Are there any reliable Broadband suppliers?

[Impret-Sir]

Ive heard and read so many horror stories, payment irregularities, terrible technical support, slow, or even no connection speed, etc etc, I am put off everyone after a little research on Google!
Surely there must be some who can provide a good service, (without costing a fortune).

[sheila17456]

I'm happy with virgin media but have phone and tv as well

[Ethel]

People are very quick to make their complaints known and like others to know about it.

When things are going as they should, or even better than expected, people on the whole don't go to the same lengths to give praise where it is due.

Hence the very unbalanced views on the internet in respect of ISPs. Remember that ISPs have thousands and thousands of happy customers for ever few complainers.

I am happy with Virgin - I have broadband and television (don't need a phone line as I use Skype).

[Impret-Sir]

You see, I have thought of Virgin too, but when you look on the forums, they get slated for customer service and technical spoort failings. I take the point about people only speaking up when things go wrong, but it does make you cautious when you read things like that.

[gina32]

i had to contact virgin recently about a deceased bill and the service i got was disgusting so if that is anything to go by i wouldnt bother but another thread is running on here and people are saying, as i am that sky is very good

[Ethel]

I have no idea about their technical support - in all the years I've been with Telewest and Virgin I've never needed to use it.

Customer service is okay in my view. As I don't have a landline it would be expensive for me to call their non-geographical number, so they have given me a geographical number to call instead. I have only had to call them about billing problems, soon sorted.

[gina32]

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/How-it-Works/Qu estion703319.html

[elcee45]

I am with o2 and if you have a mobile with them they only charge just over �7 per month, I have had no problems with them.

[Ethel]

Problem with sky is you must have a bt phone line.

[Impret-Sir]

I would have gone with sky, especially as their base service is free if you have sky TV, which we do, but incredibly we are not in an area that they cover, and we dont live somwhere remote but in a mid sized city in the middle of wiltshire!

[gina32]

oh thats bad luck impret, as sky is ok and as you say, free for the base service

[ChuckFickens]

can I just point out that it doesn't matter which ADSL broadband supplier you use you are still getting broadband over the same telephone line and from the same phone exchange so if you have a problem on your line (which is the reason for most broadband faults) you are going to have that fault no matter what ISP your with.

Ethel is quite correct that people post all their horror stories on the web for all to see when they have a problem, but for each person that has problems there is probably a few thousand that it works perfectly for that you will never read about.

[on.knowledge]

of course they do Chuck but i have had the decency of never mentioning TalkTalk charged me �164 for a service they never managed to give me. Not to mention the 3 weeks without broadband . They even threatened court action when i stopped the direct debit . My reaction to threats like that is always get on with it.
what does annoy me is they can affect you credit rating when it is them that is at fault

[Ethel]

Chuck is correct in saying they all use the same telephone cable.

He forgot to mention Virgin cable broadband which does not use BT phone lines, and Kingston broadband which is only available in Hull at the moment

[on.knowledge]

yes Kingston communications , didn't the Hull council say they would be ruling the world by now?

[Ethel]

Dunno - I don't live in Hull

[ChuckFickens]

Thats why I specifically said ADSL broadband :)

if you are in a virgin cable area then go for that it's far superior to ADSL broadband.

[Ethel]

So you did, Chuck

Abject apologies :)

[ACtheTROLL]

I like BT ... just thought I'd say that...
never any problems or horror stories ... my one fault (O/s wires blown down) was fixed in 2 days

and I get a full 8Mb
(with realtime download speeds up to 6.5Mb)

I wouldn't say they are particularly good ... but from what I've seen ... they are nowhere near as bad as many of the others.

[Impret-Sir]

I just think that virgin are not especially good VFM either.