homecall

[carpetclean]

Any one on this. looks to good to be true. Thinking of switching from bt broadband as this is a fair saving. Got to say I have never had any problems with bt broadband though. I pay £27.99 for my broadband alone.

Broadband Extra 512 Kbps
with Free calls - only £24.99 per month
Why worry about when you are 'allowed' to pick up your telephone and surf the internet?

Homecall are offering Unlimited telephone calls plus Uncapped 512K Broadband for only £24.99. With Homecall's 512K Broadband & Free calls package, you can ring local and national numbers morning, noon and night without worrying yourself about cost. It includes Broadband Extra (512K) which is up to 10 times faster than normal internet dial-up, plus unlike other ISPs, Homecall Broadband does not impose any download limits, hidden costs or surcharges.

Homecall Broadband Extra includes:

Free connection (worth £50)
Free USB modem (worth £35)
512 Kbps speed
Up to 10 times faster than dial up
Always on
Ideal for videos, music, gaming
5 email addresses
10MB email space per account
Webmail - pick up your email from anywhere via the Internet
Spam control - reduces unwanted e-mails
0845 dial-up access backup
Up to 125 MB of webspace - build your own website

Comments please. Good or bad. Dont want to change then regret it.

Paul

[Win2Win]

Silax will recommend BT :D

[e55exboi]

Where do u find the phone bill and broadband combined offers on the site? (BT)
Someone called E7even are offering cheap broadband, anyone heard if theyre reliable or not?

[carpetclean]

Its not bt who are offering it.

Paul

[vegyjones]

I wouldn't trust anyone who hasn't had a long and prestigeous
history in the telecommunications market.

That's why I use Tesco :doh :laugh

Very reliable so far though after some initial hiccups :D

[Win2Win]

Have you looked at onetel?

[vegyjones]

Onetel = ::swear ::swear ::swear ::swear ::swear ::swear ::swear
:censored:

[Win2Win]

I've used plus.net for 3 years no problemo

When they say unlimited, read the small print, Unlimited = Their fair usage policy. Same for every ISP, but different limits.

[tophatter]

BT are scum. I though privatisation was meant to make them look after their customers needs? They wash their hands of the scum 0900 trojans and viruses and pocket their share of the cash, they charge you for things like 1471 if you press the 3 key (not much publisiced but they do), Twice I have had faults on my line in the last couple of years and it took more than 4 days on each occasion to fix it, they can't organise anything except billing you and taking your cash. Now tell me about how poor public services are, believe me if BT was still in government hands dishing this kind of service out you would never hear the end of it.

[tophatter]

Also Transco have managed to leave 1000's of people in Luton without gas, some as long as 4 days. They still can't (or won't) say what caused it.

[Vic]

Still have overhead cables where I live, managed to cut mine in two a couple of years ago when cutting back some ivy. BT did a nice job repairing it for me and charged something like £165 for 20 mins work. I complained - the response was something like "tough titties mate".
I followed up with a call advising them that my company spent around £120k a year with them, and although I will pay their bill I will make sure that every effort is expended in finding an alternative (mostly sat calls to Africa and offshore installations). I had a nice lady call me up and explain that my bill was being reduced to £80. That kind of response is typical and makes me ;fire . They'd already lost the goodwill battle and would have been better sticking to their guns.

[e55exboi]

Been looking for the best phone and broadband combined deal and no one seems to do the deals with more than 512k internet connection whereas they all do upto 2mb seperately :doh

[sparkyminer]

Tiscali's look to be a good deal Boi, but I've not looked at the small print.
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/products/nm/website/nll/broadband.html

[e55exboi]

Hmmm when putting in my post code on NTL's site they say its available on my area, then when signing up, putting in my actual house number and phone number it then says its not available!! Would that be anything to with the fact i live in a flat? If they just run down the BT line what's the problem?

Tiscali says the same but then says "Our records indicate that Broadband is already enabled on this Line. If you already have Broadband with another Internet Provider please cancel your account first and return to Tiscali and register."

[tophatter]

I reckon its coz the engineers have heard about your neighbours and want too much danger money to go and install it! :yikes:

How is Trace and sandra anyhow? You not had an invite for a housewarming yet? :wiggle:

[e55exboi]

Not moved in yet

[carpetclean]

Make sure you can get 2mb. Ran a check on my line and 1mb is the max. BT are MEANT to be upgrading me free of charge to 2mb. ha ha..........when and IF

Will be cancelling my bt broadband tomorrow and giving homecall a go. FREE calls and broadband for less than I am paying now :)

My home phone is £140 a quarter
Broadband is £27.99 a month

Home call £24.99 a month + £30 line rental from BT a quarter + ALL CALLS FREE. I have three lovely chatty daughters..........................will be ££££££££££££££££'s in :) :) :)

Paul

[e55exboi]

BT is £30 a quarter? I read they were £12.99 a month. Ntl and Tiscali are both better than homecall Carpet, check em.
EDIT: Actually tiscali ntl and Homecall are all the same for unlimited calls, all £24.99 :geek

My phone is at least £120 but alot of the bill you'll find is 0845 0870 mobiles etc..

[samantha1303]

Do you still have to take the tv package with NTL or do they do broadband separate these days?

[e55exboi]

Nothing to do with telly

[carpetclean]

BT is £30 a quarter? I read they were £12.99 a month. Ntl and Tiscali are both better than homecall Carpet, check em.
EDIT: Actually tiscali ntl and Homecall are all the same for unlimited calls, all £24.99 :geek

My phone is at least £120 but alot of the bill you'll find is 0845 0870 mobiles etc..

£10.50 a month I think. I may be wrong will have a check of the bill tomorrow. Cant get ntl as its cable and I am to remote still got over head lines. Tiscali (good deal) £19.99 a month for 2mb, but no free calls and I cant have the 2mb connection.

Any others to check out?

Paul

[e55exboi]

I think that £10.50 doesnt include VAT, BT are very good at not including VAT in their prices!

On TIscali you pay another £9.99 for the free calls so thats £30 for 2mb and free calls, thats the best Ive found. Or 1mb for £15.99 and £9.99 for the calls again. stange thing is the !mb has a pathetic download limit whereas as half a MB connection has a massive download limit :doh
One Tel is well expensive

[carpetclean]

e55exboi,

Cant find the phone/broadband package on tiscali. Would go with them if they are doing this deal for £24.99. pm me the link please.

Paul

[e55exboi]

I know its a bit confusing, most of the sites are a nightmare finding the deals! Click on the "broadband and bundles", then click on 512k, 1mb or 2mb (purple, red, green) even though it doesnt mention phone on them, then the next page you'll see the phone package next to the broadband package

[KC*]

STAY AWAY FROM TISCALI


I was with Screaming.net on dialup then WorldOnline took over, I then got ADSL and all was fine until Tiscali took over WorldOnline, I've had problems with charges from day one with Tiscali, even in the last few month's I had to constantly contact them as they reduced the price but not for me, I'm still paying £26.99 for 512kbps and all they said we are looking into it.

I've now cancelled and would not recommend them to my enemy due to the constant bad pings every evening, thats me on IPStream but those with Tiscali on datastream seem to get less than the speed of a 56k modem due to contention. I also had Tiscali calling me up asking if I was interested in their telephone service and this was whilst I was complaining about paying £11 more for ADSL than all their other customers.

I'm looking into who I want to get next and so far UKONLINE seems pretty sound, they have upto 8meg ADSL but I'm only interested in their 2meg service, I checked their T&C's as Tiscali limit their 'Unlimited' to 30 gig per month and UKONLINE say's unlimited but in the small print it mentions 500 gig per month as what they considered extreme, a big difference.

Getting away from Tiscali is a pain as they don't do migrations ;fire

If you want customer opinions then read the forums at: http://www.adslguide.org.uk/



So once again......................

STAY AWAY FROM TISCALI


KC

[bigcumba]

500 Gig a month - even I don't do that in a busy month!

[e55exboi]

Hmm. Tiscali actually went bust a while ago I remember I tried them on dial up a few years ago and heard stories they were ripping people big! They should be sued if theyre stilll upto no good!!

[KC*]

Sorry forgot to mention......

I've sent e-mails and faxes and never ever got a reply, only way to speak to someone was on the phone to someone in India who are helpful but don't know the source of Tiscali's problems since they are scripted and therefore don't understand what your problem is.


KC

[carpetclean]

Thanks KC,

Back to home call then.

Paul

[KC*]

500 Gig a month - even I don't do that in a busy month!

Keith does that on Porn alone lol, he would need two accounts to satisfy his needs :D


KC

[e55exboi]

Been looking at homecall, the thing that bothers me is the 512k connection, if that would be a huge difference for gaming or not. Funny none of these ISP's state the ratio of household per line or whatever it is, usually 50:1 but obviously a smaller ratio means a quicker connection

[e55exboi]

Keith does that on Porn alone lol, he would need two accounts to satisfy his needs :D


KC
Well my wanadoo limit is supposed to be 6gb per month and im sure I use a shedload more than that but never get charged

[Win2Win]

Tiscali = No customer service, a service that often goes offline, hidden limits, your cutoff with no notice if you break them, etc, etc.....

If you want GOOD customer service you need to go with one of the smaller companies. They have to do a good job to stay competitive.

If you live in a Telewest/NTL area, it's worth switching.

[lowe1]

STAY AWAY FROM TISCALI


I was with Screaming.net on dialup then WorldOnline took over, I then got ADSL and all was fine until Tiscali took over WorldOnline, I've had problems with charges from day one with Tiscali, even in the last few month's I had to constantly contact them as they reduced the price but not for me, I'm still paying £26.99 for 512kbps and all they said we are looking into it.

I've now cancelled and would not recommend them to my enemy due to the constant bad pings every evening, thats me on IPStream but those with Tiscali on datastream seem to get less than the speed of a 56k modem due to contention. I also had Tiscali calling me up asking if I was interested in their telephone service and this was whilst I was complaining about paying £11 more for ADSL than all their other customers.

I'm looking into who I want to get next and so far UKONLINE seems pretty sound, they have upto 8meg ADSL but I'm only interested in their 2meg service, I checked their T&C's as Tiscali limit their 'Unlimited' to 30 gig per month and UKONLINE say's unlimited but in the small print it mentions 500 gig per month as what they considered extreme, a big difference.

Getting away from Tiscali is a pain as they don't do migrations ;fire

If you want customer opinions then read the forums at: http://www.adslguide.org.uk/



So once again......................

STAY AWAY FROM TISCALI


KC


i agree about tiscali totally awfull best website on there is this

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/

tony

[carpetclean]

Thanks for all the comments guys. Had a look at plus.net last night. Looks good they will take over my bt account and only charge £14.99 a month for what I have now.

Will have to do some more checking I reckon.

Cheers,


Paul

[sparkyminer]

I've never had a problem with Tiscali, ever. Must be the steam powered version that I'm running. :D

[lowe1]

I've never had a problem with Tiscali, ever. Must be the steam powered version that I'm running. :D


the problem with tiscali is that they dont give you a migration code when you change isp, they apply to bt to have the line freed which takes up to 15 days(so they say) so they cancelled my account and applied to bt and i have been without broadband at home for 8 days now ::swear ::swear ::swear

[KC*]

I've never had a problem with Tiscali, ever. Must be the steam powered version that I'm running. :D

Sparky what package are you on with them and how much do you pay per month ?


KC

[e55exboi]

Well I just pohoned BT to ask about cancelling to another company and they said your line remains as option 1 which is what mine already is, so I asked do they still charge for the calls and apparently they dont if your with someone else....What's the bets this goes cockeyed and they carry on billing...?!
Also when asking why i wanted to change I said cos much cheaper broadband and phone deals are available and that BT's broadband service is crud and their web site is slow and their customer service is naff and she said she didnt know where I was getting that rubbish from :laugh

[e55exboi]

Thanks for all the comments guys. Had a look at plus.net last night. Looks good they will take over my bt account and only charge £14.99 a month for what I have now.

Will have to do some more checking I reckon.

Cheers,


Paul
Who have you gone with for phone then Paul? Homecalll also do line rental cheaper than BT so you could get the whole lot with them and get a free digital phone as a bonus. Only thing I dont like is their phone number is 0870.

Ive been reading stuff about this "migration code" thingy, that you apparently need to obtain off your ISP to swap ISP's, and Wanadoo stitch you up a kipper so Ive read

[e55exboi]

Hmm sounding more and more impossible, been speaking to someone in chat and they say you cant change before contract ends cos your IPS dont give u a code so you cant connect to anyone else, but changing phone numbers might be the answer....Anyone experienced this...?

[lowe1]

Hmm sounding more and more impossible, been speaking to someone in chat and they say you cant change before contract ends cos your IPS dont give u a code so you cant connect to anyone else, but changing phone numbers might be the answer....Anyone experienced this...?


i thimk most isp's will give you a migration code once you give notice to cancel your contract as once you are past your minimum contract period they have to cancel if you inform them that you no longer require their service and give the right amount of notice that was stated in the original contract

[e55exboi]

I only started my 12 month contract a few onths ago though, I think they'll require the contract being fully paid up first... Ooo

[lowe1]

I only started my 12 month contract a few onths ago though, I think they'll require the contract being fully paid up first... Ooo


yes they will

[/QUOTE] i thimk most isp's will give you a migration code once you give notice to cancel your contract as once you are past your minimum contract period they have to cancel if you inform them that you no longer require their service and give the right amount of notice that was stated in the original contract [/QUOTE]

ONCE YOU ARE PAST YOUR MINIMUM CONTRACT PERIOD Ooo

[KC*]

I only started my 12 month contract a few onths ago though, I think they'll require the contract being fully paid up first... Ooo

Yes they will, thats the point in a 12 month contract, they have you by the short & curly's for a while Ooo

In regards to a MAC key, this is simply a Migration Authorisation Code that lasts for 30 days, if your ISP gives you this code then you have 30 days to pass this code onto another ISP, once you pass this onto your new ISP BT can then migrate the ADSL to another ISP with very little downtime, approx a few minutes, if you fail to use this code within 30 days it then expires and you need to obtain a new one from your previous/existing ISP. Also you must remember that when migrating you can only migrate to a similar package ie. 512kbps to 512kbps, if your after 1 meg then your new ISP will upgrade you once your with them.


Not all ISP's offer this code, Tiscali for one do not which means you must have a cease placed and then reconnect which can take upto 14 days of no ADSL, the cease takes upto 10 days (max by OFCOM) and then a reconnect takes upto 5 days.


KC

[sparkyminer]

Sparky what package are you on with them and how much do you pay per month ?


KC
1MB and £17.99 a month, I think.

[KC*]

changing phone numbers might be the answer....Anyone experienced this...?


I was under the impression that any changes to your telephone line would result in your ADSL being automatically ceased by BT but this is not official and cannot be confirmed.


KC

[KC*]

1MB and £17.99 a month, I think.

Seems ok, have you tested your line speed in the evenings to make sure you receive 1 meg ?

Try here to see what the results are: http://speedcheck.ispconnect.co.uk/


KC

[e55exboi]

yes they will

i thimk most isp's will give you a migration code once you give notice to cancel your contract as once you are past your minimum contract period they have to cancel if you inform them that you no longer require their service and give the right amount of notice that was stated in the original contract [/QUOTE]

ONCE YOU ARE PAST YOUR MINIMUM CONTRACT PERIOD Ooo[/QUOTE]
Lol my Ooo was directed at me not u Lowe :)

[sparkyminer]

Seems ok, have you tested your line speed in the evenings to make sure you receive 1 meg ?

Try here to see what the results are: http://speedcheck.ispconnect.co.uk/


KC
974.1kBps at the moment.

[Win2Win]

279620.3 kbps YOU

:doh I'm at light speed :D

[lowe1]

974.1kBps at the moment.

5.04 mbps :D :D

[KC*]

Try the test at peak times, between 7pm - 10pm, this will show how contended your ISP is, also worth doing a ping to say bbc.co.uk in the evening as well, my speed is fine outside of 6pm-10pm.


KC

[KC*]

I'm on 512kbps
My speed @ 2pm 488.1 kbps

My ping to BBC @ 2pm:-
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 21ms, Maximum = 31ms, Average = 24ms


I will post my evening results later to show difference.


KC

[carpetclean]

Your current bandwidth reading is:

351.40kbps :(

which means you can download at 43.93 KB/sec. from our servers.

28.8 kbps dial-up
33.6 kbps dial-up
53.3 kbps dial-up
56 kbps ISDN
128 kbps ISDN
150 kbps DSL
256 kbps DSL
351.4 kbps YOU
512 kbps DSL

[e55exboi]

So u can switch to plusnet ok then Paul without needing Migration Code?

[carpetclean]

Hi,

Haven't got a clue who to change to. Paid £150 connection and £39.99 a month when I first went to broadband about 3/4 years ago............Boy has the price come down and the speed increased.

Plusnet looks the best in the tests.

Paul

[carpetclean]

So u can switch to plusnet ok then Paul without needing Migration Code?


No I need the code. Should be no problems getting it.

Those FREE calls sound good from homecall though. As I said I do not have a clue now :(

[carpetclean]

Hi all,

Phoned homecall waited 15 minutes could not get through. Sent them 3 emails this morning no reply as yet...........pretty crap. Emailed plusnet reply in 5 minutes. Have changed to them VERY easy. Did all on line. All they needed was the mac key. Getting it off BT was the problem. Call centre in India or some where. Could not understand the girl and she did not know what a mac key was...put on hold for 10 minutes then given another number, same happened again, given another number. Got sorted but it took a bleedin hour on the phone. I HATE these friggin over seas call centres........what happened to british companies using British workers........This country stinks BIG TIME............ Rant over.

Any way plusnet seem to know the time of day.

Regards,

Paul

[Win2Win]

Never been kept waiting over anything wit Plusnet, and you get loads included in the package.

[e55exboi]

Hi all,

Phoned homecall waited 15 minutes could not get through. Sent them 3 emails this morning no reply as yet...........pretty crap. Emailed plusnet reply in 5 minutes. Have changed to them VERY easy. Did all on line. All they needed was the mac key. Getting it off BT was the problem. Call centre in India or some where. Could not understand the girl and she did not know what a mac key was...put on hold for 10 minutes then given another number, same happened again, given another number. Got sorted but it took a bleedin hour on the phone. I HATE these friggin over seas call centres........what happened to british companies using British workers........This country stinks BIG TIME............ Rant over.

Any way plusnet seem to know the time of day.

Regards,

Paul
Was you contract up though?

[KC*]

I HATE these friggin over seas call centres........what happened to british companies using British workers........This country stinks BIG TIME............ Rant over.


I have to say I respect those guys/gals working in India as they have to speak another language including english accents so they can work in the call centres for the UK, it's the companies that use them that should be ::swear at, they don't inform these poor support people what is going on and therefore they cannot help you the way they should.

I saw a program called 'swaps' last week and it opened my eyes, the abuse the poor workers get is enough to make you want to quit your job but they take it in their stride and carry on. I have a feeling the workers in the UK keep info from the workers in India just to make the UK workers more valuable, well it certainly looks that way :(

carpetclean don't take this as a dig at you, I was just explaining my opinion on it being the companies fault rather than the workers in India, I know you never said anything about the workers but I just wanted to make my point clear :)


KC

[carpetclean]

KC,

Totally agree with you, it aint the people its the greedy companies.

Paul