is it worth the hassle moving from BT to NTL?

Scruff

currently with BT and pay €53 for 3mb bb + telephone. Got a flier in the door from UPC(NTL) saying i could get 6mb bb + phone + all landline calls free for €54.
So is double the bb speed and some free calls worth the hassle of changing? There seems to be a lot of threads about NTL bb problems that would worry me as my BT bb has been pretty problem free over the 2 years i've had in.
What about downtime when switching phones over?

opinions?

RangeR

In answer to the subject of your thread. NO!

You will be swapping one bad company for another.

If you can get them, go for either Smart Telecom or Digiweb, in that order.

Steffano2002

I would put Magnet ahead of Smart and Digiweb...

As for switching to NTL: I had to switch from Magnet to NTL (no choice, had to move out) and I was dreading NTL! However, I've been pleasantly surprised with the quality of the NTL connection!

It's 3MB BB and we always get full whack. And for gaming, I find NTL much better than Magnet as there is no interleaving with NTL thus giving me pings of around 30~40ms as opposed to 80~90ms on Magnet!

However, I realise that I must be one of the lucky ones... Not everybody is happy with NTL so I must be blessed!

Why don't you try NTL for a month and keep BT at the same? NTL BB is via cable so you could have both running at the same time. Could be worth a try...

Username!

Steffano2002 wrote: »

Why don't you try NTL for a month and keep BT at the same? NTL BB is via cable so you could have both running at the same time. Could be worth a try...

Best advice I've heard all day, very nice suggestion :-)

mjsmyth

I switched from BT to NTL....

My BT broadband was excellent... rarely if ever had a problem till one night it died.

I rang support... they checked this and they checked that. Said they could see nothing wrong.

I rechecked everything, new cables for all. No dice. i rang them back. They said they would send out a new broadband modem. No joy, it never arrived. I tried an eircom one on it. I knew it would not work, but it would at least register if there was broadband on the line! Nope, no luck. I rang BT back to see where my modem was and to tell them that I had tried an alternative modem and it did not register any adsl connection on the line. I asked them to check and see if indeed the line was broadband enabled... they said of course it was.

This went on for two weeks. Final straw was when they told me to get an electrician in to check the wiring. Now i have worked in IT for more years than I care to remember, I have wired datapoints (both phone and network) and I had already traced the line back to see if there was an issue. I explained this to the guy on the phone. I explained that I had found no fault. ahh no, this would not do. They wanted an electrician in (surely an electrician is the wrong person, what they should have asked for is a data contractor).

I got in a huff and asked to be put through to customer services. I told them I wanted to cancel everything. They of course asked why and I told them. they asked if there was anything they could do to make me stay. I told them that I wanted my broadband working by the time I got home that night. they replied that could not be done.

3 letters, 2 faxes and numerous emails later, my account was still not closed and they were still taking money. I issued a formal letter of complaint, they said they never received it. I issued a formal letter of complain by email (like I was advised to by BT support), they say they never got it. I finally sent one more letter and faxed it and had also instructed my bank to cancel the direct debit to BT. Eventually, 3 months later, my account was closed.

It took a further 3 months to get all monies refunded. It was more than I thought, but I was not complaining about that!

NTL / Chorus... Well I rang them and 2 days later they installed broadband for me. It all worked, for 2 days and then it was up and down like a yoyo for the next two weeks. Money was credited to my account for those days when i had no broadband. Over the last 6 months, it has been interesting..... Service reliability is not too bad, maybe once or twice a month it seems to disappear during the afternoon or late at night... Last weekend, I had speeds of 18Mb, thats bloody fast in anyones books. Currently it hovers between 2.5Mb and 6Mb and thats on a 3Mb connection.

One thing to note, customer service on Chorus/NTL is a joke, absolutely dreadful. Don't bother asking them a technical question, you will only get stressed out.

mj

RangeR

Steffano2002 wrote: »

I would put Magnet ahead of Smart and Digiweb...

Yup, I have heard good things about them. I can't recommend them as I've never used them

Steffano2002

IrishTLR wrote: »

Yup, I have heard good things about them. I can't recommend them as I've never used them

Well I had them and I definitely would recommend them! Best ISP in Ireland IMO!

sk1

can not complain about NTL speeds or quality of service, always had full speed as advertised, low pings 40-50ms ... - the only problem is the customer service, it sucks if you call them but by email seems to be much better as i found out.