ISP Reviews by Meatball

January 2023 contract renew.

On behalf of an elderly father in-law I renewed his Sky contract (full monty)

Offer on-line account was £128.50 which was around £2 more than current and viewed good compared to inflation rises. Then the letters arrived which provide no visibility of what his overall bill would be and SkyTalk Anytime Plus stood out at its standard price of £12/m. Checked on line and forecast bills would be £134.50.

Verified with Sky, they could not offer any better offers on his Sky TV or Broadband and would not reduce SkyTalk or offer any other call plan under the new offer. Frustrating as their sibling NOW is still offering free calls.

If he wasn't 86 I would have cancelled it all. But it is his main pleasure and would be difficult for him and his wife if I cobbled together an alternative.

Therefore all I could do was remove SkyTalk Anywhere Plus and apply PAYG. This reduced the forward bills to £122.50

They can use the phone on rare occasions if required for a lot less, it remains available for emergency calls and any of course any incoming. All I need to do is set up a phone/device (under £50) to connect to their mobiles (via Bluetooth) so they can make outgoing comfortably.

Returned to VM (OR FTTP not in sight and CityFibre at least 18 months away)
CRAWLEY Area 18
Only 40% in my post code can actually order despite VM presence at 87.5% of addresses. Similar on other Post Codes/Estates.
With perseverance managed to get my address "unlocked by engineering"
Negotiated Oomph 360 TV, M350, phone and SIM for £41/m for 18 months
VM still issuing 360 package with Hub 3
Underwhelmed by 360 TV offering. Using it to record for my use but not for family.
Broadband worked OK for 2 days then lots of issues in Evenings.
Removed all equipment except Hub and one wired device.
Monitored speeds. 360/36 at night and early morning. Reduced to just over 100/35 during day. Drops to 6-8/35 Mbps in evening. Upload appears to remain consistent. All tests using VM web site version of SpeedTest.
Verified for 4 days (Router or Modem mode).
Reported fault to VM. They immediately went down the User/WIFI/Device route.
Call passed to a technical desk. Very quickly confirmed that there was "an outage" issue. Refused my explanation of a capacity issue. Expected resolution is 8 days time. Await outcome.
Update: Perseverance with VM appear to deliver. After monitoring service every day at set intervals and referral to a more technical help desk M350 now consistently above 300 and up around 35. All good lets see how long it lasts.