Broadband customers pay high price for loyalty

Simon · May 30, 2010, 12:44:29

Consumers are paying over the odds for broadband because they're being left on legacy deals by their ISPs, according to research by Broadbandchoices.co.uk.

The price comparison site found that more than half of all broadband subscribers had been with the same provider for more than three years, during which time the average monthly price has fallen by a third.

"Broadband customers stuck on these legacy tariffs are really losing out as the price of broadband has fallen," Broadbandchoices product director Michael Phillips told PC Pro.

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/broadband/358270/broadband-customers-pay-high-price-for-loyalty

kinmel · May 30, 2010, 12:49:23

But some people don't want to move and Idnetters have had big increases in bandwidth for the same price.

Lona · May 30, 2010, 12:53:45

Interesting read, Simon. I get really angry when companies only offer incentives to brand new customers only.

Sky are the worst culprits at using this practice.

Rik · May 30, 2010, 12:56:02

Orange were pretty bad too. IDNet have held their prices and increased the service over the years I've been with them. That's my kind of ISP.

zappaDPJ · May 30, 2010, 13:04:35

Quote from: kinmel on May 30, 2010, 12:49:23
But some people don't want to move and Idnetters have had big increases in bandwidth for the same price.

You don't necessarily have to move to get a far better deal though. Here's a good example from a couple of weeks ago...

http://www.idnetters.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=20501.0

QuoteHe's been on the same package at the same tariff (£25 + VAT) for 10 years. He ignored the emails invite him to take advantage of Eclipse's 1 MB/s & 2 MB/s & 4 MB/s & 8 MB/s & 24 MB/s packages because they were 'too technical' for him to understand. The rather helpful lady at Eclipse was clearly very embarrassed and highly amused all at the same time. After we'd both had a good laugh about it she offered to put him on a 24 MB/s monthly package for £11.99 a month.

Simon · May 30, 2010, 13:12:22

When I gave Pipex my notice, they phoned at least twice, showering me with incentives to stay. To my mind, if they wanted to keep me as a customer, they should have offered the 'special' deals before I told them I was leaving. Had they done so, I may have been tempted to stay, but I'm glad I didn't!

pctech · May 30, 2010, 13:41:47

I am always on the look out for a good deal but I found that the cheapest isn't always the best deal when I ended up with Plusnet.

I was only paying 9.99 but when we had bad snow the network slowed to a crawl thanks to their traffic management being overwhelmed by VPN connections.

I spoke to support who mainained that functions such as DNS lookups were unaffected and it was just gaming traffic.

I upped my package to their pro package (then 19.99 a month) and all the problems disappeared, I ended up buying myself out of the contract as I was so fed up.

Tacitus · May 31, 2010, 17:33:21

Quote from: pctech on May 30, 2010, 13:41:47
I upped my package to their pro package (then 19.99 a month) and all the problems disappeared, I ended up buying myself out of the contract as I was so fed up.

Looking at the PlusNet packages it shows that iDNet are currently very competitive on price.

According to the PN Website, with the Pro package you get 20Gb Usage allowance for £16.49/month but this goes up to £22.99/ month outside the low cost areas. OK you get free usage between midnight and 8am, but unless you are a heavy downloader, iDNet's off-peak 30Gb allowance should cover most things and, it goes up to 65Gb if you are on WBC.

Also you get complete freedom from shaping and throttling, excellent support albeit not 24hours and, the occasional recipe from Miriam. What's not to like?

Rik · May 31, 2010, 17:35:46

Her taste in food?

Tacitus · May 31, 2010, 17:44:39

Quote from: Rik on May 31, 2010, 17:35:46
Her taste in food?

I know you're a Donald Russell addict, but not being a heavy meat eater I don't find her taste that bad. You should get her to lob a few more recipes our way.

As I recall Miriam's not long been married. FWIW many years ago I was invited to spend the weekend with a young couple who also had not long been married. The wife was eager to impress with her culinary skills but it all went seriously pear shaped.

We ended up with spam risotto and parsley sauce. Miriam is way above that standard.....

pctech · May 31, 2010, 17:48:17

I just hope that the connection is not so good that I go through all the bandwdth (I opted for ADSL Max as ADSL 2+ is unstable here and in any case it quoted me a connection speed of 0 Mbps) and end up with a large bill.

If that happens I'll pay it of course and head back to a capped ISP.

Rik · May 31, 2010, 17:49:37

Quote from: Tacitus on May 31, 2010, 17:44:39
I know you're a Donald Russell addict, but not being a heavy meat eater I don't find her taste that bad. You should get her to lob a few more recipes our way.

As I recall Miriam's not long been married. FWIW many years ago I was invited to spend the weekend with a young couple who also had not long been married. The wife was eager to impress with her culinary skills but it all went seriously pear shaped.

We ended up with spam risotto and parsley sauce. Miriam is way above that standard.....

Miriam and I have exchanged other culinary ideas (she bakes a mean cake), and I'm hoping she will accept an invitation to dinner here soon.

Rik · May 31, 2010, 17:52:03

Quote from: pctech on May 31, 2010, 17:48:17
I just hope that the connection is not so good that I go through all the bandwdth (I opted for ADSL Max as ADSL 2+ is unstable here and in any case it quoted me a connection speed of 0 Mbps) and end up with a large bill.

If that happens I'll pay it of course and head back to a capped ISP.

Before you do that, Mitch, it would pay you to move to ADSL2+ and see how it goes. If it doesn't work, IDNet will modulate you back to ADSL1, but you retain the bandwidth allowances of the WBC package. A number of members have followed that course and got as good a result as Max, but with higher upload speed.

pctech · May 31, 2010, 17:59:20

Thats worth knowing thanks Rik, will see how it goes.

My problem is I'm a big fan of tech webcasts such as those from the Intel Developer Forum so those can chew through the bandwidth.

Rik · May 31, 2010, 18:00:22

It could well be a good route for you then, Mitch.

pctech · May 31, 2010, 21:36:14

Lets get connected first.

vitriol · Jun 02, 2010, 17:53:01

Nildram offered me two different packages to stay with them, iirc one was 12months broadband for the price of 10. As they were in the process of being taken over by the evil Tiscali. I declined .........and have been with IDNet since.

Some small issues, but overall a great service.