Yep - I'm with them for both phone and ISP and have found them (despite being owned by BT) to be a MILE better in terms of customer service and price.

When I was with BT for my phone when I moved into my home over a decade ago, I had ongoing issues with them incorrectly billing me and their (IMHO) stupid quarterly way of billing that changed my bill every time, despite me always staying within the bounds of my deal.

I was with another ISP at that time, Eclipse, who were fine, but when I eventually got fed up with having to phone BT to get my bill altered on average once a month, I decided to change both to Plusnet as they were cheaper than Eclipse and offered the call package (evenings and weekends) I wanted.

Since the change, I only had to call Plusnet three times in over 5 years on generally minor issues which were resolved. The only issue I have with them is that their routers, at least for their standard (non-fibre) broadband services, aren't that great in terms of reliability - I had one replaced last year and the replacement has recently been faulty and requiring it to be rebooted on many occasions.

I would say they are good value, not the best, but good enough for me at the moment. I get a monthly bill via email, easy to use online account (better than BT's was when I changed over - it may have improved since then) and both are clear.

Plusnet regularly do really good offers for new customers - I also pay less now than I did when I started and have a better service. I would say that, in my view, they are like Richer Sounds, like electrical/AV store: there are better firms on the market, but you pay quite a bit more for the best phone/ISPs like Zen or get lower customer service for the other big names.

I'm an ex-BT employee and with Plusnet. No complaints and when I had a problem with my 'phone line Open Reach turned up and had to solve it in the exchange.

You do need to get quite forceful at the end of each year and re-negotiate your contract to maintain a reasonable charge.

Tried Virgin, terrible service. I understand Talk Talk has the worse customer reviews for the last five years, could be why they're so actively trying to sell it on my High Street.

That's essentially how I see the market at present. I know of friends and family who are with Virgin for landline and ISP/cable TV, and its a mixed bag - faster than BT if you're in an area upgraded to the really fast fibre services, customer service betwen fine and rather iffy. Also got reports of their equivalent (not the latest version, one from about 3-5 years ago) of the Sky box not being particularly good.

As regards the big name competitors, a quick look on USwitch, Which? magazine or other review sites shows that, like the gas/electric utility firms, most of the biggest names don't do that well overall on the service provided, whether its poor customer service, faults/reliability and/or unrealistic claims of system performance. It's noticeable that many of them regularly feature on BBC's Watchdog for such things.

The smaller, independent firms always do far better - though you do pay for it with higher charges. To be honest, it's why I prefer Plusnet, as they are one of the best value, reasonably reliable and aren't too bad for customer service. If money was no object, then I'd go for Zen or similar (as long as they provided a fast service).

I did renegotiate my contract with Plusnet about a year or so ago - like all firms, you do have to be firm (but polite) with them and know what the opposition is offering to give you leverage to push the price down, but it mostly works. It's best to do so when a competitor has a big offer on, so they can match or better it.