Oh yes, AA are expensive all right and I used to be with them too. The service was indeed really great and tech support pretty expert, with a proper techhead answering the phone directly. My favourite feature was that advanced and powerful online control panel which I haven't seen any other ISP offer - a real boon for tech nerds like me and something that I miss not having anymore.
Zen, any chance of you offering this feature?!
However, the huge downside are their unacceptably tiddly download limits which, incredibly, haven't increased in the 15 months since I left them. 100GB for £25/month nowadays, really? They are looking more and more uncompetitive as each day goes by and I reckon they'll have to offer more within a couple of years if they want to stop customers leaving them in the long run. It doesn't have to be unlimited either, just something like 500GB as standard, perhaps. Note that their Office service offers an unlimited download limit over FTTC, so why not for residential customers as well? Do they not want the business? I can't get FTTC, so I'd be out of luck there, too.
They make a big deal about offering a quality service with anti-slamming, low ping etc and no internet censorship which are all great features, but from I can see, one doesn't have to accept such an awful download limit to get this in this day and age. They also make a big deal about aiming to never be the bottleneck and never slowing you down. However, having people limit their usage to stay within a cap, or reluctantly pay more for a one-off 50GB extra is the ultimate throttle, isn't it? So, this claim isn't as great as it seems at first. Classic marketing. Note that if you're willing to pay those extra tenners per 50GB extra, then your bandwidth is actually effectively unlimited each month. And your bank account will be bled dry.
The real reason for the limit of course is that they either don't have enough capacity on their network, or can't afford the wholesale price to offer this (they've explained to me it's the latter). However, I'd gladly accept a bit of reasonable traffic shaping at peak times to not have to worry about a download limit as I'm sure would other customers, especially if that lovely control panel of theirs lets you know when it's happening. Offer the two services (capped or unlimited and shaped) perhaps and let people choose what they prefer.
And I'll let you in on a dirty little secret. Despite BT's abysmal customer service, my current unlimited BT broadband connection is very, very reliable and funnily enough, also doesn't slow down at peak times. Sure, they have the advantage of not having to pay for their own wholesale prices, but that still doesn't make it impossible for other ISPs to compete with a similar service as we can see. Just pray you don't get a fault. :laugh:
I really didn't want to leave AA at the time, but the combination of high cost and small download limit sealed it, unfortunately. At the time I had to reduce monthly costs, which encouraged me to look at BT and their cheap offer, as much as I hated them, but would have ringfenced the cost of my internet service if the download limit could have been increased reasonably.
Before asking for my MAC, I did discuss with them if they could offer me a retention deal with more monthly data, but they couldn't unfortunately. Thing is, they were nice enough, but I didn't like their superior tone about it, with very much a take it or leave it attitude, totally relying on that quality service to make up for it, which it doesn't. I need to be able to use the service without watching out for this damned limit all the time, especially with the increasing use of streaming services and ever larger Windows patches and game downloads. So do others from various comments I've seen over time.
AA also don't offer a standard phone service either, so a combo package like Zen's isn't possible with them.
So, now Zen roll up also with a quality service and finally a competitive package for us ADSL users, hence moving over to them is a no-brainer. This is great free advertising for them, but I don't care, they deserve it.
Don't flog yourself too much about that email, we've all been there.
Finally, did you know that they've held up your
exit review of them on ISP Review as an example of how wonderful they are and as a reason to join them?! I wouldn't have done that in their shoes and I didn't find their reply when I challenged them on it very convincing, either. Note that other people on that thread were also forced to leave due to that tight download limit. Check it out:
https://www.facebook.com/AAISP/posts/896835253744706
Your review:
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/review/reviews/6243.html
EDIT: I see further replies have been made while I was drafting this post.
Yes Lee, IPCop is an oldie but goodie that's still being developed and supported. I'm familiar with it, which is why I went with it. I'm looking at other similar firewalls to see about using a better one, but there's no rush.
Great that it's all working without a hitch, AA.