I use TalkTalk, and while their customer support sometimes leaves a bit to be desired, I like the fact that they are cheapskates. They don't seem to put the same effort into shoving "value added" crap at their customers, or filtering or monitoring your connection.

They just provide a pipe and let you use it however you want.

The last thing I want is to be with some other provider who thinks they have the right to tell me what I can do with my connection, or who desperately try and sell me their crap content and services for more on my line rental.

Give me cheap and functional any day.

Oh, and if you have technical problems with TalkTalk, check out talktalkmembers.com and bypass their call-centres. They actually have people that know what they are talking about on that site and can get stuff done without you sitting in a queue for hours. They also don't assume you are a cretin.

Paul

Having had a recent appalling experience with TalkTalk's caged monkeys masquerading as a support department in India, any change would be welcomed. For those who have never had the scintillating experience, it is one I would reserve for my worst enemy and even that is probably a bit extreme. If you think BT is bad, you ain't seen nothin' yet...

...The Party's Over.

what you pays for. Or not in this case. I was horrified initially when the SO ordered it one day.

We pay f*ckall for TT, and its great. Decent speeds (although www is crappy in the evenings) but for P2P etc, I run it all day, they've never complained, I dont see obvious throttling, I've exceeded my 40GB allowance by about 100GB every month for 2 years and no major downtime. Service? Well I just dont call them. It comes back on after a few minutes if every now and then when the DSLAMS catch fire. I hope they change nothing.

The funniest experience with their call centres (for phones only) was them calling me after a failed direct debit and insisting that I tell them my password when I had not used it for months...

cue broken script.... "if you would just confirm your password?", "I can't!", "if you...."

And it was an indian lady with an unlikely name like Doris or Paula.

GoodGood RiddanceRiddance

Mine's the double-breasted one.

I dare say that CPW may be strapped for cash so selling TT will realise some, but ultimately degrade what was once a good service.

My son has TT with no problems but then Ive installed it a few times, thereby negating the requirement to deal with 'support' !

Even at the very limits of distance from the exchange, with a netgear router & an MTU tweak it seemed to hang on to the connection.

The service is actually pretty good, particularly when used with open DNS as TT DNS gets busy in the evenings so that & a slightly lower MTU can help.

Anyway, Id rather use TT than BT (vomit) or AOL aka Always Off Line. TT use Phorm, but its opt in, typed with the words 'if you believe that' echoing in my mind...

For those who have experienced problems, yes I agree TT customer service has an appalling reputation but then so has BTs. Its all too easy to point the finger at the ISP & of all the problematic ADSL connections Ive investigated the only ISP related ones have been where the bastards at BT havnt switched it on!

On one occasion I got informed by BTs 'support' they could actually see the router connected - before it had been turned on, what amazing foresight!