Non-motoring > brsk Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Ted Replies: 13
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New Fri 21 Mar 25 08:05 
 brsk - Ted

SWM had two young guys at the door yesterday extolling the virtues of changing from our current Virgin package to BRSK.

I know nothing about them, they said it would save us about £60 pcm and give superior service.

Anyone one here know anything or actually use them ? I 'm worried that SWM would lose her Tivo box and the thousands of hours of rubbish she has recorded and never has time to watch ! On the other hand they may have a helpline where someone actually speaks English !

Ted
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New Fri 21 Mar 25 08:14 
 brsk - Bromptonaut
Do they have their own fibre to your home or are they piggy backing on what's already there?
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New Fri 21 Mar 25 08:24 
 brsk - Zero

>>I 'm worried that SWM
>> would lose her Tivo box and the thousands of hours of rubbish she has recorded
She would
>> helpline where someone actually speaks English !
they dont, but then neither does Virgin.
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New Fri 21 Mar 25 09:37 
 brsk - smokie
I can get faster internet at quite a favourable price over Virgin but it simply doesn't give me the features the Virgin package has.

If you've ever tried watching or saving TV through many of the alternatives you'll understand why I have stuck with Virgin. The TiVo package is unrivalled (except probably by Sky).

I'm sure people will tell me I can get a consolidated view of what's on somehow, and record to a hard disk hanging off my telly, or watch catch up by using each channels app (or probably a Freeview consolidated schedule) but even I, as a reluctant TV watcher and also being IT literate, have not found anything to match the overall TiVo experience.

They couldn't save me £60 a month as I'm only paying £46 for 18 months for the fairly basic TV package, 250mb internet and the phone, which isn't used. These companies usually want somewhere between £30 and £40 for internet only, albeit often much faster, but I don't need faster, and I can stream, download and do whatever I want on my 250mb, with spare capacity (and don't forget I share that link with my neighbour, who is a big downloader of TV and a streamer). And of course if you take their offer you then likely have to buy some new hardware to watch telly.

So your best bet IMO is to negotiate your rate down with Virgin, despite their helpline they are still v good IMO (I can't think of the last time I had to call them over anything other than renewal cost, though historically I have had some quite laughable support from them). SWMBO would never forgive you if you ditch it - I'm in exactly the same boat. Which package do you have and how much do you pay?

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New Fri 21 Mar 25 11:13 
 brsk - zippy
The old chestnut of media costs.

We are reviewing our bills and note that "there doesn't seem to be anything on Sky that we enjoy" and we are paying £50.50 per month for it. Broadband (FTTP) is through Trooli at £29.99 a month and still in contract.

I do like recording stuff on free to air channels (Film 4, Talking Pictures etc) to watch at my pleasure and find less interesting films on Sky Cinema which is included in the £50.50 monthly fee.

I was considering dumping Sky but they really do have a good box (Sky Q) and I the Freesat Boxes don't seem to cut the mustard, even with the latest software upgrades. Though I haven't actually used one - this is just hearsay.

I have also heard that Sky now remove the dish if you leave them, which would be an extra cost.

What to do?
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New Fri 21 Mar 25 16:27 
 brsk - Ted

Thanks all. Brompy...I have no idea !.

I guess from Smokie and Zipsy's comments that it's just not worth messing about. We pay £107 a month for BB, Phone and Interweb. It was pushing £150 until I had words with Virgin last year ! I watch my football on NowTv and TNT. Which I only subscribe to during the season.

I guess we'll be keeping the status quo although I wish there was an English speaking helpline and they didn't keep insisting I give them the memorable word...which isn't memorable to me after 20 years !

Ted
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New Fri 21 Mar 25 16:33 
 brsk - Bromptonaut
£107 is a helluva lot.

I pay PLusnet £34.99 for plain vanilla fttp which does all we want including all web use and streaming via Iplayer, Netflix etc.

Barely a hiccup and we've been on it a year now.
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New Fri 21 Mar 25 17:34 
 brsk - Robin O'Reliant
>> £107 is a helluva lot.
>>
>> I pay PLusnet £34.99 for plain vanilla fttp which does all we want including all
>> web use and streaming via Iplayer, Netflix etc.
>>
>> Barely a hiccup and we've been on it a year now.
>>

I've been with Plusnet for about ten years now, £23.99 a month for FTTC with no landline (Which we never used before ditching it last year). I could get FTTP but what I've got is fast enough, the only extra I pay for is Amazon Prime.

We keep getting some mob called Voneous offering six months free FTTP with them paying any exit fee to the existing ISP but from what I've heard locally I wouldn't touch them.
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New Fri 21 Mar 25 16:44 
 brsk - Zero

>> I guess from Smokie and Zipsy's comments that it's just not worth messing about. We
>> pay £107 a month for BB, Phone and Interweb.

£107? Jesus Mary and Joseph and the three little donkees. Thats a huge amount you should be paying, at most, half that.
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New Fri 21 Mar 25 17:03 
 brsk - zippy
Broadband at 29.99 and TV at £50.50 is £80.49 a month and doesn't include phone. The TV is SKY, Netflix, Sky Cinema, and annoyingly charges for HD and UHD - UHD is a bit of a rip as it's for downloaded content only as far as I can see.
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New Fri 21 Mar 25 17:07 
 brsk - Bobby
Every renewal with Virgin I go through the whole cancellation procedure and then I get a call within the one month window to offer me a deal to stay. Always works. Currently £74 for 500meg broadband, sky sports, sky films, BT sports etc.

Told my aunt to do the same and she never got a call!!! Reckon, with hindsight, this was due to her being broadband and phone only, guessing that maybe affects it?
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New Fri 21 Mar 25 17:11 
 brsk - Bromptonaut
Netflix on its own is peanuts which we happily pay. Got it originally 'cos our son bought Mrs B a voucher for Xmas and carried on.

For a while we didn't use it but having got hooked on The Crown and then discovered how much else there was both drama and documentary we're hooked.

Nothing on Sky I'd want.
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New Fri 21 Mar 25 18:26 
 brsk - Terry
Talk Talk broadband which is £26 per month.

Includes phone line which is never used - I suppose it could be a back up if 4/5G goes down.

Other half subscribes to Netflix - about a £5 per month I think.

Refuse to be sucked into a whole load of largely unnecessary subscriptions for content that mostly would never get watched.
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New Fri 21 Mar 25 19:31 
 brsk - smokie
I think you're probably overpaying Ted. I'm pretty sure it's fairly common for the full TV with Sky movies and sports package and a half decent internet can be had for around £80 and there are stories of people on (much) less.

You need to go through to retentions and be prepared to bluff a bit. You can even order cancellation for a month hence and cancel it when there's a week to go - but in my experience the likelihood is they will have contacted you with an acceptable offer by then anyway.

The closest I got was a couple of years ago, I had ordered as a new customer using SWMBOs details and they hadn't complained it was the same address. I'd really sooner have not changed but they stuck to their guns until about 2 days before change - when I had a call from them which resulted in a price I found acceptable and they cancelled the new install, not without some difficulty.

This year they seem to have plugged the "new customer at existing address" loophole. And of course if you end up being anew customer, your TiVo will disappear, along with the cherished recordings. SWMBO and I are both OK with using Firesticks and other means of catchup but TiVo (or any other pvr) knocks the socks off the faff of not having one. I could live without any TV but SWMBO is adamant that we keep TiVo, for the same reasons as you.

Last edited by: smokie on Fri 21 Mar 25 at 19:32
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