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Having followed the whole thing on your Twitter feed, I can only sympathize. I sometimes wonder how the lay person can every get anything even slightly complicated done via the mass-market ISPs' customer support services.

Your conclusion is good - be an 'expert customer'. Think about how likely you are to need support, and see if the organisation you're considering provides the level of support you're likely to need.

You should have waited for your IT Director to get back. He'd have known that you could have solved your email problems in an instant, by logging into your domain name control panel and redirecting incoming mail to something like hotmail or gmail. That's the big benefit of having your own domain name. It's a shame that you didn't realise it.

Rory

I have very much the same problems in the past with large ISP’s and Telco’s and I can appreciate how frustrating it is to be without internet access. (It can also be liberating too!) I’ve now learned that forget how cheap the package may be, the customer service and reliability of the service is paramount. I pay £20 a month for just broadband, which in these days of integrated telephone, broadband and TV packages might seem a little bit steep, but I’ve never had a single problem with the (ultra quick) connection, all questions about web hosting are answered immediately by a friendly voice in England, and they provide tech support for any equipment that you are using to connect, not just the modem’s/routers on their ‘preferred list.’

So it puts a dent in my wallet, but after spending nine days being bounced around BT and Orange’s various departments with no solution in sight, I know which option I prefer.

Your first two points are the main ones (in addition to lack of traffic shaping) that led me to choose my current provider. They offer UK-based support staff who actually know what they are talking about, and don't just read off a script.

Worth it? I do pay nearly twice as much as many others do for ostensibly the same service, but on the evidence of their performance in customer satisfaction surveys and my dealings with them so far, I'm confident I would not have the same type of issues as your wife experienced.

Rory,

Sorry to hear about your woes. I have been though similar troubled waters but now have most things where I want them to be.

Hosting - Intrahost if you want a VPS - they are superb and excellent value, and based in East Yorkshire. Superb customer support.

Domains - Domain Monster - UK support, UK company and again, customer service that makes me smile!

ISP - this is where it all goes horribly wrong. Being in Hull, I am stuck with Karoo. Grrrrr. Overpriced. And I mean WELL overpriced. try £30 for an "8mb" line (that is never 8mb).

Please can some ISP come to Hull and take Karoo's business? We are dying for a choice and decent speed / price!

I'm with a small ISP and I pay £28 a month for just broadband.

I must be mad paying that much when I can get Tiscali (or whatever) 8mb for £6.95, right?

Wrong, because...

a) Broadband has never gone down
b) I have an 8mb line, and my download speeds are 800 - 950 kb/sec, as they should be.
c) When I call them they answer the phone

Get on forums, find a small ISP that comes recommended and pay the extra few quid to save you having to write ranting blog posts like this one.

Well, welcome to the 21st Century, Rory!

I learnt this lesson a while back, and Tiscali are still threatening legal action against me for a service that they were unable to provide. I look forward to the court appearance where I have enough evidence to embarrass the company to high heaven!

So, like everything in life, you get what you pay for!

See, this is why I typicaly ensure that the company I use as a web host ISN'T the same company I use as an ISP. By keeping the two seperate, I very rarely have issues that last longer than one very quick phone call.

Personaly I've had my net con with Telewest/Virgin Media pretty much since Telewest started Blueyonder and can say without a doubt that I have never had, nor seen, a better internet service. I know plenty of people have moaned and groaned about Virgin Media (specificaly NTL customers) but in a good 6 or 7 years of service, I've only ever lost my connection maybe 3 or 4 times and only 1 of those times did it last longer than a couple of minutes ... and considering my blueyonder account has been regularly upgraded to the company's fastest speeds, which from the looks of it will be done again this time next year to 50mbs, certainly happy there.

As for web hosting, Freeola. Always found them cheap, reliable and good customer service.

Hard luck Rory and family.

HelenHighwater (post2): that's a great thought for emergencies although it does rather let the provider off the hook.

Anyone know a provider that actually thinks customers are essential? Mine is hopeless and I'm looking for one that believes web sites should stay up and email should stay delivered, fast. Those 'sorry for any inconvenience' notes jsut add to the hell.

The root cause is that none of us are paying enough for our net connections.

It's not our fault that the major ISPs recklessly engaged in a damaging price war that their business models couldn't support.

Consequently they are looking to shave costs everywhere, including subscriber traffic management, telephone support and network upgrades, while trying to develop new income streams, Phorm etc., and attacking net neutrality.

Just use Gmail or Yahoo mail or (dare I say it) hotmail.

There's absolutely no reason to use an ISP email address nowadays.

In reply to charlieperry, i must disagree that one of the free email addresses is the way to go, you hand over so much of your details in return for what? the convenience of being able to get at your email from any PC, don't think so.

I do have an account with each of the free providers but I also have two domains that I have registered and each has a fully functioning email system. Neither domain is registered or hosted by my ISP so Yes I may be paying more but each supplier only has one thing to deal with

If I am just registering on a site for a download or similar then i will use one of the free accounts, but if it is for a professional type forum then i will use a more professional looking address.

I run a small, UK-based hosting company, Eco Web Hosting, and am far too familiar with the actions of companies like TunnelVision. These companies are often cheap, and the sales department are easy enough to get hold of, but when it comes to day-to-day support, or, God forbid, wanting to leave, it can take days to get a response.

The smaller companies often offer a better and more flexible service. Go for a host that's been recommended by a friend, not the one which appears first in Google.

I my self run a small hosting company just a 2 man band not nearly as huge as some of these other companies but even we have a response time of less than an hour and we work our hearts out to make sure our customers get the best service we can provide.

Now explain to me why when we are so small (always looking for new customers) we work so hard (24/7 support!) but when they are so big they dont seem to care! Just doesnt seem fair.

Clickem is 100% right on this issue!!
I used to work for a "european" ISP and after working out that I (and about 3 other people) were the tech support and customer service for a business broadband package (webhosting, connection etc etc).
I was unsuprised to have to outsource my own job, to a couple of (very very competent) indian guys working in bangalore.
The company simply could not afford to pay for me or anyone else (1 other full time guy and 2 workign 50% of their time on the same team) and it was MUCH cheaper to outsource to india!
I was unsuprised by this as they were only charging £30 a month for the top end package AND trying to drop that price to compete with other companys.
Cheaper price meant less service.

The moral of the story is :
You get what you pay for.