Does any ISP have decent customer support?

Reaper 392 · 20 Dec 2014 at 17:38

I've been pestering my dad to switch from AOL broadband for many years, and after the many problems we've had on the billing side of things and subsequent rubbish customer service he is finally considering changing. However, he will only change if the customer service is half decent (and the price is right). I would also prefer it if the internet didn't drop out completely at least once every couple of days, requiring a router reset.

After some googling and browsing this subforum, pretty much every single review of all the options which are available according to samknows says that the customer service is dreadful. Could anyone give any recommendations as to what is the best/worst out of the available ISPs for customer service and connection reliability?

Once I know which ISP to go for, unless there is a particular package to avoid, I'm perfectly fine with choosing the package that suits me best so don't worry about recommending specific packages. The only ISP I will flat out refuse to go with is Virgin, because they were utterly dreadful in every single way possible for the two years I used them at uni

Extra info that you guys might need. Let me know if you need anything else:

We are connected to the slough main server: https://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/THSL
These are the available connections to my postcode:

BT Wholesale ADSL
BT Wholesale ADSL Max
BT Wholesale WBC (21CN)
BT Wholesale SDSL
BT FTTC
AOL LLU
O2 / Be LLU
Bulldog LLU
TalkTalk (CPW) LLU
Sky Broadband
Pipex LLU
Tiscali LLU
Tiscali TV (via Tiscali LLU)
Zen LLU
Entanet LLU
Virgin Media (Cable)

I'm assuming that BT FTTC is what BT Infinity uses, because when we phoned them asking about an offer they gave us (which turned out to be rubbish), they suggested that we move to the top end BT Infinity package

bledd · 20 Dec 2014 at 17:48

Plusnet meant to be good, UK based.

I'm with them but never had to call them.

Reaper 392 · 20 Dec 2014 at 17:55

bledd. said:
Plusnet meant to be good, UK based.

I'm with them but never had to call them.

Thanks for the suggestion, but from what I saw of the reviews plusnet are great if everything is going fine but if you have to call them then they are incredibly bad

bremen1874 · 20 Dec 2014 at 17:56

I'm currently with PlusNet and happy with their service, especially given the relatively low cost. I have had to speak with them on a few occasions (mainly due to Openreach issues) and they've always been helpful and sorted things out.

If I was to move anywhere it'd be to Zen.

MissChief · 21 Dec 2014 at 01:53

Due to their customer base the main ISP's (BT, Talk Talk, Sky, Virgin, EE & Plusnet) have to employ hundreds of staff and it's simply not possible or feasible for them to hire all 'techy' types who know the in's and out's of DSL, Fibre, the Exchange and the various devices back to front and inside out for the wages they pay. There are a few who work there but they're mostly housewives who have been trained up to follow call flows, students working evenings/Weekends etc.

BT outsource most of it to the Far East, Sky have some outsource but is nearly all in the UK for Techncially trained staff. Talk Talk I'm unsure about and PlusNet are UK based. EE and Virgin I'm not sure about either.

If you want 'decent' support, and by that I mean highly technical people that are happy to believe you and move away from procedure if you tell them you've got a pre-filtered faceplate that you've already removed and tried a normal filter into the test socket and that you've done this or that then you're looking at one of the 'minor' ISP's such as Zen. The unfortunate thing is that you end up paying that bit extra because knowledgeable staff won't want to stay on a customer support line earning less than £10 when they have the knowledge and ability to be earning more than that elsewhere and most likely not speaking to the general public. (The Holy Grail for most Call Centre workers!)

You pays your money you takes your choice.

It should be said though, Customer Satisfaction for Broadband, as surveyed by OFCOM placed both Sky and Virgin at 71% in 2013. Although most consumers simply want Broadband that works at a decent speed and they can browse Wirelessly throughout the house on. They care little for latency, ping and packet loss.

tipsy · 21 Dec 2014 at 10:18

MissChief said:
Due to their customer base the main ISP's (BT, Talk Talk, Sky, Virgin, EE & Plusnet) have to employ hundreds of staff and it's simply not possible or feasible for them to hire all 'techy' types who know the in's and out's of DSL, Fibre, the Exchange and the various devices back to front and inside out for the wages they pay. There are a few who work there but they're mostly housewives who have been trained up to follow call flows, students working evenings/Weekends etc.

BT outsource most of it to the Far East, Sky have some outsource but is nearly all in the UK for Techncially trained staff. Talk Talk I'm unsure about and PlusNet are UK based. EE and Virgin I'm not sure about either.

If you want 'decent' support, and by that I mean highly technical people that are happy to believe you and move away from procedure if you tell them you've got a pre-filtered faceplate that you've already removed and tried a normal filter into the test socket and that you've done this or that then you're looking at one of the 'minor' ISP's such as Zen. The unfortunate thing is that you end up paying that bit extra because knowledgeable staff won't want to stay on a customer support line earning less than £10 when they have the knowledge and ability to be earning more than that elsewhere and most likely not speaking to the general public. (The Holy Grail for most Call Centre workers!)

You pays your money you takes your choice.

It should be said though, Customer Satisfaction for Broadband, as surveyed by OFCOM placed both Sky and Virgin at 71% in 2013. Although most consumers simply want Broadband that works at a decent speed and they can browse Wirelessly throughout the house on. They care little for latency, ping and packet loss.

I know a lot of people dont like sky for who owns it but when it comes to support they are great & only O2 were better. My 3 years with sky BB all my issues have been sorted by them without problems, where most isps fail is when they have to go to openreach and then that is out of their hands.

sky all the way for me at the mo (more expensive than the others though)

KIA · 21 Dec 2014 at 11:37

Zen.

Plusnet waiting times aren't great. http://www.plus.net/supportpages.html?a=212

Randell Floyd · 21 Dec 2014 at 12:54

Zen, Zen and Zen. The're one of the best at customer service in any field, let alone in the world of ISP.

WILD9 · 22 Dec 2014 at 11:49

Had SKY and now Plusnet (due to house move, no sky fibre in new cabinet), not had many issues with plusnet so far but the waiting times are definitely longer than SKY. SKY were surprisingly excellent with their customer support, I didn't expect much but I was consistently surprised by their efforts.

lamboman · 22 Dec 2014 at 16:13

I've dealt with Plusnet for myself and Zen on behalf of a friend. Zen are excellent, they don't try to BS you through troubleshooting steps if it's clear that you know what you're doing either. However, I personally wouldn't pay the huge premium over Plusnet.

Plusnet I've not had to deal with regarding any issues, just quick calls to confirm information. No idea about the waiting times, however from my experience chatting to them they're great as well.

ChrisD. · 22 Dec 2014 at 16:37

Plusnet were great with me to be honest.

tribz · 22 Dec 2014 at 18:33

Just for a bit of balance, I can't say my zen tech support experiences have been great to be honest.

kayomani · 22 Dec 2014 at 18:36

Plusnet were great with a recent issue I had, did have to wait 20 minutes in a queue (But its free so its no so bad..).

ChrisD. · 22 Dec 2014 at 18:45

I never wang them, just sent in web notes and they were answered pretty quickly.

Ringing in is something I despise so it was my preferred method.

John40 · 22 Dec 2014 at 18:46

Zen, been with them for many many years never ever had one problem.

PistolPete · 22 Dec 2014 at 21:53

Andrews & Arnold. Their pricing model doesn't suit everyone but their customer support is second to none.

!bluetonic! · 23 Dec 2014 at 04:45

Zen.

PC Pro Best ISP 2014

We have received PC Pro Best ISP for the eleventh consecutive time!

Congratulations to Zen Internet. For the 11th consecutive year, it’s picked up PC Pro’s reader-voted Excellence Award for the best broadband in the UK. It’s batted aside big players such as BT and Virgin Media for more than a decade, and even managed to improve on last year’s stellar scores. This year, it topped rivals by a solid ten percentage points overall, and by even more of a spread in key categories such as customer support and reliability
Tim Danton, PC Pro

Armageus · 23 Dec 2014 at 09:10

Plusnet support has been excellent in the limited experience that I have needed them - yes the phone waiting times can be long, but at least they give you an indication if you can get on their website.

The response from their forum is also excellent, as within about 5 minutes of posting on there, a customer representative had called me, and escalated my fault to the highest level with BT/Openreach.

DragonQ · 23 Dec 2014 at 13:24

I've heard good things about Sky Broadband too but they balance great rates for slow broadband with high prices for fast broadband so they're probably not suitable for anyone here.

Plusnet does seem to be the best "populist" ISP. £20pm for 80/20 Mbps FTTC, line rental a tad cheaper than the bigger providers, plus some nice cashback offers. Hell, even if you want BT Sport HD it's cheaper to get it via Plusnet than directly from BT.