I would only look at providers that have UK based help desks. One that seems to get good mention is O2. Even more so, if you have a mobile contract with them, as you get a discount.
If you can stand giving Murdoch your cash, then Sky gets fairly good reports, but personally, I wouldn't touch anything to do with News International.
For me, MacAce is the best. It may not be the cheapest, but their service is brilliant. For under £40 quid a month, I get all calls included and up to 20 gig download. Plus if you get a problem, the phone is answered almost immediately, usually by Gary in Cornwall.
I have a neighbour in Houghton with BT broadband and it regularly hangs about once every month, and my girlfriend has that as well, it hangs on a different day, but mostly the 27th or 28th of the month. so much so she changed to sky.... my local hangs it also seem to co-incide with a vodafone outage that lasts about 5 minutes once a week on friday nights.... I know lots of routers phone home for updates regularly, and occasionally they do a self restart, if required (jupiter is guilty of this, and they often wait until there is little or no traffic before restarting,) so I think it might be minor inconvenience versus general systemic health, but hangs are bad.
Thanks Mick; is their helpdesk in Afghanistan or Glasgow?
Thanks Gordon, I do know someone who has trouble with their BT service hanging, and someone else who doesn't. The one who does is a woman, but then so is my daughter. Hmmmmm.......I think I'll advise her to get just the broadband from Plusnet, on the grounds that once you get through the initial period you can threaten them with a request for a MAC number, which seems in my experience to put a squib up their collective arris!
Helpdesk in India. My experience of BT is based on about 15 people. But I'm with Plus Net both at home and in Cumbria & can't fault them - I guess your experience is different.
Several of us here in Dorchester use TalkTalk and enjoy an excellent service with a 40GB allowance and a basic fee, including line rental, of under £18. Evening and W/E calls free, plus various low-cost tarifs for daytime long-distance free calls, foreign destinations, mobiles, etc.
I've been with them for over 18 months, get 17.9 mbs download speed -- ok, the exchange is close by, but when I moved here 35 years ago I naturally took this potential issue into account ;-). Called their helpline once on a theoretical issue and the response was good.
Their reported "low ratings" for service appear to relate to their takeover of a moribund ISP a few year ago.
Finally, their CEO is a woman, which, of course, makes them reasonably practical.
Hi Mick; apart from a few problems Plusnet seem pretty good at the moment; 60 GB allowance for about £8.50 per month, but I'll be keeping an eye on them.
Hi Euan; as I recall, I started my internautical experience with TalkTalk a long time ago and their service started off well but deteriorated. Mind you, that was slowband.
My latest discussion today was with a bloke who's been with BT for twenty years, got a HomeHub, gets all his calls free, for £17 including line rental.
One of their young gentlemen is calling her back tonight to discuss her requirements and she is going to tell him she's had a better offer from Plusnet and see what he then offers her.
In your final sentence I'm not sure that I follow your logic; they will not be required to make the beds or cook the dinner!
He he hee.
Eric Jervis 