I've gone and switched provider...

Having just dealt with someone who fell fowl of terms and conditions and having tried to help them out, you might not find it quite so easy and they might have you tied in. This person lost £150 on a product because they didn't read the terms and conditions before signing up.

I had BT before Sky and it cost me a lot of money as my broadband was not unlimited and we always went over every quarter it would seem, mostly down to my children downloading stuff.

 

got virgin cost £8 for the M+ with the Tivo box bit like Sky+ but it learns what you like and records shows for you also have a 80cm motorised dish that picks up all the movie channels from holland and germany you get subtitles some times but its free plus loads of adult stuff

 

i fell out with BT over "unlimited downloads" i used 80g one month downloading films ans was given a bollocking and was told that i was using to much and if i used any more my speed would be cut ,i did and it was .
no sutch thing as unlimited, its called "fair usage "

 

Sky say they will not cut download speed but I am sure fair usage is in there somewhere.

 

That depends on which Sky Broadband product you are on and how it is delivered at the exchange.

Basically if an ISP has the equipment at the local exchange to take the traffic from BT and route it via their own network (usually still on a line leased from BT) then they can offer pretty much whatever rates and restrictions they like, as long as their infrastructure can handle it. The problem comes when companies such as Sky don't have the equipment in the exchange, they then have to lease bandwidth from BT at wholesale rates and it's not as economical. When that is the case most ISPs restrict usage both on download speeds and total downloads per month. Sky call this their Connect package and it is what I would be forced to take if I migrated to Sky. I had actually started the process to migrate from TalkTalk to Sky (due to TalkTalk using Traffic Management at peak times) when I read the small print and found the relevant clauses. I cancelled and switched to BT instead as they obviously have all the necessary kit to provide a full service.

BT do have a fair usage policy but at least they don't use Traffic Management to slow things up at peak times and don't have a set download limit. Ofcom are looking at the practice of "fair usage" as it is so vague as what it actually means and how it is implemented. I would suspect that BT are one of the companies least likely to implement it as they have better access to the network and are less likely to find themselves running out of bandwidth. The companies only tend to impose their fair usage when they start to get squeezed on throughput. If you've got spare capacity you may as well let your customers use it to give a richer experience.

I envy all those of you out there with fibre and high speed internet. Our exchange is on the list for consideration but that's probably as far as it will get.

 

That's why I left BT, totally useless and expensive. When I told them I was leaving them they fell backwards over themselves to give me various "upgrades\enhancements" but I still deserted them for Sky as I had lost all faith in them and I have not looked back, so far never had a problem with them.

 

A colleague moved house last year & went with BT. He's a really keen biker, but he's dumped BT after having what he felt were too many problems & poor service. Not sure who has has moved to.

 

El Toro, I was going to warn you off BT and I am sorry to learn about your experience with them. Quite frankly they are hopeless and seem to be in one hell of a mess. I had a Yahoo email address which was free, then BT took over promising the email would remain free.Now they have told me that there will be a monthly charge if I wish to retain it. Reluctantly I agreed to this because of the inconvenience if the address was closed. I won't bore you with the details but BT have created an administration nightmare over this simple matter. God knows how they will manage a high volume broadband business. I was waiting on the telephone for 16 minutes this morning and when they finally answered my call nobody was capable of solving the problem.
I think I will transfer my phone line to Virgin.

 

Same here as I have one BT Internet email address from when I was with them but I have never used it fortunately as I suspected something might go wrong and this would happen. I always use a web based email address and get my emails via Imap, it's a lot easier and you don't get ripped off by being forced to stay with the provider.

I reckon BT will be in danger of getting seriously put at the back of the market at the rate they are going, personally they deserve it.

 

talk about reaping and sowing

 

not with elton john around

 

I've done exactly the same. We'll see!!