Which? Broadband Report Results
 

Which? has published its survey results on Broadband.

In its Best Buy Guide section, it has this to say about NTL:

Don't buy

NTL was one of the worst broadband providers in last year’s survey and was also rated well below average on every point this time.

It adds, later in the report,

NTL has the unique distinction of being well below average for all our ratings. Steer clear.

I had enormous problems with NTL last year - including a week's loss of service, but so far this year it's been OK.

Re: Which? Broadband Report Results
 

:welcome: to Cable Forum :D

I've used ntl for my broadband for years, and it's generally been fine. It's difficult to get a true perception though as most people who come to forums like this are seeking help or guidance, whilst those that are happy keep quiet - that's human nature. There is a risk that gets repeated with Which? reports, which unless you are a subscriber can't be seen by us mere mortals, and thus we do not know the sampling or testing criterai used against which they have judged results.

Re: Which? Broadband Report Results
 

Thanks for backing up what some of us already know. :)
The call centre alone should be enough for a poor rating.

Re: Which? Broadband Report Results
 

Want to hear something really funny?

NTL supply the backbone for Which Online :):) So I find it a little difficult to trust that report if it is prepared to allow ntl to supply Internet access for its subscribers. Granted it is only dial up, and not that popular but still, you have to wonder if that report can be trusted?

---------- Post added at 12:22 ---------- Previous post was at 12:21 ----------

So who came out on top then?

Re: Which? Broadband Report Results
 

Haha, thats great :D


I honestly could not care for what Which says about anything really.

Re: Which? Broadband Report Results
 

From the report:

We asked 21,067 members of our online Which? survey panel about their ISP providers in terms of overall satisfaction; connection, reliability and speed; ease of use; customer service; and technical support. Thank you to all 15,538 who took part.

---------- Post added at 13:44 ---------- Previous post was at 13:32 ----------

Here is an abstract of the Best Buy Guide from the report. Note that the results are broken down into four different types of service - 512kbps services, capped and uncapped. And services that are faster than 512kbps, both capped and uncapped.

Our Best Buys don’t just have to do very well for overall customer satisfaction – they also have to score top marks for service and be more than average for ease of set-up, connection speed, reliability and technical support.

MetroNet did very well in every key area. Its pricing is complex, but customers gave it top marks for value.

Freedom 2 Surf scored well in all categories and was rated above average for support. [...] It also rated highly on value for money.

Zen Internet did well on most points, but at £24.99 a month for a standard 512Kbps service it’s certainly on the pricey side.

Nildram was rated only average on value for money but did well on all other key points.

Eclipse did well in most key categories, although it didn’t score as highly as some other Best Buys for value for money.

PlusNet scored well on all the main ratings. Its Broadband Plus service comes at speeds of up to 2Mbps for £14.99 a month. Technically there’s no cap on usage, but PlusNet states that the product is not suitable for data heavy applications or large downloads, so we regard this as a form of cap.

Waitrose [...] scored well in most areas

Re: Which? Broadband Report Results
 

Most of whom will only have dealed with one so have nothing to compare with?

Re: Which? Broadband Report Results
 

What's to compare with? They're expressing their level of satisfaction with the categories specified.

Re: Which? Broadband Report Results
 

Yes, but if your most competent company you've dealt with is ntl, it's going to have an opposite bearing on your response compared with if they're the worst.

I rarely call faults but here it seems OK, I also seem to be apt at using own knowledge to resolve issues at our end - most people calling ISPs are reporting problems admittedly but most of these are software/PC related or due to the fact they aren't sure what they're doing. So the obvious can't ever be overlooked... some places use scripts to ensure this, others (like where i work) just give the staff things to check and information to use as they wish mainly using own knowledge to diagnose and fix... it's then down to your call control and diagnostic/questioning skills to judge the level of the customer's competency, pitch appropriately and then try and resolve.

Personally I don't like the indian CC but Swansea are OK, it's a matter of appreciating the world on the other side of the phone line and knowing things have to be done for a reason.

Yes NTL have ****ups but then that's typical of most companies, we've been with Diamond Cable / NTL since i was about 10 years old (22 now) and rarely have problems, the way the media in general works is that you only hear about the odd dissatisfied user/customer who causes a fuss than the several happy customers who don't because they don't need to. The fact a consumer magazine has commissioned the survey based on their userbase indicates imho an already skewed user base (such as conducting a survey based on Watchdog viewers perception of something that has been on the programme recently) in the slant of being the dis-satisfied customer. I'd hazard that cold-calling a suitably stratified sample would introduce less bias and alter the results...

You can use surveys/stats to prove any point you like probably even diametrically opposed points from the same data - I'd be instantly cautious about making such inferences from what are already that...

Re: Which? Broadband Report Results
 

Metronet may have come out on top last year

BUT they have recently been taken over by plusnet (one of the worst) and all there pipes are now amalgamated as are the traffic shaping protocols support (another one of the worst) etc etc...

cant understand how plusnet came up so high..see adslguide message board for a true reflection. they are cheap though.

I was with them till this week but the last2 months the system has either been down or very very very slow....

My honest opinion DO NOT GO WITH METRONET BASED ON THIS REPORT...

yes even on adslguide they were rated in the top 3 for quite a few years. but now the level of satisfaction has dropped dramatically even after a couple of months..

HEADS UP FOR ANYONE THINKING OF MIGRATING...

the grass is not always greener

Re: Which? Broadband Report Results
 

Ive had NTL for the last 5 years and Ive called faults once, only to discover it was my router causing the problem. Ive only had about 10 outages in the 5 year period that Ive been aware of.

Re: Which? Broadband Report Results
 

thats a good service, where abouts are you?

Re: Which? Broadband Report Results
 

I think I prefer to go on world of mouth. We researched through which recommendations when buying our Zanussi washer dryer and fridge freezer a few years back - both were picked because they were recommended etc - the fridge freezer was poor quality and the washer dryer was crap at cleaning clothes.

If you want a true picture of an ISP check out this forum and adslguide's forums for ADSL ISPs - you can get a good idea reading peoples experiences.

It's not just quality of your connection that counts it's also how the company respond to your calls - do they charge for tech support? do they bull**** you that your pc needs a windows reinstall to fix speed problems? do they tell you that they know the network has a problem but there are no plans to fix it? do they charge you for an upgrade if they increase speeds? do they treat new customers better than loyal existing long term payers? things like that.

Re: Which? Broadband Report Results
 

Im in the TS6 area of Middlesbrough.

Mind we do have an engineer who lives in my road so that could help too :-) He must keep our area in shape :-)

Re: Which? Broadband Report Results
 

I used to subscribe to Which? & thought it poor value.............
Wasn't impressed with their recommendations, see earlier post about Zanussi!