Gigaclear - any good follow-up deals?

Fri 26 Sep, 18:26

I hope you have shaken them off successfully, Helen. The tactics of the utility companies are always the same: they will leave you on a gradually increasing tariff year by year and then act disgusted and surprised when you tell them that you have left. The retention teams should spend more time on offering existing customers decent products at decent prices instead of firefighting when we, quite rightly, leave.

This just happened to me when I left Gigaclear. I was paying £42 for a dribble of broadband, and when EE offered to reduce £20 on each of four mobile phone bills if I switched to EE broadband, it was, obviously, a no-brainer. I have saved £80 on my phone bills, I am getting a much faster broadband service* for much less than £42!

*And given that EE still use Openreach's copper wires as opposed to the fibre broadband use by Gigaclear, it just goes to show how much Gigaclear were throttling the service they were providing me whilst fleecing me for the privilege.

Thu 25 Sep, 14:59

That's really useful information. Thanks, everyone. I'll have a strong cup of coffee and then get on the phone!

Thu 25 Sep, 09:16

Yes, like many companies, they rely on customer inertia, increase the prices and hope you don't notice.  I have always negotiated a renewal price, not just with Gigaclear but with other companies and they usually agree if you threaten to go elsewhere.

Thu 25 Sep, 08:38

Every time my contracts ends they write and tell me it's going to be £57 from now on, so I call them and tell them I'll leave for a cheaper competitor. And every time, they continue the previous discount so I carry on paying the same (£38 for 300mbps). 

Wed 24 Sep, 22:14

We were on £19 for the initial period. It would have automatically gone to £48 after that, so we negotiated and got to £28, but including a boost in speed to the next level up. As Jonathan says, worth calling them.

Wed 24 Sep, 21:24

I had the same thing recently - they wanted to increase to £57. 

I spoke with Gigaclear who offered a bit of a reduction, but it was pathetic. I got a quote for a “normal” provider and told Gigaclear that was what I was willing pay - they did eventually agree to match that but I was put on a slightly slower package (still faster than I need and faster than the BT equivalent). So after everything I’m paying 50p more a month now. 

Just ring them up - they seem quite happy to negotiate 

Wed 24 Sep, 20:32

I took out a Gigaclear contract on a very competitive initial contract following the new installations in Charlbury and it's now coming up for renewal at the much higher typical rate. I was wondering whether people in a similar situation have managed to negotiate a reasonable ongoing rate, or whether I need to accept that it's a lot more expensive, or jump ship?