I run a small business (www.aerialsandtv.com) and ever since Wanadoo/Orange "upgraded" my broadband speed to 4meg it`s regularly dropping out and failing to connect at all. Their tecnical and "customer Servce" are absolutely useless. In fact it`s the only time in my life that on asking to speak to a supervisor I was told "No, you can`t speak to a supervisor....." !
I was so bleedin` angry I tried to switch to BT but they were just as bad, and that was whilst I was trying to give them my business !

Who can I swap to who will give me a decent reliable service (no 0870 number to India....), I don`t mind paying a bit more, say up to £30 per month

I think you're talking mutual exclusivity.... :)

I've been with BT Business Broadband for some years and the only time I've felt like leaving them was a few weeks ago when they refused to take my word that my network was OK, but that my connectivity problem was actually in their ATM facility.

After 2 days, I got to talk to a network engineer who agreed completely, was VERY professional and sorted me out within about 3 hours.

The .... individuals.... on the front line support were useless.

BTW - how long ago was your line upgraded? When BT upgraded our line to 8Mb it was up and down for a week or 10 days afterwards before it finally settled.

Switch to somewhere like Demon or Zen. I've been with Demon for years. They are more expensive than other places but much less hassle by a lot of accounts and if there is a problem you can get people to sort it. Zen I also think do pretty well with customer service.

i think 90% of isps have customer service problems

I was with Zen for a few years, they are brilliant especially for customer service and stability. I only swapped because Be offer 24mb connections here and Zen don't. At times I do regret moving from Zen though.

You could have a browse here...

http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/

Especially in the 'User comments on ISPs' section. Most providers seem to have problems with customer service.

I've een with Metronet a couple of years with no problems at all so have never needed to use their CS, but this ISP was bought out by Plusnet who in turn were bought out, I think, by BT so I must have a charmed life :hihi:

I use www.newnet.co.uk, and I've never had any issues at all! Even when I rang them at about 8.30pm, I got straight through and as they're an SME, no outsourced call centres!

The problem with most ISPs is that they outsource their customer and technical support services to call centres that might as well be on friggin' Mars for all the understanding you have of the staff! :rant:

I rang Orange up the other week cos I was having connection problems, spoke to some Indian guy and couldn't understand a single word that was coming out of his gob! :rant: :loopy:

Don't get me wrong I DON'T have anything against Indians, they should've kicked the Cowboys' arses! But learn English for chuff sake!

Hi Justin,

My name is Mark and I work for Sheffield's very own ISP PlusNet. We're based in Tenter St and are virtually on your doorstep :)

Having just been voted Best Overall Provider in a National Survey, I am confident we could meet your needs perfectly.

Our business products are extremely competitive and our dedicated business support team is second to none.

We do not outsource our support and all of our staff are based here in Sheffield. If your having problems we could even pop over and have a look, on site. :)

Take a look at our current business and residential offerings on our website (plus.net, unfortunately the forum wont let me post links as I havent made 5 or more posts :( )

If I can help in any way, drop me a PM and I'll be happy to give you a ring.

Kind Regards

Mark Kelly
Comms and Referrals Manager
PlusNet PLC

Sheffield's very own ISP PlusNet

I'm all for supporting local businesses where ever possible but I'm afraid Plusnet doesn't appear to me to be a great as your post makes out.

Awards or not it's been a pretty rough ride for Plusnet customers during the past year (and in all honesty: a lot longer than a year).

The compromised servers, customer data leaks and the resulting spam attacks widely reported in the media haven't helped of course. Not to mention the time(s) you lost customer data (including websites and emails boxes).

For some real feedback about plusnet check out any of the independant forums (thinkbroadband, etc). Searching some of the large tech news sites like the register will also bring up some interesting stories.

Our business products are extremely competitive

For the first time in years I actually went to your website to compare your claim (it's actually not that competetive for what is in effect a residential ADSL package beefed up to look like it's a business product - is there even a service level agreement? I couldn't see one if there is).

Whilst checking the prices I noticed you seem to be making a big thing of this: http://www.plus.net/unlimited_broadband

I must admit that I did laugh quite a lot while reading that webpage. Plusnet were probably one of the most famous ISPs for claiming thier DSL packages were unlimited and then punishing any customer who dared to use it as such (see the so called "bad boy pipe" stories for info: basically plusnet shunted all high bandwidth users onto a meagre central connection that made thier adsl service all but useless).

To try and claim any moral high ground in this area is pretty rich all things considered. But it gets worse:

"Every ISP has a finite amount of capacity (...) To try and combat these slow downs a provider can add more broadband capacity, but this is expensive and traffic such as peer-to-peer quickly fills up the new space on the network.

Most providers claiming to offer unlimited broadband will have a fair use policy to try and prevent people over-using their service. But if it's supposed to be unlimited, why should you use it fairly? The fair use policy stops you using your unlimited broadband in an unlimited fashion – so, by our reckoning, it’s not unlimited.

We don't believe in selling 'unlimited broadband' that's bound by a fair use policy. We'd rather be upfront with you and give you clear usage allowances, with FREE overnight usage."

Except, Plusnet DO have a restrictive fair use policy: http://www.plus.net/info2/legal/index.html#aup

Quote from the FUP:

"We manage our network using prioritisation techniques to ensure that during busy periods time sensitive applications such as VoIP, email, gaming and web browsing are given priority over bandwidth intensive, non-time-sensitive applications such as Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file sharing. Traffic shaping is used to a greater or lesser extent on all our Broadband Services."

Plusnet's statement about "We don't believe in selling 'unlimited broadband' that's bound by a fair use policy" is indeed true it would seem, instead they sell a limited broadband connection that's bound by a fair use policy (hmm, should I go with the ISP that offers unlimited + FUP or limited + FUP?). Oh and the 40gb offered is pretty tight to be honest, (E.G., for the same price entanet resellers offer 60gb peak and 360gb off peak).

Hi appletree.

Sorry if our recruitment process failed you. If you would like to drop me a PM I'll happliy look into it and see what happend.

Hi punk.

Thanks for the reply. We will never deny the fact that we experienced a pretty grim year. We've been very open about that and discussed it widely across the various forums. Decisions made, by people who are no longer with the company, caused our customers an unacceptable amount of pain.

We have absolutely turned that corner. Our customer satisfaction levels are back to where they once where and we are now regaining the award winning ground we once had. By all means check out the various forums, including our own. The fact that positive comments and feedback are now appearing on the likes of TBB bears that out. A few months ago that forum resembled a war zone :)

We discuss our problems and issues openly and in public and we react to customer feedback and concerns. Unlike the majority of providers, we engage with the various forum communities and our customers every single day and we thrive on feedback and public debate, be it positive or negative. We welcome the praise and the criticism because that's how we learn and deliver what our customers need and want.

So by all means compare us. Compare our level of customer support, compare our first time fix rate, compare our repeat fault rate, compare the quality of our network. I cant think of one ISP, who makes as much real information available to customers and potential customers as we do. We are open and honest and will always be.

it's actually not that competitive for what is in effect a residential ADSL package beefed up to look like it's a business product

Not exactly sure what you were looking at there or perhaps what you where comparing it with, but our products are the same base adsl products available to every IPStream provider in the UK. Can you give me a specific example and a comparative product with a different provider? Check out what we bundle and include compared to others.

Here's a link to our Business product comparison page.
http://www.plus.net/business/broadband/business_features.shtml I'm up for the debate about who you are comparing them with and at what price point. :)

If you find me a genuine SLA for business adsl out there, and by that I mean one provided over BT's IPStream network, without having to pay for enhanced care, I'll happily look at it. I am proud to say that we have probably one of the best business support teams in the industry and I am confident that our business products will stand up to very close scrutiny :)

With regard to the myth which is unlimited broadband. I think you misunderstand what we are saying here. Yes, we are absolutely clear about how we deliver a quality adsl experience. We don't sell unlimited products. They only exist in the minds of spin merchants. It is not sustainable to deliver IPstream based adsl products with unlimited downloads. The commercials simply don't add up. To provide a truly unlimited product the customer would have to pay hundreds of pounds a month for that service. There are far too many providers out there who claim to offer an unlimited product but who conveniently add a small * beside the word unlimited and then go on to describe a woolly Fair usage policy which in effect makes the product not unlimited.

We don't do that. We are clear in what we offer. Clearly defined usage policies, with absolutely no caps and free overnight usage. There are no surprises waiting to land through your letterbox or via your email or by an screen pop up at log on because you have used too much of an unlimited product and now cant browse for the rest of the month. Yes it happens with other providers.

Yes, back in 2004 we used to sell "unlimited" broadband, but the pricing and delivery model has changed a hell of a lot since then and we were the first ISP in the UK to move to delivering sustainable and prioritised products for our customers.

We are happy to discuss how we prioritise traffic and ensure that the vast majority of our customers online experience is not impacted by the heavy usage of the minority. Further details of how we ensure a quality experience can be found here http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/quality_broadband/traffic_prioritisation.shtml?link_bbyw_prod=traffi c_prioritisation

As I said earlier, we certainly did not deliver the quality of service our customers expect last year. The business made some bad decisions. We have a new CEO, some new directors and managers and the buzz and pride is now back and the results and customer satisfaction levels speak for themselves.

We are so confident in our products and services we give new customers the opportunity to try us for 90 days risk free with the first month free of charge. Details here http://www.plus.net/switch/

We've put our neck on the line in a demonstration of our confidence. The customer has nothing to lose.

Thanks for the feedback punk and the debate, its very much appreciated and welcome, but I think you'll find we have learned from the past and are well and truly back on track and delivering for our customers.