should i 'upgrade'

[#1]

i have had the (20Gb) 2Mb premier account since 2005. i seem to remember reading a plusnet email last year saying new customers & eventually all existing accounts would be upgraded to 8Mb, i did a speed check & i'm still at less than 2Mb.
i have looked at the currently available packages & premier is no longer available, new customers choose from 'Broadband Your Way Option' products which are all 8Mb.
i feel i am getting short changed because:
a) i don't get the 8Mb speed.
b) i pay more than the equivalent new Option 3 product.
am i correct in that i should now upgrade to option 3?
note:
- i use about 10Gb/mth, mostly for gaming
- i never rarely/ever make phone calls
- i resent paying BT £10/mth for line rental when i don't use the phone

[#2]

Hi,
You can request an upgrade to the up to 8Mbps service on your existing account via
http://max.plus.net
The upgrade is free but due to problems last year we made it opt in only. You can do this at any time (whether you wish to change account or not), it normally takes between 1 and 2 weeks to process.
BBYW Option 3 isn't quite the same as Premier, the first key difference is how the usage is measured, on Premier only usage between 4pm and midnight is counted towards your allowance but on BBYW it's 8am to midnight. You can also use this page:
http://usergroup.plus.net/070425_bbywcomp2.php
to see the difference in performance between the different products.
If you are mainly using the connection for gaming, then BBYW Option 3 should be fine, depending on exactly how your usage spreads out Option 2 could be fine too (maybe with a couple of extra GBs).
At the moment I can't do much about the line rental (other than suggest Home Phone Evenings and Weekends which may be worth a look at) as ADSL at the moment needs a voice service as well. Hopefully in a couple of years time that will change and you'll able to have broadband without voice.

[#3]

Dont move to BBYW you lose 8 hours per day of unmetered downloads
you get off peak access 12am to 4pm
BBYW gives you off peak access from 12am to 8am only.
Don't sign your home phone up if do you lose access to a BT fault you cannot phone 155 faults you have to go to F9 who then phone BT.  this is because you will no longer be a BT customer.  
You still get 250 min free calls with voip every months so get yourself a voip sip phone or get a router with voip included (speedtouch sell them)
Michael
ps you can still get a free 8mg connection without changing contracts

[#4]

thank you both for the reply.
looks like the best thing for me to do is keep premier & request the free upgrade.
superficially plusnet seems a more expensive option but there is latent value in the support & reliability.

[#5]

Price of course isn't the factor and for a cheap plug you can always bring the price you pay down and earn a few extra quid through My Referrals.
If you put the speed regrade request in today or tomorrow it should be done next week sometime, have a read through the max.plus.net page in the meantime as there's some useful info there.

[#6]

I'd also make the point that Michael seems to be adamant that noone signs up to Broadband Your Way!  Sorry Michael, it's how you are coming across.
Misanthrope, if you feel that your usage is going to be less than 20GB, then it makes sense to go for the BBYW offering.  you can even try it for a month and I can change it back if it's not for you.
Have a look at the package, see if it suits your needs.  It may do, and save you a little bit of money.  It might not be for you, but make your own mind up
Also, I use the Home Phone product and have never had a single problem with it. Sure, you can't phone 150, but you can still phone us if there ever are problems.

[#7]

Quote from: James

I'd also make the point that Michael seems to be adamant that noone signs up to Broadband Your Way!  Sorry Michael, it's how you are coming across.

Wrong I not adamant how many people are signing up to BBYW  I think less off peak time is a cut in service and have pointed it out

Quote from: James

Misanthrope, if you feel that your usage is going to be less than 20GB, then it makes sense to go for the BBYW offering.  you can even try it for a month and I can change it back if it's not for you Also, I use the Home Phone product and have never had a single problem with it. Sure, you can't phone 150, but you can still phone us if there ever are problems.

come on james most customer who call F9 complain about being on hold for long periods and being charged while on hold
Michael

[#8]

Quote from: puddy

come on james most customer who call F9 complain about being on hold for long periods and being charged while on hold

News to me, a year ago yeah I'd have agreed. Calls stats are available here:
http://www.plus.net/supportpages.html?a=212
Average wait time today has been 5 minutes and 17 seconds, current wait time about 3 minutes. We've now added a geographic number that people can call which for many will now form part of their included call allowance so no call charge.

[#9]

can you email me the telephone number or publish it here?

Michael

[#10]

Interesting responses.  Please can some answer me this question?
My son requested a regrade to Max on July 22nd and received this response the following morning:
Script User Unused - ADC - Developers 2:01am, Monday 23rd July 2007
We acknowledge your request to be regraded to DSLMax as a priority and will endeavour to submit your order ASAP.
Regards
Customer Support
Since then - NOTHING. The ticket ( 22414037) was then closed by PN. He's not particularly bothered because he doesn't want to lose his connection as can happen in the first ten days but I think an explanation is necessary. 
When I requested my regrade I had to post on the Forum where a member of PN staff picked up on it and took action.
Please explain what has happened in this case?

[#11]

Quote from: puddy

can you email me the telephone number or publish it here?

Have a look on the portal, any page will do, down at the bottom both the geographic and non-geographic Customer Support telephone numbers are given.  These depend on your vISP.

[#12]

They're also listed here:
http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php?topic=108.0

[#13]

Quote from: coastergrotto

Please explain what has happened in this case?

Hi,
Looks like the regrade's been done but the line won't support any faster speed unfortunately. The DSLMax service relies on line length, the longer the line the lower the speed that phone line will support. Might be worth having a read through this to see if anything helps:
http://usertools.plus.net/tutorials/id/13
but the speed seems to tie in with the BT estimates so that may be as fast as it will get.

[#14]

I did some research on kitz's brilliant site
http://www.kitz.co.uk
and found that he is situated 2.84 kilometers from his exchange (straight line) whereas I am a mere 762 meters.
Would that be a major factor in his low speeds.