I may be gone for some time

[WillowTheWhisp]

Tomorrow is the big day. We are changing phone line connection back to BT and then we will need to order our new Broadband connection. I have absolutely no idea how long this is going to leave us without t'internet but judging by the experiences some people have had it could be quite some time.................

...............see you the other side of the changeover.

[Col.Kurtz]

Good luck!

[grannyclaret]

Good luck willow,,,hope all goes well, thanks for all your quiz,s and things,,,,,

[Sweetpea]

Did it day before yestereday. Was offline for 5 hours, so it may not be as bad as you think.

We are now all Sky.Tv, Broadband and Phone.

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Did it day before yestereday. Was offline for 5 hours, so it may not be as bad as you think.

We are now all Sky.Tv, Broadband and Phone.

Whats your first impressions of the full Sky service Sweetpea

[Sweetpea]

Up to now, no complaint. Love the TV side, broadband is very fast. As for the phone, have not really noticed. Too busy playing with my new phone.

[WillowTheWhisp]

Well we made it back a lot quicker than I'd feared.

We got cut off from our Bulldog phone line and back onto BT line all on the same day (18th) and that went very smoothly.

O2 had said they could process the order for Broadband as soon as we got the BT line back. They couldn't do it earlier because they have to verify that we were on BT. So as soon as the phone worked again I rang them and asked to order the broadband package but the guy I spoke to said they couldn't verify our phone line yet and that it could take up to 10 working days before it was recognised as a BT line. I was not a particularly happy bunny about that.

However, later that day when Busman came home we tried phoning them again and they did recognise the new line by then and processed the order for the router etc, saying that could take up to 10 days to arrive. Then we got a message on Monday to say it would be with us by courier next day, on the Tuesday, which it was. Then all we had to do was wait for the text message from O2 to say the broadband was activated and we'd be able to set it up here.

We went out for the day on Wednesday (Lightwater Valley - very nice) and got a message that we'd be able to set up on Thursday (yesterday). I was busy all day and Busman was working but we had the evening free so we did all the gubbins (router and wifi stuff) - and here we are! Back in circulation again.

When we changed over to Bulldog originally it did all go through on the same day because they were taking over the phone line and the internet service in one fell swoop. If we'd gone with BT broadband we would have had this all on the same day too but we chose O2 because we got a really good deal with them being all O2 customers in the family; and so it had to be done in 2 stages but all in all it was almost totally painless apart from the chump in the middle who reckoned it would take longer than it actually did.

So far I think I can recommend O2 for speed and reliability.

Have to pop out now for a bit as I'm meeting a friend in order to help her with some plans for next week. Hopefully I will be back later and if I can dream up some more quiz ideas I'll try and do another one before we go on holiday.

[Sweetpea]

Welcome back.

I had no time lose online with switch from AOL to Pipex. Moving from Pipex (because they were taken over by Tiscali) was a 5 hours loss.

So, is O2 the same as BT or a different company, either way I would never use them, too many horror stories.

My O2 phone account, I cannot fault, however.

[WillowTheWhisp]

O2 is what used to be BT Cellnet. It's a completely separate company now though. It's the only mobile phone network that works where we live and I cannot fault them with that. They have always been excellent. So far with the internet we have needed to call them once when setting up as we weren't sure about the old wifi dongles and the assistance there was brilliant. We are also limited here for cable and Sky. There's not much we can get. It's a funny location. We'll have to see how it goes.

Anyway it's a darned site cheaper than Bulldog was.

[Sweetpea]

Yes I am aware that O2 was/is the mobile side. Didn't know if the broadband side stood alone from BT or not. BT do have a bad press, but my mobiles are and always have been, O2, and yes, I agree, you cannot fault the customer service. I have found the same with Sky, so at the moment, I am a happy bunny communication wise!!

[WillowTheWhisp]

I'm not sure I follow you, but hope I've understood right this time. BT do a broadband service and O2 do a broadband service. They are seperate companies and offer different packages. The only thing is that in order to get O2 broadband we had to be back on a BT line and we weren't we were on a Bulldog line as our previous ISP had provided the phone line and the broadband. Once we cancelled with Bulldog we lost the phone as well as the internet but BT took the phone line over almost instantly. We could have opted for BT broadband but chose not to as the O2 one was a better deal, so that's why we had the few days delay between losing one ISP and getting the new one which couldn't be ordered until they could verify that we had a suitable phone line.

I hope that makes a bit more sense.

[Sweetpea]

Yep, it does.

We have never left BT as line provider, and indeed with Sky Phone, it is a necessity.

[WillowTheWhisp]

Yes I think a lot of ISPs insist on a BT line but odd ones like Bulldog (as was) insist on taking over the line as part of the package, which was all very well when it was cheap enough but as the prices went up it got a bit ridiculous. We were planning on swapping last sumer but the girls and I were away for 6 weeks and my husband never got round to it. Then I seem to have so many reasons for not wanting to lose the internet for long (church business where I need to email stuff to people etc) that other people's tales of it taking weeks on end had sort of put us off. I was really pleased how quickly it all went through.

[Sweetpea]

and my husband never got round to it.

A familiar tale.....

Losing the Internet for me, is like losing a part of the family. Awful!

What on earth did we do before...?