ISP smoke and mirrors. Who's who?

[duncan]

I just received an email out of the blue from PlusNet saying they were going to apply a direct debit to my bank account.  Now I have never been a PlusNet customer, so I was about to delete it as a phishing scam but it just looked too authentic.  After some head scratching I realised they were collecting the DD for my phone line rental from YourCalls.net.  Strange. 

Some Googling turned up:
PlusNet is owned by BT.
There's some connection between Yourcalls.net and TalkTalk though I can't figure out what.
In addition:
The account reference in the email from PlusNet is the one from Yourcalls.net prefixed by TT (presumably TalkTalk), and the sender is billing02.servers.plus.net

So are all these companies one and the same outfit?  I makes a mockery of the "competitive switch" concept if all you do is sign up with the same bunch of clowns.

I hope idnet really is independent.

[MisterW]

I believe PlusNet have taken over YourCalls.net recently, see here http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/plusnet/4280150-yourcalls-and-plusnet.html?fpart=all&vc=1

[duncan]

Ah, that explains a lot.  Shame they did tell me!

[MisterW]

Shame they did tell me!

or didn't ? According to that thinkbroadband post they've written to all customers...

[Lance]

I hope idnet really is independent.

It is, and Simon and Tim are nice chaps too.

[Technical Ben]

Yep, and worth it too.
I've had 2 friends recently have a completely dead line with BT. Both got accused of "the fault is with your own phone/wiring". One's just had the telegraph pole cable replaced, an admission it was BT at fault. The other will find out tomorrow (I've lent them a spare phone to test, and it's still dead).
Just a few weeks back the town center had a water pipe burst that took out the main BT supply to the other half of the towns residents (not the main cable feed into the town thankfully). If it had effected me, I wonder how honest BT would have been. But with IDNet I'm confident they would have been honest and said "there is a break in the line/exchange as we cannot reach your last mile" etc.

At the very least, though I have not tried, with IDNet I can say "yep, I've done all I can here" and they will also have a record of my conversations. Just calling BT's busy center is difficult enough.