Broadband cost

[teaky]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-50792986

 

Definitely worth it.  I had a reminder email that our deal was coming to an end within the next couple of months and that I should log in to my online account and check the latest deals.  I have done this a few times over the past few weeks to find the only "offers" were actually attempts to sell me upgrades that were of no interest to me.

 

I phoned my supplier today and within minutes was offered a discount of £8 per month.  Being stubborn when I feel I'm being taken for a ride, I thought "that was too easy" so I stuck at it and ended up with a further £7 per month less.  So, I have saved £180 per annum.

 

So lay it on thick folks and save yourself some money.  (That's a free loco every year!)

 

[RFS]

For those that are interested, the Martin Lewis Money Show on Monday (ITV 8pm) is covering this very topic. 

[JJGraphics]

Be very careful about recommendations for Broadband on comparison sites and from other sources as a low price is definitely not the best way to judge a Broadband service. Some companies have poor technical service, are useless when it comes to solving problems and often have billing problems.

 

If you are basically happy with your service, do what Teaky did and negotiate on the price; most decent suppliers will drop their price at least a bit to retain customers. Before you make the call do a bit of research and, if necessary, throw something along the lines of: "I can get such and such from XYZ Broadband for £xx.xx per month" into the conversation which will sometimes prompt a better offer. Don't accept the first offer, but at all times be polite and businesslike in your negotiations. If you p*ss off the person on the phone with a bad attitude you will definitely not get the best deal that is available!

 

The cost of my fast broadband connection, line rental and two mobiles with unlimited calls, texts and a more than adequate amount of data for each is less than my "know-it-all" millennial neighbour plays for his Broadband alone and I have never switched suppliers!

 

John

 

Edited December 15, 2019 by JJGraphics
Correct typo

[teaky]

Combining the previous two posts (kind of), Martin Lewis' website was the source of pricing information I used before calling my existing supplier.  The information is well presented, easily filtered and clear regarding how it is derived.

 

Here's a link: https://broadband.moneysavingexpert.com/

(There's no need to sign up to anything to use it.)

[pirouets]

Reminds me I must do this now I am out of contract given there are a couple of things we don't use on the package, mainly linked to the TV rather than the BB.

[ejstubbs]

46 minutes ago, teaky said:

Martin Lewis' website was the source of pricing information I used before calling my existing supplier.  The information is well presented, easily filtered and clear regarding how it is derived.

 

I'd suggest that one thing it's not clear about is the Ts & Cs regarding inclusive calls.  To be fair, that's probably because every supplier seems to have different rules about what types of calls are and aren't included.  And a lot of people don't seem to use their landline at all these days, so all they want is the line rental.  (Mostly, I suspect, folks who have unfeasible quantities of minutes included in the expensive 'deals' they sign up to in order to get the latest all-singing-all-dancing-all-photographing-all-distracting-all-addictive-app-running smartphone).

 

Anyway, that it does mean that our current supplier (for the last ten years) still beats the top one on the MoneySavingExpert for our postcode, and our requirements.  (The missus still has a PAYG SIM and makes very few outgoing calls on her mobile even when out and about, so it makes sense for her to use the landline when at home: it is still cheaper for her than having a SIM-only mobile deal and foregoing the inclusive landline calls.)  But we keep an eye on it.

 

And why MSE even bothers listing TalkTalk is somewhat beyond me: everyone I know who's used them has at least one story of dreadful customer service, usually involving loss of telephone and/or broadband for an extended period.  And that's before you even start to go in to their repeated breaches of data protection legislation and the consequent fines levied on them by the ICO (the total was running at half a million quid last time I checked - although it's been estimated that the total cost to the company has been closer to £60M in terms of recovery costs and lost customers).

[Killybegs]

I've just negotiated 20% off my broadband for the next six months and 10% off for the following six months. If you don't ask, you don't get.

[JJGraphics]

21 hours ago, ejstubbs said:

 

And why MSE even bothers listing TalkTalk is somewhat beyond me: everyone I know who's used them has at least one story of dreadful customer service, usually involving loss of telephone and/or broadband for an extended period.  And that's before you even start to go in to their repeated breaches of data protection legislation and the consequent fines levied on them by the ICO (the total was running at half a million quid last time I checked - although it's been estimated that the total cost to the company has been closer to £60M in terms of recovery costs and lost customers).

 

Absolutely agree!

 

The comparison sites appear to go mainly on cost and fail to take into account things like the quality of service you might get if you switch to their cheapest supplier. That's mainly why I suggested that if you are basically happy with the service you have, you should negotiate on the price for renewing the contract.

 

John

 

 

 

 

Edited December 16, 2019 by JJGraphics
Correct typo

[teaky]

I wonder how busy the broadband suppliers' customer services lines will be on Tuesday? 

[Nick C]

19 hours ago, JJGraphics said:

 

Absolutely agree!

 

The comparison sites appear to go mainly on cost and fail to take into account things like the quality of service you might get if you switch to their cheapest supplier. That's mainly why I suggested that if you are basically happy with the service you have, you should negotiate on the price. for renewing the contract.

 

John

 

 

Agreed - I'm with a smaller supplier, and chose them purely based on quality of service. They're more expensive than most of the ones on the comparison sites, but I know that when there is a problem, they will put the effort into diagnosing and fixing it - and indeed they have done, when our line kept dropping out, they sent me a special test kit so we could test the line from both ends, proving that it was an issue with the line itself (not our equipment), so we could then get openreach in to fix it.

[didcot]

It does pay to question your supplier. I had an email to renew our contract for broad band & phone from my supplier. When I looked into it I saved £5/month for the same package. Feeling pleased I renewed and notice we were in credit by £20. So imagine my surprise the following month when the bill was £12 more that what I had signed up for. I rang and pointed this out. "Very sorry our mistake and we will refund the credit as well" was the reply. The following month it went up again, same response etc. Next month same again and by now I'm seriously hacked off. So went straight for the jugular and launched a formal complaint. The basis of this was I had signed up for a deal at a set price, hadn't occurred extra charges and therefore was over paying. The reply was that the deal I had for amount £A wouldn't allow me to pay amount £A, I had to pay more. I pointed out that I had signed up for a contract to pay that amount, not £12 more per month which was £144 p/a more than it should be and that it was better of in my account and not theirs. "OK" they said we will give you the same deal but we will discount it so you only pay amount £A. But when I looked at it I was still over paying by £12/Month. It didn't matter what price they gave me, when it was broken down they were still taking an extra £12/Month regardless. I lost the plot and pointed out that my mobile contract was capable of giving me a standard monthly charge and anything outside of my given minute/texts etc was added on a monthly basis. Why couldn't they do that? At this point I threatened to cancel the contract as I had wasted a whole morning. It was at this point they pointed out that I could change my billing to a "Monthly Whole Direct Debit" or something similar. I would be charged the agreed standard package and only pay extra for charges incurred outside of it! So like a mobile package! So now I pay the agreed standard fee and any incurred extra charges outside of the contract. Why couldn't they do that in the first place. My cynical view is they want more money to make the business look better. Imagine if every customer is being over charged, they must make millions! I also sent a transcript of my dealings to the ombudsman for reference! And yes I did get a discount, but it was pointed out I would have to renegotiate it when it expired!

[F-UnitMad]

On 15/12/2019 at 14:45, ejstubbs said:

And why MSE even bothers listing TalkTalk is somewhat beyond me:

Another 'agree' here; we were on Tiscali at one time - never a problem, all went well, until they were taken over by TalkTalk. The very DAY the service switched we had problems, & it took ages to sort out. When I wanted to leave a few months later, TalkTalk had the cheek to try & charge me for leaving 'early', as I'd only been with them 3 months!! As I pointed out to them, as an ex-Tiscali customer I hadn't had a choice in the matter!! It was "waived" in the end, but to this day, I wouldn't join TalkTalk even with a gun at my head, & woe betide any TalkTalk sales Rep who makes the mistake of contacting me....

[LBRJ]

I have one of those 3 mi fi thingys and it costs about £30 a month for more access than I can ever use (100Gb) and I can take it with me wherever I travel about to.

I am sure its crap really, and I could get better but seeing as I dont want a landline and dont want "satellite" TV  it seems to work OK for me and has done in its various incarnations for the last seven years.

[MJI]

I managed to drop £10 per month with BT.

 

Would not want to move due to usage. It seems that one month we hit 0.8TB