Considering leaving IDNet

[Broadback]

They have given me excelant service but are rather expensive. Thanks to greedy bankers, along with lots of others, I am now having to look after the pennies and IDNet are rather expensive.
I know you get what you pay for, but what you cannot afford you cannot afford, I think I can make savings for my telephone and Broadband. I assume some of you are not with IDNet, if so any comments on other suppliers? I'm sure there will be some of you who came over to IDNet because of the poor service they were receiving elsewhere, perhaps they could help in my decision. I am hoping that I can still come here for advice, even if I do leave IDNet.

[Steve]

What I can say is your always welcome on IDNetters.

[Simon]

I can't recommend other ISPs here, as that would be like going into Tesco's and handing out Sainsbury's leaflets, but you're most certainly welcome here for advice at any time, BB. 

[FritzBox]

You've been used to what is probably a good service(I'm not with IDNet, but my ISP is quite pricey too) Think you're going to struggle with the pile it high sell it cheap merchants. You might possibly be ok with Sky LLU if you can get it on your exchange

[pctech]

I'd agree with Fritzbox BB, my ISP is in same price bracket as IDNet and that or even more expensive seems to be the going rate for a well provisioned, non traffic managed network.

The cheap ones use throttling to squeeze the maximum amount of users onto their network without them having to spend additional money which is how come they are cheap.

Have you tried asking IDNet to see if they can give you a loyalty discount? My ISP did this for me although they are quite a bit larger than IDNet so it may not be possible for them to do this.

[stevenrw]

Broadback, I do sympathise. As you say, you can only afford what you can afford, but ffiw, I came to IDNet some years ago having had a terrible experience with Orange. I promised myself that I would never go with one of the majors again. I did briefly look at Virgin Media, because BT have constantly put back enabling my local cabinet for FTTC. But I discovered two things about their service. First, take a look at their landline call prices. They are buried pretty deep in the website but you can find them. Basically, if you make a call that you have to pay for (ie, not covered in one of their call plans) it will cost you dear. I mean DEAR.
Also, a fried of mine is with them and every few months he has to call them up and bitch because his speed drops way down as other users come on to the network. You only have to look at their advertising campaign to see they are really loading up their servers.
As you are currently with IDNet you obviously have your own modem, but the ones that give you a free modem will supply the very cheapest they can get away with and that probably means no wireless N. And for this you are tied in to a 12 month contract.
I don't forsee you getting much in the way of a loyalty discount from IDNet. They just are not that sort of ISP.
So whilst I can't recommend an ISP from experience, I think you might as well go for somebody like BT 'cos at least you'll get the hotspot access and they are doing pretty good deals at the mo. You just have to hope that you dont hit problems...

[peasblossom]

It's also true to say that the price people pay for VM services varies rather. There doesn't seem to be any fixed cost (in the way that IDNet clearly gives you a fixed price for the the various options) despite what the bumpf leads you to believe.

[Technical Ben]

Oh, is it one of those services where the sales guy gets to decide his bonus the price?

[peasblossom]

I suspect it's got a lot to do with what, of the many deals, you signed up to, whether you've haggled over how much you pay 'because you're leaving', that kind of thing. Whether that's sales deciding their bonus the price I don't know.

[Broadback]

I hate that sort of haggling. Idnet have offered me no discount, I did not ask, neither did I expect one. I bought a new car recently and the haggling there was unbelievable, having deiced on A, B phoned me and when I told him the decision was made he replied that he would have gone way below that price. So why didn't he during the haggle stage.?

[pctech]

Because he wanted to maximise the profit on the deal.

In the competitive climate we are in a lot of companies are prepared to reduce their margin a little to retain the security of income, I tend to find if you ask you get where its possible for them to do so

As I said, I don't know whether IDNet can or will and I'd been with my ISP a while before I asked.

[Simon]

I think it's doubtful that IDNet would offer any retention deals, as if they did it for one, there would be a queue of people ringing up threatening to leave just so that they can get discounts.

[pctech]

Yes as they are still quite a small operation.

[Steve]

I think with a one month contract there's no room for negotiation,we already get 12 months for the price of 11, if paid in advance. Even FTTC customers once their first year is up,can give 30 days notice.

[stevenrw]

Further to my previous response I meant to remind you about the Think Broadband comparison page. They've reduced the number of ISP's included, but you can still get a pretty good idea of the degree of customer satisfaction from there.
Good luck with whoever you end up with.

[Broadback]

I am sure that you have all been agog to know what I was going to do about leaving IDNet. After spending (wasting?) considerable time on exploring the possibilities I came to  appreciate that IDNet will take some beating. So as I am a low user I took a smaller package and am remaining. I know you were all waiting to know! 

[Simon]

Glad to hear it, BB.