Aquiss Reviews

I've been with Demon since dial-up was the only way to have internet access. I've watched them grow from a relatively small ISP dedicated to customer support with quality technicians to the now seemingly standard corporate IT with customer and technical support read from a script.

I decided on a change and used ISPreview to help me select a new supplier. I made contact with a few from the "costs more but better quality" group. Aquiss stood out in both the quality and the rapidness of response to queries. We had an open and honest chat about the distance I am from the exchange and the fact that my speed wouldn't change etc.

I signed up and was able to rediect various email domains thru Aquiss servers even before the broadband was enabled, the switch was simple, painless and on the day they promised.

Amazingly for me, both my upload and download speeds increased by a few k (I'm miles from the exchange so a few k is a big percentage increase) - and that was due to the fact that the line is truly unlimited (Demon told me the same thing, but were clearly mis-informed).

So far, everything is working exactly as I hoped and expected. I would recommend Aquiss everytime.

About 18 months ago I found myself here on ISP review looking to change providers.

At the time I was with Xilo on a standard broadband package but I was aware that the new cabinet for fiber to cab was up at the end of my street and good to go.

(I myself put the electricity supply into it 2 days prior)

Xilo had quoted me a new connection fee of over £70 (which I believe is passed down to them by BT who make the change over) as well as a months standard broadband fee and Fiber fee - the total was around £150 including VAT.

As Xilo refused to budge I came here to see who was at the top of the list.

I read a couple of reviews and made a call to Aquiss.
After a couple of simple questions they quoted me nothing but the monthly fee for the FTC broadband it's self as they would swallow the charge passed onto them by BT.

Deal I was in!
That afternoon I got a phone call from Martin who asked me a few questions about how I planned to use the service (for me it's gaming, and streaming both up and down.)

Within a week my new connection was in! I'd went from 6 down and 0.25 up to 72 down and 20 up!
It settled and dropped off a bit as more people got connected to the new cabinet at around 55/15.

Iv'e been problem free up until a few weeks ago, My other half had first noticed issues streaming from SKY, I was having 1 or two internet drops a night.

So over the last 24 hours I done some speed tests I was getting on average 5 down and 6 up.

I sent a low priority ticket this morning to Aquiss, to which Martin responded within the hour, After some back and forth we realized the issue lies on BT's side and has now been flagged with them to be fixed.

long story short.
Moved from Xilo, not had an issue with any of Aquiss service and can commend there customer support.

After waiting 17 months (I know others have been waiting longer!) for our cabinet to be upgraded I couldn't wait to order a VDSL service and lose the 2.7mb connection. After doing some research I decided to leave my previous provider, who despite providing an excellent service were unable to offer an unmetered package at the time, and decided on Aquiss. From the moment I ordered online I knew I had made a good choice, I was contacted by phone around 5 minutes after I placed the order and the whole process was explained in a friendly and knowledgable manner. The date was set, the engineer (Openreach subcontractor) arrived within the timeslot and I went ahead and configured my own router - nothing. A quick email fired off to support got a reply in minutes, although I had already figured out my mistake and the connection was live. 79.9 down, 19.9 up. Streaming is perfect, downloads are fast, everything works. Having had 120mb from Virgin at a previous address I appreciate that bandwidth is not everything, as that service suffered from poor streaming despite having a "fatter pipe" - so I'm happy that Aquiss seem to be much better at managing their network traffic. TLDR version - not exactly cheap but blows anything you can get from the "big boys" out of the water. Update 31/03/2016 - Having now had cause to leave Aquiss (my new employer is providing me with a service) The hefty charge to leave (£74!!) is a little ridiculous. A shame that this now leaves a sour taste after an otherwise great service.

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For the first few months of being with Aquiss the connection was excellent, with very high up/down speeds and really low latencies. This was the expected quality of service for having a 50pound family package. Aquiss makes it public that they prioritize business traffic during business hours. I found it fair, and found no issues with it during the first few months. However, after the first few months my connection started experiencing irregular periods of terrible quality. Download rates decreased to <1Mbps and latencies increased massively, in spikes. This turned out to be due to Aquiss straight out dropping between 20% and 80% (!!!!) of our packets whenever their network is heavily loaded. This happens usually during what they claim to be business hours, but is not limited to that time. It's the worst during "Windows patch Wednesdays", where the Internet is completely unusable until about 5pm. Usually happens to all the machines on the network (student flat), but sometimes one PC is free of issues, so the prioritization seems to be IP bound. Letting the customer service know about this does not accomplish anything. A ticket is opened and closed soon afterwards, sometimes even on the same day, without the issue being actually resolved. Changing my provider soon, do not recommend, definitely not worth 50 pounds/month.

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I recently made a call to Aquiss customer services and was shocked at how rude they were. I could hear someone in the background chatting away to my rep about something totally unconnected to work. My rep did not seem interested in answering my query and just wanted to get me off the phone. Her manner was very curt. I will be moving to a new provider asap. Also, their customer service does not open until 10.00am. I would not recommend Aquiss to anyone.

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I had to leave Be retail as Sky bought them, I did not want to join Sky.

I had to use their technical support three or four times and the people have been courteous,helpful and they knew that I had a problem on my internal wiring.

I do not have internet dropouts, high latency and low speed.

I highly recommend them without doubt

Having been forced out of Coms because of the appalling service, total indifference towards customer support and just generally being downright awful I decided to give Aquiss a chance because they offer a one-month contract.

It's too early to tell whether or not I've done the right thing but the early signs are not good.

I gave Aquiss my MAC code on July 25th but I have heard absolutely nothing from them since. I don't know if they've accepted my order. I don't know if they are transferring my Internet provision to themselves. I know absolutely nothing because I've heard absolutely nothing.

For now this is as far as my review can go. I will of course update it with further information if and when I hear from Aquiss.

UPDATE:

It seems that Aquiss have been quietly beavering away in the background sorting out my migration and keeping me informed throughout the process. Unfortunately Gmail decided that Aquiss was spam despite my adding Aquiss to my contacts and this is why I've not received any further communication from them other than the initial acceptance of my order.

This morning I was telephoned by Aquiss to inform me that my connection went live yesterday and so with much rejoicing I was finally able to leave Coms behind me. If any of you have any sense whatsoever you will avoid Coms like the plague. I can't see how they get away with calling themselves an ISP. Thank you Aquiss, thank you for saving me from hell.

As a refugee from BE, I had to migrate somewhere quickly before the impending transition to Sky - been with them before running at 1.2Mbit on an old line :'( - so after much deliberation I am so pleased I chose Aquiss.

I was on their ADSL package and came out near top on the speed tests in my semi-rural village at a blistering 3.5Mbit on a long line. Now I have just upgraded to Aquiss' 80MBit FTTC package with free installation, I am absolutely blown away by the speed which is currently running at approximately 75.0Mbit D/L and 17.0Mbit U/L - pawns the uSwitch StreetStats website in my village ;)

I have had plenty of communication with Aquiss' customer services and which is second-to-none. Replies are usually answered within a couple of hours during office hours, have always got the answers I need first time around, and are professional and courteous.

The FTTC packages aren't the cheapest (£36-£40 for family bundles) if you compare to the mainstream ISPs, but what you get in return far outweighs this (9/10). The other top 4 in the ISP review list on this site do seem to have considerable usage caps and so they work out much more expensive than Aquiss if you want big bandwidth allowances.

Superb customer service (10/10), super fast connection speed (10/10), low latency (10/10), much low congestion at peak times - unlike BT, TalkTalk and Sky (10/10), truly unthrottled and unlimited service 24-7 (10/10).

Moving to Aquiss was very easy. I'd previously been with BeThere who went continuously down hill for a long time.

Set-up was very straight forwards...except for the part where I forgot to move my phone line from my old provider.

So despite some down time that I relate to a three way issue:
- I totally forgot to move the line after moving the ADSL
- Bethere didn't tell anyone they were going to disconnect until after they'd done it
- Aquiss are too friendly to send me a marketing email asking if I want a phone line :-P

Everything has been good. I should mention that Martin at Aquiss went above and beyond helping get the line moved over and

The line runs at max speed which in my case is 69Mbps down and 17Mbps up with a ridiculously low latency of around 3-20ms depending on server location.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/2970352253.png

I moved to Aquiss at the same time as changing from a very slow ADSL connection to FTTC, so I was obviously expecting a huge performance improvement. The download and upload speeds I have are actually more than what was predicted. I've had the service for over a month and it has been rock solid and consistent. Latency is excellent too, ping times are between 10-20ms.

Having previously been with one of the big providers it's great to always get through to someone on the phone within a minute or so, not just a call handler but someone who knows what they are talking about and who takes real ownership of the problem. Things can always go wrong but with Aquiss you aren't just a ticket to be closed as soon as possible.

Even though problems are very often with BT, not the ISP, my previous provider was reluctant to escalate anything to them. Aquiss has proved to be effective in chasing them up and getting things sorted. There was a BT related cock-up with my installation which could have gone on a lot longer had it not been for Aquiss's intervention.

The online account interface is good, especially the billing system where you get VAT invoices as standard. Lots of people, including me, claim their internet as an expense, with my last provider I had to make a special request for VAT invoices.

The only negative comment I have is their excessive traffic management on Usenet downloads. I typically get no more than 3Mbits/sec on a 70Mbit/sec connection, and it is sometimes blocked altogether when their network is at capacity.

For the service provided Aquiss has the best features and value of any of the premium providers. Highly recommended.