Melissa Kite Melissa Kite

I truly loved you, BT Broadband. I should never have reached for Sky

Oh, why did I leave BT? I've been a fool, a damn fool. Do you think they'll have me back?

[Getty Images/iStockphoto] 
issue 25 January 2014

Don’t do it. Do not, whatever you do, even think about doing it. I was happy not doing it. And then I weakened and did it. And now I am living to bitterly regret it. I speak of switching my broadband provider, of course.

Like any ‘switch’, it promised to be many things — cheaper, faster, shinier — and turned out to be a living nightmare. What made it worse was that my BT service was very good. It was expensive, but it worked. I remember the fateful day I decided to ditch it. I knew deep down it was the wrong thing to do. I loved you, BT broadband. You weren’t superfast fibre-optic. But I loved you all the same.

Then I had a rush of blood to the head and decided to ring Sky to ask whether I could get a cheaper TV package. I could, and not only that, if I switched my broadband, I would also get a fantastic deal.

I explained that I liked my BT broadband. Would Sky broadband work as well? Oh yes, they assured me. It would work even better because of a little something called ‘a free broadband booster’ which would make the signal go twice as far. I had seen the advert for this with Michael Caine. The one that ends with the slogan ‘Sky. Believe In Better’.

‘Now you mention it,’ I said, ‘the BT signal does get a bit weak in parts of the house.’ Well then, suffer no longer, they intimated. With Sky broadband and TV, you will get everything you ever wanted for half the price.Half the price for everything I ever wanted, I mused. That does sound good.

And with a deep sense of foreboding and guilt, I abandoned my trusty old BT phone service.

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