TV/Phone/Broadband Provider

[Granty]

I'll soon be moving and need to sort broadband and tv, who to go for?

The all in one packages don't look to shabby..

Sky (Speak, Surf, See) for £27 but then there's the £10 BT Line Rental on top.  Anyone got this?  What basic channels do you get?

Virgin Media are doing a similar deal (Broadband, Phone line, TV) for £20 but I'd probably end up going for the £30 for more channels.

Any others to consider?

[Tanthalas]

We've got the 3-for-£30 deal on Virgin, upped to £35 thanks to our XL broadband package, but I'll be damned if I'm going to downgrade my net line!

I'm feeling a bit mixed about Virgin at the mo.  On the one hand, they have NTL's excellent infrastructure and reliability (hush - it's brilliant for me), and they recently more than halved my bill and sent out a new digibox free of charge after a quick phone call.  We also now get free evening and weekend calls, though we sacrifice the 3p-to-anywhere tariff to get that, but it ends up cheaper anyway.

On the other hand, they've recently introduced a few sneaky little moves.  Broadband support isn't free any more, and the lines are apparently now capped, where they weren't under NTL (although for the first time in ages I left my machine on overnight Torrenting, and Virgin didn't do anything as I sailed over the cap limit).  There's also the rumblings about them being sold off to a private group that will strangle the company for a few years, completely ruin the service in order to wring every last penny out of it, then flog on what remains.

I don't want to go Sky though.  From experience ADSL just isn't as reliable, fast and hassle free as cable, same goes for satellite, and I would feel dirty putting money in Mr Murdoch's pockets.

For all the fears I had when Virgin took over, the service for us so far is almost the same as it was under NTL, and it's far cheaper too.  Yeah, we don't have Sky One, but no-one's weeping at that loss in our house.  I'd still go for them over Sky any day.

Slight ramble, but you get the drift.

By the way, Virgin's V+ box is more expensive than Sky's Sky+ box, but the V+ box is technically superior.

[Matt]

Im in exactly the same postion as you Granty. And Im going with Sky.

Cant get cable, but even if we could I can get 2 mixes + 8mb BB + free evening and weekend calls for £20 a month with a £30 set up fee. Also includes a wireless router.

Virgin BB wasnt shite, I had Blueyonder cable for years (5/6 ish) and it was always good, apart from when it went tits up for a month, and I saw just how poo BY and Virgins tech support is. Sky may be more expensive, but we have never had any issues. I phoned them up to order yesterday and have a guy comming around this Saturday. Cant argue with that.

On the flip side, ADSL with Virgin.net was always good. If your looking for a decent price and speed single ADSL provider, BE internet look good.

[rutty]

I used to be with Virgin/NTL and rather liked the service, but we couldn't have that installed when we moved and had to go with Sky.

The Sky TV package is pretty decent - got all the normal channels (Sky one, E4, More 4, UKTV whatever, etc etc) and the internet seems fast and reliable. No idea if it's capped - I don't tend to download much at all.

The phone took about a month to change over but they did enable the broadband in about a week. They insisted on sending their own wireless router to us and they didn't send any passwords for it, but it's easy to connect up if not configure much yourself. I've no idea if your own router would work or not - I suspect the settings are pre-set in the Sky router and I've not figured a way to get into it.

Seems OK so far though, even if I do hate Murdoch and his capitalist ways. Needs must though - we have a shared dish and no way of having Virgin installed

[Jeewhizz]

IThey insisted on sending their own wireless router to us and they didn't send any passwords for it

http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/sky-router/1199-ive-done-flashed-router-got-my-sky-password.html

[Granty]

Im in exactly the same postion as you Granty. And Im going with Sky.

Cant get cable, but even if we could I can get 2 mixes + 8mb BB + free evening and weekend calls for £20 a month with a £30 set up fee. Also includes a wireless router.

How did you get it for twenty notes? I'd be tempted at that price.  £20 plus £10 a month line? 

There is a sky dish on the property already.  Would they still charge for installation?

Cheers all.

[Shirker]

We moved house last week and there was a dish on the property. We had a Sky+ box already but they still charged £50 to install a second cable from the dish, which seemed fair enough. Don't see that there should be any charge if there's already a dish and you already have the box.

[kimpossible]

If you sign up to it through quidco you can get cashback too.

Up to £85 for Sky - http://www.quidco.com/sky-digital/
Up to £32 for TalkTalk - http://www.quidco.com/talktalk/
Up to £40 for BT - http://www.quidco.com/bt-broadband/

It is also worth using Quidco when you do your home insurance or car insurance as some companies pay £120 cashback.

The 'cashback' isn't guaranteed and I've read mixed reports about companies paying up, but if you're going to sign up to the service anyway you've got nothing to lose. If you want to find out more about 'Quidco' Moneysavingexpert forums are very informative.

BTW - Quidco don't do any referall scheme so I'm not gaining anything out of this! Just pleased to pass on some money saving tips.

[Granty]

Thanks Kim.   Jee has mentioned quidco in the past, I'd never heard of them.  How does it work?  Do you know anyone who has received the cashback/credit? 

[kimpossible]

I don't 'personally know' anyone that has received the cashback, but plenty of people on MSE have successfully received their cashback (many have made several hundred quid using it).

Read the second post in the thread here which gives more info:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=454372

From what I gather, if you're going to sign up for a service or buy goods, you may as well see if you can get cashback via quidco as you've got nothing to lose. There's no point using it as a way to make money as nothing is guaranteed. Having said that most companies pay out, albeit often a few months after your purchase.

[Matt]

Im in exactly the same postion as you Granty. And Im going with Sky.

Cant get cable, but even if we could I can get 2 mixes + 8mb BB + free evening and weekend calls for £20 a month with a £30 set up fee. Also includes a wireless router.

How did you get it for twenty notes? I'd be tempted at that price.  £20 plus £10 a month line? 

There is a sky dish on the property already.  Would they still charge for installation?

Cheers all.

£15 for two mixes and then £5 for the BB - £30 one off set up and activation fee for all. £11 to BT as well of course.

Can get all mixes for £26 as well it seems.

[Chris H]

Virgin Media floats my boat. Although after 4 years I think me modem is on it's way out 

[Matt]

just phoned sky, can only get sky connect for £17 a month...

[Granty]

Went for Virgin Media (3 for £30) who are coming Friday.

Just rang them as the sales guy I spoke to did not mention an installation charge even though there is one so I'm trying to do away with that.  What are my chances?

Do you think the 'I want Sky One' excuse is worth a shout to get some money off to or is it late in that I have already signed up?  

I'm on a 30 day cooling off so may as well try. I remember some of you on here knocked money off your bill.. what are we talking?

[rutty]

NTL didn't charge us installation, so perhaps you should remind them of that ;¬)

No harm in trying

[Mr Anderson]

I'm on a 30 day cooling off so may as well try. I remember some of you on here knocked money off your bill.. what are we talking?

They were compensated for losing channels that they already had. You're going to the service after the other channels have already gone, I doubt you qualify for compensation 

[Granty]

NTL didn't charge us installation, so perhaps you should remind them of that ;¬)

No harm in trying

I was out when they installed this morning. No chance of me paying for the poo job they've done with the wiring round the place. 

[Granty]

Finally got round to having a rant at VM tonight in the hope of some discount.

To start, some pictures of the cabling round the place (haven't shown them these yet but may email them), check the nice neat work..

Cable - Front
Cable - Front view two
You get the point
Round the corner

Now for the best bit, the back gate.  There is a nice gap under our gate that the cable would have gone under but they obviously thought this would be best. Gate open and closed

I reported this a couple of weeks ago and have to say they were good and arranged for an engineer to come out and rectify it (on a Saturday).

When the engineer came I queried the box (note, one box - two cables (excuse the picture).

They should have installed an additional box as standard but the first engineer obviously did not want to pull the cable as it is quite a long run (and I was out).  It works fine (as far as VM goes) but if we (or the neighbours) wanted a second line, we wouldn't be able to.

I mentioned all of this and managed to rid of the £25 installation in seconds.

I then tried justifying discount on the £30 a month by saying we were thinking of leaving for 'Talk Talk' (the latest trick).  They offered Medium TV and Broadband with Large Phone (free landline calls anytime) for £20 but would not match our current (Large TV and Phone, Medium Broadband) for £20.

My question to you, should I try again?

Granty
done some gardening since.

[Ben]

Hell yea try again - what the worst they could say? Perhaps we're coming to mess up your tidy garden