Which? ISP report

[Graham]

Which? Magazine have just published a report on ISPs and (surprise, surprise!) NTL comes right down at the bottom for satisfaction and services!!

In fact *ALL* of the major players, AOL, Wanadoo, Tiscall, NTL and BT Yahoo ended up with only 30-33% of people saying they were "very satisfied" and on value for money NTL was the "best"(!) with 22%, wheras BT Yahoo got only 11%!!

Top of the list for satisfaction were all small players, Claranet at 71%, Waitrose.com at 61% and Plusnet at 59% (Pipex was fourth with 53%), although all of these were on pretty small (under 100 people) responses, whereas the major ISPs had comments from around the 1000 people mark.

So does this mean the smaller ISPs are *really* better, or is it just that not enough people have had time to get ******ed off with them?

[keithwalton]

As i've said many times before im very happy with the service i've had from plusnet, they are hardly small fish anymore. Didnt know anything about the survey exisiting till now so my opinion didnt count in it :-(
our lan server was connected to the internet flawless for 66days before it had some heat issues (northbridge fan packed up) it's been up a further 20 days ish since then and is fine.
I havent had any major issues and they even helped me setup my domain for mail going straight to my server.

Price isnt to great, but that's just changed i shall shortly be switching it to the £40 package instead of £66

K

[MovedGoalPosts]

It doesn't surprise me that NTL rate well for value for money (at least until the recent price increases). If you do subscribe to TV, phone and broadband, it works out quite competetive, when compared to BT phone line (even if you then have a discounted call supplier), Sky, and ADSL.

In theory ntls email, newsgroup, web sites (with broadband plus) also offer good services - when they are working. That frequent failure issue is where ntl let themselves down and no doubt slip down the satisfaction rankings, together with CS support being poor.

I doubt it's a case of the smaller ISPs necesarily being better (clara.net are quite large really, but more business orientated), but I suspect that thier users may be more computer savvy than the mass market ISPs. As a result they may call CS less often, and thus have less experience on which to base their views.

[greencreeper]

I doubt it's a case of the smaller ISPs necesarily being better (clara.net are quite large really, but more business orientated), but I suspect that thier users may be more computer savvy than the mass market ISPs. As a result they may call CS less often, and thus have less experience on which to base their views.

I also think the smaller company values its customers more, whereas the larger companies tend to treat them as ten-a-penny. I know that I favour small companies - more chance of them knowing me and being keen to give good customer service. I could just be naive though :)

[Graham]

It doesn't surprise me that NTL rate well for value for money

Err, a 22% rating on VFM isn't actually that great, they're only the "best of the worst"...!

If you do subscribe to TV, phone and broadband, it works out quite competetive, when compared to BT phone line (even if you then have a discounted call supplier), Sky, and ADSL.

In theory ntls email, newsgroup, web sites (with broadband plus) also offer good services - when they are working. That frequent failure issue is where ntl let themselves down and no doubt slip down the satisfaction rankings, together with CS support being poor.

This is, of course, the problem. Any big organisation should *not* let itself down with continual failings like this, to do so seems to imply a lack of care about its customer base that is, in the long run, economic suicide.

[MovedGoalPosts]

Err, a 22% rating on VFM isn't actually that great, they're only the "best of the worst"...!
Hmm, yes maybe I should have read that a bit more closely :dunce:

[chickendippers]

Attached are the relevant parts of the article to ntl:. I've kept the quality low to try and avoid any possibly copyright issues (even though it's unlikely).