Topic: 'Broadband blues' hit net users

[Clive]

BY Rory Cellan-Jones
Technology correspondent, BBC News 
 
Broadband roll-out is being driven by ever more providers but people are much less happy with customer service and more ready to switch, says a survey.

When research firm Point Topic carried out its Broadband Consumer Survey a year ago, 92% of customers were very or fairly satisfied with their provider.

That figure has now fallen to 77%, and those very or fairly dissatisfied have nearly doubled to nine percent.

New entrants, such as TalkTalk and Sky, are the main focus of dissatisfaction.

Nearly 17% of TalkTalk customers and 14% of Sky broadband users were very or fairly dissatisfied with the service on offer.

The main complaint is about after-sales support.

Point Topic concludes that the new entrants are struggling to meet high customer expectations - and that all ISPs are getting worse at customer service as they struggle for market share.

'Less tolerant'

"Consumers, as they spend longer as broadband customers, are likely to become less tolerant of problems," says the report.

The survey shows the cable firm NTL is the biggest broadband player with 24% of the market, followed by BT Retail on 21%.

"BT's dominance in the retail arena is diminishing," says the report.

But from a standing start Carphone Warehouse's TalkTalk has already grabbed 4%.

But the ISPs are warned they may have trouble hanging on to customers.

In 2005 just eight percent of those questioned said they were thinking of changing supplier - but the 2006 survey says that has shot up to a quarter.

Major impact

What's more, one in 10 have switched in the last six months.

Whatever the complaints about customer service at TalkTalk and Sky, their "free broadband" offers are obviously having a major impact on the whole market.

Price was the main reason customers gave for their willingness to switch suppliers.

But service - and speed may become more and more important for broadband customers.

Reliable service was the second most important reason cited for choosing an ISP, while another recent survey showed many broadband customers just weren't getting the download speeds they'd been promised.

Watchdog will be looking into the issue of broadband complaints on BBC One on Tuesday at 1900.

 

[Delgado]

Yes, this is certainly becoming a minefield, with consumers not knowing which way to turn.

 I am with Bulldog at the moment, which is costing me £24 a month. My phone service is supplied by Pipex Homecall, which is a good deal at approx £22.50 a month, which supplies me with all calls free to anywhere in the UK at anytime!

  Whilst I have no complaints with the Bulldog service, I could have Pipex Broadband with my phone package for only £6.00 up to 8mg speed-a saving of £18 per month! So what does one do!!!

[Simon]

I would advise anyone thinking of signing up with Pipex, to study the contract you are getting into, very carefully.

[DJ]

I'm currently paying £22 with Force9, but their service is terrible - so much so that I haven't used their email service for numerous months now. I only use them to connect to the internet.

I'm too looking around for a new deal - 8MB / 10GB cap would suffice. Shame I can't get free Sky or Virgin broadband where I am.

DJ

[Simon]

I will be looking to migrate from Pipex in August, and I keep being drawn to these guys.  They have a good reputation on ISPr (well, they did last time I looked), and most importantly, they answer the phone, and are helpful when doing so.  The one thing that puts me off them is the limitation of only one email address, but if you can live with that, I would give them consideration.

[Delgado]

Yes-they look OK Simon, but I am wanting an uncapped service. I know what you mean about Pipex, I was with them before I went to Bulldog. Its the £6 against £24-50 that makes me think!

 Pipex is unlimited, but they work this fair policy thing, which I dont like. Bulldog is completely uncapped and no fair policy thing, although Im not sure what will happen when my contract finishes in May, now that Pipex have taken over Bulldog!

 

[Simon]

You should pay particular attention to their cancellation terms.  If you sign up for a year, then after 6 months, want to leave, they will charge you for the rest of the year before they give you a MAC code.  That's what I don't like, and the fact that they don't tell you about changes to the T&Cs.  You are expected to check for yourself on the website.

The Home Max service with Namesco is capped, but at 60Gb.  Would you really use more than that in a month?  Pipex say they are 'unlimited', but as you say, they implemented a FUP (again, without expressly informing customers), and you may also find that certain P2P ports are throttled, limiting the speed of downloads.

[Lona]

I'm still with Eclipse, Simon.

There are days when I find the service slow but most of the time I am well satisfied.  Downloading is nothing like the problems I had with Pipex and my only criticism is their mail server which breaks down occasionally.

At present everything is going well and everytime I think of moving the service is working so well I change my mind.

It's such a hassle changing isp providers that I will stick with Eclipse for present.

I will say their customer service is excellent.

[Simon]

This is the dilemma I will no doubt face in August.  Pipex have improved their customer service and now have more people answering the phones, but I am still getting slowish speeds, and it's their policies I don't like.

The minimum term policy will not affect me after August, as I will have done my 12 months, so could leave with a month's notice, but the dilemma will be, if the service is still running smoothly, which I have to admit, it usually does, what guarantee do I have of getting faster speeds from another provider?  It could be down to the quality of my BT line, in which case, I may go through the drama of changing, for no improvement.  I would also have to change all my email aliases, which is a handy service from Pipex, and find another provider that offers multiple email accounts, and also, webspace.  I haven't found another provider that offers the equivalent webspace Pipex does, this being 250Mb.  If I do end up changing, it will be on principals, and I will have to weigh up whether it's worth the hassle, when the time comes.

[Sandra]

I am still with Pipex and only at 1mb which at £23-44 per month I think is expensive these days.
However the service has been ultra reliable, I have contacted tech support only once in the last 3 years as I couldnt get a connection despite rebooting the pc and router about 4 times each.
The guy said reboot the router again as theyd just finished some work on their servers and I was online again, so if I had tried one more time before ringing them I wouldnt have needed to contact them at all.

Torrents speed has improved dramatically in the last couple of months and I regularly get well over 60k and often over 90k.

I am still trying to decide whether to change my ISP to Be There as they say I should get around 18mb download and 1.5 mb up on their 24mb service for £24, although that doesnt include email.

[Delgado]

You should pay particular attention to their cancellation terms.  If you sign up for a year, then after 6 months, want to leave, they will charge you for the rest of the year before they give you a MAC code.  That's what I don't like, and the fact that they don't tell you about changes to the T&Cs.  You are expected to check for yourself on the website.

The Home Max service with Namesco is capped, but at 60Gb.  Would you really use more than that in a month?  Pipex say they are 'unlimited', but as you say, they implemented a FUP (again, without expressly informing customers), and you may also find that certain P2P ports are throttled, limiting the speed of downloads.

 I appreciate your comments Simon, but why would I want to change to be capped at 60gb, when Im uncapped at the moment with Bulldog? The only reason to change would be to get broadband at £6 with my phone package with Pipex.

I think in todays market you get certain problems with all ISP Companies. I didnt get much problems with Pipex before, but like yourself didnt like their policies much. Their e-mail was first class. What I didnt like was the fact that new customers were getting cheaper rates than old ones!

 Still remains to be seen which way I go. Its a bloody hassle moving I agree. As to the throttling of certain ports, you can get over that by encrypting in U-Torrent. What I dislike about Bulldog is that you dont get an e-mail address!

By the time you way it all up, with ISPs and Viruses, and Spyware etc, and crashing PCs, makes you wonder why we all do it all!!!

 

[Simon]

Fair comments, DG.  My point about the 60Gb capping was that unless you are an extremely heavy downloader, one shouldn't need to be concerned about it.  Namesco have also stated, by phone, that they don't use port throttling, but yes, it can be worked round by the encryption facilites in uTorrent, and Azureus torrent clients.

Obviously the choice is yours.  I still don't know what I will do when my Pipex contract comes up for renewal, but I think my first step will be to phone them and see what sort of retention package they would be prepared to offer, and to ensure that by continuing with them, doesn't constitute starting a new 12 month contract.

Sandra, I can almost guarantee that if you ring them, they will offer you your current service for £14.99 per month.

[Lona]

Thought you might want to know Simon that bittornado is now offering encryption.

http://www.bittornado.com/

[Simon]

Thanks Lona.    I like the GUI of uTorrent though, and find the Search facility particularly useful.