Goodbye Tesco my friend

[monkeyarms]

I have just migrated from Tesco, and thought i would leave a message with my thoughts of Tesco broadband.

I was with Tesco from the very begining when they started, around september 2004. So around a year and a half. In this time i experienced 2 or 3 brief disconnections, my speeds were always around the maximum a 512k could manage, both downloading from the web or p2p. Game pings were always around 40ms (depending on how many players in the server) on CoD, CoD UO & CSS.

I am probably a medium to heavy downloader, but never had any problems with usage, as you would expect from a service described as 'unlimited'.

I never really had to contact customer support, but when i did, i did by email and got reply's within 24hrs.

There was no problem when i requested my MAC, although it didn't arrive by email as promised so i rang up, and the guy just gave me a code there and then over the fone.

So to wrap up, i have seen a lot of people take the mickey out of Tesco for providing BB, but from reading the forums here and on ADSLGuide it would seem that ALL other ISPs have their problems, even those who are regarded as some of the best. Although Tesco isnt that cheap now, it was when i signed up, and has proven to be and excellent ISP.

I only migrated because i can now get 2meg LLU for £14.99.

Hope this helps anyone considering Tesco BB. I wouldnt hesitate recommending them, in fact i have, and 5 other people at my work are with them, and all agree with my views.

Wow, that was longer that i anticipated

[Gandalf]

goodbye tesco!
Mine was a brief and unhappy affair beginning on valentines day
signed up 14th February, was told I'd be informed of my activation date
got free modem a bit over a week later
rang up 1st of march
'hmm, it has been a while'
turns out it was turned on 26th of february, didn't I get the letter, hadn't I been trying to connect? No they won't change my start date to today as itr was not possible and I HAD been given the details
rang back 5 minutes later as my username and password didn't work, my adsl username was different to the one I'd signed up with and was in the letter and email I hadn't got
30 seconds later I'm online!
Sometime after going to bed the connection fell off
Next morning I get a 2nd class letter dated 27th with username and password saying I could connect now!
Connection falls off a few times a day for a couple of days, forget error numbers,
modem crashs hard after 2-3 days online, full reboot to awaken, I set reconnect on disconnection and 100 redial attempts to deal with disconnects
new error 680, falls off every few hours
5th march reinstall everything and go through 680 error checklist, no improvement.
6th march, falling off evry few minutes, multiple redial attempts, phone 0800 help number in booklet to find I'm not registered, 0845 does better with a real hoomun wot speeks weel english! and get told I have to phone premium rate number for help, also told it's in my contract that I use the premium rate number for faults.
I read contract, no mention of premium rate number, only to report faults to 0845,
Phone 0845 and tell them to give affordable help or cancel, I cancel, they threaten disconnect charge, I point out I am cancelling because they are breaching the contract in failing to provide and acceptable service, let me return the modem or even register my fault without bleeding money from me, tell them to keep the recording as I'll be contacting trading standards in the morning

Somehow I didn't use a single %&**^&* expletive and even remained polite if increasingly miffed!

Record shortness of isp in 12 years online!

/RANT

oh yeah need to reconnect, the persistent redialing really interferes with typing...

[Gandalf]

Bought a new modem on the offchance it was that, but no help, connection totally dead within a month of connection(no carrier), I'm on dialup at home now (currently surfing at sisters), I've written to trading standards and my credit card explaining exactly why I am ditching their 12 month contract, in short, their or BTs equipment broke and they won't fix it without me phoning a premium rate number, I briefly tried that but hung up when they asked me what POTS was! but still think I should pay for 12 months or give them a penalty fee for no service, good huh? Been trying to migrate to vispa but tesco telling me I had IPstream and not LLU as I actually had seems to have derailed them, anyone know an ISP who can give a decent 512 service, repair whatever is broken without expecting me to ring some premium rate number?