I signed up for broadband with thephone.coop because I wanted to use an ethical supplier. I didn't need the ability to make phone calls, but had to pay line rental as the broadband won't work without it. I was given a start date for the line (which was of no use to me for the reason above, yet I was charged from this date) and a later date for broadband go-live.

I was disappointed that the go-live date was more than 3 weeks after my order was placed. When the go-live date came around, the broadband did not work. It took several days without broadband and several calls to get it working. It didn't help that thephone.coop doesn't have 24 hr support, so if it's not working in the evening or at the weekend you're out of luck until the next working day. If you have to go to work during the day, that's your problem. Support aren't particularly helpful and have to be called multiple times to get anything done.

After about 3 days of this treatment I asked thephone.coop to cancel my service (we're supposed to be able to cancel a telephone contract within 14 days). Here's the clever part, because the go-live date for broadband is 21 days, the 14 day period has already passed, so it's not possible to cancel.

In short:

- go-live date was ages away
- connection go-live took several days to work
- consumer rights removed by being unable to cancel after the go-live date
- very expensive compared to other providers
- don't offer 24 hour support, which makes it worse when the connection isn't working - See more at: http://www.reviewcentre.com/Phone-Companies/The-Phone-Co-op-Telecoms-www-thephone-coop-review_1893317#sthash.kxUVGQmJ.dpuf