Going from Sky to NTL - any opinions?

"Jono" wrote in message
...
Dom Robinson wrote:

|| My sister has a socket still in an upstairs bedroom, not that it's
|| in use or connected to BT any more. However, whether a new master
|| socket can be installed downstairs for free is down to whether
|| there's still a cable going to the house from the pole.
||
|| If there isn't, then it's all free. If there is, even though this
|| means less work overall, then they'll charge £100 for the privilidge
|| of a new socket.

If any part of the wiring is missing, then it is repaired FOC: pole to
wall
eye; wall eye to entry point; entry point to socket.

Why not just remove the socket upstairs and make sure the wire doesn't
enter
the property?

About 3 years ago I had a massive argument with BT which ended in me
cancelling my line, being the kind of person I am and he mood I was in, I
insisted they even remove the wire from the telegraph pole to my house! (I
know, buts how much they wound me up!). Any way after many arguments they
did remove the wire to my house. So i was left with no BT sockets wires etc
in my property.

About 18 months ago I wanted to go on broadband and my local cable company
(Telewest) could not offer this down my street. They only option I had was
BT !!!!!

I telephoned them and said I wanted to be re-connected so I could get
broadband, I said I would not be using it for calls....quess what she said I
could re-conect for free.

And they did re-wired from the pole to a new master socket for free! I the
signed up with Broadband (not BT though!). I now pay £10 a month just for
the box.

Dom Robinson wrote in message et...
In article ,
says...
Watch out, if she does not go for one of the free options as NTL have or
will be starting to charge by the minute for all calls. So a couple of
seconds will be charged as a whole minute, not so bad when calling a
landline but very expensive when calling a mobile or internationally. The
minimum cost of a daytime call to T-mobile would cost 30p, and mobiles will
not be included in the free call packages. They will also charge for bill
itemisation, as most people will not have it they will not know why their
bills have shot up.

Thanks for the tip. She's planning to use it only for landlines, and when it
comes to mobiles most of her friends are on the same network so it's
relatively cheap/free at certain times.

I realise in your (sister's) circumstances there are lots of issues
involved, but ntl can't always be cheaper for telephone? As far as I
can tell, evening calls are 1p per minute, whereas with BT they're 6p
for an hour. If you're going to spend hours on the phone in the
evening, but remember to re-dial every hour, surely ntl will work out
much more expensive? You can pay the extra to get all calls free, but
then you're just paying for them another way! You can have a _lot_ of
6p hours on BT for the same price.

The BT 6p per hour price was announced just after we started with ntl.
ntl haven't been particularly bad (though we've only used them for the
net, which has worked well most of the time), but being stuck for the
11 months after we realised it was a bad deal has made me so annoyed
that they'll never have my custom again. As for customer service - ha!
There are bright people who work for them, but be prepared to waste a
morning of your life every time you need to talk to one!

Read about ntl before getting stuck with them for 12 months...
http://www.nthellworld.co.uk/

Cheers,
David.

Dom Robinson wrote in message et...
In article ,
says...
Watch out, if she does not go for one of the free options as NTL have or
will be starting to charge by the minute for all calls. So a couple of
seconds will be charged as a whole minute, not so bad when calling a
landline but very expensive when calling a mobile or internationally. The
minimum cost of a daytime call to T-mobile would cost 30p, and mobiles will
not be included in the free call packages. They will also charge for bill
itemisation, as most people will not have it they will not know why their
bills have shot up.

Thanks for the tip. She's planning to use it only for landlines, and when it
comes to mobiles most of her friends are on the same network so it's
relatively cheap/free at certain times.

I realise in your (sister's) circumstances there are lots of issues
involved, but ntl can't always be cheaper for telephone? As far as I
can tell, evening calls are 1p per minute, whereas with BT they're 6p
for an hour. If you're going to spend hours on the phone in the
evening, but remember to re-dial every hour, surely ntl will work out
much more expensive? You can pay the extra to get all calls free, but
then you're just paying for them another way! You can have a _lot_ of
6p hours on BT for the same price.

The BT 6p per hour price was announced just after we started with ntl.
ntl haven't been particularly bad (though we've only used them for the
net, which has worked well most of the time), but being stuck for the
11 months after we realised it was a bad deal has made me so annoyed
that they'll never have my custom again. As for customer service - ha!
There are bright people who work for them, but be prepared to waste a
morning of your life every time you need to talk to one!

Read about ntl before getting stuck with them for 12 months...
http://www.nthellworld.co.uk/

Cheers,
David.

||
|| I realise in your (sister's) circumstances there are lots of issues
|| involved, but ntl can't always be cheaper for telephone? As far as I
|| can tell, evening calls are 1p per minute, whereas with BT they're 6p
|| for an hour. If you're going to spend hours on the phone in the
|| evening, but remember to re-dial every hour, surely ntl will work out
|| much more expensive? You can pay the extra to get all calls free, but
|| then you're just paying for them another way! You can have a _lot_ of
|| 6p hours on BT for the same price.
||
|| The BT 6p per hour price was announced just after we started with
|| ntl.
|| ntl haven't been particularly bad (though we've only used them for
|| the
|| net, which has worked well most of the time), but being stuck for the
|| 11 months after we realised it was a bad deal has made me so annoyed
|| that they'll never have my custom again. As for customer service -
|| ha!
|| There are bright people who work for them, but be prepared to waste a
|| morning of your life every time you need to talk to one!

NTL have a 6p talk plan too - £11.50/month including line rental - which I
believe is the same as BT (unless not paid by DD when BT is 150p more & NTL
100p more)

With NTL, you are, indeed committed for 12 months. However, you're only
committed for the service(s) /not/ the price plan.

NTL also have a pretty good dial-up internet offer when combined with the
package you refer to as "You can pay the extra to get all calls free" - for
£25/month you can get all (1st 60 mins) land line calls included and all
dial-up internet included.

With regards to your comment on customer services, I have yet to come
accross anyone who has said, "NTL's customer service is brilliant"

||
|| I realise in your (sister's) circumstances there are lots of issues
|| involved, but ntl can't always be cheaper for telephone? As far as I
|| can tell, evening calls are 1p per minute, whereas with BT they're 6p
|| for an hour. If you're going to spend hours on the phone in the
|| evening, but remember to re-dial every hour, surely ntl will work out
|| much more expensive? You can pay the extra to get all calls free, but
|| then you're just paying for them another way! You can have a _lot_ of
|| 6p hours on BT for the same price.
||
|| The BT 6p per hour price was announced just after we started with
|| ntl.
|| ntl haven't been particularly bad (though we've only used them for
|| the
|| net, which has worked well most of the time), but being stuck for the
|| 11 months after we realised it was a bad deal has made me so annoyed
|| that they'll never have my custom again. As for customer service -
|| ha!
|| There are bright people who work for them, but be prepared to waste a
|| morning of your life every time you need to talk to one!

NTL have a 6p talk plan too - £11.50/month including line rental - which I
believe is the same as BT (unless not paid by DD when BT is 150p more & NTL
100p more)

With NTL, you are, indeed committed for 12 months. However, you're only
committed for the service(s) /not/ the price plan.

NTL also have a pretty good dial-up internet offer when combined with the
package you refer to as "You can pay the extra to get all calls free" - for
£25/month you can get all (1st 60 mins) land line calls included and all
dial-up internet included.

With regards to your comment on customer services, I have yet to come
accross anyone who has said, "NTL's customer service is brilliant"

On Mon, 29 Mar 2004 00:17:13 +0100, "Individual.NET"
wrote:


"deano" wrote in message
.. .
On Sat, 27 Mar 2004 21:52:11 -0000, "Individual.NET"
wrote:
Ok- done the calcs its £5 a month cheaper on NTL compared with sky/bt

£60 a year in my pocket not in rupes.
Add in BB at £25 on ntl cf Bt's which was £27 when I subscribed (and
really BTyahoo is the comparable package so another £5 a month

Total savings £120

QED as my math teacher used to say
Deano

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------
SKY

sky world =£40
Prem plus on sky = £25 (£2.00 a month-must be paid up front)
BTtogether = 11.50

TOTAL = £53.50

NTL

Family pack sport and movies = 47.50
Prem plus= £1.00
line rental= 0

Total = £48.50


Right, I am after a different package:

SKY

Family pack = £19.50
BT Line = £9.50
BB (various for 512KBps) = ~£25

TOTAL = £54

NTL

Family pack = £28
Itemized billing = £1
BB (600k) = £24.99

Total = £53.99

... and considering that as far I understand it you 1) get many more
channels on Sky; and 2) you get interactive that actually works, well the
Sky deal for me looks better.

When did NTL charge for itemised billing?
They don't (well they don't charge me)

So family pack and phone £1 a month cheaper with NTL (cf Bt standard
and sky)

As for channels the only significant channels which sky have which are
not on ntl

1) Sky sports xtra -red button options for xtra champ league games
-but you dont want sky sports
2) Fox (fascist) news

All the other paid channels are I believe on NTL. If you want the free
channels on sky not on ntl - can watch with a dish no sub (and I do)
- but they are mostly crap religion/shopping (NB the God channel is
free on sky but £5 on NTL guess who knows why ?)

As for BB prices are falling - but not enough to make me look
elsewhere. There are plenty charging more and the BT yahoo seems a
fair comaprison for the average user

Deano

On Mon, 29 Mar 2004 00:17:13 +0100, "Individual.NET"
wrote:


"deano" wrote in message
.. .
On Sat, 27 Mar 2004 21:52:11 -0000, "Individual.NET"
wrote:
Ok- done the calcs its £5 a month cheaper on NTL compared with sky/bt

£60 a year in my pocket not in rupes.
Add in BB at £25 on ntl cf Bt's which was £27 when I subscribed (and
really BTyahoo is the comparable package so another £5 a month

Total savings £120

QED as my math teacher used to say
Deano

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------
SKY

sky world =£40
Prem plus on sky = £25 (£2.00 a month-must be paid up front)
BTtogether = 11.50

TOTAL = £53.50

NTL

Family pack sport and movies = 47.50
Prem plus= £1.00
line rental= 0

Total = £48.50


Right, I am after a different package:

SKY

Family pack = £19.50
BT Line = £9.50
BB (various for 512KBps) = ~£25

TOTAL = £54

NTL

Family pack = £28
Itemized billing = £1
BB (600k) = £24.99

Total = £53.99

... and considering that as far I understand it you 1) get many more
channels on Sky; and 2) you get interactive that actually works, well the
Sky deal for me looks better.

When did NTL charge for itemised billing?
They don't (well they don't charge me)

So family pack and phone £1 a month cheaper with NTL (cf Bt standard
and sky)

As for channels the only significant channels which sky have which are
not on ntl

1) Sky sports xtra -red button options for xtra champ league games
-but you dont want sky sports
2) Fox (fascist) news

All the other paid channels are I believe on NTL. If you want the free
channels on sky not on ntl - can watch with a dish no sub (and I do)
- but they are mostly crap religion/shopping (NB the God channel is
free on sky but £5 on NTL guess who knows why ?)

As for BB prices are falling - but not enough to make me look
elsewhere. There are plenty charging more and the BT yahoo seems a
fair comaprison for the average user

Deano

"deano" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 29 Mar 2004 00:17:13 +0100, "Individual.NET"
wrote:


"deano" wrote in message
.. .
On Sat, 27 Mar 2004 21:52:11 -0000, "Individual.NET"
wrote:
Ok- done the calcs its £5 a month cheaper on NTL compared with sky/bt

£60 a year in my pocket not in rupes.
Add in BB at £25 on ntl cf Bt's which was £27 when I subscribed (and
really BTyahoo is the comparable package so another £5 a month

Total savings £120

QED as my math teacher used to say
Deano


-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-------
SKY

sky world =£40
Prem plus on sky = £25 (£2.00 a month-must be paid up front)
BTtogether = 11.50

TOTAL = £53.50

NTL

Family pack sport and movies = 47.50
Prem plus= £1.00
line rental= 0

Total = £48.50


Right, I am after a different package:

SKY

Family pack = £19.50
BT Line = £9.50
BB (various for 512KBps) = ~£25

TOTAL = £54

NTL

Family pack = £28
Itemized billing = £1
BB (600k) = £24.99

Total = £53.99

... and considering that as far I understand it you 1) get many more
channels on Sky; and 2) you get interactive that actually works, well the
Sky deal for me looks better.

When did NTL charge for itemised billing?
They don't (well they don't charge me)

They have charged me for the last 5 years...


So family pack and phone £1 a month cheaper with NTL (cf Bt standard
and sky)

As for channels the only significant channels which sky have which are
not on ntl

1) Sky sports xtra -red button options for xtra champ league games
-but you dont want sky sports
2) Fox (fascist) news

All the other paid channels are I believe on NTL. If you want the free
channels on sky not on ntl - can watch with a dish no sub (and I do)
- but they are mostly crap religion/shopping (NB the God channel is
free on sky but £5 on NTL guess who knows why ?)

As for BB prices are falling - but not enough to make me look
elsewhere. There are plenty charging more and the BT yahoo seems a
fair comaprison for the average user

Deano

All your points are valid, unfortunately I am soon moving to an area that is
not covered by NTL, hence the forced move to Sky. ... and the thought of
lining Rupert Murdoch pockets makes me sick...

"deano" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 29 Mar 2004 00:17:13 +0100, "Individual.NET"
wrote:


"deano" wrote in message
.. .
On Sat, 27 Mar 2004 21:52:11 -0000, "Individual.NET"
wrote:
Ok- done the calcs its £5 a month cheaper on NTL compared with sky/bt

£60 a year in my pocket not in rupes.
Add in BB at £25 on ntl cf Bt's which was £27 when I subscribed (and
really BTyahoo is the comparable package so another £5 a month

Total savings £120

QED as my math teacher used to say
Deano


-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-------
SKY

sky world =£40
Prem plus on sky = £25 (£2.00 a month-must be paid up front)
BTtogether = 11.50

TOTAL = £53.50

NTL

Family pack sport and movies = 47.50
Prem plus= £1.00
line rental= 0

Total = £48.50


Right, I am after a different package:

SKY

Family pack = £19.50
BT Line = £9.50
BB (various for 512KBps) = ~£25

TOTAL = £54

NTL

Family pack = £28
Itemized billing = £1
BB (600k) = £24.99

Total = £53.99

... and considering that as far I understand it you 1) get many more
channels on Sky; and 2) you get interactive that actually works, well the
Sky deal for me looks better.

When did NTL charge for itemised billing?
They don't (well they don't charge me)

They have charged me for the last 5 years...


So family pack and phone £1 a month cheaper with NTL (cf Bt standard
and sky)

As for channels the only significant channels which sky have which are
not on ntl

1) Sky sports xtra -red button options for xtra champ league games
-but you dont want sky sports
2) Fox (fascist) news

All the other paid channels are I believe on NTL. If you want the free
channels on sky not on ntl - can watch with a dish no sub (and I do)
- but they are mostly crap religion/shopping (NB the God channel is
free on sky but £5 on NTL guess who knows why ?)

As for BB prices are falling - but not enough to make me look
elsewhere. There are plenty charging more and the BT yahoo seems a
fair comaprison for the average user

Deano

All your points are valid, unfortunately I am soon moving to an area that is
not covered by NTL, hence the forced move to Sky. ... and the thought of
lining Rupert Murdoch pockets makes me sick...

If you have been used to Sky and move to NTL for digital television services
you will be very disappointed!




"Dom Robinson" wrote in message
t...
My sister has the Sky Family Pack and Disney, but no landline (her
12-month
minimum subs was completed at a previous address) and just uses her mobile
to
make calls.

However, she's looking to get the equivalent package on NTL and use their
phone system for calls to landlines so has worked out that overall it'll
be
cheaper.

I've no experience of NTL's quality of service over the digital TV side of
things, and until the competition is opened up for line rental in the
coming
months, BT want to charge £10.50/month for that, and despite there being
an
old socket in an upstairs bedroom, BT wanted to charge nearly £100 for
putting
one in downstairs when they reconnect.

Occasionally BT have cheap "reconnect to BT" offers, and when I did it 5.5
years ago I only paid £10 for the whole thing, plus the usual line rental
of
course.

All opinions welcome. TIA,
--

Dom Robinson Gamertag: DVDfever email: dom at dvdfever dot co dot
uk
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