Internet Service Providers

Hello (Greater) Londoners,

I wonder if my name rings a bell because I have not been a regular for about a year now. Had a very busy and not necessarily fun time but now I have moved to a really nice place hopefully finally and we are now looking for ISPs. Does anyone have a good experience they can recommend? My friend likes to download things, I'm more about uploading and browsing. The shortlist for us includes Be and O2 but if you have any recommendations I'd be really grateful because it'd make our choice faster and help me get back to the fora earlier.

Thank you.

p.s. I don't know if this helps but the postcode is HA3.

 

I have internet with BT. They have been good up until recently. Now their browser doesn't work and they have provided no solution to fix it.

And their customer service is crap.

 

I use Orange Broadband (formerly Wanadoo). I've never had any real complaints with it.

 

I've used AOL (dialup - I have yet to jump to broadband) for years now and until recently I had not probems with them. However, around January 20 they started shifting everyone from their servers to the Carphone Warehouse servers and there have been lots of problems. In my case it's mostly been disconnections, but their help forums are full of stories and complaints. So I'd be hard-pressed to recommend them at the moment.

 

Hello there,

Thank you all for your help. We will be getting Virgin, their £10 offer for six months and £18 for the other six. I'm hoping to be more active from the coming weeks.

 

I used to work for BT in the service and then into broadband sales, and yes I agree they are crap. I used to give loads of money away on service, solving problems other BT people had caused. Then in sales I gave loads away, even when I shouldn't, and loved it As a BT customer I know how to get what I want.

However as a whole they are better than some companies.

Pete

 

Find a really good internet cafe/portal.

If they know what they are doing, you have the technical support you need right there.

That has been my preferred alternative to getting connected at home. NTL (formerly Cable and Wireless, and now Virgin) did manage to get me hyped, excited, and persuaded me to register for their broadband, promising to send an engineer round to install it.

Once I said yes, the engineer offer was rescinded and I was given the equipment and instructions to self-install, eight failed attempts later and I completely lost interest.

 

I have lost interest in Virgin for other reasons. I set up direct debit for them and they took money from my account without my knowledge for something I don't use. I spent 2x over 20 minutes talking to some off-shore Indians who were trying to explain to me that all is well that they took well over £30 because of my TV - we only have broadband subscription - then they tried to pursuade me it was installation fee - we installed it all ourselves - but the icing on the cake was when the woman said 'So you paid £25, we took £33, that means you only paid £8 and next month you are going to get a bill for only £2.'

At that point I had some very nasty thoughts about her, her family, Mr Branson, his family and the next day I cancelled the direct debit. Of course, I first shouted at her that I don't want to receive a billing bill for another six months because I already paid that much. Next month I'll set the direct debit back again but I'll set the monthly limit and amount.

Apart from that the actual broadband has been wonderfully reliable.