you don't have to use it immediately so you can juggle with the dates. I was very careful with my timings but even then, once I'd cancelled the direct debit they tried to say I owed them another month! There was, around a month or so ago, an item on R4 on this catching people out (I didn't pay up and they didn't persue it) but as EA says, best to phone them up. I finished my old service and started the new one on the same day.

[Lateralthinking1]

Thank you Eine and Anna for your helpful comments after lunch.

I didn't want to ring them as the last time I tried I waited one hour and three minutes with recorded songs before I gave up. Unfortunately it looks like I am going to have to try again on this matter. My future provider said that my existing company was the only one from which a MAC number wasn’t required but I have now received a letter from my existing company saying that one might be required. They add that I have to ring them for advice to be sure.

The expiry date was one they were required to provide when I took up several matters with the Ombudsman. Several hundreds of pounds were taken out of my account almost 18 months ago. It took 20-30 hours plus of calls and e-mails to ensure that they got the accounting right. I am therefore not expecting this move to be very easy but hopefully they will prove me wrong if I do manage to talk talk to them. Anyhow, soon it will be be teatime. Excellent.

[Dave2002]

Are we allowed to discuss providers? We have two active and one not so active - Greenbee (so far very good), TalkTalk (mmm....??) and (now) TalkTalk Business. This latter one is actually not providing broadband right now. I just haven't cancelled it because they say that if I do they'll terminate my email account with them (it was originally an f2s account servicing a line in another house). My latest strategy is probably going to be to cancel TalkTalk and transfer to TalkTalk business, so that at least I can keep the email. OTOH I could simply look around for other providers, and kill off my email account having archived all the messages I want to keep.

I'm not sure that the problems we have had with TT are totally their fault though, as this service comes in on an existing BT line, and that does seem to experience quite a lot of problems. However it might be time to sort this out, and switch anyway. My experience from most ISPs is that in the past they're a bit hopeless about getting a service up and running, and I usually expect some problems, and possibly loss of service, at switchover time. Maybe things have improved in the last year or two, but I'm not holding my breath.

What providers do others recommend? I'd perhaps go for cable if that were possible, but as far as I can see it's not, as we're just outside the area served by any cable providers.

[Anna]

. My future provider said that my existing company was the only one from which a MAC number wasn’t required but I have now received a letter from my existing company saying that one might be required. They add that I have to ring them for advice to be sure.

Lat, this seems crazy. Everyone changing has to have a MAC, so you are with talk talk and who do you wish to change to? Honestly, it's no more complicated than switching from British Gas to Swalec!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migrati...orisation_Code But even if you are on a bundled package it should be easy. Btw, I switched from Virgin to BT Edit: Not trying to persuade anyone to switch energy providers!! But, changing ISPs should not be more complicated than that, no-one can hold you to ransom.

[Lateralthinking1]

Lat, this seems crazy. Everyone changing has to have a MAC, so you are with talk talk and who do you wish to change to? Honestly, it's no more complicated than switching from British Gas to Swalec!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migrati...orisation_Code But even if you are on a bundled package it should be easy. Btw, I switched from Virgin to BT

Quote - "if I do manage to talk talk to them......."

Quote - "Anyhow soon it will be be teatime".

It could be TT to BT.

Can't say for certain though, just in case of misunderstandings.

[cloughie]

Quote - "if I do manage to talk talk to them......."

Quote - "Anyhow it will soon be be teatime".

It could be TT to BT.

Can't say for certain though, just in case of misunderstandings.

I made the switch from Orange to BT a couple of years ago and it was very straight forward. BT very helpful in the switch.

[jayne lee wilson]

BT (Option 2) good for me too, very reliable over 3-4 years...

Watch out for cheapest options - BT have limited broadband speeds on the iPlayer during peak (evening) demand (they only tell you in the small print) and when I was on Option 1 I did get dropouts on evening concerts (speeds were often below 1 Mbps.) Moving to Option 2 cured the problem, currently averages 6-8 Mbps, very reliable streaming of the live AAC concerts.

[Resurrection Man]

Zen. Excellent and consistently high service. Might not be the cheapest but I believe in 'you get what you pay for'.

Used to be with BT, then they changed things around and I lost email access and all connectivity. Basically they'd messed up the transfer. Fortunately I was sufficiently techno-savvy to argue the toss with the useless customer service people and forced the issue to be resolved. Since then I've avoided BT.

[Don Petter]

BT (Option 2) good for me too, very reliable over 3-4 years...

Watch out for cheapest options - BT have limited broadband speeds on the iPlayer during peak (evening) demand (they only tell you in the small print) and when I was on Option 1 I did get dropouts on evening concerts (speeds were often below 1 Mbps.) Moving to Option 2 cured the problem, currently averages 6-8 Mbps, very reliable streaming of the live AAC concerts.

I thought the only difference between BT Options 1 and 2 (apart from price) was the monthly data limit.

I have always been on Option 1 (10GB a month limit), and for the first year or so had a fairly consistent 2Mbs speed, dropping a bit at weekends, which I was happy enough with. Then I came back from a week away to find the speed never above about 0.1Mbs! After several weeks and two engineer's visits, during which everything was said to check out fine in the house set up, there was still no predicted improvement. ('It will take up to two or three days to come up to speed')

A strong letter, supported by daily running of the BT speed test which supposedly logged results to their data base, produced a phone response (in English - Oh! Joy!) and a new hub sent overnight. Two days of no difference then produced a third visit from an engineer who really knew what he was doing. He ran a new master socket to next to the computer (though saying that wasn't the actual problem), then detected noise on the line and measured the problem to be 200 metres down the road. Ten minutes later, having been up the pole, he reappeared to demonstrate a clear sounding line. Next day the speed was running at over 5.5Mbs, and this has been the speed ever since (now four months).

Would I recommend BT, then? Well, yes, in that they, at least, can't blame anyone else for a bad line as an excuse. If only they had a better first level of customer support, and in this country. Going through the same old charade of changing round line filters and moving hub to master socket every time you have to get back to them on the phone is a bind, with them just going through a list, thousands of miles away.

I don't know why the first two engineers didn't spot the fault outside the house. They were pleasant enough but presumably just expected to check the in-house set up, where most problems usually lie. The third may have been prompted by the full history of the case to look further afield - he was certainly a great credit to BT.

[Lateralthinking1]

Many thanks cloughie, jayne lee wilson, Resurrection Man and Don Petter. I am a bit alarmed by the comments on BT's customer service. Some years ago, I had some of the best customer service I have experienced anywhere from Tiscali agents who were almost certainly based in India. They were nothing less than brilliant.

However, Tisacali went and the service since has been the worse I have experienced anywhere. People with little English, talking to each other while on the phone in what sounds like a shed, aggressive and dismissive, and that's when they bother to answer the phone. I don't blame the individuals. I doubt they are paid much and they must work to instructions.

So far, the people I have spoken to at BT appear to be in Newcastle. They have been helpful and sound efficient. That though is on the sales side. I am now getting the impression that this might not be how it is once someone is signed up.

[Anna]

Lat, I've never yet had to contact BT tech team but when I was staying with my brother, who had been with BT about 8 years, we had to (it was his own fault - leaving the computer on during an electrical storm!) and I dealt with a very helpful, well spoken, man in India who talked me through the whole diagnosis thing, the conclusion was that the graphics card had been knocked out which of course is nothing to do with them so we called the local computer repair firm who fitted a new one. That was my brother's first time he had to contact their help team. I did initially have a problem setting up email on Outlook Express and they sussed that without my asking and fixed that remotely. I'm on Option 1 and never had any drop-outs as Jayne has had. I think what you have to take into account also is how far you are from the exchange and how far you are from the master socket (ie do you have a lot of cabling) as regards speeds. I can say the reason I changed from Virgin were constant drop outs and a complete disinterest from their tech team (which I think are UK based)

[Don Petter]

However, Tisacali went and the service since has been the worse I have experienced anywhere. People with little English, talking to each other while on the phone in what sounds like a shed, aggressive and dismissive, and that's when they bother to answer the phone. I don't blame the individuals. I doubt they are paid much and they must work to instructions.

I would like to add that in my experience the BT support staff in India are always charming, polite and mean to be helpful. It's just that it is difficult to persuade them that you have been through all these preliminary eliminations before, and to get them to elevate your case to a next higher level, so that something further might be tried.

[Lateralthinking1]

Thanks Don and Anna.

That doesn't sound too bad actually. Still time to think about all the options but I'm happy enough with those descriptions.