You gotta take the rough with the smooth in the wild wild telewest. (Telewest)

Member Name: TheDrowningMan

Product:	Telewest
Date:	15/09/03 (338 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very cool digital TV, Cheap package deals, Superfast broadband service

Disadvantages: Poor response times, Infuriating phone service, Can be unreliable

Telewest are certainly not at the top of my Christmas card list each year, but neither do they make me feel physically ill each time I think of them, so that?s definitely a good thing. A lot of people knock this company, me included, but when I actually put their shortcomings in perspective, the service they provide when everything is working properly, is pretty good.

We?ve had Telewest where I live in SW London since they bought out United Artists, who used to supply the cable TV here. Ever since then Telewest have provided both our telephone service and cable/digital service. In 1999 Telewest launched its Active Digital service, and I had got totally frustrated with the outdated cable service that shared all of its channels, i.e. on one channel it would be QVC until about 4pm, then bravo until midnight, then nothing, so u missed most of the programs u wanted to watch! So, in 2000 we switched to the Digital service.

The only qualms I had with the service was how much all the sky channels cost, sky sports 1 was about 15 quid a month extra, and then sky sports 2 was another 15 quid a month, but you got sky sports 3 free, and as they skilfully switched the schedules so the important footie matches were scattered around all 3, you really needed all of them to get by. You can get Sky movies 1-69 and Sky movies premier 1-894 if you want, but I don?t know how much they are, and feel they are pointless when you have Front Row, the Telewest Pay Per View movie channel.

So, on to the good points. The phone service is quite cheap. Not as cheap as BT, but useful to me, as they have a very cheap international calls service (talk international) which means I can call America, (which I do very frequently), for 2p a minute instead of the regulatory 15-20p a min, and only costs £3 a month. Also you can call other Telewest phone users for free at the weekend and evenings, which is very handy as most of the people I call are Telewest users. The cheapest pack
age, 3-2-1, is £10 a month, but if you buy digital TV as well, you pay for the digital, and get the phone included for free. If you buy a package you will save a lot of money, for 40 quid a month you can get ?surf unlimited? internet access, ?talk evenings and weekends? phone service, which gives free local and national calls evenings and weekends, and the ?essential? digital TV package which has most of the channels you?ll need.

So how good is the digital? Very good. We have the ?Supreme? package for £25.50 a month, which includes every channel except the premium ones, such as Sky sports etc. The ?essential? package is £18.50, and has over 60 channels, and the ?Starter? package is £13.50, and has over 30 channels (all packages include the 3-2-1 phone service). We also have all 3 Sky sports channels, which costs another £30 a month. Most premium channels are £10 extra, and these include adult channels like Playboy, international channels like Sony TV Asia, Movie channels, Film 4, and the Sky movie channels, and Disney for the kids (there?s already 11 kids channels included in the package). The interface for the channels is very user friendly, you can set reminders for numerous programs so you don?t forget about them, there?s an easy to use TV guide, and an ?information? button, which will give you lots of info about programs you want to watch. There?s also the TV on Demand, which is effectively the Front Row movie channel, where you can easily book movies to watch by simply entering your password, they will be charged to your bill. Movies are usually around £3.50 each, and films usually appear on Front Row about 2-3 months after appearing in the video rentals shops.

The interactive service on digital is very handy. There are 8 sections within.
1. Games to play. There are many games you can play for free, or for a nominal price, such as pokemon games, cartoon network games, chess, casino games, tetris, and all kinds of games that will keep you e
ntertained if you?re stuck for something to do.
2. Holidays and travel. Here you can book Teletext holidays, Co-op holidays and use the AA and More Than websites to book holidays and buy travel, car insurance etc.
3. Entertainment and sport. Here you can go to various TV channel websites, find info about music gigs and buy tickets, go to William hill or coral to do a bit of betting, find out whatever you need to know about the sport news, get your horoscope, find people to chat with and there?s an adult section, and being a good boy, im sure I don?t know what this section contains!
4. Info and directories. Here you can find out about the news and weather, look for jobs at Fish4, look through classifieds and even go to a select few local council websites.
5. Shopping. Here you can use the QVC website to shop, and the Iceland website for some grocery shopping. Buy phones from the carphone warehouse, and even order pizza from dominos!
6. Money and property. Here you can use TV banking, for all HSBC customers, find out about all kinds of credit cards, loans and mortgages. Buy insurance, find out how your latest city investments is doing on the stock market, have a look at some homes, on Fish4homes, and get info on pensions from The Pension Service.
7. Motoring. Here you can look for cars on Fish4cars, Auto trader and Exchange and Mart.
8. TV email. This is very handy. You can have multiple email accounts and use it to send and receive email from your TV. This is very useful if your internet or phone is down, and that?s exactly what ive used it for in the past.

This service is ideal for people who have no internet access, or are too lazy to turn on their computers, like me!

The picture quality is very very good using a SCART cable, but its not required incase your TV hasn?t got a SCART socket, which it should have unless its called the radiation king, and requires a crank of a handle to turn it on. When we ordered the servic
e, they came around within the week and replaced our old cable box with the new ?Smart box?, in fact 2 smart boxes as ive got one upstairs too. The installation didn?t take long at all and they were finished within the hour. Everything worked perfectly, and after a quick debriefing I was up to date with all the technology.

Their internet services aren?t too shabby either. The surf unlimited is pretty basic, so I?d suggest AOL instead, but the Broadband service is said to be the best in the country. There are 3 broadband services, the regular 512kb connection, which costs £25 a month. This is about 10x faster than dial-up internet, and can download a 5mb file in about 1m20secs*. The superfast 1mb connection is £35 a month, but you can get the same 5mb file in 40secs*. Lastly, the supersonic 2mb connection is quite a bit of money at £50 a month, but the same file can be downloaded in just 19 seconds*! The good thing about broadband is that you can stay online all day and still use the phone line! I don?t have the broadband service yet, but my friend does, and he has never had a problem with it, and im always astounded by how fast it is when I use it.

Now, Telewest isn?t always as good as gold as im sure you?ve gathered if you?ve read any other reviews. The main problem I have with the service is when you attempt to call up about a problem or an enquiry. After having to press various numbers to find the correct department, you are then hit with 20 minutes worth of recorded messages informing you of various problems throughout the area, and if any of these problems concerns you, you are reassured to hang up as it is being dealt with. If these messages don?t concern you (worst luck), you are then kept on hold for anything between 5 minutes, and 2 hours (ive been on hold so long before that the battery on my cordless phone ran out, and I was cut off). Once you?ve got through to an operator, (that?s if your patience hasn?t waned too much, or you?ve become
too annoyed at listening to the dire music), you?d think it would be all too easy. But no, unfortunately not. Usually they will ask you about your problems and try to rectify them for you there and then (they can usually fix a lot of problems with the digital TV box by resetting it or sending signals to it) but if that isn?t the case, beware, you will sometimes have to wait over a week for a technician to be sent out. This happened recently to us. They told us that our phone couldn?t be fixed for a week, and as my mum is disabled, we really needed the phone, but that didn?t swing it. Apparently you need to fill out numerous forms to become a ?priority customer? before the fault develops, so that was of no use. (Incidentally, I asked for the forms to be sent out anyway, for future faults, but they still haven?t arrived nearly 2 weeks on). Anyway, when they came, on time a week later, the fault was fixed in about 30 seconds, and for some reason, that annoyed me even more! Oh well, all is better now. (And yes, im 20 and still living at home, but im broke!!!).

As well as the customer service, the smart box becomes less smart when left off for a period of time, I.e. if you go away for a couple of weeks and turn it off at the mains, it generally doesn?t want to work when you return, we?ve had to replace 2 boxes for this reason already. But, as you only rent the box from Telewest, you don?t have to pay for any work done to it, or for a replacement, so I cant really complain.

So, in conclusion, I definitely feel that Telewest provides a good service all round. It?s generally reliable, and very easy to use. The phone and digital all together cost us around £59 a month not including the phone bill (£30 being from the 3 Sky Sports channels), and for what you receive, I feel that?s pretty reasonable. If you?re heavily reliant on the phone then maybe make sure you?ve got a bit of credit on your mobile at all times, just in case they cant fix it quickly. And if
you are a couch potato, then having 2 digital boxes would be handy. If you buy a big package with internet, TV and phone you?ll save yourself a lot of money, and in the end, its worth the odd bit of hassle trying to fix problems. I would definitely recommend it.

For any other info you might need, go to Telewest.co.uk and find out all about the different packages and if your area is covered etc.

*Taken from www.telewest.co.uk.

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