And the award for the crappiest ISP goes to...

This is a closely fought competition between half a dozen or so ADSL ISPs, and it's getting worse. The nominees are BT, AOL, Tiscali, Talk Talk, Orange and Sky, and account for about 90% of broadband customers in the UK. Now the really disturbing news is that 3 of these are now one and the same company. Talk Talk paid a piffling sum of £370 million back in October 2006 for the notoriously bad service provider, and promised to improve their service. They lied. Last year I spent a day on a 12 hour call (all in one go, I hasten to add) to AOL, sorting out a new customer who's broadband wouldn't work. I even had to listen to Gupta in Mumbai at one point playing Bingo, even after admitting it was going on but denying he was actually playing, whilst occasionally saying he's got a line etc.
Now the partnership from hell have taken the boat, and pushed it out further, with the acquisition of Tiscali as well for £236 million, meaning that now Carphone Warehouse (the parent company of Talk Talk) now has over 25% of the UK market. All well and good in business school, if they did their job. But with that many customers, can they surely continue to provide a decent service? Well the short answer is no, no they can't. I have 3 existing customers with AOL. I have 4 existing customers with Tiscali. Or should I say I did. One customer's with AOL still, none have stayed with Tiscali, because the whole house of cards it would seem is falling down. All sorts of complains like no connection, no DNS, slow service, errors with websites and lost emails all seem to be a deciding factor in leaving. The technical support is just as bad as always, but now people are so unimpressed they feel they have to leave. And the sad thing is, they look around at available companies, and move from one to another with another 18 month/2 year contract, only to find the service is just as crap as before. Ofcom can only do so much, and Talk Talk don't give a toss. They're positively rubbing their hands with glee.
I, meanwhile, am snowed under.