Awful through and through. Service never worked, charged for over usage despite intermittent and poor connection, terrible customer service, and to add insult to injury
currently in dispute after being charged £55 to cancel a service I never fully received.
Don't touch with a bargepole, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is!

If you are considering switching to Virgin Broadband, DON’T!!! I was with Virgin and I experienced no end of problems. We were left without broadband for an entire weekend and at peak times the service was extremely unreliable. Moving away from Virgin was no easy job either. They kept claiming for months that they never received the e-mail nor my letter of cancellation and in the end they send me a large cancellation bill. I moved to “BE THAT” and what a difference to Virgin! “BE THAT has so far provided a reliable service (never failed so far!) and their engineers phoned twice on the day I switched providers, to ensure that I had no difficulty connecting to their service. Now, that is what I call SERVICE! So my advice is “stay away from Virgin Broadband”!

If you live in Northern ireland, save yourself the 9 months of heartache that I've suffered and put all details you have regarding TalkTalk in the bin. In fact, take 2 flyers from the man in the street or the guy in Carphone Warehouse and put them both in the bin, you may save someone else the heartache too.

AOL has to be the worst company I've ever dealt with. Please do not give them your
business. The operators do not know what they are doing and have conflicting information
every time I call and try and resolve and ongoing issue with billing.
After requesting a transfer of my AOL talk and broadband plan to a new address, it was not
done, and three months later still not done. I have had to pay BT for services as well as AOL
simply because the transfer was not done and their system has no record of it. The problem
is more complicated but way to extensive to explain here. Bottom line is, stay clear of AOL
unless you like paying extra cash and waiting on the phone.

I have had orange for almost 2 years and never had a problem, the free phone calls are great as are the downloads. The only downside is paying line rental to BT which is galling! I really am thinking of signing up with orange again when this current contract expires.

Just given Virgin the boot after 4 years I was originally with telewest and mourn the day they gave it up! All I can say about Virgin is if they spent as much time on getting the service right as they did on advertising and trying to get you to buy their TV packages they'd be the best ISP out there.
Unfortunatey the service took a nose dive since they took over, I was quite happy with my truly unlimited 4MB connection that I had with Telewest, since Virgin took over I saw my connection become unreliable due to 'the line being busy, try using it later on and it'll be ok!' and I was extrmely annoyed at their sneaky traffic management policy(Limits!!!) Not to mention their intention to snoop on everything their users do online! I had a 20MB cable connection which was upgraded from 10MB by them at no cost due to complaints about download limits and threats to terminate my contract etc! However I've regularly been getting speeds of 4MB and 6MB on this line and was given the excuse that the line was busy try off peak times (peak being from 5-9 at night) I work 9-5 so I was on a hiding to nothing there! I understand that I'll now probably at best get 5-6MB but at least I won't be paying £37 a month for the pleasure! My advice stay clear and stick with a BT line at least if thats no good you can change at the drop of a hat!

I can only urge anyone to stay away from Pipex/Tiscali. Absolutely shocking ISP. The internet connection is not usable (slow speeds and constant disconnects). If you request assistance they will ignore any e-mails sent to them. Calls to their Customer Support cost 10p/min, and trust me, you'll spend HOURS. The introductory message is lengthy and needs to be covered every time, the queues can be lengthy and the reps like to put you on hold a lot. The only advice you ever get is to wait, to call back later, or to call a different department (they will NEVER transfer you). Also, a lot of their reps don't seem to be able to speak English well enough to handle even common complaints. It's really, really shocking. I urge anyone to stay away!

just recieved an email from BT saying I have exceeded my useage by 7gb. However, unbeknown to them, i have now got a net monitor installed which shows i have only used 4Gb of my 5Gb allowance.I have written to BT and threatened them with legal action unless they can give me a complete rundown of my useage. of course they will ignore this as they and all the other broadband providers seem totally corrupt and indifferent to their paying users. Sorry to read of so many users being ripped off.

If your considering signing up with PIPEX broadband i urge you to read this first.
I joined online with pipex 14 months ago and was sent amodem and software to get me online.
However the software contained corupt files and caused irreversable damage to my pc.
I got in touch with pipex who gave me instruction on where to send back the equipment and i sent it back to them with afull account of the problem.
I heard nothing from them so after a month i got in touh again by email and waited and waited still no joy but they were taking the monthly fee.
I then requested a fefund as i had not been on line for even a min with them and i requested my account being cancled.
Still nothing and worse still my phone line was tiedto them so i was unabl;e to even register with another broadband service provider.
I have not the ability to speak on the telephone so i had to get both family and friends to ring the 0870 number(10p min) for customer services only they got no real help either if was answared it was call xcenter in inda or somewhere that the staff could neither speak nor understand english .
They calls allways ended with the call staff requesting that we should re contact pipex on an alternative 0870 number at an alternative time.
I wrote to them and emailed them over 100 times but the only response i got over and over again was a standard email reply requesting all my personal details ect for security reasons and at the end of evey email i was given an 0870 number to ring.
Each time i replied and explained i could not speak ect only to be sent the same request email back.
I sent a registerd letter by royal mail and finaly got a reply appologising for my experiances i was promised a refund of £78.92 with a promis it would be in my bank account by the 12th of April 2008 at the latest.
I waited and waited and nothing happend so i had to start the complaint again and the same thing happend standard email replies with no help just requests for my details and to ask me to call 0870 ect
Two weeks ago i lost my temper and told them how disgusted i was with theyway they could be so neglegent and yhat i considerd themto be nothing more than thieves and con artists preying on the vunerable as i was disabled ,partialy sighted and that the internet was my only pleasure ect.
I told them the upset had made me suicidal(which it did) and i told them not to rely anymore unless they wished to finaly sort the mess out as i now considerd what they were doing to me to othing less than torment.
Hooray i got a reply from someoneith an english name promising to pay me within 28 days that was last week iv not replied im out of energy with it all.
I will wait and see what happens but wont hold my breath.
I will keep you updated if or when i hear from them.
So pleased be warned apart from the money out of my account they have been taking for services i have never been able to use i had to buy a new pc and the cost of the calls has totted up to quiet a hefty amount over the last 14 months as well as the costs of having to pay another isp for dial up conection.
The cost to my health and sanity well il let you knowwhen i stop rocking in my chair

What can you say about Orange with THE worst unknowlegable 'technical support', the non-working sitebuilder
which NEVER works rendering webspace useless. Their customer service is shameful.

Very very poor indeed. And if anyone from orange is reading this all I can say is SORT YOURSELVES OUT YOU
SHAMEFULL EXCUSE FOR A COMPANY!!!

I wrote to Virgin about their inequitous contract (they can do anything they like and you cannot stop them) and their misleading advertising. They effectively replied "tough".

In their advertising they knowingly perpetrate what I see as a lie. They use the word "unlimited" but in their letter back to me they openly admit that they put the 5% of users that use the service the most on a "reduced" service. I am here to tell you that in my case that reduction was to ZERO. They give no warning of this. So, if you are one that 1 in 20 customers, they will effectively cut your service off, without warning. That clearly has nothing to do with "unlimited". There *is* a limit, it is just unknown for any given week. What is certain is that each week that limit *becomes known* and is applied without warning or consultation to 1 in 20 of Virgin's customers (customers or cattle?).

Where is the advertising standards aurhority? Aren't they supposed to protect us against lies like this. The advert reads "Unlimited"*

* There is a limit we just don't know it"

Absolute nonsense.

Don't think there is anythiung in the contract to help you and don't think Ofcom will help either. They are well aware of this and have done nothing.

With ISP's youare on your own and pretty well powerless.

I strongly recommend that you find a no contract ISP becuase they are all at it. the English language has been bid down to virtually zero.

There is no customer service at all. TISCALI is the worst broadband. They are very unprofessional so don't ever think of joining Tiscali.

We cancelled with orange and went to sky at the end of our contract .
Orange have continued to take the £19.99 a month . they have said this is their mistake but continue to do it . The chap in India seems hopeless and all this time orange are getting away with FRAUD

be aware Orange are committing FRAUD

Last December I migrated from Tiscali to Sky, that was the easy bit, its now April and I CONTINUE to GET BILLS and THREATS from TISCALI. They took money from my account in January and February, on contacting Customer Services they admitted they owed me part of January payment and the full February payment taken. It is now April NO Refund plus I have recieved Notice of a Court Summons for not paying my March Bill. I am fed up with countless calls to Customer Services who say account is closed and we owe you money which is then followed up by another threatening letter. I advise anyone to give Tiscali a BIG miss.

Here is a quote that supports my review of Virgin-noservice-Media just a couple of comments down.

According to Ofcom, 71% of broadband customers believe that they have an unlimited broadband connection. Yet a new study by uSwitch.com of the leading broadband companies shows the alarming reality: despite all claiming to offer their customers an ‘unlimited’ broadband service, each one would be prepared to restrict, suspend or terminate the service of customers who used their service ‘to excess’. Worse still, some companies said that they would be prepared to do so without prior notice to their customers.


That's Virgin. Scam. Game. Ripoff. Glitzy lies.

I just reviewed the reviews on this site and what stands out is that the UK ISP's fail us, constantly. There are SO few satisfied customers. I think it is simple; there has been a race to the bottom on quality. Yes you can can get cheap deals but NO you cannot buy quality, not for love or money. This is a free market in close to perfect commuincation and what does it deliver? Well, you know the brown stuff that comes out of the back of a dog?...

I have been put on the "capped list" and what this means is that between 4pm and 1am on weekdays and ALL WEEKEND I get effectively no service. How come? How come I pay £30 a month, but I get no service. How could that happen? It is simple, Virgin run an essentially inequitous contract.

As of about 6 months ago they unilaterally changed the terms and conditions of all their users contracts such that they can put you on the "capped list" without any notice at all. The capped list is a list of people whose service is downgraded from 8Mb to far less than .5Mb, and that means that even a static internet page will take 45 seconds, yes you read that right, 45 seconds to load.

So what is this list and how do you get on it? This list is made of the 5% of Virgin users who use the most bandwidth. That's it, if you are one of that 5% then, without notice, you are automatically put on the capped list and you will have effectively no service, and no recourse.

So the obvious question is "how much do I have to download before I get on the list?" And that is where things get really silly, because there is no download limit, there is no actual number, all it is is if you are in that 5% you will have your service reduced to practically zero. But it isn't that they are witholding the information from you, no, incredibly, there is no way even for Virgin to know if you will be on that list because it has nothing to do with how much you download, it is just that they cut the service of the top 5% of users. That's it. So it a nonsensical game of poker. You will have no idea whether you are downloading too much - none - and neither do Virgin.
What is more, if you do get on the list you will not be notified - you will just get home one night and there will be no service. Inequitous? nonsensical? all biased Virgin's way? Yes to all of these, but there is not a thing you can do about it. All you can do is pay your way out of the contract. i.e. pay - for more no service.

I put all this to first their technical guy and he said "Yes, I think the contract is stupid and unfair". I then put it all to their Customer Serrvices person who said the same thing!

Virgin have all these sexy top line statitics but they cover up that they will cut your service without warning and with no predicatible numerical basis and they offer no recourse. But they will still keep taking your money.

Don't use Virgin.

Don't use Virgin.

Don't use Virgin.

Having left the appalling service of Virgin Broadband and constant disconnections I went back to AOL. Having used AOL for a number of years and being very happy with the service, I was only stolen away by cheaper broadband/cable and phone. So having had a terrible time with Virgin, I went back to what we thought was a better provider. All was fine until January this year, when they migrated all to a new server, since then I have had constant disconnection, failures to connect full stop and a heft phone bill to try and sort out. I was told no couldnt have my mac code unless i pay out my contract, i've spoken to numerous people who have difficulty with english and an irish customer service supervisor who couldnt tell the truth for toffee and said sorry cant do anything.! To this day I am still being disconnected about every half hour sometimes more, they have no idea why and i can't wait for the contract to end in May, I will be off like a shot and kiss them good ridance!

We signed up to madasafish Bband MAX & Talk Anytime a few months ago. A few hiccups at first on an older PC, none on a newer model.

Has saved us ££££££££££s in landline phone calls & cheap to call abroad too. B band has worked consistently - our first experience so little to compare it to speed wise - we're at the end of a long line too.
overall satisfaction? 9/10.
Feel free to use my referral code 4352394 on sign up to save yourself £10 on Bband & £5 on talk.

We signed up to madasafish Bband MAX & Talk Anytime a few months ago. A few hiccups at first on an older PC, none on a newer model.

Has saved us ££££££££££s in landline phone calls & cheap to call abroad too. B band has worked consistently - our first experience so little to compare it to speed wise - we're at the end of a long line too.
overall satisfaction? 9/10.
Feel free to use my referral code on sign up to save yourself £10 on Bband & £5 on talk.

rosie@triad29.com

rosieponder@verizon.net

Not only do they try to rip you off, they send your email out and you get a ton of junk mail.

The worst service ever! Am seeking advice from the ombusman OTELO. Have had numerous problems which haven't been resolved, threatened to cancel but would have to pay the full yearly contract, even though the service hasn't worked.

I use Orange Max get 6.5MB download over wireless, very rarely disconnected, if it disconnects it reconnects immediately. Massive 40GB download allowance and top dollar customer service. If you can't get connected with orange perhaps you should put your PC back in the box and take it back to the shop! Anytime I have had a problem, it has been of my own making. Good job Orange, saving me a fortune on phone calls too. Just dont fall foul of the FUP, 3 months at 500k download soon teaches you a lesson.

I am quite an experienced internet user and for a long time I used AOL (up until about 2005 from about mid 90's, i always found it a good program and a useful interface, then things changed, the AOL program was chewing up vast processor resources and to cut a long story short, i ditched 9and moved house).

I then joined up with Tiscali in 2006 and to begin with (up until early 2007 everything was good. Then I got the fateful letter saying that they were changing some line components or something and bam 56kps on a broadband line, after numerous calls (and I asure other former tiscali users will know what I mean by numerous, i ditched contract in june 2007. i then signed up for orange, i receieved the live box, but no connection for 3 weeks (went back to aol pay as you go dial up) so I sent the box back and told them to "have fun".
Now the breeze blows calmly across my internet use, I have no port blocking, open access between 5-8mb 24hrs a day. Madasafish, has consistently been awarded numerous industry accolades, it pays to read these and review everything you can. yes i gues they are a little pricey, but you pay for what you get. Customer service is fantastic, staffed based in the UK, dedicated technical experts, logical step process to problem solving (the only problem I have had since August last year is one that I (and Vista) created. Free Wireless router and they do a phone package if you like (including line rental). they have just been bought out by BT (oh noes!) but i have been assured that the staff and day-to-day running will remain madasafish.
And the final bonus, the best email address on the planet "whatever"@madasafish.com. (did i mention the free domain name? and website hosting?)

I have been with them since freeserve / wanadoo and now Orange (when they can be bothered to let me on). For the last few months their service has been complete cr@p, I'm lucky if they let me stay connected for ten minutes a session after which their server spits me off and I have to reconnect, this often happens thirty or forty times an evening, total frustration, the reports say "server connection reset" or "connection timed out" or anything other than "We have to many subscribers for the equipment we are using". The service is laughingly called Anytime when it really should be called TIME SHARE. Lately when I try to reconnect I get the report "Username or password not recognised" on contacting their (Un)helpline and going through a maze of options designed to keep you on their 10p minute line for as long as possible the ADVISOR? tells me to check that my username or password has been entered incorrectly - strange that it ALWAYS works at quiet times ie after midnight or before mid afternoon - same password same username I've never had to re-enter either. Come on Orange play it straight and send me reports which say "SORRY BUT DUE TO A LACK OF INTEREST IN OUR REVENUE STREAM/CUSTOMERS YOU'LL JUST HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL SOMEONE ELSE LOGS OFF BEFORE YOU CAN HAVE A GO. MEANWHILE KEEP PAYING THE DIRECT DEBITS WE NEED YOUR MONEY" Apologies for shouting everyone but this really pi$$es me off, and they think we believe it??
Pete

iv just signed up with virgin media
they offered me £40.00 to buy a wireless router because the customer service was real bad i had complained to the manager and they have given me free installation and extra 30.00 to clear my phone bill

Following on from bugleboys review,i have been with AOL from april 2001,never had any problems with them till carphone warehouse/talktalk took over.Unlimited is what i been paying for,not anymore.My bandwidth is restricted to half a meg between 6pm and 11pm.I explained to them on the phone that this is when most people in our household are using the net and half a meg is a joke for 2pc's or more.It defeats the purpose of sending out routers.A joke,this will continue to happen unless we cut down on our heavy usage.They say heavy usage causes their network to slow down for all users,i say,improve it and give me what i'm paying for.

I have just paid the get-out-fee to orange broadband and I was with them a month; complete waste of money - awlful connection even tho the exchange is less than 300 metres from me. Going back to ZEN, best provider in the UK by far.
You get what you pay for

I've been with orange broadband since the day they bought out wanadoo, who once used to be known as freeserve. Both freeserve and wanadoo have been brilliant with their services. As far as I have experienced, yes orange experienced a few teething-problems when they had taken over, but all is sweet now!
Anon, the thing I liked most about Orange is they reward loyal customers. Unlike the £100s of pounds you say you've spent on setting up with orange, I can tell you that I have a WiFi modem and it didn't cost me anything. And, due to having an orange mobile contract...my broadband is free :-p
Sorry to gloat, but after reading how you felt about Orange broadband...I felt it appropriate to air my opinions too.
Nothing personal...just a difference of an opinion!

.....days without an internet connection, new BT phone line - day off work, hours trying to get connected, new router and cable - £100, hours on the phone to customer services telling us it was us! Finally they decided to check the line - orange and BT - low and behold this was the problem. Why didn't they do this first and save us precious time and money? Does anyone know how to complain to orange - I can't find the details anywhere. What a suprise.

I had only one problem when setting up talktalk and that was sorted out immediatly, recently due to service going down I have spoken to a few Asian operators and two Scottish. Remember folks phone lines have always been prone to going down.

For anyone signing up for broadband services with UW, my advice is this: If you're using wi-fi, then forget it! The download speed is WORSE THAN A DIAL-UP CONNECTION! Web-pages time out, file-downloads freeze and you have to re-boot the netgear router at least once per week. It's a constant left click of load-stop-refresh-stop-load and only then does the page load. Driving me bonkers! You're never disconnected but what bloody benefit is that if you can't surf the net without all this hassle? Totally browned off with it. A change is in the air. But with who?

Anyone using UW-Broadband.co.uk

They came top in which mag last month for customer satisfaction.
Anyone hear heard of them ?

I totally agree with tricia. Have also been with Demon for two years Have only been disconnected
twice which was rectified by the helpline resetting the password. More annoyed at paying for a
8Mbps service while I only get 1Mbps at best, but I am a long way from the exchange, so fee lucky
to get broadband at all.

talktalk have been great with me.When I needed advice they where to pleasd to help, and put me right. The language barrier was difficult to understand at times.I give them a ten out of ten.so far

no one ever seeems to mention Demon. I have been with them 2 years, never any problem with any of the 4 computers in the house connected to broadband.Not the cheapest but reliability is more important

I have been with Tiscali since April and all was okay until they sent me a letter saying they were upgrading lines so internet would be down for 2 hours. That was a month ago. I have made lots of calls on there national rate and premium numbers because internet is vital to my work. Lots of promises made by them but still no internet and they want me to continue making monthly subscriptions. PLEASE TAKE MY ADVICE AND AVOID TISCALI AND TELL EVERYONE ELSE TO AVOID TISCALI. Did you know that TISCALI BROADBAND is an anagram of SATANIC DRAB and SOCIAL BANDIT. They are devils and they rob you of your money like bandits PLEASE AVOID

BT...my worst nightmare. Okay, internet was completely fine whilst i first had the BT voyager router, BUT since they sent me a BT Homehub!!! in the post for free (wow thanks) internet is DIRE, intermittent, IF i can actually get on. Latency of like 40,000ms :S WTF!!! And yes i have changed back to the voyager, but the problems persisted, i ring up the bt helpline which is supposidly a uk call centre, well when the only words the recipitent can say are Hello, your name & number, and how can i help you IS NOT A UK CALL CENTRE MY FRIENDS!!! What is your problem sir? intermittent connections... *pause* What is your problem sir? i just told you! *pause* what is your problem sir? my reply to this was "P*** OFF" *hangs up* I mean jesus, talk about worst customer support i have ever received!!!!

The simple truth about Toucan is that they are not an Internet Service provider at all. They are a reseller for Tiscali. What you are buying is a connection to the Tiscali ADSL network. Toucan only manages the billing. This is fine providing that the service can be activated successfully. However, if there are problems, that's where it all goes wrong! Toucan are wholly reliant on Tiscali (and vicariously BT Wholesale) to fix your problem. Consequently, even simple issues can take weeks to resolve. Other issues such as the Fair Usage Policy, the chronic modem delays and the questionable technical support line are all just by-products of being a virtual ISP. If Tiscali is the third worst company on your list, just think how poor the service can be from a company that is re-labelling a poor product!!
Byron72 at 25th Mar 2006, 05:46PM

Virgin Media !!! You decide.Cut off five times tonight,should be 8 mb broadband at the moment showing 1.6 mb.System so slow every time I open a web page it times out.It seems all ISP's have bitten off more than they can chew,take the money and fingers up to the customer.

I've had broadband with NTL / Virgin for 6 months now and not at any point have i been able to get a connection two days in a row. I have made numerous phone calls to them and have even had their 'technical' guy ring me 3 times to sort it out and still no joy. It works when he's on the phone to me and then goes back to normal. They just keep telling me it's something wrong with my computer. I've since heard that they always have 10% of subscribers switched off because the servers can't cope - it's meant to be random but i think it must be me all the time. Crap!!!!

Tried Toucan Broadband and after 2 days realised they were crap. No service,No customer support. Tried to cancil but was told I would have to pay the whole year or they would send the debt collectors around to my house.When I needed customer service no one was available. Now I get a call from Toucan Billing every day.I am so pi**ed off with the whole lot I am taking legal action.I am also setting up a website to let everyone know the problems. If you have had problems with Toucan especially If you found the service so bad that you paid for a year but went with another ISP e-mail me at toucansucks@aol.co.uk

After ending a snotty email to my compamy broadband adminstrator, they decided to upgrade mt Teleworker account fron T/W 1000 (1Mb 50:1) to T/W pro max (8mb 20:1). Bt then mailed me direct to say it would be switched to the new service within 5 working days.
How suprised was I when 5 working days passed and my line still isn't switched over.
Just tested it again at 126kbps download and 240kbps upload...again...
Why do we get such pathetic service from ISP's in Britain?
How long can they get away with providing such shoddy services??
I can't think of any other service available where the provider could get away with charging full price for 10% of the promised service...

I got Orange Broadband through my mobile phone contract. I paid an exra £5 for their livebox wireless router.With that comes a new landline number and all calls go through the router. We have had to have two phones in the house (I kept my original BT landline ) due to the amount of time the livebox disconects itself. It goes of every few minutes in fact I'll be suprised if I get this posted ! The internet goes down along with the phone. If I ever needed it in an emergency then then someone could well be dead waiting to get a line to call an ambulance. When it's not working you get an engaged tone. I have spent many a time calling customer services only to go through to a call centre over seas where I can't understand them and they can't understand what I'm trying to explain. In fact whilst talking to them I get cut off regularly! It's got to a point that if I'm sending an important e-mail and I don't want to lose it I check the phone to see if I have an engaged tone if I do I wait until the line becomes open for me to send it.
So my advice don't use Orange unless you like sitting on the computer all day waiting for the the livebox to work.

I've just had BT Teleworker 1000 connected and the download speed is pathetic. I use Speedtest.net to measure linespeed. I get a consistant upload speed between 200-240Kbps but the download speed is usually around 80-160Kbps. Twice I have tested it at 330kbps but this happens rarely. Appalling service. I will be requesting that my company (a major Outsource IT provider)cancel this useless service and I will choose my own ISP after reading as many current ISP reviews as I can find. Do BT really think customers will put up with a service that rarely works to 10% of it's promised performance?

TECH SUPPORT REQUIRES THE CUSTOMER TO HAVE A DEGREE IN ASIAN? LANGUAGE. STILL NOT ABLE TO ACCESS E-MAIL AFTER A MONTH, CONTINUAL TIMIMG OUT/INTERNET ACCESS PROBLEMS.
WHY OH WHY DID I MAKE SUCH A STUPID MOVE? BUT THERE AGAIN IT SEEMS "PROVIDERS" ARE MUCH THE SAME-CON ARTISTS!!!ARE THESE PROVIDERS NOT REGULATED???

was on orange, that was good for me, never got disconnected and even though it was quite slow its still better than TalkTalk which im on now..has anyone actually had a good broadband experience ? Im looking for a new isp

If you cancel orange broadband make sure you cancel the direct debit too, these jokers will carry on charging even after you have moved to another provider. When you challenge them about it they claim they've done nothing wrong.

I got the MAC code from Orange without any problems on the 12 February and gave it to Sky the same day, my broadband changed to Sky on the 23 February and I started paying Sky from then, now I find Orange have carried on collecting 17.99 monthly, I wish I had cancelled their direct debit! After contacting them they have agreed to refund back to 5 April as that is when BT say the line was changed, despite me being on Sky Broadband since 23 February, these jokers still owe me money!! and they threaten you with a 100 pound charge and bailiffs if you say you will hang on to their equipment until you get your money back!!!

Avoid Orange Broadband like the plague!!!!

If you leave them don't forget to cancel that direct debit!!!!!!!

BT sales scum conned me into signing up to total broadband package. Below is letter of complaint i have sent:

I was recently contacted on numerous occaisions by BT sales staff asking if I was interested in broadband. I was undecided at first but decided to switch after 4 or 5 phone calls from sales. My line was tested 2 or more times and I was told that the line is capable of 6.5meg which I thought was acceptable (though not perfect) for the price. However, now I am in BT’s clutches I am told my line is only capable of 2meg.

I questioned sales staff (and manager) about the fair usage policy as I am a heavy user and was told it doesn’t apply to me and does not even exist. However, now I see it does and it definitely does exist!

I also questioned staff whether or not technical support phone calls are free, not in Indian call centres and based in Britain. I was assured they were free and British call centres. However, now I find it’s a premium rate number and in india!

When I asked about free wireless Xbox adapter offer, the manageress promised me that I was entitled to this offer, even if I did sign up over the phone and then go to Xbox website and give my details-reather than directly through xbox website. I received a letter 22/05/07 stating that I am not elegible and my code is invalid for the offer.

Since day of activation (04/05/07) I have faced nothing but problems including constant disconnections were I have to continually unplug home hub to reconnect and speeds that are as bad as my previous ISP, which I was paying £15 for. I have contacted technical support on numerous occaisions only to be repeatedly told useless advice which I’d already tried.

As you can see everything I was told by sales is untrue and I have been falsely led into signing up to your services. In plain English – I was conned. I expect a reply and the above issues to be resolved within ten working days or I will have no choice but to cancel my contract without paying any remaining period of the contract."

I recoment that no-one in britain uses broadband - until bt and other providers in this country can sort their act out.

Just great!

I had difficulty's moving from Talk Talk.
UW-Broadband now working fine.
Real person on the phone, actually called me back when I sent a message.
Recommended.

where do i start?? had been with wanadoo for years. initially unlimited dial up then broadband, when i got the broadband they let us keep the dial up for free-all was fine. moved house last year and welcomed by orange-who eventially got me connected to broadband but took away the dial up. i tried to get wireless via internet but a problem with my account???? not money they just hadn't put me on the system properly-which took a month to find out. have now been waiting 8 months for wireless and it still hasn't happened (hours on hold, and hours repeating the same story to different unhelpful people). whilst all this was happening i tried to get the mobile + broadband £35/per deal. But low and behold miraculously, my credit rating wasn't good enough. even though i had just bought a house, and gone through all the usually credit checks for utilities etc. and was already a orange customer. and one with no credit problems either!!!! stay clear its not worth the hassle.

I went live on 3rd may - phone line ok but no broadband - customers services do not understand your problems,do not return calls and keep you waiting for eons - in frustration have cancelled and am going back to BT. MY ADVICE - STEER CLEAR

Virgin just cuts you off several times a day and if its a busy period you cannot get back on line. Many attempts to get this sorted with \virgin have just failed. Stay away!

Avoid sky at all costs,package looks great value but beware it comes at the cost of customer services.None of them have any idea whats going on and in my case they terminated my service after 2 weeks for no reason(they gave usual excuses bt etc)and 4 weeks later im still waiting to be reconnected.
Without doubt the worst company i have ever dealt with and im not alone.

Been BT forever - When ever they launch a new product they slow down the old to push you into the new service. Watch it happen. I have seen it since low speed modem linked services.

Try getting on BTYahoo games or mailing right now (May 2007) - If you can get on it may only be once that day. Who do you tell? I need someone to express my true feelings about their service - How do I do that and get a response?

Bye bye BTYahoo its gonna be soon.........very soon

This has to be the worst service ever used, I been having problem with Tiscali broadband speed since I join them back in September 2006. Took out Tiscali broadband Max, which supposes to be the fastest 8mb speed broadband they have, but that is all lie and making others fool, the actual speed is 2mb or under. The customer service is anther nightmare the call centre is in India, I been calling them nearly every week regarding the problem instead of fixing it they keep sending me new modem which I lost count how many modems I have received from them. At first, I thought I was the only person facing the problem, but when I found out from my other 100s or more colleagues who I work with were all having the same problem, now I am finally asking Tiscali for the MAC code. So BEAWARE

Possibly the worst BroadBand provider I have ever had the misfortune to deal with. Told them I was moving house in early February and, as of 1pm today, they still haven't got round to connecting me. Every time I have wasted 30 minutes of my life calling the indian call centres, they always say the same thing - it's a fault with BT and we will have you connected in 7 days. They have been saying this since March! Avoid at all costs...

Plus Net is a good ISP. Yes, they have had some bad times, but compared with some of the other stories on here. I've been with BT (I'm even a share holder) would not use them again. Looking at the poll, does not give them much of a rating, but I won't change.

WHAAA! over 6 weeks without broadband connection and the india-based tech 'support' dept keep fobbing me off with apologies, unfulfilled promises and keep putting me on hold. The r now blaming BT and BT r saying its not their fault. Never again with Tiscali

STAY AWAY FROM TALKTALK, It's been six weeks since order accepted, the landline hasn't even gone live yet, had numerous phone calls,cost a fortune with 0870 numbers, different story everytime, a number of go live date has been given, nothing happens. Broadband is even remote, one story was that broadband will go live 21 days after the landline switch. Nobody cares, and you have absolutely no one to turn to. they don't even have a complaint telephone number.

tried to up grade my tiscali broadband december last year to 8mb from 512 still not working spent many hours talking ti india call centre which is a total waste of time and money spent £33 pounds on calls to them and customer care in Scotland when you get through to them they tell you its only for billing.Was told there was no customer complaints department which is untrue i found the number through yell.com via other numbers (0207087 2000) if you call this number you must stay online to the end when it tranfers you to switch board then ask for customer complaints.I am constantly told someone is working on my upgrade but cannot say when it will happen first date i was given 8-1-07 still waiting, so now i have my mac code and leaving tiscali , they have no interest in the customer had have no idea about customer care KEEP AWAY.

To many problems to Quote. Many to do with paynment of monthly charges - Miss interpreting my requests over the phone - over charging for services I never requested which put my bank account in the red which incured bank charges for 4 months. I`ll be glad when this is cancelled & my contract finishes Plus this has put me right off using the internet ever again..

Pipex broadband promised me on 21st February that I could receive broadband in my area. They sent the modem, charged me for it and a month's subscription. BT had to become involved to tell them that there was no way they could get a broadband line into the village before Pipex would accept that I was not simply incompetent (how many times do I have to be asked what the modem lights are doing?!?) and that there really was no way broadband would ever be a possibility. They have told me 3 lies about when the refund which I think I am entitled to would arrive, but which they call "a goodwill gesture". They haven't provided the service and think it's just goodwill to refund? Err...breach of contract, sale of goods, provision of service? The whole broadband contract thing needs to be sorted out - why should customers be tied into contracts before they even know if they can receive the service? It is so frustrating talking to their "customer care" (who simply don't care) - as noted by other posters here, you never get the same person twice. One or two people do at least sound as if they care, even if they can't do anything for you - but the majority could do with a good few weeks in customer care and politeness school. Yeah ok so it's just one little customer who's not important - but one who will post on here and hopefully put a few more people off.....!!!

STAY AWAY FROM TALK TALK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! gone live on 28th feb, and still can't access internet. You can imagine what i am going through...phone calls, promises,new deadlines and all that.....absolutely rubbish!and the funny thing is i dont know where to turn to...

I transfered my broadband connection from waitrose to tesco and it has been hell from day one, I was supplied with 2 usb modems and install disks, 48 hours after I signed up with my migration code, nice gift but of no use to me my mac does not use usb to connect to the web.

15 days later my connection to waitrose was cut and I had to call tesco for their net settings for my router, fair enough they get a person that knows about macs to call me back and together we set up my router for use with tesco.net, when I still could not connect it was discovered my line was not yet activated and it was not activated for another 72 hours.

Having (I feel) been overcharged and got an unsatisfactory answer from the initial 'customer services' person, I used the webmail report to ask for their ADR (formal reporting of complaint) procedure, 21 days later I'm still waiting for more than an (unreplyable to) auto confirmation, having chased it after 14 days, I'm still awaiting a responce to that chase!

AOL now have a fair usage policy, but won't tell me what it is !!!! it's since they have been taken over by Talk Talk....

I have received now my first bill.. yuppiii! for what?? No service at all, about £100.00 worth on calls from my mobile to BT BroadbandTalk to only get diverted to other numbers. I think I have spoken with all their helpdesks. Please be aware. And if you have cable... Don't even go there.

Free wireless router with Voice-Over-IP ability for cheap calls
HA HA HA what a joke!!!!!!!!!!!

It must be the worst nightmare ever.
If you hate anybody tell them to go to orange.
I joined on the 22nd.
I have spent 20min to half and hour on the phone every day for the past week.
And I am still not connected.
I have been instructed to unplugged that live box a million times . They took their payment on the 28th of march its the 14th of April but still no service was provided.
Every technician you talk to has a different story. I just cant anymore. I run an online business and left AOL because they are not business friendly. But with them I had no problem for over 2 years.
I'm stuck and cant get anything else until they cancel my contract. Lol what contract I want to know?
Trish

im using be, the speed is ok. but the sevice lol, i think someone had same feeling of me. im hope aol or bt can get a high speed broadband.

been with tiscali since Nov 06. Been trying to leave since Nov 06. Service is crap. Cannot contact them by e-mail or fone. Service is interupted several times a day, which tech support dont see a problem with! Then I get flagged your being a heavy USER.
That was last straw for me. They obviously dont want a 'heavy user' so gave me my MAC code yippee. So Im off to pastures new and happy surfing I hope.

Hope you read this and take notice. Wouldnt like to see others getting tied down with what is such a poor service.

AFTER SEACHING THE FACE OF THE EARTH I found the customer service address that so many people have been looking for.
The reason why no persons letters have ever been replied to are because NTL/VIRGIN MEDIA GIVE FALSE ADDRESS for customer service on web. try concord buisness park, Threapwood rd, wythenshawe, manchester m22 0ey be quick or they will move again if they have not already

I think uw-btoadband.co.uk is a con just look at the web-site

Same experience as others since Virgin joined up with NTL. Am supposed to have 8Mbs. 9am-5pm
might be true. I did speedtest.net check (says my supplier is NTL) and got 6570 kbs at 9am and 5429 at
4pm with latencys in 30-37ms.
But after 5pm forget it! Upload drops to around 100-300 kbs and latency 200-300 Still same just before
midnight. Just waiting for my MAC and I'm gone.

Worse that useless is my opinion!!!! Here are the problems:

- *Crap*
- Cuts-off atleast 10 times a day (mostly during busy hours)
- Customer Service, Don't even bother!!
- It took me 30 minutes to make them say 'I will send you the MAC code' When I wanted to change providers
- Fails to Connect Half the time, especially during the evening

Good points:
- However speed is OK
- But, Unlimited even though is says it has a download limit.

Whilst the technical service has been OK the Finance department are totally incompetent. Despite having been provided with a Direct Debit since July they have not yet managed to properly activate it. To add insult to injury their Credit Control section (which is part of the Finance Department) makes contact with ne to say that I am not paying and the service will be discontinued. I have sent numerous e-mails, letters and made phone calls have had no effect.

I am with Toucan and their customer service is an utterly miserable experience. It has to be said that with broadband providers its not a question of who is the best! its who is the least worse. What a damning indicement of the industry.
Now back to Toucan. 1) You spend ages getting through. 2) they want you to call their miserable call centre in India (I feel sorry for these people ) on a premium rate line and where language/technical differences actually make things worse. 3) I am technical contractor and advised them that the problem lied within the BT circuit. They would have none of it and would not co-operate in determining this problem. I found it to be the BT socket however, who has responsibility for this. When I was with BT it was theirs and any faults from the BT point back to the exchange was dealt by them. Toucan did every thing possible to avoid expenditure on a service call. Now I'm left with a very iffy broadband service ( clearly its working at this time ). I tried to pinpoint Toucan on circuit responsibility they said I could chane the BT socket myself. I asked them for written clarification on this point and no one was prepared to do this. They are all the PITS.

I signed up for broadband and talk any time in November and was told it was all set up for mid December.All i got was the broadband and for three months i have phoned and E-mailed several times a month.Finally on 14/3/07 they tell me that because my phone is with the Post Office they can't provide the phone.I wish they had told me in November.

Having signed up to Pipex broadband in November 06, my package arrived in December 06. At todays date March 07, I am no further forward than I was in December. I am cancelling my contract because they seem incapable of sorting out why I cannot connect. They blame BT, BT say there is nothing wrong with the line, and I am piggy in the middle. They even advised that it must be my PC. Smacks of desperation if you ask me. I am sure that they have lots of satisifed customers. unfortunately, I'm not one of them. I am currently looking for another provider.

Colin
Thank you, Thank you Thank you!

I don't know who you are Colin but I read your notes on this forum about a week ago recomending UW-Broadband.co.uk.

Well what a breath of fresh air. They are everything Colin said and more.
A real person on the phone helped me through the signup on there website.
He told me that it may take 14 days to get up and running.
5 days later I was on line.
Now that's what I call service.
Thay have also taken care of my BT phone bill using something called LLU.

Highly Recomended
Why arn't thay on the list to the left.

Already had landline and free evening and weekend calls with TalkTalk when they announced their free bradband package in April 2006. No problem getting Mac code from previous ISP provider (DEMON) and changed made in May 2006. Some minor problems whic were easily and quickly sorted until 21st February 2007. Have not been able to send or receive emails.After many phone calls, the most recent on 1st March, lasting 45 minutes, I got them to admit that the fault was in their equipment and programming.It shoewd as a security error and to contact the administartor on noreply@opaltelecom.co.uk. I have written a letter of complaint giving them 14 days to correct the fault. As Paul Lindsey says the standard of service is very poor and every operator I have spoken to did not know what had been done or said previously.
Had no problems with Demon. Will change back to them even though it will be more expensive.

I have been with Freedom2Surf aka f2s for about 4 years and I am more than happy with the service. Basically, it just works. Setup from memory was done in minutes and it is very reliable. Ok, it's not the cheapest by todays standards but you get what you pay for.

Now to Talk-Talk. My mother has got this and has been off-line for about 2 months. She is on her third modem which still doesn't work. Everyone I have spoken to says she has a line fault but they refuse to admit it. They have said they they will charge her £65 to come out. With the amount she has spent on phone calls to their so called help line, she could have paid and got a decent ISP.

Ever since Virgin media group took over NTL/Telewest it has been nothing but disasterous, broadband speeds are up and down quicker than a hookers knickers, painfully slow seek times when browsing and when playing online based games...forget about it!! latency due to the ridiculous speeds, i am supposed to have an 8mb connection and have run tests for them to tell me waht i already knew that my DL speed is between 50-150kb's and UL speed is non exsistant.

GIVE TELEWEST BACK THE SERVICE THEY KNEW HOW TO PROVIDE. Mr.Noobend Branson

My experience with this outfit has been like an episode of the Benny Hill
show , there seems to be problems in every department so much so that i became an expert in problem solving myself , because they seem incapable of sorting the simplest things out. Getting a go-live date means anything up to 3 months or more and you probably wont get a modem or start up disc
until you leave after banging your telephone off the wall in anger and
frustration at trying to get an english speaking voice that doesnt speak
in monotones and read off a cue card. When you order something that it is
claimed only takes 2 weeks to connect then anything after that represents
a breach of contract and that should be law because they are making a mockery of the word SERVICE because they cannot provide it.
I will not go into the full details because i could write a book but since
i was cut off by Talk talk twice by there own incompitence i have experienced being unable to connect through other service providers because they gave me the wrong mac code . I am now going to go back to
BT because it seems like the only solution since they have the main exchange and can do everything including make the tea , everyone else is
really going through the BT system ,so i may as well try the organ grinder
and get rid of the monkey .

What a joke Orange is, I moved up to 8 meg broadband and was promised at least 5 meg download speed. I got 6 meg for two days and have been stuck on 130 kbp/s since. Foreign call centers with so call techs who read from a standard list and always finish with the promise of a line test cost me a fortune at 50p per minute and never fix the problem. Customer services who inform me they will send in the baliffs to get a payment of £100 + if I cancel due to their breach of contract with me. I'd have been better off staying with AOL and they were cr4p.

Tesco broadband are awful.My modem stopped working so i rang them to get a replacement, they did no less than THREE tests on it and were meant to call ME back each time...they didn't so i had to keep ringing there enquries line till i finally was told my modem had a fault on it....7th of feb this year i was told they'd send a new modem out....guess what, i had to phone time and time again to be told the same thing till i recieved modem yesterday feb 27th!!! Not only have i spent alot of money having to chase them up on the test results/modem....ive also been unable to get broadband since jan 26th till feb 27th AND they have taken out the £17.97 monthly fee!!! Well they certainly WONT be getting away with it! Steer clear of Tesco they are useless!!!!

In reply to the last review I was put on Tiscali's heavy user group but with me it was from 11 pm through to 6 pm (19 hrs)for 9 days on 56k modem speed.After continued emails trying to tell them they had made a mistake each automated reply quoting their fair use policy I wrote to there Head office with all the details and guess what..they switch me to heavy user group 6 pm to 11 pm.No appologies or explanation.I have informed them that I am changing my ISP at the end of the month and cancelling my direct debit.If they object then I have six pages of proof of their bad customer support and service which will be going to Ofcom.

i have 8mb plan, and i use it to download some stuffs, after several times mistake, they move me to stupid heavy user group 6pm-11pm every day, during that time, i cant open website, msn messenger drop off every 5 mins, i email them several time, no reply, except stupid auto reply!!, i m doing ebay business, you can imagine how much i lost, Poor tiscali, never used it, never!!!! they will drive u mad!!!

I signed up to orange in nov 2006 for up to 8 meg package. Up now I have never got a decent speed. Actually i only get a pathetic 100k. Customer service is crap and I can't even get a line test with them. Advice Orange broadband is a scam and best avoided.

First of all let me tell you all about a crap ISP called Supanet, More like Sh*tynet . I was on a 1mb package deal and then upgraded to a 2mb deal . But after my contract was due thought I go to someone else with a faster speed, But then I get a email asking me if I stay for a futher 12months period they would give me 8mb , wow I thought better the devil I know I thought . So I signed up for a further 12 months . Its now SH*T slow sometimes going down to 0.786mbp slower then its ever been . I spoke to Gandi in india and he blames BT for a fault on the line , But its been checked and the restriction on my speed is been setup by Supanet .
Big Con cant wait to break contract even if I just pay the charges . I think some one should give us subsribers some legal back up any other Country wouldn't put up with this CR*P elsewhere .

CONNING ISP SUPANET SUCK'S

Tiscali are not a good service provider. When you call to discuss the issue, the administrator may falsely accuse you of swearing when you have stated, "this is pretty poor service!" Oh dear. Do find an alternative supplier who can ensure superior upload and download speeds for the same charges, there are many available and often charge less than Tiscali.

I have used this company for 2 years now and i find them fantastic.
I think because they are growing slowly they have the time to give a super
customer service. I have never seen them on any comparison site. A friend at work
told me about them. Take a look at www.uw-broadband.co.uk there site is a bit
complex but the service is fantastic.

Do not even think about going with Tiscali if your a regular downloader.I am only on 1mb broadband which even in off peak times they can not supply the banwidth and if you get put on the Fair use policy they will drop you down to an average of 40 kbps and sometimes down to 24 kbps which when your web pages keep timeing out(yes I do mean kbps)and that gives you 4 kbps download speed which is lower than 56k modem.There customer services have no idea how to solve the problems as every email is an automated reply.Read there Fair use policy and it is back to front.Tiscali keep signing customers up but they can not supply the bandwidth you are paying for.KEEP WELL CLEAR OF TISCALI.

I started Broadband services (Home option 1) with Eclipse in July 2006. Things were very fine till the end of Jan 2007 when I noticed connection failure. Always it was showing error 721. I tried to contact tech support three times to wait for minutes together. They adviced to do many permutations and combinations to get connected and finally they sent me a new modem thinking that there might be some modem problem. Modem came bit late. With the new modem again same problem. When I tried to contact the Tech support team then again waited to listen to the 'music'. Then wrote an email. Got reply from them to contact them again on the phone. Tried to contact on 17th Feb 2007 at 1210pm to wait for more than 30 minutes to hear 'music' and sorry message from the other end. This is DISGUSTING.
The internet speed is good when it works but tech support is PATHETIC!!. Tech support is free but this is the way free services come to you. I would not recommend Eclipse to any one.

I waited the usual 2 months to get connected. Initially the service seemed good. Speed was never faster than 2.2mgs. The trouble started when I was away from home for a 2 month period and tried to access my email from a friends computer. It is not possible to do this. I phoned Mr Dunstones dedicated team 30 times to try and download my emails and got a different answer from each member. One even suggested that I turn off my firewall as this was the problem. Technicl support team in India needs radical training to be able to cope with daily complaints. I tried writing and after four letters got an acknowledgement only to tell me to phone customer services. I replied saying that, that was to stressful hence the reason for using snail mail. Have been unable to download remotely for 2 months. It costs dearly to phone customer services and the ammount of time spent on the phone and writing letters does not make for a free broadband service. STAY AWAY.

My experience: The worst company I have ever come across!! Words fail me. They are technically ignorant, they leave you without service but still take your money through Direct Debits. They say they will phone back but don't. You can't escalate complaints. They take no action. In my opinion they are no better then a criminal extorsion racket. If you want to try and switch provider they give out false Mac codes. Arrrghhhh! Aviod at all costs!!!!

I would just like to point out, I have been with Tiscali Broadband for 3 years now. During this time, I Have NEVER had ANY problems At All. reliable service, good download speed, I Can't comment on the telephone service, but that is because we have never had to phone them. I Paid 14.99 A Month for 1MB Broadband, however we recieved 2.3MB ! I would reccomend tiscali to anyone, absolutely fantastic !

I am looking for a isp but I am really concerned after reading all these reviews.
Could we have a page of positives please. IF THERE ARE ANY

I have been with Pipex for about 8 months. I was reasonably content until recently. They took 191 pounds out of my account in ONE GO, without so much as sending me a - "oops we're so sorry our billing is useless and we forgot to take the direct debits" email. I actually begged them for weeks when I just got the service to take my bleepin money but they just couldn't manage that. Now I have requested for a breakdown of the charges by phone, fax, email and registered mail but it is simply impossible to get an answer from those infidels. I think I'm going to cancel the service anyway, screw the 191 pounds. PIPEX SUCKS - PIPEX C'EST LA MERDE - PIPEX IST GANZ SCHEISSE - PIPEX IS KUT

Talktalk were hopeless at providing correct setup info because I opted for wireless rather than their standard ISDN modem and I got continually confusing and misleading instructions. Even got the welcome letter this week after going live almost two months ago! However, once up and running, I have no complaints and their package seems by far the cheapest as we get free UK calls as well as broadband. Could do much better for delivery of service, but once online, I have no problems.

I've been with bulldog for 2 years before i leave UK one year ago. I normally cut the contract within the policy rules....and guess what, bulldog still send me some bills on a service they cut !!
I don't even live anymore in UK until today as I come back, and thy continue asking me for money !!!

Lousy customer service !! Illegal billing for unprovided services !!!

THE WORST EVER I HAD

In 3 months of trying, I have never got the wireless router to work, despite many hours on the phone to AOL. I have now given up and gone back to a wired connection. I have been conned by AOL. I upgraded from AOL silver to gold because I wanted/needed a faster speed and wanted a wireless connection, but I have now noticed within 3 months that AOL silver has the same speed and free wireless router that I upgraded to! I am now conned into paying £11 per month more than I needed to.

AOL service has recently got very bad. The online chat help is off-shore and the staff seem unable to understand what I am talking about. My main concern is the AOL Gold price which compared to most others is very expensive. Also telephone help is now on an 0870 nmuber! Today, my business websites are unable to forward email onto my AOL account from my domain host as AOL in their wisdom are now BLOCKING all email forwarding! My response is to get a free HOTMAIL account to forward my domain name emails onto and get another Broadband supplier!!!

I have yet to get my BT Broadband connection to work. Ringing their helpdesk (offshore of course) is the most pointless and frustrating exercise you can ever undertake. Emailing from the BT website is equally pointless

Avoid BT Broadband like the plague

I used to be with Wanadoo broadband who then became Orange or Orange bought them out. Since I changed my package from £17.99 a month 1Mb wanadoo to 2Mb £14.99/month orange the connection has been awful. I have done a few broadband speed checks to find that my connection has been giving me a lazy 100kbs rather than a 2mb connection. I'm getting really hacked with Orange, my suggestion is leave them alone!!

I have been with pipex for roughly 3 years now and cant wait till they dissconnect me on the 26th!!.. First off I was with them for the 512mb for 19.99 per month.. Had no problems what so ever with them! Connection never went down and never ever had to phone them up, everything ran so nicely! Well up until I upgraded to the pipex max!! (33.99 per month) What a load of poop!.. Max is meant to be (upto 8mb) BUT due to me being TOO FAR away from the exchange could only get 1.5mb! Which was ok by me.. 2 weeks after being on the max the trouble started! I was only getting speeds of just over a dial up connection!!!!! This was so pathetic and annoying! so after days and days of phoning them up, going through troubleshooting and them not knowing what the problem was i cancelled!! was sick of the usual crap where they blame BT and BT blame them.. Worst mistake i ever did was deciding to upgrade.. Stay away from Pipex if you can as they are poop!!

What a hassle.. I will be without service for upto 21 days... why it baffles me when they both use the same LLU (after all easynet is owned by sky).

anyone else had issues

I ordered PIPEX broadband, according to PIPEX I was able to receive 6MB. This was my worst experience ever! I told them that I use Skype to keep intouch with my family abroad and Skype doesn't work well under 2 MB. When I checked the speed on the internet I had 0,8 MB! Very far from 6MB. It took 2-3 min and it froze alot when I was trying to read the news. Terrible bad service and customer service. I have sent them recvorded letters, the last 14th dec. I still today haven't had a reply to anything.

the connection on ntl broadband is good but the service is the worst ive had except bulldog, i called them to sort things out about a bill query, there tell me everything is sorted but ive had 4 more letters from them still asking for money i don't owe them, i think the diffent depatment dont tell each other whats happening, for a communications company there don't seem to communicate very fell.

been with ntl ages thought there broadband was slow most of the time and was thinking of changing but reading these revievs i dont think i'll bother could be going from the frying pan into the fire .i've never had any realy bad problems with ntl and billing is fine .so i think i'll stay put for now till these cowboys out there sort themselves out

Mail Service is complete crap and has been so for the last 3-6months, You contact them and are informed that, yes we have a capacity problem and we are trying to do something, but nothing happens. I now have customers contacting me that their mails are being rejected. I have had to provide an alternative address, this is the start of saying by by

Bulldog crap service. been restricting my service as their finance dept have not allocated the payment taken on my card to the invoice. As such I was disconnected for at least 10 days. Are there any legal actions v/s this as I am a teleworker and the restriction of my braodband restrict my online sales and this earning less income?

The telecommunication regulations have a provision for customers to claim a full month's subsciption for every day that a service provider fails to make an installation or fix a fault. You can claim upto £600. You will be surprised what you can find out if you read the regulations.

I am an apathetic person who doesn't like change. It just takes too much effort. Appart from week-ends (when you really do want your internet) the NTL connection is good. Always get on line when the USA is asleep!
If however you have problems you are on the merry go round of wrong numbers, 30 to 45 mins phone queues and end up with someone in India who is technically good but finds customer communications a challenge.
So nothing out of the ordinary. But when on 23rd Dec said techie booked an engineer call out for me for 28th Dec (because he didn't know what was wrong with the connection), he told me that if I were not at home on that day, they'd charge me £10. OK - I can live with that. On 24th Dec the connection came back unannounced (Christmas is after all the time of gifts and miracles). I called India again, quoted my call out reference number and waited patiently while they struggled with a user unfriendly system to cancel my call out.
Whyever did they bother?? I got a call in the office on 27th Dec (!) saying that the engineer was outside my door and that they were now going to charge me £10. At this point my apathy disappeard!

Folks - if you want to chose a provider, go to their website and see how easy it is to contact them. Go on try! If you can find a postal address for your provider, I suggest you are relatively safe with their customer service because you can send them recorded delivery letters. This is the only message they will answer to, because you can give evidence in court that you have contacted them!
Guess what, NTL does not have a postal address on their website, so I sent my recorded delivery complaint to their Accounts Department because NTL does not give a postal address. (Thank God for cheques - once they go we will never find the blighters)
2007 will be NTL free for me, with dial-up or the Internet Cafe until I have read every "lost mail in the wilderness" about a prospective provider. Happy New Year to all who are still looking.

Stay away from TISCALI, Unlimited Broadband my A**E, They restricted me between 11pm and 6pm the next day when I was meant to be restricted between 6pm and 11pm and when i sent an EMail to the complaints dept it took 6 days to reply and the reply was SORRY WE CANT HELP YOU !!!!! Crap Service ... STAY AWAY

My first ever broadband connection has taken a looooot of patience. Signed up in september with talktalk, live-date set initially as 4th of november, then changed without warning or reason to end of november, didn't receive modem and username and password ten days before the live-date - assuming the very last day of november - i called and was told that it would now arrive three days from the... hm-hm... still not known date. In the mean time I kept receiveing messages about letting them know about my Mac code. Each time called and told them I never had broadband connection. Called at the end of november to ask why nothing had turned up yet, was hit again with the question: Have you provided us with your Mac code? Came up that nothing was on its way yet. Was told: "I am happy to inform you that your broadband connection should be live within two weeks and we are now sending your modem and username and password." Could not answer why all this had not been sent already - if I hadn't called, it still wouldn't. After all the fuss I made, was told that they would try and speed things up so that I could get everything up and running in 7-8 days - this was after I demanded to talk to someone in charge - the person i was talking to turned out to be the one!!!! Gave me customer services e-mail address to put my complaint in writing, I wrote, threatened to consider their lack of response a breach of contract, never got e reply whatsoever.
One week past - nothing done! called again, they found it surprising that I had been told my connection would have been sped up - had to wait till mid-december. Promised to refund two months of broadband charges made for unprovided services. Had to be patient till 14th dec, live-date.
Date arrived - set everything up, link light on modem not solid, called to be told that signal may not have gone through yet, wait another couple of days. It is now 22nd dec, signal still moody - I am making the most of it while i can, writing this.
Live-date arri
live-date arrived, set everything up (

I agree totally with the last comment. I cancelled my contract after 12month period 6 months ago and I'm still been billed!!! They cost me £500 in work, when there service broke down and it never was reconnected, in this time I spent loads on dial up yet they have never given me any compensation or even offeredd to pay the outstanding phone bill, which was through them. I spent hours on hold around 10-20 times to be told everything would be sorted out and still even though I'm with another company bills are coming through the door. OMFG!!! - THIS IS THE WORST BROADBAND PROVIDER EVER - KEEP AWAY!!!

I see that some people have said talk talk provide a reasonable service?? i beg to differ! it is reasonable if you enjoy spending 45 minutes at a time on hold (if you actually manage to speak to anyone at all and don't get told to call back later!), being transferred to as many as 6 different people during the course of one phone call none of whom actually know how to help you! i ordered the broadband package in march, i then moved house in july (having still not received broadband) i was told it was being transferred to my new house, well 2 months later that turned out to be a lie and i had to order it again as a new customer. i was then told i'd have to wait another month for it (so end of nov) at the end of nov i'd received nothing. after 3 hours trying to get through to someone i was finally told my request for broadband had been rejected! no-one bothered to tell me though! bear in mind i have been paying the phone bill through them for the last 8 months! no-one could tell me why this has happened or even apologise! i cancelled my contract-so i'm sure the real fun will begin here when i try to go with someone else! happy days!!

I visited the Tiscali website today. I tried to start 8mb Plan, their search replied that my telephone line can only support 2mb and if I like to start a 2mb plan. Howver, when I check it again with the 2mb plan link, it replied me that 2mb is not available to me and ask if I like to start the 1mb Plan instead. I then, checked it up with BT Broadband, their search replied my line supports up to 3mb. I phoned the Tiscali sales' hotline for what I have found and how I can be certain as what plan is available to me. At the begin, the sales recommended that I shall take the 1mb plan as 2mb Plan is not available to me. I mentioned that BT suggested that my line can support up to 3mb. Then, the sale asked me to opt for the 8mb Plan. I asked why I was advised to take the 1mb Plan for 2mb Plan is not availableto me ...... how I can have a 8mb Plan when even 2mb is not available? The sale did not say a word and hung up. I then telephone again. The sale just lead me to go around without getting to the point. I AM VERY DISAPPOINTED TISCALI BROADBAND!! I WONDER IF YOU SAL TEAM KNOWS WHAT IS COURTESY?

spent 3days with sky broadband could not view the web pages. it took over 2 weeks 2 move away from sky to a new isp if you are on the max package of 16 meg they have to clear the line completely witch takes another 7-10 days for a set up to a new isp you have been WARNED..........

Just spent month trying to close contract with Supanet, to move to new service. Well beware, they do not sign up to MAC code of practice per Ofcom. Thye will not give you one, and as such you are down for 10 days. BT wholesale need to release marker firts, BT cant take order till line freed up. Very deceiving! Its same when your 12 month contract runs out!!

just cool to be with be
No problems at all
thx be*

I've had ntl for several years now and whilst they are not the cheapest and do not have the best customer
service I can find no fault with the broadband. Set -up was easy enough (mac set-up even appeared easier
than pc equivalent) though recently i have set-up a couple of BT accounts for friends and they have
dramatically improved their mac compatability (woeful previously) and are actually trouble free. Several
providers do not offer very good mac support particularly AOL in the UK but most are catching on that there
is a small but growing market thats worth courting. Be careful to read the small print regarding the free
modems as some isps will offer a different version for those mac owners operating 'Tiger". Don't worry about
not getting the free security stuff as it is generally not required-the macs in built firewall is a very good one.

moved house had phone connected by toucan and requested broadband still wailting for broadband move in house 23rd oct keep promising broadband but so far no luck

Have been with Talk Talk from the start of free broadband, and for a company going from small to being the third largest supplyer of broadband they are doing ok. ive had no troubles its always on. you will still get some problems but for the price you cannot go wrong. give them a try.

Plusnet seems to me to be quite good from a broadband point of vie and support is OK. But the last 3 months the e-mail service has been simply terrible. Up and down at the weekends (just like the proverbial) or long delays.

Blimey! I've just bought my first computer (laptop)and wondered which broadband supplier I should go with but reading your reviews, should I bother at all?

Since 1st October 2006, my PlusNet broadband connection has ceased. Since then, I have learned about PlusNet hidden rules and shocking cheating.

If PlusNet does not provide a service, payments must be maintained. PlusNet terms & conditions specify a payment of one month in advance. However, the customer must keep paying and it doesn’t reimburse money when it fails to provide a service. PlusNet cheats all customers with its terms & conditions.

PlusNet does not deal with customers’ broadband failure. By default, all technical issues are left unattended for 5 days at the outset; they are left unresolved and a new 5-day cycle is restarted for other unspecified failures. It blames vividly the LLU broadband network supplier for all technical faults, but it cannot confirm when it contacts the LLU supplier and for which purpose. PlusNet cheats customers by blaming third-parties and by staying fully inactive.

PlusNet claims that its testing shows that the broadband line is working when it is constantly dead. It cannot substantiate the source of failure of its own testing unit: corrupted testing software and hardware, unqualified personnel, non-performed testing. PlusNet cheats customers by not testing the fault line and not having adequate testing system.

PlusNet has several units for customer service requests. All units are manned by a single person dealing with everything from technical faults to billing, including abuse. Customer service is operated by few technicians, who do not address customers’ needs. PlusNet cheats customers by a complete lack of adequate staff, support and actions.

PlusNet claims a 92% satisfied customers. Just another lie, as it does not publicize about customers that it abuses.

That message is to be available on PlusNet forums and to other external forums. PlusNet can remove the message from its own forums, as an obvious evidence of its complete lack of customer care.

been with aol for 2 years and am sick of the great deals for new users.long standing customers get nowt unless you start from scratch.so much for loyalty.i am moving to bt but am wary of the bad score in the isp poll.wish me luck.

I have been with TISCALI for 2 years now and am 'supposed' to get 2mb speed. YEAH RIGHT! I am currently operating at 589kbps (which is good by the way) even though the line is fine. This isn't the worst thing though. I called them 2 weeks ago and asked for an upgrade to 8mb. They checked my line and said 'there's no problem there- your line can easily take that speed, however at this time the area you live isn't eligable for this upgrade.' Whne I enquired further they said I could start a new contract with them and have 8mb, however I would be without broadband for at least a month whilst this transaction took place. What is all that about??? Whatever happened to looking after loyal customers? Its the usual story once they have your money. . . There priority seems to be getting new customers and not looking after the existing ones. Hence I am now looking elsewhere.

Hey Dan, very few people actually use Sky broadband, hence the lack of reviews for it. If you want to be safe about your broadband connection, you're probably better off with one if the dedicated broadband providers reviewed here, or somebody offering broadband+TV bundles for a long time, like Telewest.

what do you think about SKY. is it all right??
i have BT but want to swap to SKY. SKY is cheaper
I don't know what to do...

Just wanted to say thanks, while trying to decide what supplier to use I stumbled accross this site. Will not be signing up with Pipex after reading the reviews! and who in there right mind would trust "THE HOFF" anyway?!..............

no problems but when we moved house our old number stayed with us now we get billed for the 09 numbers that the new people make.our bill shot up 9 fold in one month.we have spent 10 hours trying to sort this out.we have been cut off,lied to and had somone pretend to be the manager now we have to send every bill & a letter to head office. why cant the call operator do this? the bills & a note is that so hard for tiscali yes.JUST DONT MOVE HOUSE.

I am writing this review whilst on hold for a pipex advisor, the online "my pipex" is not available, so I have no choice, I have been on hold now for 19 minutes and counting....

Joined PIPEX in the summer for home broadband- they are appauling! There customer services are a nightmare, I have been trying for over 2weeks to call them, the answer you get . . .'all our advisors are busy please call back later' and thats after being put on hold for 5 minutes. stay clear, they do not respond to daily emails either. If you want customer care then go elsewhere. I have quit with them and stopped my direct debits, perhaps now they will contact me?!

My experience with AOL has been astonishingly bad. After having received the equipment I was not able to get online due to “unexplained error”, so I contacted the AOL technical support. Average time to get through to the support is 25 min, plus you need to allow another 5-10 min for every time they transfer you between numerable departments. After I finally reached them the error did not become less unexplained – the AOL engineers told me that there was a problem with BT line but refused to provide any indication as to how long it will take to resolve it. Obviously they refused to call me back suggesting I should call them every 24 hours for an update. In brief, 1 week, 5.5 hours on the phone and several suggestions to call for another update later I used my right for cooling off period (that was the only good thing about my AOL experience btw). To make our break especially memorable, AOL pointed out that there was no way to get a MAC code for me so I had to wait another week to get my line cleared to be able to get connected to another provider – BT in my case. Obviously AOL engineers suggested that since there was a problem with the line I would experience the same kind of problem with BT. In fact I was online same day that I received the equipment from BT but I do not have another spare hour to call AOL technical support to share my excitement with them. In other words unless you enjoy spending 3 evenings per week listening to the music on the phone I would probably consider a different provider.

I was fairly hapy with Talk Talk calls service and thought I'd use their broadband. They were VERY helpful(surprise surprise)but I was warned by a friend that I may have trouble, so I cancelled in the permitted time. Several weeks later I tried to access another provider. I have a 'marker' on my line that prevents any other service, and when I called TAlk Talk, the call centre (where?) said 'BT refused the cancellation.' What does that mean? BT certainly didn't know. If they are going to fob me off with fairy tales, I'm going back to BT for calls. I don't know if the marker is still there, but they are now suggesting that I may have broken my contract and have a big bill to pay. But it's OK for them to lie to me? And they've just billed me for the broadband tyhey are not supplying!!

I moved house in the middle of Aug. Checked out broadband providers and was told by BT,PIPEX adn ORANGE that I could have no more than 6MB! Since that is enough for me to use SKYPE for phonecalls to my kids and parents in Sweden I was happy with that. I join 1MB trial for 30 days with ORANGE, tried the last 2 weeks to get a migrationcode to transfer to PIPEX. ORANGE gave me an unvalid LAW code, that no one else use! So I had to cancel and be without internet for a while. Been without it for 2 weeks, my ORANGE marker was supposed to be taken off my line the 13th. It wasn't, they said 16th. It wasn't Today 18th it was still there! I phoned the "Open reach" office that removes the markers and a gorgoeus woman got intoch with engineers and she called me back and confirmed that NO my line was cleared for me to order broadband from anyone I liked. Now, when PIPEX and BT check my line, I CAN NOT USE BROADBAND ONLY 512KB! Can anyone explain this to me?? What have changed in 3-4 weeks??

I placed my order on the 12th April 2006 The (Talk 3 Package) and today date is 16th October 2006 and I?m still waiting for my long FREE Broadband and the phone service, I guess you all probably know by now what I have gone through with them.

Now after months of aggravation with talk talk I finally move to my old VERY BEST BRITHISH TELECOM SERVICE who is very happy to want me back. That my short and simple sad story that I have experience with TALKTALK. So please BE CAUTIOUS you might end up like myself crying for a free Broadband.

Been with Tiscali 16 months- moved home in March 06 and transfered the tiscali package - or so I though 8 weeks later before I was connected!!!! Indian call centre were unable to assist took 10 attempts to get through each time due to high number of calls - no wonder if the service is as poor for every one else as foe me- eventually got back on line. In september sent my computer for upgrade got it back could not get connected seems the person who used to live in my house pre march 06 also used Tiscali and had cancelled his account, well actually they breach data protection allowed him access tomy account and actually cancelled my line Indian call centre actually calle dme by his name discpite having supposidly just id'd myself!!!! not as bad this time only 44 dyas to get reconnect- ill be talking with my feet and moving else where average service when it work very very poor when it goes wrong - oh and they have the cheek to still bill me for the period in which they cancelled my broadband!!!

Ordered Tiscali in July for home use (after a dreadful year with AOL not supporting POP3 mail). AOL released the line but here we are in September and STILL no connection!! The technical support is very poor. Consider the last attempt:-
Called...put on hold..got connected (Indian call centre) explained the situation and they had to put me thru to a different department - then the line went dead.
Redialed....put on hold...connected (UK this time) to Technical support who said everything was fine, talk to Billing and they would connect me - the line went dead again.
Redialed Billing...put on hold...connected and helpful person in Billing said they have no idea why Technical would want me to speak to them and COULD I GO BACK TO THEM AND ASK THEM WHY!!! She suggested I WRITE to the head office in Milton Keynes.
I emailed them intead - got a helpful auto-reply saying that as a valued customer I would get a reply in 48 hours. That was 30 days ago....
Now, for the twist in the tale, I have Tiscali at another address and its excellent. So the moral of the story is when its connected Tiscali are good. Any problems then you are in serious trouble..!!!

no being happy with ntl i decided to try bt internet b/b so i am gettin acomplete change over free and calls unlimited 24/7 and 4mb speed bb for 38 smackers a month so i gave ntl the chance to better it and from an office in india i think, they offered me a discount off my monthly bills (hope u are sitting down) of 4 pounds a month woopie doo eh so watch this space ti see if bt delivers all it said it will

Just thought I'd let people know that Incredimail does work with talktalk (someone on here couldn't get it to work & said you could not) Instead of what the disk tells you to do, you must put mail.talktalk.net in the incoming box & smtp.talktalk.net in the outgoing box this will correct the problem & you can send & recieve e-mails.
TalkTalk have made a codgeup on the disk.

TALK TALK - SPREAD THE WORD: I have just received the above Talk Talk Newsletter and I sure would like to spread the word ... the truth and nothing but the truth to help you decide for yourself whether or not this is the right time for you to take up their so called FREE broadband offer.
I placed my order on the 22nd April and my phone service was transferred in the second week of May if I am not mistaken. My free broadband service was originally to be activated around the 23rd of June according to information provided on their website but later it was changed to read.. end of June.

My broadband service did not start by the end of June and when I contacted Talk Talk I was informed that they tried to connect me 6 times but could not as there was an incompatible device on the line. Was it not their responsibility to inform me of the problem themselves. Why did they have to wait for me to contact them first? Anyway. they advised me to contact BT. However, on contacting BT, I was told to contact my existing broadband supplier, which I did. My existing supplier said that they would have to terminate my service and free up the line which would take 10-15 days after they terminated my service at the end of July. This done I now had no broadband service and had to use a dial-up service to get my mails etc. My line was freed in early August and I informed Talk Talk about it. They now informed me that it would take them 10-15 days to connect me. These are the exact words from their e-mail to me: "Once this has been done we can then reprovision your TalkTalk broadband account and this will take no longer than 10-14 working days to 'go live'.

In this time period you will receive a TalkTalk broadband welcome pack including start-up CD, user name and password. You will also be sent a modem. This will be sent out by Royal Mail and fits through a standard sized letter box, so you don't need to worry about staying home waiting for it to arrive."

That means I should have received my modem and set-up instructions soon after I informed them that my line had been freed. However, even though I found that my borrowed modem indicated that it had been connected on the morning of Saturday, the 19th August, I still had not received my modem and set-up instructions and till today, the 10th September I have not received anything from them even though they promptly took the connection fee of ?29.99 as soon as I opted to join their phone and broadband service. I was able to obtain my password etc. to connect to their service on the day my service went live by phoning a number on the back of one of their bills.

I have written to Talk Talk asking them to refund me ?31.98 for two months broadband charges paid to my previous supplier and for dial-up service. If they do not comply I shall be contacting the BBC's Watchdog and Ofcom, to recover the broadband charges that I have to incur owing to their failure. If necessary, I shall not hesitate to take the matter to court to recover my money.

NOW, WOULD YOU LIKE TO JOIN TALK TALK? DO YOU WANT FREE BROADBAND FOR LIFE? DO YOU WANT TO BE ANOTHER HAPPY CUSTOMER OF TALK TALK AND SPREAD THE WORD LIKE I AM DOING? THEN WHY NOT SIGN UP ONLINE NOW?

I wish I'd seen these entries before I tried to join Orange. Signed up 8 weeks ago and only had 10 days of service. They say that its a problem with the line but BT tell them its an isp problem- where does this leave me?- Thought I had got out of their grasp 2 weeks ago when I managed to talk to one of their 'technical supervisors'. He eventually agreed that I could cancel my account without penalty and he even said 'as a gesture of goodwill' he would repay my subscriptions. However I was obviously far too trusting as I look at my bank statement today and find they have taken a further payment!- Called them today and they have no record of my concersation with their supervisor and are saying they will not cancel my contract! HELP ME!

Just got a reply to my letter I sent to ask for a MAC Code and to cancel my contract. WHAT A WASTE OF TIME! (SEE MY PREVIOUS COMMENTS)
They just say my contract is not up yet (It's up on29-09-06) and they cannot give me a MAC code as I am a LLU customer (what's that)!
What mentality are the people working there??????
They want me to ring up again, of course they do they are on the money making scam of 08700 phone numbers. The longer your on the more cut they get! They won't ring you.
Are there any good providers out there???

Due to a house move I decided to change ISP providers and move to the more "trustworthy" Virgin.net. Unfortunatelly I have realised that the word customer service does not exist to their vocabulary. You pay 25p per minute and the average waiting time is around 10 to 15 minutes!!!! The thing is I chose the 8mbit option and the highest download speeds I got up to this point is around 90kb/s!!!! although the bt reassured me that I should get at least 6 to 7mbits.
Finally, the most amazing thing is, after numerous complaints, VAirgin's technical supervisor told me that I should be very happy with the speeds I am getting??!!!!???!?!?!?!? - yeah right.

Tiscali's Fair Usage Policy is designed to make sure your broadband service is quick and reliable whenever you use it. A very small number of customers use Peer to Peer or file sharing software, which constantly sends and receives video and other very large files, throughout the day. This type of activity uses a lot of bandwidth and can significantly reduce the speed at which other customers can access the internet during peak hours. Approximately 1% of customers use more than 30% of the available bandwidth during peak hours. We don't believe this is fair to the vast majority of our customers. This fair usage policy automatically identifies the very small number of extremely heavy users and manages their bandwidth only during peak hours (6pm to 11pm Monday to Sunday), to protect the service for all our other customers. Outside peak hours, the use of the internet by these heavy users is unaffected. We think this is the fairest approach. It protects the quality of service for the vast majority of our customers when they most use the service, while at the same time allowing the extremely heavy users to continue to send and receive without restriction outside of peak hours.

I've just upgraded from standard internet access, and so far I am quite happy with the service from BT, says what it doesn on the tin, fast and relaible. Can't compare it to others I'm afraid..

Never join Orange. I joined 6 weeks ago and have never managed to connect. After 6 weeks of no service, 15 calls to their support desks (average waiting time 30min) i m now told that in order to cancel without being penalised (!) that i need to get the techical leaders approval. However i m not allowed to talk to them and no one in the customer care nor technical support office can contact them either! It's outrageous!

i'am on talk talk 3 package giving up to 8 meg speed, still only getting 1.1 meg, but it keeps freezing so keep having to disconnect to get back on only for it to freeze again after a few minutes might have to look else where when contract up unless they pull their finger out

Since the re-branding of the Wanadoo service began the service has got worse and worse. I can conduct searches on Google but all links time out! Dial-up is considerably faster at the moment!

Just want to warn anyone thinking of joining Orange broadband, DON'T!!!
I've been with them nearly a year and extremely glad I can change providers. I have been held on the line for an hour at nearly 4pence per minute to get a MAC Code to change provider, only to be told to ring another time! I joined Wanadoo Wireless and Talk to save money, but failed to do so as I often have to use BT because wanadoo line fails.
I have just written a letter to them to cancel my contract. Let's see how long it takes them.
I'm not sure who to take a new contract with yet. There are some very interesting comments on this site, Thanks

I decided to take up the offer of broad band with virgin.net after checking my phone number and postcode on their website to see what sort of connection I could get.the search concluded that they could supply up to 8mbps for only ?17.99 a month,even though BT said I could only get 0.5mbps.
Everything arrived on time and I eagerly connected everthing up so I could get surfing,and this is where my problems started ! My modems adsl light just kept flashing to say I had no connection and did so for all but 3 days of the entire month that I endured virgin.net.Each time you have to ring them up they charge you 25p per minute and refuse point blank to call you back.They ensure you that your problem is being delt with, and of course it's never their fault it's always BT causing the problem.In reality nothing seems to happen so you end up calling again and again going through the same questions over and over again and always at 25p per minute.They have seperate telephone numbers for each department,all with a queueing system, the longest queue is the cancelations department (which tells the story in it's self) When I rang to cancel they told me there would be a cancelation fee, a fee for something I never recieved in the first place!.And as for the money that I had already invested in their haples company,I would have to wait 30 days from cancelation before they would even consider a refund, even though their "techinical expert" had finnaly agreed that I was too far away from my exchange to recieve broadband. Buyer Beware
They have seperate telephone numbers for customer service

initially l had the phone connection with NTL then l decided to take their broadband as well.they were well organised in charging me the exact amount monthly but they failed to provide me the BROADBAND SERVICE....!!!! l used to call them up everyday and they used to transfer my call to different parts of the country leaving me holding my phone for hours !!!! till now its not been sorted out.. then l decided to cancel all the deals with NTL and they started calling me up offering discounts which practically never came in action. they are a mess in communication... now my best way to use internet facility is to go to a cafe and do my work.. just couple of pounds...tensionfree...hasslefree...and no bills at the end of the month..

Bulldog as far as I am concern in synonymous with incompetence. They disconnected my broadband service and accused me of not settling their bill. All along they had a direct debit mandate from me to collect their payment. This was set up on my bank account. I had 3 calls from their representatives who called and I also gave them a credit card number to collect the money. For some unknown reason, they ignored all this and chose to disconnect service. I then went to another broadband provider who requested for a 'migration code'. Bulldog gave me a code but swiftly went on to block it afterwards.I did comply with their terms and conditions.

Luckily I have another line so I am not at Bulldogs mercy. This matter will be reported to Oftel. Bulldog is an incompetent company. It is a disgrace. To those of you thinking of taking up broadband, do yourself a favour......no, no to Bulldog. Another warning....since May 06', Bulldog say they are no longer taking on customers directly. This suggests to me that the incompetence of their management and their staff has now caught up with them. So to get round this, they are taking on customers on different guise....by selling their service(?)...to other companies who in turn will sell it to you the consumer. So watch these incompetent morons.

Hi
Everyone is all to happy to complain about whoever or whatever. Banks and Breakdown companies are the same, some love em, some hate em.
I have been with Tiscali for over two years and had absolutely no problems at all. after observing NEW offers,I, as an existing customer was able to take advantage of the New offers, whereas some companies say it must be ( for new customers only - Bit like the TV ads )BUT.... Each to their own
Noel

An update. Saterday just gone (26th) I received a phone call from Pipex claiming I owe them ?5x.xx quid! But after a rant at the girl on the end of the phone, she couldn't tell me what for or why(!) You couldn't make this stuff up!! I then started checking my on-line bank and guess what? They haven't been charging me! But anyhow, said that unless they sort out the ?105 owed to me, I'm not playing ball... they'll have to take it out of that... but I'll bet next will be the threat of adsl disconnection, but I'll wait and see what happens!! They can roll thier contract in a tube and shove it up their A@**!!

trying to cancel after 5 days but get a different answer
each day. say they will but then they dont.
the customer services in this company sucks and tells
blatent lies.
join this company at your peril

Just a brief reminder for those that didn't read my previous review.... PIPEX SUCKS HOFF!!! Please peep's, don't do it! They have now taken ?23 out of my bank, saying it's a final bill.... and the majority of it is PIPEX NUMBERS!!!! When will there be a watchdog of Broadband??? Still no refund, dammed if they are going to get away with it!! DO NOT GET PIPEX!!!

I'm one of those whose line is to far from the exchange to achieve decent speeds, so I'm stuck with good old 512 bb. I've been with Tesco for a couple of years now and find the service to be excellent. I play a lot of online games (BF2) and always have a decent ping whatever time of the day I on. My mate is with BT and has 2mb BB and can only get a decent ping after 11pm, which is ridiculous.

BT told me I could have 1.5mb broadband, so they took my money, sent me the modem and arranged the connection date. Excited by the prospect of my new BB I took the day off work and guess what? ..... They never connected me. I then rang up BT who told me that they had cancelled my connection for that day because further tests on my line told them that all I could have was the 512kb I already had. It took me weeks to get my money back which they would only refund as a credit on my phone bill but did mange to get ?50 compensation after plaguing there sorry excuse for customer service section for over a week (mind you I had to sit in a queue for times of up to 2 hours to achieve that) In summary BT are total W@nk?rs, at least Dick Turpin had the decency to wear a mask!!!!! Stay well clear

I have been waiting for ages to have the broadband transferred to a different address after I moved apartment. Just silly excuses from customer service and no action. I am going to cancel cause after 2 months I can't ait for these idiots to fix my connection. Don't go for Tiscali, they are terrible!!!

i am with bulldog for something like 18 months now. for first 6 months i did not receive any bill or invoice, and then on one beautiful day they sent me invoice for half a year and without contacting me charged credit card which i used for paying for subscription (which was not mine, but my friends). after months of tries to contact their customer service i managed to set up a DD, and guess what happened? now they are taking money monthly from my account and the card as well! so i've contacted them again (it took 2 months again) and they say they have no DD set up for me. so i've done it again and this month i'm expecting them to DD me twice and take money from the card as well. i'm going to change to 'BE' as soon as they'll solve my email complain, which may take, according to their rules of conduct, up to 29 working days (1 and a half calendar mont).

DO NOT GO WITH PIPEX!! Intially I was with Freeserve, then Pipex. Then I moved house. As I was with PIPEX before I'd thought I'd go with them again.... BIG MISTAKE!!!! When I got an email telling me that I would be connected on the 17th of July 06, great, no paperwork arrived as promised with the username, password etc. But ever the optimist, I checked the DSL modem and nothing, left it a couple of days and still nothing, BT didn't want to know, so back to PIPEX. After an email, (on a dial up pay-as-you-go 0845 number) they (the technical department) issued the usual Bulls*it about "have you got this connected correctly etc..." if so call this number 0845.... after several attempts, and a phone call lasting 45 minutes being handed over to several other people, I thought I'd had sorted it. Until looking through my on-line banking that they had taken ?105 out of my bank! They're reply was OPPS!! That shouldn't of happened... And to top it all, there is a fault which will loose the internet connection at any time... If they don't sort this out, not only am I going to stop PIPEX from DD my bank but actually cancel the contract, it says somewhere in there that they HAVE to provide a service, which in my eyes they are not. So people, Ignore the HOFF, and go with eclipse (which a friend of mine is on). AGGGGHHH!!!

I changed from Supanet dial up to Broadband about 2 years ago, and upgraded again this year (which also reduced the monthly charge from ?22.99 to ?14.99). All I can say is IT'S WONDERFUL. I've never had a problem and their customer service is good, even if it is in India!

I have been with Freedom Broadband with ntl world just over a year. Before that I was with them for dial-up for 5 yrs. I have never experienced any problems with them at all. However, I would prefer to pay less than the current ?24.49 per month for 24/7 connection and free phone calls 24/7, I pay line rental to BT as well. I am frightened to make the change to Tiscali (Who appear to be the best) after reading your comments. What should I do?

In May 2006 I upgraded to the new TalkTalk 3 package that includes broadband for life. They told me it would be active in July, so I gave them time to set it up. At the end of July I tested the speed and it was still the same as a 512K line. I tried to call them to find out what was happening. Called the Support helpline and heard "All our customer services representitives are busy, please call back later." and then my call was disconnected. After spending about 1 hour trying to get hold of someone, I was eventually told, "Sorry, but your service will only be available in January 2007 as we do not have equipment in your exchange." I received no call or letter to tell me that there is an issue. I had to spend my time going from telephone number to telephone number to find out myself. There service is rubbish.

Do not even think of getting broadband from bulldog, possibly the most incompetent customer service i've ever experienced. Whilst the actual internet connection was ok, trying to change contracts took me 6 months before i gave up and left them. ****ers!

great advert - that's all !!!!my advice dont't even try it !!!customer service - does not exist,you have problem - but we have attitude we can't care less.

I've had nothing but trouble with Tiscali since i ordered their broadband back in may, now july i still do not have a modem and they are taking money out of my account. I have been told that i can not get my money back from them until my account is active, but with no modem i cant activate my account,so they are continuing to charge me. Its cost me a fortune trying to resolve this, its a premium number and i'mcalling them from a mobile for 20 minutes each time, going through, repeating to them my address that is wrong for the 5th time, and all i'm told is i'm sorry the modem will be with you in the next couple of days or we will send it and you will recieve it via courier tomorrow. Needless to say these tomorrows never arrive. If you dont want any hassle and you want a service where you are treated as a customer then don't choose Tiscali, they lie.

I?m a Talk Talk customer and I?m so happy, it?s quick, it?s easy and the most important it?s free. Talk Talk it?s given me the same services that another company for free.
We have to think about when we compare.

I signed up with Tiscali in Feb, was told it would take 15 days to make broadband live (you only have 14 days to decide if you made the right decision!). Found out within 7 days their customer service was absolute disgrace and cancelled there and then; they ignored my cancellation, eventually took money from my account, even though they didn't even send me a modem so it was impossible for me to use the unwanted activated broadband; I was abused and lied to by their employees. I eventually contacted Trading Standards, OFCOM and it is now in the hands of CISAS.
My advice to anybody is, if you want problems then join Tiscali, if you already have problems with Tiscali then contact CISAS, this is an arbitration company.

I signed up to homechoice and after 3 weeks of problems they informed me that my line was not good enough for the service. They also disconnected me early leaving me with no phone and internet access and then didn't have a instalation date free for a further week. After a lot of chasing I got them out on the original set date to install my new service.

I've just got my phone line transfered from BT to them and now have to try and find another provider for phone and internet as at the moment I have no home internet access and am just about to have no phone.

Just a word of warning do get them to run a ful check on your line and don't email everyone with your new email address until at least a month later!

I've been using NTL 2 mb Broadband for some time now. I've had absolutely no problems. Service very reliable, but like any other service peak times can be slow. Moral - do big file transfers over night!
I didn't have any problems with their slower version either...
My son has Telewest and he doesn't have any problems

would like to add to the last comment that i am using bulldog broadband and i am getting more than 16 meg , the reason i think is i am living very near to the telephone exchange just under 100 metres.

Hey there Guys this site Really Rocks cuz i can find the comments on all the Broadbands here....i was using Bulldog broadband 8 Meg for the last 7 months now and recently i upgraded my package to 16 MEG broadband and i am living more then 2KM away from the exchange and guess whats my Average Speed of Broadband ??? its 14.2 mbps ...Damn Bulldog is finally rockin...Try it you will love it....

Here is an update to my earlier comments regarding Pipex. After first denying me access to their lower charges for new customers only, pressure has produced a 'retention' option for loyal customers, which they do not advertise. Well at least it is available and they have listened, which is refreshing these days. So I am now down from ?23.99 per month to ?17.99 per month and the speed has been doubled to 2mb. Here is one last comment for existing users. No matter what your connection speed seems to say on the task manager icon, you are only running at 1mb unless you have recently joined them or upgraded to Pipex Go and above.

It looks as if there is a big problem with the broadband industry that needs to be sorted out. I just had an unbelievable conversation with a Pipex representative where I learnt that their new lower Pipex Go prices don't apply to me because I am an existing customer. This is breathtaking treachery against their loyal customers. At the moment they think they can get away with this because changing ISP is aggravation. They said they might change their policy if enough people write in, so come on guys and gals, send an email to customerservices@pipex.net and tell them what we customers think about being ripped off. This particularly affects anyone using their talk service as well.

BT...the arsehole of the world! They are still using the ancient copper-core cabling in their exchanges causing latency and conduction problems. A lot of speed is lost this way, and if you live too far away from the nearest exchange...a couple of feet should do it...you haven't got a fig of a chance to get anything like 1Mb speed in real terms, and a lot less during peak times. No promise from any broadband dealer for a better speed taking over your line can be met at all on a contention ratio of 50-1, so don't listen to the bluff merchants!!! They are simply stealing your money like BT have been doing since they became the monopoly in this country!!! BT should migrate to the north pole and take their antiquated exchanges with them!

Every night between 22:00pm and 12:00pm I cannot for the life of me log on to My Pipex pages. After complaining they said they'd fixed the problem...lies...all lies! I still cannot log on. I have cancelled via email and letter...still waiting to be disconnected. They'll get not a penny more from me welshing on my contract like that. My advice is...don't go there!

I have tesco broadband, 1mb for ?19.97 per month and I can't wait till my contract is up so that I can sign up with some other company, it's so slow I could make a cup of tea while I am waiting for something to download

I cancelled my Broadband on 10 Feb I was told it would take 10/15 days on the 01 March I received a letter from Tiscali saying thay had sent a request to BT to release my line allowing 15 days it is 17 days, it is 5 weeks now how much longer

This has to be the worst service we have ever used in our home/office. It has never worked from day one. Every day we have to reconnect, there have been long periods when we have not be able to get any service what so ever. It has NEVER provided any where near the 20mb connection promised it is slower that the very first dial up service we had connected. It crashes on a regular bases and has caused untold problems due to non access to emails. We have spent hours waiting on the phone to get help only to be fixed for a very short time and then loose service once again.

This service is the pits, and we shall be cancelling the contract this week.

This is one moment when we have managed to get a connection.

Been crap since day 1 has anyone got 22meg? thats what we pay for but most of the time we get lower than 10meg when its on but it is off more than its on. Staff are pleasant enough but the are obviously inundated with complaints cause it takes 40mins to an hour to get through to tech, we have to disconnect and reconnect many times a day and they have no answers.As soon as we have a replacement we are cancelling. Telewest hardwired 10meg seems to be the best and most reliable.

Re previous post. I had problems with speed and then connection. I went through all proceedures with ISP (Wanadoo and then Force9) Problem turns out to be BT who have oversubscribed the exchange. Problems only exist at peak usage times. This creates 'noise' on the line. The further away from the exchange you are, the more you will suffer. It appears that BT are happy to promise you the world until they get your money. Then its tough luck!!
The sooner the broadband trials using the mains electircity supply are complete, and then rolled out, the better. I will be the first to tell BT where to insert their, so called, service!!!

tesco broadband 512k connection fine through the day after 5pm the slowest connection you could have dial up is ten times as fast, contacted tesco helpline and told me my machine was the problem,took it to pc repair shop found no problems ,contacted tesco and still no joy,problem lies at local exchange where there lines allocated for tesco cannot cope

I moved from Wanadoo to force9 in November last year. I have found it to be faster, cheaper and, due to my computing problems, the help given was second to non, and you talk to people in the UK (Sheffield).

A great service.

U know whut..better if u didnt choose Aol for ur broadband cuz it really3x SUCKZZZZ !!! It makes my computer going crazy and somtimes it just log out anytime it want..what a piece of junk...better not use it....

i was with aol for 1 year and decided to cancel,new supplier could not connect their line because AOL had not removed their connection,it took about 20 phone calls threats of legal action for them to take their connection off,it took them 3 MONTHS to remove it,they kept blaming BT,keeping me offline from NOVEMBER 2004 until FEBRUARY 2005

I have got Tiscali broadband for nearly 2 years. At the beginning fine, but then, they have started increasing the speed, and the speed that you get is crap!!! They argue that because I am a heavy user, they give preference to low-use customers to have everybody the right of good speed, so their servers slow me down!!! For godness sake!!! Tiscali, buy more servers!!!!! So everybody can have the "right" to have the speed that you "sell"!!!!

hey guys after reading all the comments regarding every ISP i would say that the best ISP i have ever had is BULLDOG.cuz i used to use BT he told me that i cant get more than 1meg in my area but when i signed up wid Bulldog they r giving me 5meg.GREAT THAX BULLDOG you are the BEST

I use to use Virgin broad band n thy say tht thy hav a one month contract but thy charged me with 50 whn i left within an year n took my email n modem. my advise is dont use internet thn using Virgin

hi
I've been using bulldog broadband since the last four months and all this time i hae been getting amazing servise i usually get round about 7.5 or 7.8 mbps every day and not only me i got a few of my family people to bullog and they are enjoying the servises as well

Hmmmm 8 meg mate i think bulldog improved a lot i m using for couple of months i m getting 7.7 meg on daily basis and the best thing about bulldog i can download as much as i want no limit now a days bulldog rules thanks for the sales person who called me and gave me the gr8 opportunity to usde the precious service

I've had homechoice for about 8 months now and on the whole it's very good value as you get TV, ADSL and free calls.

However it does tend to freeze, especially on Saturday evening when the general public hit the net, then again thats contended lines for you!

I also have problems with Tiscali broadband and a very slow speed during peak hours. Customer Service, if it can be called like that, is really really bad....migrating soon

I have had this for over a year now looking for somefink quicker now have very rarely had probs with it touch wood!!

Been with Plusnet for around seven moths and the unlimited package 2Mb ?21:99 per month. All seem fine until September where l now been drop down to 67Kbps during peak time but am still charged ?21:99 per month. Crap service and for them to cheat and lie to there customer due to them not been able to keep up to the demanded it crap. Keep away from them if you?re looking for unlimited download package.

This is a bad service the have hiden rule a an restrictions. you have to be using outlook if you have btyahoo or your service does not work properly. If you use eudora,Incredimail, etc you cannot send any emails. Then you would ned to down grade to the 512mb which is bt only.

WE DECIDED TO GIVE NTL A SECOND CHANCE, THE FIRST TIME WE HAD NOTHING BUT GRIEF, MONEY DOWN THE DRAIN, ON THE PHONE COMPLAINING THREE AND FOUR TIMES A WEEK. ALL FOR EIGHTEEN POUND A MONTH, GREAT HA. BACK TO THE SECOND CHANCE NOT QUITE AS BAD BUT THEY KEEP TAKING THE INTERNET OFF SO WHEN YOU WANT TO USE IT YOU CAN,T NO E MAILS NOTHING OH WELL SAVE MY NEXT COMPLAINT FOR ANOTHER TIME.

Ali - Go for the faster speed and not the cheepest you can find
Dial-up faster than spec.
Service-invariably connects first attempt
Up/Downloading speeds good
Costs - competitive

I ordered the 1-mb broadband for ?14.99/month. Setup was fast and easy, good start. The speed however was just unbearable, I did a speed test; the result: 9 kbps, to give you some perspective, good old dial up internet speeds reached 5 kbps - This was my '20x faster than dial up' service eh? Also their Indian call centres were a joke. Don?t get sucked in by the cheap price, it?s a COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME

The poll on the left has been updated, to accomodate the ability to vote for the WORST broadband ISP, as well as the BEST:)

Regards,
Admin

bulldog...8meg option running like 3meg...

always ISP server crash.... the good side is only 1 Month contract. :P

worst ever broadband service BT

Hello,
Just wanted to say that this site kicks ass! Very helpfull!

Leona

I'm with Telewest and I have no complains whatsoever. Plus their broadband package + phone line is the best deal around.

I've been with Virgin Net Broadband for ages and I think they're absolutely brilliant. Althought I originally signed up because of their no-contract policy, I'm with them over 2 years now. Another great thing they did at one point, is to stop signing up new users, when they bandwidth availability became marginal. Cool huh? Mike