telewest broadband www.telewest.co.uk review

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Average Ratings

Content	5.7/10
Reliability	1/10
Customer Service	3/10
Value for Money	4.8/10
Reviewer Rating	5.3/10
Overall Rating	5.1/10

46% Recommended11 out of 24 Reviews

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Review of Telewest Broadband www.telewest.co.uk

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By chemer2011 on 1st Aug 2006

chemer2011's Ratings

Content	3/10
Value for money	5/10
Overall value	2/10
chemer2011's recommendation

Good Points

The price was excellent but nowadays it is hardly the best price on the market.

Bad Points

Customer service is really rubbish. You feel you are being interrogated rather than helped.

General Comments

I would steer clear of Telewest Broadband I have been fobbed off more times than I care to recall. They really have no clue. You ring up there service and they basically blame you for the fault to the broadband. I know my computers and have built a few in my time. Its insulting when they blame me and say it's my computer or my firewall. Like I don't know how to switch one on or off.

The simple answer is this:

THEY ARE CUTTING THE BANDWIDTH AND YOU ARE PAYING FOR IT.

For instance I had a 10 meg line but was getting 4 meg speeds. So I downgraded it to 4 meg and guess what???? Yes you guessed it, it went down to just a 2 meg connection.

If I ran an illegal uncapper software they would be really upset at me. Yet they are doing the same by stealing my bandwidth.

I have been with Telwest since 2000 and have noticed a rapid decline in their service.

It used to have very proficient IT Technicians that would get you up and runing in minutes, not hours. Now it has a lot of people that obviously do not want to be there. One woman even yawned on the phone whilst sorting out my problem and it was like being interrogated by the Spanish Inquisition. My wife works in a call centre and she would never dream of acting like this.

5 Comments on Review by chemer2011 for Telewest Broadband www.telewest.co.uk

1. chemer2011 on 4th Aug 2006

   I am afraid that its not about the prices its about how you get treated when something goes wrong. There Customer Service is laughable. I felt like i was the one to blame and was treated like an idiot. Stay well away from this company.
   
   Steve

2. ismahaunyb on 13th Aug 2006

   Actually the speeds you are getting with your service sound about right... You will never experience full speed Internet because of a little term known as contention ratio (shared connection)... Please read up on it... some websites are as follows http://www.chooseisp.co.uk/broadband-faq/contention-ratio.html ... http://www.idnet.net/broadband/contentionratio.jsp ... unfortunately to make Internet affordable they have had to do this so really no matter where you go you will never experience true speeds unless you are one of the few lucky people paying for a 1:1 connection and/or live right next to the exchange. I'm on Telewest and I think their service is pretty standard, the reason I stay with them is because the service I have received from them is miles more reliable than the other 3 providers I used in the past.

3. chemer2011 on 15th Aug 2006

   I disagree I went to gamefiles.blueyonder.co.uk and downloaded programs from there and I still got rubbish speeds. My friends got twice as fast as me for the same money.
   
   My friends are with BT and NTL. Although NTL have joined forces with Telewest they are still miles apart when it comes to reliability and customer service.

4. jamie142 on 3rd Sep 2006

   I have, or should I say, had been with Telewest since 2000.
   
   Coming from a 56k modem to a 2Mb broadband connection is certainly something. It started off brilliantly with Telewest, and they frequently "upgraded" my speed for free around every year.
   
   I decided to go wireless around the home, as I had purchased a laptop. I knew fully that Telewest does not support wireless or third party routers, but it worked for many years, until the start of August 2006.
   
   I noticed that my download speed was merely around double to what a 56k modem was, so straight away, I phoned Telewest to see what the problem was. I believed it to be a fault of the modem, as my data light kept on going off. The modem - it is their property - this is also in the contract.
   
   After haggling with the person on the phone stating that it's their property, I got passed on to another man, who told me to disconnect my router, and plug the modem in through a USB connection.
   
   The man then said it could be three things, 1st - virus/spyware. 2nd - a firewall problem, and 3rd, a problem with the modem.
   
   Anyway, he searched my PC, and there was no virus, or a firewall problem - yet he still couldn't agree to the fact the it was the modem. He then blamed my router, which of course was disconnected, and then he blamed my PC.
   
   At the end of the day, being a loyal customer for over 6 years, and the fact that I was not receiving a service, really cheesed me off. But what was I to do? Pay £75 for an engineer to come out, even though the modem is their property... I don't think so!!
   
   Overall, I can't help thinking that problems have emerged since NTL merged with Telewest. Sadly, as Telewest don't support wireless routers, then what chance does it stand in the future?
   
   Future proof yourselves everyone!

5. jvhopwood on 18th Apr 2007

   I agree entirely about the service desk, which is in Scotland, I think. The telephone service could not provide both diversion and voicemail simultaneously; facilities which are important for my business. Their help desk and engineers didn't know this and kept switching from one to the other with a days delay, when what I needed was to have both on call.
   
   Their service desk sent many threatening letters demanding £250 for each piece of equipment! It was only when I took the legal route for their failure to provide advertised services and sent all their equipment back by recorded post that Telewest Broadband backed down and refunded their charges.

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