When we moved into our current residence about 2 years ago, one of the things we were looking forward to was cable internet by a certain ISP. Previously, we were with different ISPs via a telephone line with 2-3Mbps speeds so going up to 50Mbps was "exciting." True enough, less YouTube buffering and the wife was able to catch up on her soaps from back home without having to worry about interfering with my online gaming.

Early this year, we started having problems.... intermittent connection, slow speeds, etc. YouTube would only load 780p videos and I'd have to set it to show 1080p and even then, I'd have buffering problems. The router would be reset, call center techs would "optimize" my connection, blah blah blah. Last month, the internet was down for most of the day and ringing the customer service line, I was promised an £18 credit on my bill. Today, YouTube couldn't even load 780p videos without buffering so I did a speed test and rang them again. After waiting on the line for 37 mintues, I was finally through to a rep. The rep reset my modem and told me the settings in the modem were causing the slow speed. I said "really? Coz the modem's been reset a month or two ago and the only change I do is to port forward for my games." Oh, the channel has been changed so she changed it back. Me: "That should not be an issue since my PC's hardwired to the router." Well, it's the settings then. Me: "Only you guys and myself have access to the router. My router does not broadcast and I changed the default password." Oh, area utlization is high in my area. "That's not my problem. If you're lines can't handle the traffic, that's your issue, not the customer's problem." Well, she'll give me a £10 credit to my bill. "Oh, that reminds me, I have an £18 credit last month that hasn't been applied." She investigates the issue and says I got a £1.59 "goodwill gesture" because the internet wasn't out for more than 24 hours. I raise hell over this. She brings up policy and whatnot and I say that's not the point. I have no clue about their policy, what I know is that I was promised £18 and £1.59 is an insult. Besides, what's my assurance that when I call again next month, THAT new call center rep will say the £10 promised was not authorized but I'll get £1.whatever as a goodwill gesture? We keep going back and forth and I say I want to raise a complaint. Fine, but I won't know what the result of the complaint is. WHAT??!! Oh, it's about confidentiality. No it isn't, because this is ME complaining about MY call.

The rep and I keep going back and forth again until I just ask to speak to her manager. She goes off, comes back and tells me the callback time is 2 hours. I say fine and ask the name of the manager. She can't give me that and besides, it can be any of the managers who is on duty tonight. Fine, what call center are you out of? She can't tell me that either. So what am I supposed to say tomorrow when I complain about not getting the callback? She assured me that THOSE details will be in my notes, but she can't disclose the details to me. I figure she's about to have an aneurysm so I tell her that's fine and I'll just wait for callback.

I'm "this close" to transferring ISPs now. Anyone got a good one they can recommend in the UK?

Oh, and I complained that their remote for their TiVo box is not working anymore and I want a replacement. She said she'll send me one for free as a "goodwill gesture." She likes using that word a lot. I had to restrain myself from telling her that sending a replacement for #%&*$# equipment isn't a "goodwill gesture," it's good business practice.

I just hate dealing with stupid people.

Service providers and vendors feel they can tell the customer what's right. I had a service provider tell me last week that they were "no longer comfortable" doing business with me.

The reason? I had the balls to show them where they did not do the work they were supposed to, and for which I agreed to paythem. They literally "missed a spot" and I told them look, I don't yell and I don;t scream but this isn;t right and I'm not paying until you finish the work we agreed on.

So translated, "no longer comfortable" doing business with me means "nobody else complains that we are substandard". Seriously, do I give them counterfeit money? No. So I expect the job to be done properly. They don't like it.

It sucks but that's how it usually is now, it seems.

I am indeed thinking of not paying next month and see where that gets me, but I don't want to be accidentally shooting myself in the foot.

Mate, all that´ll get you is cut off.
UK ISPs
Check that link out.
My sis, in London, went with Virgin. She has no complaints at all. I´m flying to see her tomorrow, I´ll check it out again.

Just as a comparison, here in Spain I have a 6 mb line. DO I ever get 6 mb? DO I F***. Sometimes it´s down to 1-2 mb for days. Call the ISP and they say yes, we´ll fix it, but they don´t.
I have 3-4 mb today I am feeling GOOOD!
Oh, and my 6 mb costs me 25 Euros a month.

Feeling any better now, Ice?

Good luck bro.

37 minutes wait on the phone got to be a record.

Changing providers, sadly, is really the only thing that works. Or some kind of Better Business Bureau in your area. That's a long slog however.

These companies mostly seem to live on the margin between what was promised and how little they can get away with to actually deliver before the customer quits. Their business model already considers that it is cheaper to not deliver the agreed service quality and lose X amount of subscripers than to deliver the agreed quality to Y amount of people.

It's an almost-monopoly situation in a lot of areas, so what remains...

37 minutes! that's 'Virgin' on the ridiculous.
Am I correct?
I'm with them and I've not had a problem for ages, but when I did they accidentally cut off everything, phone, telly and broadband for weeks. Their customer service was the worst I'd ever encountered. I think RS is right, they don't mind a bit of 'collateral damage', it's not as if you've got any decent alternatives!

first, call the customer service line and ask to speak with the call center manager. once you have the manager, tell them you wish to cancel your contract immediately. if the service is not a total piece of crap, the manager will attempt to retain you.

don't waste their time. state your complaint and demands within 1 minute. if they do not resolve it, terminate your contract and use a new ISP. negotiate with the new ISP to get a discount.

None of them care about BBB ratings.

The managers do however care about customer retention because they may be fired or lose pay if too many customers break contracts due to customer service issues.

I'm giving HughesNet until the end of the month to fix my problems and then I'm pulling the plug, leaving me with CompuServe dialup. At least I can read and participate on SimHQ (one of only a few sites I can still access) although I still can't see most pics (including my own) nor any YouTube references or links (I cannot access YouTube.com at all).

Whatever the problem is they can't seem to fix it, nor do they even recognize there's a problem. It's happened before...
HughesNet Satellite Internet > Websites Fail To Load

$80.00/month for #%&*$# ISP.

Whatever you do Ice....make sure you have a new ISP "BEFORE" you disconnect your old one.

Do NOT burn your bridges before you have a new provider.

Yeah, I've had lots of problems also, but a good ISP is hard, very hard, to find where I'm at.
Probably hard to find anywhere......except a big city.

Good luck.

I received a letter from CenturyLink yesterday that I will be disconnected on 7/27/16 for going over the limit. (which they don't say is). So much for the unlimited we signed up for 10 years ago. Asshats.

Well, I was told today that my HughesNet problem isn't fixable, that I needed to upgrade to their new Gen4. The terms seem ok (more speed/bandwidth for less $) if they can actually deliver. I'll sign up for a year (like I really have a choice).