Broadband woes

In 2017 my "old" (only about 15 years) Nokia portable phone, always on PAYG, was destroyed by water damage - only 3 years after I had replaced its battery.

Learning Orange had been taken over by EE I went to the EE shop. That talked me into a complete broadband landline and allegedly-PAYG portable contract, complete with a clumsy and basically unusable LG2017, so-called "smart", portable.

I did not realise at the time that EE was already BT-owned, pretending to be separate and probably managed separately, but one company in reality. (Like the many railway franchise badges hiding their First Group ownership.)

I began to have second thoughts, then BT Sales started saying how sorry they were to lose me as a long-term customer, which indeed I had been.

The upshot was my cancelling the EE contract and negotiating a new one with BT.

I had to pay off the 18 months left to EE; but off-set by £20: I sold the LG 'phone for £50 and replaced it with a simple Nokia one for £30, on PAYG with O2. Then had to give everyone my new number - the shops don't tell you that you can transfer it!

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I refuse BT's blandishments to use their very expensive 'Halo' and similar. Those are for people rich enough but daft enough to watch single-issue subscription TV channels on-line at >£30/.month - while moaning about the stupidly-low £12/month TV "Licence" subscription to far greater TV + radio choice!

A measure of those services is BT's ads waffling about sports fixtures and films as if that is all anyone wants. Maybe they do, out there in We-Allsylvania.

BT did sign me to Halo, pretending it an "up-grade" or new default service, or some such lies. I managed to revert to a proper service.

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I have BT's answering-service, but do not also pay for call-barring etc. I bought a BT 'phone that allows that, only then discovered it needs that subscribed extra and being powered from the household mains. I replaced it in its box, unused. I must try to sell it!

I think I bought it in Argos, of blessed memory.

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Result?

- Roughly £35 / month for BT land-line telephone and Internet services that I both want and need,

- Well under £50 a year on PAYG portable 'phone calls.

As far as I can determine I would not gain anything cheaper or of better value elsewhere; and I have always found BT's sales people do care about what I want.

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As for 3G ending, that remains to be seen. I have not received any official announcement from O2, and will not change unless and until necessary.

Post- EE and LG, I do not want a so-called "Smart"-'phone, whatever x-G. It is physically-clumsy, hard to operate, likely to have no instruction-manual, and may need a costly contract just to ring my sister (who has no land-line) one or twice a year, or send the 4 or 5 words typical of my few "txt msgs" .

Nor do I know if the number can be transferred, if it the network itself that is changing.

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I do know 5G does not really irradiate you with Malhumours Of The Spleen and give you Cyan Molars; whatever it says on't 'Net. I am not totally technically ignorant, and can even do change-wheel sums.

Although software like CAD and MS 'Access' is largely beyond me, I used very sophisticated, computer- and manually- driven, electronic signal-analysers etc. at work. The computer programmes were all locally-written and not always very helpful. One, in BASIC, even needed you to change test-frequency by editing a command-line, not normal entry.

Of course you needed know what you were testing, including having to understand logarithms; but those instruments were easier to use than most modern domestic electronics like "smart"-'phones and many µ-wave ovens - and were even supplied with real instruction-manuals!

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Progress is merely chronology; but are we really advancing as a society, or only in electronics and complexity?

EE are a company I had dealings with once and will not deal with again.

I got a 2 year data-only deal from EE for use with a tablet while away from home in the motorhome. The actual mobile data service was pretty good, but I was less than impressed when the monthly charge went up less than 3 months after the contract started (buried in the small print was an annual RPI + increase not mentioned by the EE sales person - until I complained in store ).

Getting out of the contract was a nightmare. The window to cancel and not have them roll the contract over was very tight - too early and after working through the interminable "press, this, press that - then wait" customer service number they would not do anything because I was "too early". Miss the window (only a week or so before the end of the initial contract IIRC ) & the contract would automatically be extended by a year. I am pretty certain that was before EE's involvement with BT, who are another shower I would not choose to deal with again.

I have been quite happy with Virgin (originally NTL World ) cable broadband & ended up with phone & TV as well, as all 3 services as a "bundle" worked out cheaper than internet only + BT landline. 2 coax cables into the property, one for broadband & the other for TV / phone. The TV recorder box is better than the stand-alone Freeview unit I had before & was added at no extra cost. Virgin support (on the odd occasion I have needed it ) via an Indian call centre has been straightforward & has always resolved the issue I got in touch about. I am too far from the exchange to get anything comparable via a phone line. Another cable provider dug up the neighbourhood (again ) a year or so ago to offer competition to Virgin, but their rates are higher for a slower service despite being "cable to you door".

I was a Virgin PAYG customer, but that service got canned last year after they merged with O2. Currently on a Lebara £5 a month rolling plan (no contract). £5 gets 3GB data, 1000 UK minutes, 100 International minutes & 1000 texts a month via Vodaphone & includes roaming at no extra charge.

Nigel B.

I know what is it like 'falling between two stools' when a computer system cannot correct an obvious operator error. I have two Halifax credit card accounts, one that you earn cash back on (not a lot, but I would rather it be in my favour than theirs) and the other branded Clarity which does not incur transaction charges when travelling abroad, so each card has its own advantage. I have used these two cards appropriately for years. However, I was purchasing a ship load of railway tickets via Splitticketing.com when I noticed the Halifax card was expiring on that very day and no new replacement had been received. I called the Helpline and the operator told me a new card had been sent but that it must have been lost in the post or intercepted so he would just cancel the old card a/c number and send a new one out. However,...............

I explained that I needed the old card to remain active for the rest of the day so that I could collect the train tickets from the machine at the station as you need to insert the card you purchased them with to identify yourself, so would he please just hang fire while I collected the tickets and I would call back later when they were in my possession. Yes, I know you can have electronic tickets sent to your phone to print out or show the train conductor. I do this when it's only a simple journey that is involved, but when its multiple split journeys and for more than one person it is more convenient, to me at least, to have the paper tickets rather than endlessly scrolling through the phone to find the correct journey. So, I immediately set off on a 30 mile round trip to the nearest station with a ticket machine, because EMR has failed to install a machine at our nearest station, only 7 miles distant, despite it being in their franchise contract terms to do so. Anyway, I got the tickets and duly called the Halifax Helpline back and would they now cancel the card, please? Yes, certainly, no problem a new card will be in the post to you within a few working days. Great, so far so good, or so I thought.

When the new card arrived it was for the Clarity account which had also changed to a new account number, not the Halifax card, so back on to the Helpline with another long wait to explain what had happened. Ah! I see what you mean said the operator, perhaps you should just wait and see what arrives in the post? Well OK, if you say so, but nothing arrived. Back on to the Helpline with another long winded explanation but still nothing happened. So, let's go to the nearest Halifax branch, 10 miles away, and see if we can sort this out over the counter. Yes, of course we can help you! Ah! we see what you mean, sorry but you will have to call the Helpline. Grhhh!

No, I won't call again, I will write to them in the hope that the letter will be passed to their technical services people who will be able to identify this 'corruption' or bug in their software, but no contact email or address is showing on the Halifax banking website, it's all just phone numbers. Well, I managed to locate a prepaid Halifax Card Services envelope from the days when I sent a cheque to pay down the balance before I moved to bank transfer so if nothing happens between now and Monday I will post it off but I don't hold out much hope. Perhaps the best idea would be to settle the outstanding balance or transfer it to the Clarity card if this could be done FoC and close the original account. The trouble is I will lose my £20 cash-back balance and possibly a cash-back account may not be available to new customers, who can say. It is so frustrating as I needed the card this weekend to pay hotel and restaurant bills, I can still settle them with my other credit card but earn no cash back on several hundred pounds of usage.

I have tried the administrative services on both the online banking portal and the phone app, but it initially just defaulted to the Clarity account and now defaults to 'sorry, there is a problem'. Yes, I actually knew that already!

I changed from BT to Vodafone for my broadband and home phone mainly because there was no line rental with Vodafone, my monthly phone bill is around £36 I get unlimited download too. My mobile has been PAYG with Vodafone for 25+ years.

Regards Mark P.