BT Infinity - or other?
Given someone else has asked a similar question, I've decided to set up my own thread rather than hijack theirs! So work have decided they're no longer going to pay for my broadband (penny pinching &*@!), so I need to sort my own out.
I can't get Virgin's fibre optic service where I live, so it's got to be through the standard phone line. I'm tempted by BT Infinity given it's the only one which offers me the faster 40Mb service for what seems like a reasonable price, but I've noticed a few complaining about them.
Can you give me an idea of what issues you've faced and why they were so awful? Are we talking long periods of downtime? Or bad customer service when you needed to talk to them?
If I don't go BT, I can just go for a normal service from the likes of Tesco, Plusnet or even Virgin and Sky - does anyone have experience with them? Sky and Virgin seem pretty expensive when you don't go for their TV services, so I'll probably avoid them to be honest.
I use Plusnet. According to uSwitch my download speed is lower than the average for my area 
Tbh im not really sure what this equates too apart from it takes around 7hrs to get a film from iTunes.
I use them as they are cheap, the contract is very short term (from memory 1 month) and its easy to switch tariffs on-line (either way) if you want to. Most of my pc use is surfing and i do find at periods during the day the speed of connection can be slow, not rediculously slow but enough to annoy, I couldnt recommend it really.
I've had Sky at BT in the past and BT has been the best of all 3, solid and reasonably fast all the time but i'm a cheap skate and think that invisable bills should be as cheap as possible, i put broadband in the same pile as washing power for example.
Thanks guys - interesting to see no negative BT comments so far - perhaps I was wrong about them!
Usually, it's only the negative comments you'll see online. People happy with their service rarely talk about it. 
Very true, and given there must be millions of people using it, I was going to take that into account. On the other hand, I do remember seeing quite a few negative comments, so wanted to get a handle on what these actually were so I could take those into account as well
Given they offer an 18 month contract, I don't want to rush in too quickly and find I'm stuck with a bad service!
Maybe consider Plusnets 10 day notice if your worried about a contracts length. There are charges involved with router and connection which amouts to £65 but if your not happy with it you can get out quick enough. I've been with them for over 2 years now with no major issues apart from the above.
Hi Prof, we have had BT Broadband for around 5 years now on 4mbps and are due to get 76mbps on 30th of this month 
over this time the only trouble we had was with a HH2 Type A which I got replaced with a Type B HH3.No problems at all with that at all so far.So make sure you get a Type B and enjoy.With infinity you get an extra fibre modem as i'm sure you are aware.
Prof,
my experience of 7 years with BT was negative, including:
- consistently providing only 1.5 MB max speed while I was paying for 5 MB. Refusing to lower the charge for inferior speed.
- introducing a download limit while I sigend up for an unlimited plan.
- loss or severe slowing of connection for about 3 days every time it rained heavily (i.e. several times a year) AND not doing anyhting about it. At all. Not even trying.
- When moving house - completely screwed up the move, were not able to provide the connection on time (although I made sure everything was arranged in advance) and then, although agreed the move was free, trying to charge me 130 quid for it!
- dozens and dozens hours wasted on calls to the thier customer services over the years. Almost never kept their word - even seniour supervisors.
Over these 7 years I have given them lots of chances and have put up with bad service too many times but after the screw-up with the move I've had enough, switched and now pay abt 30% less AND get 40 times faster speed.
I'm a satisfied BT customer. No Infinity where I live yet, but I a get a consistent 20Mb/s out of a HH2, and a fair priced all-in unlimited download package.
Hi,
+1 on the satisfied BT customer. On Infinity and never had an issue with it.
Hub sometimes drops the iPad2 but suspect it's to do with location in the house i.e almost the furthest point from the router.
Perhaps the iPad2 is dropping the hub as iPhones usually stay connected.
Haven't noticed speeds dropping at any time - daughter is on Netflix most nights and when she's not she's Facetiming her b/friend.
Cheers,
Cofnchtr.
First time back on the forum for an absolute age. Feels curiously odd.
Anyway, to provide a view on BT;
Been with them about 5 years, two short outages over that entire period which I can recall, one of them a major technical failure which affected vast swathes of the country.
Switched to Infinity about 3 months ago, no real issues thus far and speed OK-ish for the most part. Probably not noticed that much difference in practical terms if I'm being honest. Don't tell the OH though, as I said this must-have upgrade would revolutionise our internet experience, feed the world and end war as we know it.
Tablet seems to drop out slightly more frequently for some reason with new Infinity hub than with the old hub but despite that I streamed a couple of films wirelessly and it was fine.
All in all, I reckon BT's OK and I've been happy enough to stay with them.
Been with BT for 2 yrs; ordinary ADSL. Ghastly.
First 18 months were hell: speed was inconsistent, oscillating from 0.2-4.5Mb, which meant that iPlayer and Spotify were, umm, 'challenging'. And the connection would randomly crash, at least once a day, and often wouldn't reconnect after rebooting the BT HomeHub/router.
BT's India-based tech-support call centre obviously has several tiers:
Tier-1 - cheery fellows reading from scripts, who, after you've explained that you can't get online, start with: "I'm very sorry to hear that. Have you tried consulting BT's online help guide?"
"Erm, I'd love to, but I can't get online, which is why I've phoned technical support..."
After the faff of another failed HomeHub-reboot, several attempts at blaming the settings of my computer[s], Mr Cheery would relent and proclaim, with much reverence: "This case will be escalated and my supervisor will call you within one hour - possibly less!"
Indeed, the call would arrive within the hour and Tier-2's Mr Diligent-Cheery - not reading from a script - would announce that he'd been able to adjust various settings and I should "please try to reboot the HomeHub now...". And , yes, it would be working. Until a few days later, and then the saga would resume.
At which point Tier-3's Mr Charming-Cheery - aka the man who writes the scripts? - would talk-through a HomeHub reset. Which would work OK, for a week or so, then... "I'm very sorry to hear that. Have you tried consulting BT's online help guide?"
Four home visits from BT engineers and three replacement HomeHubs later, and the crashing was cured by a "free upgrade" to a HomeHub3, which also looks sleeker and is very powerful signal-wise. But the erratic lurching between 0.2-4.5Mb remained.
Then I received a letter from BT explaining that due to "routine maintenance" at the "local exchange" - aka a green box thingy in a field - my service(??) would be offline for a few hours - how unusual.
Next day, I received an email from BT requesting I reboot my HomeHub. And ever since, I've had a consistent 15.8Mb average and no dropouts etc. Curious. Perhaps an engineer armed with a can of WD40 and a wire brush set about the "exchange"?
So, BT's great, but if there're any problems, you'll need to be patient...
Deja vue to previous post. Was on unlimited bt getting 12meg download until may, then dropped to 1meg. Over 3months to get engineer out, 2wks ago. Which yielded 12meg for 24hours before it returned back to less than 1!! So in 1 final attempt to remedy I have ordered infinity, bt have offered me a discount due to the time and inconvenience I've had so far, so am getting it cheaper than my current package. Being installed on 19th so hopefully will finally get me a decent speed.
I had BT internet for about 9 years, until I moved off the mainland. Only ever had one problem, and sadly I ended up with the foreign call centre 'script'. It was pretty useless, but thankfully I managed to sort out the issue myself.
Other than that, I had no problems with the service. I found the hubs quite good, decent enough for my uses anyway.
Where I am now has much faster speeds and great service, but it's a much higher price. I'd happily go for BT if it was an option here.
Ordered Infinity for installation in July, they kept sending me texts and emails reminding me of the appointment, even sent me a letter threatening to charge if I wasn't in at the time. Guess what? They never turned up! I spent hours on the phone to customer services to no avail. They never came, so I cancelled. I am still trying to get my money back. Don't touch them with a bargepole! 
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Hi professorhat,
I have had BT Infinity for nearly 15 months now.
A few months ago moved on to the 75mb download contract, I must say that the service has been brilliant and no down time
AV System - Panasonic 42VT30 ¦ MA Apex 5.1- 4xA10 1xA40+ AW-12 Sub ¦ Van Damme UP LCOFC Speaker Cable ¦ Pioneer SC-LX85 ¦ OPPO 95 ¦ Mark Grant G1500HD Precision audio cable ¦ Sky+ HD(1TB) ¦ Chord Active HDMI ¦ Belkin PF50 mains conditioner.
Bedroom - Sony KDL-40W2000 + Archos 7 streaming from Windows Home Server 2011, Altec Lansing inAir 5000.
Dining Room - Sonos S5.
Music - HP Proliant Server running WHS 2011 ¦ streaming FLAC to Sonos ZP90 and OPPO 95 via SC-LX85.
Hi Fi - Cyrus 8 XPd QX amp ¦ Cyrus PSX-R power supply acting as Pre Amp ¦ Quad 909 Power Amp ¦ Speakers - Spendor A3 ¦ Logitech Squeezebox Touch upgrade by Fidelity Audio ¦ power supply upgrade by Mains Cables R Us ¦ Power Plant Premier mains regenerator.
Controlled by – iPad2 and Harmony 1100.