Andrews & Arnold (AAISP) Reviews

We have multiple ADSL lines with Andrews and Arnold and these range from 20CN to FTTC.

We moved our lines to them to enable us to take advantage of IPv6 but also having proper routed IPv4 blocks, so that we could build a robust infrastructure for us and our customers.

While we have had issues with our lines, all have been dealt by their support dept. in a professional manner.

Likewise help has been made available when using the 3G services.

Probably the best thing is the "openness" in the way they conduct their business. You get exactly what you expect to get, but without anything you don't need. They obviously have a passion for what they do, and they try very hard to be better, sometimes despite what their own suppliers get up to.

Like most people have reported, this quality service comes at a price, however from our businesses point of view, this still represents value for money as it is consistent with the image that we wish our customers to see from us.

We are at the end of a longish wire on an old 20CN rural exchange. After joining Nildram some years ago, we found ourselves in the tender care of TalkTalk. And it was monumentally crap despite being on an expensive business tariff.

I read the reviews and moved to AA. It was the promised breath of fresh air too, although any hand-holding definitely needs to be requested.

Speed and stability, given the need to keep the string between the tin cans tight at all times, was a revelation and the 100% consistency showed how much TalkTalk were over selling themselves. Connection speed initially tripled, although it fell back to double both up and downstream. The subjective increase was, however, more like tenfold.

On the other hand, the pricing model for 20CN users is a disaster. For us is was pushing monthly bills ever higher - potentially over £60 / month. We don't move all that much data but we need the service during the daytime. It proved to be a great service that we could not afford to use!

We have moved to Zen and, so far, the drop in speed has been marginal, consistency has dropped a little too but the bills are going to be considerably reduced. Rather less than half the AA levels, and we are only using 25% of our allocation, meaning that we could drop to a cheaper tariff.

If AA could fix the pricing for older exchanges, maybe even offer a cut-down feature set, we would come back.

I've been an AAISP customer for nearly three years now, having moved here from Zen Internet.

Before I had even signed up I was incredibly impressed with the customer service offered. My questions were answered promptly and with a level of technical knowledge I had never seen before with an ISP support department.

Since joining them I've had nothing but praise for the fantastic service that AAISP have, and continue to offer.

Whilst I could get my internet access cheaper with another ISP, I am more than happy to pay the extra for the incredible service I receive.

Recently, following the switch from 20CN to 21CN, my line developed a fault which resulted in sporadic connection drops. AAISP were fantastic through the entire investigation process and got BT involved with no issue what-so-ever. Although the issue required two visits, due to the first engineer not correctly diagnosing the problem, AAISP kept me fully informed throughout and didn't let BT rest until it was sorted to my satisfaction.

As you might have guessed, I'm very pleased with my service and have nothing but great things to say about AAISP.

If you're looking for a cheap "small fish in a big pond" ISP, look elsewhere and enjoy your across-seas call-centres and "acceptable" service.

However, if you want to be with an ISP who genuinely cares about their customers, who will go above and beyond to get things sorted, and who will ALWAYS give you 110%, go with AAISP.

You won't regret it.

AAISP is a small, friendly ISP that offers excellent, flexible, high speed services for the clueful geek.

AAISP's service offering includes free static IPv4 and IPv6 address blocks. And native IPv6 over BT and BE ADSL circuits. And a solid VOIP service that's cheap and flexible.

AAISP is not suitable for freetards who just want to download pirate films and MP3's as cheaply as possible. This is because the service is not throttled, censored, or traffic-shaped in any way. Therefore, you have to pay for what you use, because the customer base isn't large enough for lots of "average" users to subsidise the high-volume peer-to-peer users. If you don't like the idea of paying for what you use (rather than leeching off other people) then it's better that you go elsewhere. This is all down to the way that ISPs get charged for data transit over the BT ADSL backbone. Basically downloading really huge files is best not done on AAISP lines between 9-5, Monday to Friday.

AAISP's customer service is amazing, and doesn't involve ringing a foreign call centre and queuing on a premium rate number.

My favourite example of good customer service is having an extra IPv4 block allocated in real time on a Sunday night by simply chatting to the managing director on IRC.

On another occasion, AAISP raised a major incident with BT after I reported a failing line, and they noticed that half of their other customers on the my little rural exchange were also offline. I believe BT came out and changed a DSLAM board within four hours as a result.

I've read the occasional negative review here. These seem to be from people who fail to understand that ADSL speed problems are generally due to poor BT lines, poor routers, poor home wiring, or poor ADSL splitters. These are outside the ISP's control (BT simply refuse to improve lines that work but don't offer maximum speed). However, AAISP are really amazing at getting BT to fix things that are actually fixable. So the occasional negative reviews on here are entirely unjustified.

AAISP offers support by phone (without premium rate charges), by email, and even better, by IRC. On occasion they have been happy to look at something from their end to help me work out whether I've correctly configured some kit at my end. Generally speaking the fault has almost always been at my end, but if there's a fault at their end, they will spot it and fix it instantly when asked. IRC is simply the best forum for support on really geeky topics.

Summary:

- Thoroughly recommended if you are a geek.

- Not recommended if you just want massive downloads all day long on the cheap.

I used first AAISP quite sometime ago and also very recently where I had around 12 connections from them for a business service.

There are very few companies around these days where you can really say that you receive an excellent product and an excellent service. Sparrow hawk garage in Fulham is one such company and AAISP is another.

AAISP go far beyond the service you would expect from any ISP. They make almost any problem their problem and they will stick at it till it is fixed.

If you want cheap and dodgy then AAISP are not for you but if you are after an ISP that charges a really very reasonable price but gives an excellent product backed up by excellent service then AAISP is where you should be.

I'm about to order some more lines from them and after reviewing the options, I really do not want to go anywhere else.

I've been an AAISP customer now for several years, and in that time I've never ceased to be impressed with their dedication to providing the best service available.

Unlike some other ISPs there is no 'front line' stopping you talking to the people who know their stuff - it's not unusual to find yourself talking to the director! If it's possible to fix it they will, and if it's not they'll know exactly why. You're kept informed every step of the way - their online systems log *everything* - including conversations with BT (who are invariably trying to avoid doing any work, as usual).

They're not for everyone - if you're of a technical bent and want an ISP that will do what you want (IPV6 as standard, SMS notification, line monitoring, bonding, even stuff like BGP if you need it) then you'll love them. OTOH they charge a rate that reflects that level of service - this is no cheap and cheerful ISP.

They still offer the 'we'll fix your line or money back' promise which I believe they have never needed to pay out on. They're that good.

I would say though don't just believe a couple of reviews (we could all be paid to say this stuff - I'm not, but sometimes it sounds like it!) - It's well worth hopping onto the IRC channel & talking to current customers.

I migrated to AAISP because of high customer service rating in a number of review, however I now regret it; I was not kept informed during the migration process, I only knew the line was being migrated when it went dead, two days later I had to chase them (several times) to find-out what router settings I needed to change to get a connection, the connecting was never stable/reliable and I have now given notice (which costs more money!) because of the poor (and expensive) service.

As said by others the technical knowledge may be good, but the rest of the company lets them down, BIG TIME!

For me the only thing they managed with any reliability was grab the money.

Buyer Beware.

I've had problems with line-validation for months and months with AAISP. They've insisted that it's my problem and sent me chasing after issues that don't exist. I've changed my computer, my router, and my line. They then insisted I buy a third router as it must be my router. It's not. It is line-validation problems that exist at the BT switch level and AAISP just refuse to chase BT on this because it will cost them money. What is amazing is that, no matter how carefully I itemised the problems, they could not respond to those issues but kept jumping to conclusions—all of which said that is was at my end. It's not. I've even got expert advice from a 30+ years programmer for Lucent, AT&T, the emergency services, etc. who said "it's a line-validation problem at the switch" but AAISP would not listen.

When I said I would go to the regulator, the director said I couldn't as I hadn't followed the complaint procedure - which they had not told me about in the preceding six months at all. This is abusive.

As long as your problems are simple and you are willing to spend lots of money to please them, then I'm sure they're fine. If it's at the BT level and therefore more complicated, even though it is still AAISP's responsibility as the provider, forget it. Just get an ISP that is willing to act professionally.

Having been a long time customer and generally happy with the service - although the price is extremely high - I have been disappointed to receive a number of letters from them demanding money because of the VAT increase, which they hadn't warned me about in advance.

They then looked at my broadband usage and admitted they were charging about twice the price I was using.

Their technical knowledge may be good but their customer service is poor. They close on the dot at 5pm and don't even have an answerphone.

Disappointing after having been a reliable client for over 10 years

I have been with Andrews & Arnold for many years having previously tried several other ISP's. They are quite simply without peer. On the few occasions I have needed to contact support you are sure to speak with someone who has a genuine interest in solving whatever your issue might be. More importantly, the support staff have the knowledge to get the job done rather than going through a script parrot fashion.

Recently we moved home and BT had given a lead time of four weeks to get broadband installed (I asked bt as I thought they might be quickest). Having thought this was a mistake I asked another operator who again told me a date nearly one month away!!!!

I phoned Andrews and Arnold and they said I could expedite an order and be connected within 24 hours. Music to my ears :) It cost extra for this speedy connection but was ultimately worth every penny as I work from home 90% of the time.

If you are wavering on the price, do yourself a huge favour and bite the bullet, you will never have broadband woes again.