Changing Internet Service Provider
If you have a contract that starts, say, on 21 January and, quote, "will expire" on 20 July, should you ask the new service provider to arrange the switch over for 19, 20 or 21 July?
I want to avoid being billed for early termination and avoid having my service cut off.
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At the risk of stating the obvious, have you asked the providers about this? Otherwisse I would switch on the 19th or 20th. A day's charge would be minimal - under £1.
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Lat, I changed last October and, even though I wasn't tied in to a contract this nearly caught me out "The day you request your MAC code will also be the start of your 30-day notice period and any cancellation charges will be collected" the MAC code is valid for 30 days, you don't have to use it immediately so you can juggle with the dates. I was very careful with my timings but even then, once I'd cancelled the direct debit they tried to say I owed them another month! There was, around a month or so ago, an item on R4 on this catching people out (I didn't pay up and they didn't persue it) but as EA says, best to phone them up. I finished my old service and started the new one on the same day.
Thank you Eine and Anna for your helpful comments after lunch.
I didn't want to ring them as the last time I tried I waited one hour and three minutes with recorded songs before I gave up. Unfortunately it looks like I am going to have to try again on this matter. My future provider said that my existing company was the only one from which a MAC number wasn’t required but I have now received a letter from my existing company saying that one might be required. They add that I have to ring them for advice to be sure.
The expiry date was one they were required to provide when I took up several matters with the Ombudsman. Several hundreds of pounds were taken out of my account almost 18 months ago. It took 20-30 hours plus of calls and e-mails to ensure that they got the accounting right. I am therefore not expecting this move to be very easy but hopefully they will prove me wrong if I do manage to talk talk to them. Anyhow, soon it will be be teatime. Excellent.
Last edited by Lateralthinking1; 16-06-12 at 18:27.
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Are we allowed to discuss providers? We have two active and one not so active - Greenbee (so far very good), TalkTalk (mmm....??) and (now) TalkTalk Business. This latter one is actually not providing broadband right now. I just haven't cancelled it because they say that if I do they'll terminate my email account with them (it was originally an f2s account servicing a line in another house). My latest strategy is probably going to be to cancel TalkTalk and transfer to TalkTalk business, so that at least I can keep the email. OTOH I could simply look around for other providers, and kill off my email account having archived all the messages I want to keep.
I'm not sure that the problems we have had with TT are totally their fault though, as this service comes in on an existing BT line, and that does seem to experience quite a lot of problems. However it might be time to sort this out, and switch anyway. My experience from most ISPs is that in the past they're a bit hopeless about getting a service up and running, and I usually expect some problems, and possibly loss of service, at switchover time. Maybe things have improved in the last year or two, but I'm not holding my breath.
What providers do others recommend? I'd perhaps go for cable if that were possible, but as far as I can see it's not, as we're just outside the area served by any cable providers.
Full Member
Lat, this seems crazy. Everyone changing has to have a MAC, so you are with talk talk and who do you wish to change to? Honestly, it's no more complicated than switching from British Gas to Swalec!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migrati...orisation_Code But even if you are on a bundled package it should be easy. Btw, I switched from Virgin to BT Edit: Not trying to persuade anyone to switch energy providers!! But, changing ISPs should not be more complicated than that, no-one can hold you to ransom.Originally Posted by Lateralthinking1
Last edited by Anna; 16-06-12 at 20:59.
Quote - "if I do manage to talk talk to them......."
Quote - "Anyhow soon it will be be teatime".
It could be TT to BT.
Can't say for certain though, just in case of misunderstandings.
Last edited by Lateralthinking1; 16-06-12 at 23:07.
Full Member
I made the switch from Orange to BT a couple of years ago and it was very straight forward. BT very helpful in the switch.Quote - "if I do manage to talk talk to them......."
Quote - "Anyhow it will soon be be teatime".
It could be TT to BT.
Can't say for certain though, just in case of misunderstandings.
Full Member
BT (Option 2) good for me too, very reliable over 3-4 years...
Watch out for cheapest options - BT have limited broadband speeds on the iPlayer during peak (evening) demand (they only tell you in the small print) and when I was on Option 1 I did get dropouts on evening concerts (speeds were often below 1 Mbps.) Moving to Option 2 cured the problem, currently averages 6-8 Mbps, very reliable streaming of the live AAC concerts.
Full Member
Zen. Excellent and consistently high service. Might not be the cheapest but I believe in 'you get what you pay for'.
Used to be with BT, then they changed things around and I lost email access and all connectivity. Basically they'd messed up the transfer. Fortunately I was sufficiently techno-savvy to argue the toss with the useless customer service people and forced the issue to be resolved. Since then I've avoided BT.
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