A few of you might be interested to hear my update.
Decided to get O2 BB as it was £7.50 for 12 months with 2 months free and £75 cashback from Quidco making it £0 for the whole year. I was estimated at 7Mb and it was activated on 8th January. First week was perfect and averaging around 6/6.5Mb on sync speed - speed test were around 5.5Mb, sometimes closer to 6Mb. Did have to clean up my wiring a bit with removal of bell wire - adsl sure is different from cable.
Last weekend seem to experience dropped connections and ended up with around 5 in a 24 hour time frame. Talked to O2 CS who confirmed line was fine and stable - couldn't explain drop outs. Each time router rebooted it caused speed to lower until at one point I was getting less than 5Mb. Anyway on Sunday I changed the wireless settings on router to use Channel 11 as opposed to Auto - not had a dropped connection since. I have no idea why this may be as I wasn't actually using wireless although it was switched on as I occasionally use it with my iphone.
So to Virgin. I had phoned them around 2 weeks ago and discussed the possibility of leaving and what they could do. Not a lot was the answer - best deal was £17 for 10Mb BB alone or a fee options for BB and phone - all of which were dearer. They were not moved by my telling them that O2 would be £7.50 - of course they would quote deal with BB and phone which didn't interest me as i wanted the rpice down.
So last Monday I phoned up to actually cancel my services. Of course I was asked why and I told them it was cheaper to leave. Again nothing offered but what was already discussed so cancellation booked for 17th February.
From Wednesday of this week Virgin have been phoning me every day although only spoke to them last night. This was their "real" retentions department - only an outbound department I am told. As a loyal customer of 13 years they didn't want me to leave. Realising that I wouldn't get anywhere with the, " I already have a BT line so it will only cost me £7.50 to have O2" statement I changed tact.
I told them that for BT and O2 together it would cost me £11.54pm as the O2 deal was £7.50pm with 2 free months and £75 cashback so this was why I was leaving. She asked if she could look to see what they could do so I said why not.
First offer was £14 for 6 months followed by £18 for 6 months for 10Mb BB. However she could do 10Mb BB with L phone ( evening & weekend calls) for £15.95. I started to tell he that that was still too dear when she said my manager wants to speak to me. Came back with a £30 goodwill credit authorised by manager. Plus a free wireless router to replace the one I already have from them which has never worked with my modem - keeps dropping the connection every couple of minutes. I asked for time to think it over - she said she would phone today.
Before she could phone someone else from the same department phoned - they are keen! He confirmed from the notes the deal I had been offered. I told him I was still unsure as Virgin was still £10 dearer over the year. He said he would get the original person to phone me.
20 minutes later she phoned. After a bit of friendly negotiation she agreed that I could have Anytime calls for the same price as the deal last night - price seemed to have changed to £14.95 but I wasn't arguing!
So basically I have 10Mb BB, XL phone for what amounts to £11.45pm for 12 months. I decided to accept their offer as it has basically reduced my Virgin bill by £20pm and I'm not paying anything for O2 BB. Yes I could have also saved the £11.45pm with Virgin and dropped it altogether but I figured it would let me see how the O2 6Mb package and the Virgin 10Mb package compare side by side for a year. Then I can decide what to do next year. It will also give me a good backup for both phone and BB should one go down.
My O2 speedtest;
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