My basic SKY Broadband has just increased by £3 per month. Does’nt sound much, but it’s a rise of around 11%. Have already dispensed with SKY TV., now maybe the time to look elsewhere for broadband. Very conscious of customer service. Don’t mind paying for an increase speed for around the same price £27. Anyone with any experience of BT for their broadband.
I think prices are on the up whichever company you are with.
Currently I’m with Virgin Media but have switched to Sky this week.
The price has risen with Virgin (I had a letter) £4 but that’s the whole package.
You know it’s coming but do your best to try and haggle the price with whoever.
My conversations with Virgin Media last week and the previous week didn’t go very well, infact because of their attitude to me on the phone they’ve lost a customer of near on 20 years standing. That’s a long story of there attitude, I’ve had enough.
The deal with Sky is better, I’m expecting price rises at some point, is their broadband any good, I don’t know it’s not going to be installed until next Tuesday but I need my Openreach/BT line fixing first, meanwhile I have Virgin BB until March 11th.
Yep I had BT. It was ok but the standard router was as poor as the one any provider ‘provides’. Get a ubiquitous router it will change your digital life!
I have not had home broadband for 11 years now, only work WiFi. At home I have mobile data. If I want to watch a film on TV I hotspot to my phone. I have no land line it’s not 1970, and I have no subscription TV just a humax free view setup, just as food as sky but free. I highly recommend it all, no subscriptions what so ever.
Oh my Bt was a work line, was 18 months ago.
Interesting.
My friend up in bonny Scotland had exactly the same experience as your good self with VM!
They also wanted him to pay extra for cancellation too.
You can probably guess his reply!
He also told them to go away and also went with Sky.
Clearly VM have lost the way with customer retention somewhat.
Strange old world we live in at the moment. 
With trepidation I am switching to Sky. I was a customer of theirs way back, 20 years maybe back in the old days of dial up internet down the old phone line.
Moving on we had our precious garden partly dug up to lay and connect the fibre Virgin media cables something I vowed would never happen. Everything ok apart from the navvy that couldn’t fill trenches very well.
Now back to the present day here I am drilling holes in the wall so the Sky engineer can poke his cables through as I’ve had a new dish put up. He couldn’t enter the property because of you know what so I had to connect up too, together we got it sorted.
It all happens again next week with the BB install, another hole to drill too, got that ready just incase he can’t do the drilling.
All because the folk at Virgin wouldn’t reduce my bill, it’s only £4 per month but they lost £63 per month but mainly it was their attitude.
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If they change the price whilst you’re still in contract then they have breach said contract.
You can negotiate a better deal.
My BT is 75mbps, it’s £30 a month unlimited. Has been extremely reliable.
SKY Broadband (Essentials) was’nt bad, sometimes very slow, sometimes ok. Just think there’s a point when you say “can I get better value”. Have been with them for a long time and am supposedly a VIP. Think everyone is a VIP. Not sure I want to do the usual haggling bit. Just interested in different options.
These price hikes and occasional technical issues are part of the reason I no longer pay for tv packages.
But mostly it is because I could end up watching far too much tv. Now, my record collection is my entertainment.
Freeview is fine, and mobile data from my phone.
However, I am considering a landline or a new phone contract, for cheaper calls abroad.
comments on Virgin are interesting. I have managed one reasonable price reduction from them by negotiation in the time we’ve been with them but its always on my list to have another go, especially as the price has just gone up. Landline phone is included in our package and we just never use it, so that could go if we can. But I would like to retain the number as I like it! We did that on the office package when we dumped all our BT stuff and went for voip and a local isp, saved a fortune.
Our Virgin is expensive, but its in constant use for something or another, and we rarely watch any tv that’s not streamed. And, touch wood, I think its pretty reliable, and definitely rapid…
wow, that even impressed me, thats over wifi, with music streaming, and lots of other gadgets all no doubt doing something in the back ground!
The contracted price is still subject to their annual price increases. You just negotiate another contract price at the end of it, if it doesn’t suit you move on.
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Yeah that’s right, it’s renewal of a new contract but at a lower price and when the hike happens again, spend 10 minutes on their live chat and it’s back to previous cost.
They always do some price hike so their 18-24 months contract is meaningless at least for my experience with BT. Over the 5 years I have been with BT I saved around £150, puts a few tanks of fuel in the MX5 
I moved from Sky to NowTV broadband. As far as I know, they are one and the same. If you were happy with your Sky service and want similar, at a lower cost, could be a good option. The Now hub is an older model, but the Sky router works with it too.
Not heard anything about the “new kids on the block” companies like Plusnet, Shell etc. Are their prices too good to be true, sacrificed for poor customer service? Many years ago I had a spell with Talk Talk, their customer service was based abroad somewhere. Sky customer service is’nt bad when it comes to sorting out a problem.
Just an example.
Been with BT for more time than I can remember.
I ring them up a couple of weeks before the end of the contract. We talk through it all and they “Always” discount the services for another year.
For me just great customer service and price. 
As I said earlier in this thread, been with VM for 20 years, even before that when they were called NTL. It’s only this year that things have gone sour with CS side, as above they’ve always been willing to listen and adjust prices.
Rather like when you get your insurance renewal, you need to haggle, but when haggling doesn’t work you move on.
Yep they’ve been fine with us up to this year, I was one to sing their praises beforehand.
I would rather not change things right now in the current situation but things have to keep moving in the world and in our country, so be it we move on with caution.
I’m with BT and have been for years. Always renegotiate and it always ends up competitive. In the middle of migrating to their full fibre Halo package. It’ll cost me about £44 per month but that’s ok for me. Includes landline as we make long, long distance calls regularly. (Up to 2 hours every day)- dispersed family. Hale should give me in excess of 220 mb. We have around 18 devices at home which surprised me!
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Plusnet are owned by BT I believe. Was with them 8 or so years ago for about 3 years, great customer service, UK call centres etc but prices weren’t competitive at renewal so moved to Vodafone. Awful customer service but they chucked money at complaints and their fibre service was stable and fast.
Oh and NowTv broadband CS is also very good, had some intermittent drops / disconnects and they spent time tracing the issue and keeping me informed throughout, incl a call a week later after they resolved it to check all OK. I was impressed.
The other benefit is that their minimum term is 12 months, unlike many of the other providers. I pay £24 a month for their top fibre package, Inc anytime calls and line rental. Good value in my opinion.
Search for Fixed price deals, they are out there.
Im currently on Plusnet fixed price for 18 months, and I change at the end of every contract just to get the best fixed deal. The switch is usually straight forward with a couple of hours of downtime in the worst case.
Currently the best fixed price deal is SSE at 18 months from 23 or 26 pound depending on the speed you want . I was with SSE prior to plusnet and they are all pretty much the same to be honest. The lines are all BT lines anyway you just buying from a “provider”
A little tip is always check cashback sites as well, currently quidco is offering £48 cashback when you sign up with SSE
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And then there is the hassle of changing email addresses on all the various accounts etc.
That is the only reason I’ve stayed with BT, and go through the regular haggle to keep the price down.
Part of my haggle argument is I can move immediately to any other FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet) provider because I don’t use the BT domestic system - the BT Hub/Halo is still sealed in its box.
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