Anyone got experiance of leaving BT broadband ?

[Squealing Pig]

Been getting overcharged for BT broadband for last 12 months has just taken 2 hours and a telephonic tour of India. to get someone to admit I was overcharged and to actually refund (most) of it and not offer a 'regrade' (basically a tie into another contract). poor sevice !

So I want to change to a SKY TV+broadband+phone etc package but..... and this is the sticky bit, I want to keep my bt email address some how. I'm not sure if its tied up with the broadband it being a @btinternet.com rather than @btbroadband address.

Has anyone done this recently. any thoughts ??


Cheers

SP

[Saab Dastard]

I don't believe that you will be able to keep the BT mail address.

What you could consider is registering your own domain - lots of advice on this forum! - with a provider, which will allow you to use any ISP email service to actually receive and host your mailbox(es), as it is done with a simple redirect to the actual mailbox(es).

The beauty is that your own domain email address won't change, but you can very easily change the back-end mail provider. Everyone you communicate with is only aware of your domain email address, and is unaware of the underlying mailbox address - and the fact that you can switch it at will.

Perhaps a bit late for your BT situation, but worth thinking about.

SD

[42psi]

SP.... you can keep your existing BT mailbox ... however it will only be what BT call "basic mail".


I know 'cause I've done just that!!

You won't be able to set up outlook etc to head off and grab the stuff from your BT mail box. You'll have to log in to read it.

You also won't be able to set up to auto-forward your messages to your new ISP mailbox ... some (tiscali) do allow that.


I think you have to keep some activity going on the mailbox but that's not difficult .. given that BT seem hopeless at blocking spam!!


I had my BT mail account from the time I used to have a dial up modem.



One bit of advice I'd offer for your proposed "get all from sky".

I've stayed clear from that after it was pointed out that getting your 'phone and broadband from the same supplier means that they can "unbundle" you onto their equipment at the exchange - if they have it at your exchange.

As I understood it that means if you later want to change either/both you forst have to pay a fee to get off your current suppliers kit and back onto the BT equipment.

I'm told that if your "unbundled" supplier gives you a MAC number the other networks won't want to accept it without you paying the fee upfront.

[The Many Tentacles]

Sky Broadband uses BT lines and equipment still as I had to pay to have a BT line installed in my new house before they would set the internet up, which means there's no problem leaving them

It's a 12 month contract and after that you can leave whenever you want to, although I've been very happy with the service over the last 6 months - way better than BT, half the price and twice as quick with the added bonus of a customer service/technical support service based in the UK

[42psi]

TMT ... it depends on your local exchange.

On mine sky and talk/talk have their own kit.

If you go to them (for both broadband and phone) you are taken off the BT equipment.

I did have a link to a site that lets you check your local exchange to see who has their own equipment installed.

If I can find it again I'll add it.



Edited to add .... found it ... use:

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/checker2.php

[Squealing Pig]

Thanks for all the advice, I eventually decided on O2 and I'm very impressed with it, thanks for the advice of not unbundeling, and the bt mail address still works and accessable from O2.

Eventually Ill get sky but only the TV package.

Cheers

SP

[frostbite]

Illustrates a problem that affects most of us at some stage.

Sure, you can have your own domain and pay someone to host it for you, but the free alternative is to have a gmail and/or yahoo mail address which you use for your main address.

[dazdaz]

Well worth checking out the ISPs web sites. I've been with Orange over the past year or so, paying £17.99 for a max 2gb download per month.

While doing nothing much few weeks ago checked the Orange site. Fack me! They were doing cheaper deals per month and a greater download limit for less than I was then paying.

So I gave them a ring and discussed the above. Ok they said, we'll regrade you.....Six months free connection, after that £6 per month, increase of my download limit to 8gb per month. It's well worth checking out your ISPs sites for new deals.

Daz

[Capot]

For a new office in Bristol, I signed up on-line with BT, telephone plus ADSL, Business Option 3, one evening about 3-4 weeks ago. After the whole process was done, a page appeared saying "Thank you for your order". Nothing, repeat nothing, else.

So I rang next day to find out if and when they would reconnect the line, and supply phone and the ADSL service.

After 2.5 hours in ONE CALL, being transferred to at least 6 different people in India and 2 - 3 in, I suspect, Glasgow, I gave up. In that time I was moved from people who told me I had not made any order, and was therefore lying, to people who said they couldn't find it and it's best to start again, to another who said he would do it for me but "all our systems are down".

Towards the end of the second hour several people asked me not to swear.

Eventually someone in the BT Sales team in Glasgow asked me to explain to him what a BT Micro system is, after I had told him that it was included in the lost order I had made.

That's when I said slowly and clearly that the order, if there was one, was cancelled as of that moment, put the phone down, and rang Talk Talk.

Several days later I started getting letters from BT, every day, about how they were going to complete the order, then about how sorry they were that there would be a delay, etc etc. I responded to each by calling and saying slowly and carefully, the order was cancelled.

While this was going on, BT Openreach came and reconnected the line for Talk Talk, set up a phone service, and 3 days later we had ADSL working as well.

We are still getting letters and emails from BT about how there may be some delays, they are very sorry, etc etc.

We just bin them, now.

It's a warning. DO NOT GET INVOLVED WITH BT, AND IF YOU ARE, GET OUT QUICKLY. OTHERWISE YOU'LL END UP LOSING YOUR SANITY.

[frostbite]

When (if) the message finally gets through to BT you will get a flood of mail inviting you to 'come back to BT', despite the fact that they know you have just started a xx month contract with someone else.

Been with TT for nearly a year and almost totally trouble free.

[Squealing Pig]

I definatly concur with the views on BT, P1ssups and brewerys come to mind, everything they touched turned brown very quickly. to contact them was stressfull every time to say the least, Now Ive escaped and just use them to rent the line to carry the ADSL from O2, use the mobile for calls except 0800 no.s good riddence. They should be ashamed of themselves for the qualty of customer sevice they provide. Makes calling the CAA a breeze!

[four_two]

It's a warning. DO NOT GET INVOLVED WITH BT, AND IF YOU ARE, GET OUT QUICKLY. OTHERWISE YOU'LL END UP LOSING YOUR SANITY.And don't forget with BT, when they get it up and running, you'll get every page intercepted and and your browsing habits profiled so they can target you with "relevant ads".

Now who wouldn't want that fantastic service?

[Capot]

Mind you, it's not just BT.

In the same new office mentioned above, there's a working electricity supply. We've been using it since moving in.

After a lot of research we managed to find out that the supplier to the previous tenant was Eon. So we rang them to say we had taken over the premises, needed a supplier, what's your price?

"Ah" they said, "you've got to open an account, then we'll tell you the price".

They also said that we would be using the power under a "deemed contract" paying 30% above the normal rate until an account was opened. "What's the cost of that?" we said. "See the reply above" they said, or words to that effect.

Now I understand that if we're using electricity we have to pay for it. So we gave them the details to open an account, and asked them for a price. No reply.

Then we got a call from a firm of consultants, associated with Eon. "We can arrange it all for you," they said, "don't worry about a thing."

"What's Eon's price", we said. "Ah" they said, "we'll tell you the best supplier for you, no need to worry about prices".

And so we contacted another supplier. Then the consultants rang again. This time we got some sense including Eon's price, and a cheaper offer fixed for 4 years. Now, we can be cynical about the reality of that fix if wholesale prices shoot up, but at least they're trying. So we might well go with that, if the supplier we contacted can't beat the offer.

Still and all, who laughs last laughs longest. This pantomime has gone on for nearly 2 months, while we have a perfectly good supply. OK, we're paying the emergency rate, but only for units registered by the meter since we moved in and got the reading taken and signed by the building manager.

Only thing is, the meter's not going round. And we have mentioned that, in one or two of the phone calls (recorded). The muppets we are talking to don't seem to understand such technicalities.