TalkTalk - Bizarre result

The TalkTalk problem my aunt has been having has taken a very bizarre twist.
She woke up this morning to find her phoneline dead. Went round to carphone
warehouse shop to find that her entire account has been cancelled without
request. This is obviously a cockup their end but is a positive ill wind.
I have advised her now to contact BT with a view to getting her line back to
BT. She has cancelled the direct debit today after it was cut off.

So once the line goes back to BT, she needs a good isp. Her usage will be
low - just emailing and web browsing. Needs to be inexpensive but
reliable - can those two go together?

Beck wrote:
> The TalkTalk problem my aunt has been having has taken a very bizarre twist.
> She woke up this morning to find her phoneline dead. Went round to carphone
> warehouse shop to find that her entire account has been cancelled without
> request. This is obviously a cockup their end but is a positive ill wind.
> I have advised her now to contact BT with a view to getting her line back to
> BT. She has cancelled the direct debit today after it was cut off.
>
> So once the line goes back to BT, she needs a good isp. Her usage will be
> low - just emailing and web browsing. Needs to be inexpensive but
> reliable - can those two go together?

How inexpensive?

Nildram for £13.99, Zen for £17.99 (288 sync, but unlimited) or £24.99
(MaxDSL, 50GB cap), AAISP for £18.99 (MaxDSL, payg tariff)

xF,

....Nick

"Nick" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:e6mkon$18f$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Beck wrote:
>> The TalkTalk problem my aunt has been having has taken a very bizarre
>> twist. She woke up this morning to find her phoneline dead. Went round
>> to carphone warehouse shop to find that her entire account has been
>> cancelled without request. This is obviously a cockup their end but is a
>> positive ill wind. I have advised her now to contact BT with a view to
>> getting her line back to BT. She has cancelled the direct debit today
>> after it was cut off.
>>
>> So once the line goes back to BT, she needs a good isp. Her usage will be
>> low - just emailing and web browsing. Needs to be inexpensive but
>> reliable - can those two go together?
>
> How inexpensive?
>
> Nildram for £13.99, Zen for £17.99 (288 sync, but unlimited) or £24.99
> (MaxDSL, 50GB cap), AAISP for £18.99 (MaxDSL, payg tariff)

Sounds good, thanks.
I hear alot of good things abotu Eclipse internet. Good for £15 a month?

On 13 Jun 2006, Nick wrote:

>Nildram for £13.99, Zen for £17.99 (288 sync, but unlimited) or
>£24.99 (MaxDSL, 50GB cap), AAISP for £18.99 (MaxDSL, payg tariff)

Now add on the activation charges and each of them will be less
competive overall. I know Tiscali gets a lot of flack but know a
friend (on Bulldog at home, using BT internet at his shop) who has
both his parents and his in-laws on Tiscali without problems (they
are, however, light users, and perhaps daytime mostly, too). I'd
not "recommend" Tiscali based on comments about CS/billing but a
light user might not be unhappy.

Bulldog themselves might be considered (9.50/month for the line, and
their PAYG service if she is a very light, evening/weekend user) but
assuming a BT line and with the possibility she might want some call
deal package, both Eclipse and Plus.Net could be worth considering,
for overall cost during the first year. However, with ON having a
5 year period for clawing back the activation cost (reducing by a
portion each year), Eclipse Evolution 1 ("free" activation, 14.99
a month) might be worthwhile. Sorry, don't know what it would cost
for delivering the free modem... Can pay by CC or using DD.

OK Nildram is 12 quid less in monthly fees, but an extra 47 quid for
the activation, so takes 4 years to start getting cheaper. After a
year with Eclipse, the aunt could switch to Metronet's 11.75/month
account as her usage is primarily e-mail light browsing. Needs a
traffic meter as the Eclipse service will request a jump to next
level if one exceeds 20 GB, but doesn't offer usage stats page!
(and the 20 GB limit is between 1800 and 0000 only)

--
Change to DSL Max fast: switch ISP <http://www.dslmax.info/>

"Beck" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:448ed434$0$22100$(E-Mail Removed)...
: The TalkTalk problem my aunt has been having has taken a very bizarre
twist.
: She woke up this morning to find her phoneline dead. Went round to
carphone
: warehouse shop to find that her entire account has been cancelled without
: request. This is obviously a cockup their end but is a positive ill wind.
: I have advised her now to contact BT with a view to getting her line back
to
: BT. She has cancelled the direct debit today after it was cut off.
:
: So once the line goes back to BT, she needs a good isp. Her usage will be
: low - just emailing and web browsing. Needs to be inexpensive but
: reliable - can those two go together?
:
:

This is one of thee reasons I for one will not be leaving BT for line
rental,it one thing they are good at

Plusnet have some good deals for low users.

Chris


--
Cheap As Chips Broadband http://yeah.kick-butt.co.uk
Superb hosting & domain name deals http://host.kick-butt.co.uk

anon wrote:
> On 13 Jun 2006, Nick wrote:
>
> >Nildram for £13.99, Zen for £17.99 (288 sync, but unlimited) or
> >£24.99 (MaxDSL, 50GB cap), AAISP for £18.99 (MaxDSL, payg tariff)
>
> Now add on the activation charges and each of them will be less
> competive overall. I know Tiscali gets a lot of flack but know a
> friend (on Bulldog at home, using BT internet at his shop) who has
> both his parents and his in-laws on Tiscali without problems (they
> are, however, light users, and perhaps daytime mostly, too). I'd
> not "recommend" Tiscali based on comments about CS/billing but a
> light user might not be unhappy.
>
> Bulldog themselves might be considered [...] Eclipse and Plus.Net [...]

Ah, well, the OP asked for a *good* ISP... -- IME, if they have any
sort of lock-in, then they generally aren't much cop.

Another company that comes to mind is ic24 - £12pcm special offer for
the first 6 months (£18 afterwards), and free connection. 12 month
minimum term, and (since they're a part of Brightview) much more to be
recommended than Tiscali (spit) et al.

Used them for a short time and they were "OK"... except for the useless
technical support (I've got quite a funny story about my free domain
name, but I'm in a bit of a rush)... probably fine for a light user.

xF,

....Nick

"Joker7" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:448edf3c$0$22099$(E-Mail Removed)...

>
> This is one of thee reasons I for one will not be leaving BT for line
> rental,it one thing they are good at

Absolutely. I said to her today imagine if you had a fault with your
talktalk line, how long will it take for them to contact BT to even start to
sort it out.
At least with BT they are free to call and most people get a response very
quickly. We would never leave BT and I only wished she had sought my advice
before even going down the line with talktalk.

"anon" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:-(E-Mail Removed)...

> OK Nildram is 12 quid less in monthly fees, but an extra 47 quid for
> the activation, so takes 4 years to start getting cheaper. After a
> year with Eclipse, the aunt could switch to Metronet's 11.75/month
> account as her usage is primarily e-mail light browsing. Needs a
> traffic meter as the Eclipse service will request a jump to next
> level if one exceeds 20 GB, but doesn't offer usage stats page!
> (and the 20 GB limit is between 1800 and 0000 only)

What about BT broadband? £14.99 for first 3 months, £17.99 thereafter. She
might like that considering that she will get one bill so less confusing for
her. Only 2Gb a month but that is all she needs at the moment. Plus she can
get a wireless router for £25.
I know BT have had alot of flack in the past, but I had them for a long time
without problems so would not have a problem recommending them (I only
switched out of cost).

On Tue, 13 Jun 2006 16:39:18 +0100, anon <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>On 13 Jun 2006, Nick wrote:
>
> >Nildram for £13.99, Zen for £17.99 (288 sync, but unlimited) or
> >£24.99 (MaxDSL, 50GB cap), AAISP for £18.99 (MaxDSL, payg tariff)
>
>Now add on the activation charges and each of them will be less
>competive overall. I know Tiscali gets a lot of flack but know a
>friend (on Bulldog at home, using BT internet at his shop) who has
>both his parents and his in-laws on Tiscali without problems (they
>are, however, light users, and perhaps daytime mostly, too). I'd
>not "recommend" Tiscali based on comments about CS/billing but a
>light user might not be unhappy.
>
>Bulldog themselves might be considered (9.50/month for the line, and
>their PAYG service if she is a very light, evening/weekend user) but
>assuming a BT line and with the possibility she might want some call
>deal package, both Eclipse and Plus.Net could be worth considering,
>for overall cost during the first year. However, with ON having a
>5 year period for clawing back the activation cost (reducing by a
>portion each year), Eclipse Evolution 1 ("free" activation, 14.99
>a month) might be worthwhile. Sorry, don't know what it would cost
>for delivering the free modem... Can pay by CC or using DD.
>
>OK Nildram is 12 quid less in monthly fees, but an extra 47 quid for
>the activation, so takes 4 years to start getting cheaper. After a
>year with Eclipse, the aunt could switch to Metronet's 11.75/month
>account as her usage is primarily e-mail light browsing. Needs a
>traffic meter as the Eclipse service will request a jump to next
>level if one exceeds 20 GB, but doesn't offer usage stats page!
>(and the 20 GB limit is between 1800 and 0000 only)

This discussion is similar to whether it is better to buy a car for cash or
use some finance deal; perhaps even a mixture of the two. No method works out
to be the cheapest and the same applies to signing up for a Broadband
connection. Any apparent gain in one area has an issue elsewhere that is not
to your advantage. So you compremise on what suits you best.

However if you want to be in complete control of your destinity then there is
no better way then paying the activatoion fee with a one month contract with
those ISPs that offer it. Do remember the implications of your email address
when changing providers; there is a raft of solutions available to give you a
life time email address which sould be thought about as well.

David Bradley

On 13 Jun 2006, David Bradley <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>there is no better way then paying the activatoion fee with a one
>month contract with those ISPs that offer it.

One could quite easily choose an ISP which provides "free" activation,
but will allow the customer to cancel, and move on, with repayment of
the activation fee (if they aren't money-grabbing and charge OTT fee)

That way, if one is happy with the service, there's no fee to pay, but
one still has the option to move on. Seems quite a daft (and costly)
idea to only go with an ISP which charges the fee up front, when some
others may easily provide good service but don't charge up front!

I'd not be happy to "burn" 47 quid for no reason... Would you?