[northfifeduckling]

we have been annoyed with BT for a while and now feel that if the service is not going to improve (rubbish Broadbabnd speed, call centres abroad to name only a few issues) we may as well change to a cheaper deal. How hard is it? A few people said they had enourmous problems with getting any new services to work properly...what are your experiences???

[jameslindsay]

Kerstin, it is simple your new company should do all the work. 2 weeks ago we left BT and went to Unicom. Now, price wise they are much, much cheaper however, when you have a fault you find out why you should stick with BT. This new company only open office hours Monday to Friday and for a couple of hours on a Saturday so if you have a fault out with these hours you are snookered. Phone BT and they cannot/will not do a thing.

The day after we moved company our phones went down and we had no phone, internet or credit card machine for 36 hours. The other thing I am furious at with Bt is today I received a cheque for £636 that I have over paid - this is so wrong!!!!

[northfifeduckling]

Great you got the cheque, a real bonus for leaving them 
What you described is what I'm worried about, I fancy O2 as we both have phones with them. I just hate repeating myself every few weeks about the crap connection to someone who reads from the script! Arrgghh - a bit like "Have you tried switching it off and then on again" line from a tv comedy on IT...then they pull a switch - then the phone starts crackling and we have to call again -  Then they pull a switch....
My neighbour is with onetel and when both our lines went down BT was on her case quicker than on ours!! so customer service operating times are crucial, will keep an eye out there before I switch.

[doganjo]

Unicom is a business oriented company so keep business hours.  They should have explained that to you, James.  I don't think Sandy thought Unicom were particualry cheap although I was with her when the saleman called and it certainly sounded a good deal. 

The reason people have problems changing is that although it is the law that you can go to whoever you wish, BT do everything in their power to hinder this.  When I was in Aberdeenshire I changed to Talktalk - it really is dirt cheap - it took BT two weeks to hand over the MAC code then they switched my line off 24 hours before it was due to go onto talk talk.  All they have to do is literally throw a switch!  So there was absolutely NO NEED to do it early!   Then they tried to bill me for the same period talk talk billed me for - fortunately I knew exactly what I was doing with the bills having audited phone companies during my career. 

Normally you shouldn't have any problems but whichever company you decide to go with ask their reassurance (Preferably in writing) that all will go correctly, and if you get that then withhold payment till it is all running smoothly.

[Anke]

If you are in a rural area BT is running all the telephone wires, so if you have any trouble your new service provider has to negotiate with BT to get the fault seen to... quite a few people here in the (rural) Scottish Borders have gone back to BT... (and our broadband speed is rubbish too, but at least I won't watch TV on iPlayer...), But we decided to stay wth BT, and so far has worked fine. We just have to accept that living in the back of beyond (well almost) comes with some disadvantages.

[egglady]

now this is interesting becuase i too was thinking about changing from bt today!  we have broadband, phone and tv with them but theyjust keep putting their prices up and i'm getting a bit fed up with it all.  howver, living in a wee village i guess i am a bit 'rural' and i'd hate to have no phone etc........

[doganjo]

I have a BT landline (£17 a month including line rental, free evening and weekend calls), a T-mobile phone on a staff family contract from my son (£10 a month for everything I need - loads of texts and calls) and an O2 broadband, again family one from son for £5, so £32 a month for everything..........  except I want an I-phone - now how can I wangle that one I wonder ........................................   Don't know how much talktalk would be for all that.

[old ploughman]

6 months ago we changed our business line to Opal (talk talk) and our home line to Talk talk. Had one line problem with the business - BT didnt want to know but Opal got on the case and we were back on the next day. Have saved a sizeable amount (75% reduction?) on both lines.

[JulieS]

I'm with BT for phone and broadband,  and had to phone them last month to try and get my 1571 taken off.  That took a while!

Anyway while I was on the phone...and eventually speaking to someone in this country....the very nice girl/lady said 'let me check to make sure you are on the best deal'.  She managed to half my broadband payment.

She said that is always worth calling just after the anniversary of your contract and they will check to make sure you're not paying too much.

I've put a note in the diary for next year!   

[Fowgill Farm]

We are with BT for all our phone & broadband in North Yorkshire.
We are the last farm on our particular line and the broadband has been to say the least a bit slow.
My sister lives at the farm two fields away from me and she changed to Tiscali. When she had a problem with a line fault BT took nearly 3wks to sort it out because they own all the lines round here. She has since gone back to BT. Bt definetly have a monopoly in rural areas as if you change to another provider thay make life for that provider as difficult as possible so its worth bearing this in mind before you change.
Also if you ring up and say you're thinking of changing because of cost as often as not they will make you a good offer to stay with them.
HTH
Mandy

[Roxy]

We had the phone with BT and internet with Tiscali. When Tiscali was being bought out, we changed to BT.  I know we live in a rural area, but the broadband speed can be terrible, and sometimes I cannot log on, and have 10 attempts at it. They did try and sort it, and it is slightly better.  We are now with BT for internet and talk talk for the phone.  I did try and move the internet, but we are in a contract with a while to run.

Unfortunately, we are moving out any day, ready for the auction on here, so they will probably make me carry on paying!!

[sellickbhoy]

i'm with Talktalk and have had no problems with them

the service is a decent price and is always available. (touch wood!)

However, changing from BT might be cheaper, but it won't improve your speed - as it's all on the same cable and going through the same exchange. I guess your problem is that you are out in the sticks and the nearest exchange is a few miles away.

[Roxy]

We are probably mid way between two exchanges - we are the last house from the exchange. I did check before having broadband, and was assured the speed was fine here.

My nearest neighbours over the field in one  direction are on a different exchange, and their address is a different village, and likewise, the farm in the other direction, is another exchange altogether, and also a different village again!!

[Sandy]

Unicome are aimed at business phones and this is private, my bills are greater now than with BT as I only really phone family and friends and I still have BT braodband, that is OK but to find a package now i already have another phone company is not cheap, they all want to provide you with internet and phone, they got me over a barrel as otherwise I would have to pay 18 mths up front to get out!!!!! A friend of mine signed up to BT and was given a certain package, when she enquired when she would get it she was told they had no such package, my friend said, well you record phone calls, you must have recrded it,,,,they told her to hold while they search...and...they never found the tape so, she was able to pull out of the deal.....

[bazzais]

We live 9.5km from the telephone exchange plus our exchange has yet to be unbundled and probably never will be since it would be unprofitable to anyone to do so.  Since the local loop is still owned by BT we had problems getting anyone to try and install broadband here, only BT offered when I asked for a new line install and it came up as part of the tele script.  The engineer arrived and asked that he could leave the house before we tried to plug the router in as he was sure that it would never work.

We do have broadband, be it only 1/4 meg (my upload speed is faster that the download one sometimes strangely!) but it took time for them to even try and no other company would touch us.  For example I could get cheap BB with my Orange phone contract - this is denied in a tied exchange.  I could get cheap BB with my SKY - this is denied in a tied exchange.  I have to go with BT and their extortionate prices - scandalous if you ask me.

Changing providers if your in a BT only exchange is pointless IMO, you'll get the same speed but have more obstacles in the way if you encounter a problem.

Ta

Baz