What Preps are you doing this week? Part 13

[Frnc]

Just done my bi-annual dance with Virgin Media to get my broadband price down.... With a win at the end of a long day of haggling between them and BT.

My neighbour is with Virgin. He said every year he lets it go out of contract so he can haggle the price down. But he pays more than I do. Of course he may have a faster line, I don't know. I pay £32 for 100 or 130 speed, which is quite fast. I usually get about 135. The other issue is reliability. I have had issues, intermittenly, but not much recently, touch wood. Last time it was bad was after a storm. Browser has crashed a few times, but I think that might have been the VPN, as that reconnected a few seconds later. Virgin have their own cables, so would not necessarily be affected by the same issues. I did have Virgin actually, a long time ago. But now I am on Talktalk, which just got taken over by Utility Warehouse, who sent me a new router. Seems to be ok.

[GeraldTheBonzai]

Just done my bi-annual dance with Virgin Media to get my broadband price down.... With a win at the end of a long day of haggling between them and BT.

My neighbour is with Virgin. He said every year he lets it go out of contract so he can haggle the price down. But he pays more than I do. Of course he may have a faster line, I don't know. I pay £32 for 100 or 130 speed, which is quite fast. I usually get about 135. The other issue is reliability. I have had issues, intermittenly, but not much recently, touch wood. Last time it was bad was after a storm. Browser has crashed a few times, but I think that might have been the VPN, as that reconnected a few seconds later. Virgin have their own cables, so would not necessarily be affected by the same issues. I did have Virgin actually, a long time ago. But now I am on Talktalk, which just got taken over by Utility Warehouse, who sent me a new router. Seems to be ok.

I normally manage to haggle the price down with them. However this year was particularly interesting. I was really considering moving to BT, to combine phone and broadband. Started with a haggle with VM via chat and got a reasonable price. Then tried BT. OMFG.... One chap on chat just couldnt work out that I had a landline and wanted to add broadband - kept on trying to sell me EE landline. Gave up and tried again. Next person offered me another deal, really cheap. Said I would think about it - save the offer. Went back to VM and told them the BT off - got a further reduction but still thought I could do better. Went back to BT and this time went through on the landline as I thought I would go with their offer. Person on landline says the could not offer the deal I has been offered on chat. Also, said that due to us having a legacy landline, we would have to have new fibre put in (which I knew) but that we might loose out landline number, because BT has now merged with EE...? Then gave me two different prices for exactly the same service, one from BT and one from EE.


Went back to VM and this time went to Retentions on the landline. These used to be the ones to really haggle with. Now turns out that they can't offer what I had been offerred on chat - they have different deals.... So... back to VM chat, haggle some more - managed to get the original deal plus Netflix (with Ads) thrown in (I already have paid for Netflix that we use mainly over winter) so that can also come off the bills.

End case. VM would have been £75/mnth for 500Mb if I had gone out of contract. Got it to £36 for 500Mb plus netflix.

Haggle, haggle, then haggle some more.

[Frnc]

Just done my bi-annual dance with Virgin Media to get my broadband price down.... With a win at the end of a long day of haggling between them and BT.

My neighbour is with Virgin. He said every year he lets it go out of contract so he can haggle the price down. But he pays more than I do. Of course he may have a faster line, I don't know. I pay £32 for 100 or 130 speed, which is quite fast. I usually get about 135. The other issue is reliability. I have had issues, intermittenly, but not much recently, touch wood. Last time it was bad was after a storm. Browser has crashed a few times, but I think that might have been the VPN, as that reconnected a few seconds later. Virgin have their own cables, so would not necessarily be affected by the same issues. I did have Virgin actually, a long time ago. But now I am on Talktalk, which just got taken over by Utility Warehouse, who sent me a new router. Seems to be ok.

I normally manage to haggle the price down with them. However this year was particularly interesting. I was really considering moving to BT, to combine phone and broadband. Started with a haggle with VM via chat and got a reasonable price. Then tried BT. OMFG.... One chap on chat just couldnt work out that I had a landline and wanted to add broadband - kept on trying to sell me EE landline. Gave up and tried again. Next person offered me another deal, really cheap. Said I would think about it - save the offer. Went back to VM and told them the BT off - got a further reduction but still thought I could do better. Went back to BT and this time went through on the landline as I thought I would go with their offer. Person on landline says the could not offer the deal I has been offered on chat. Also, said that due to us having a legacy landline, we would have to have new fibre put in (which I knew) but that we might loose out landline number, because BT has now merged with EE...? Then gave me two different prices for exactly the same service, one from BT and one from EE.


Went back to VM and this time went to Retentions on the landline. These used to be the ones to really haggle with. Now turns out that they can't offer what I had been offerred on chat - they have different deals.... So... back to VM chat, haggle some more - managed to get the original deal plus Netflix (with Ads) thrown in (I already have paid for Netflix that we use mainly over winter) so that can also come off the bills.

End case. VM would have been £75/mnth for 500Mb if I had gone out of contract. Got it to £36 for 500Mb plus netflix.

Haggle, haggle, then haggle some more.

Too much hassle for me, but clearly you got a very good deal in the end. Mine includes a landline, but it's never, ever used. I only keep it for emergencies, and maybe there was no option not to have one. 135's fast enough for me, so I'll keep things as they are for now.

[Frnc]

Got a couple of plants repotted. One went into an old terracotta pot I had, and it was quite heavy - I could barely carry it round to the front. Had to stop and rest it on next door's garden wall. The two I was going to put in the ground will have to wait for another day. My back's being pushed to it's limits.

One of the new plants I planted on Sunday has flowered already!

[rik_uk3]

Picked up 4 of these, £5 each at B&M adjustable output, runs on 2 AA cells and is about 7" tall around 12" with handle used; feel pretty solid

[itsybitsy]

I just ordered 6 tins of vaseline, a tube of diclofenac, an Anker 12v charger so I can charge phones/power packs/laptop in the car if needed and a portable 60w solar panel with USB-C output. Feel better now that's on the way as my other solar panel is huge and I don't have a garden so I'm gonna have to get creative about that one if needed be!

I've also got an Amazon basket full of various non-food items, and I'm ready to smash the Buy button very soon, I'm getting more twitchy by the day.

[jennyjj01]

I just ordered 6 tins of vaseline, a tube of diclofenac, an Anker 12v charger so I can charge phones/power packs/laptop in the car if needed and a portable 60w solar panel with USB-C output. Feel better now that's on the way as my other solar panel is huge and I don't have a garden so I'm gonna have to get creative about that one if needed be!

I've also got an Amazon basket full of various non-food items, and I'm ready to smash the Buy button very soon, I'm getting more twitchy by the day.

Serious question..... Why so much vaseline. Does it have some special prepper use?
Twitchy about the Middle East situation in particular?

[itsybitsy]

I just ordered 6 tins of vaseline, a tube of diclofenac, an Anker 12v charger so I can charge phones/power packs/laptop in the car if needed and a portable 60w solar panel with USB-C output. Feel better now that's on the way as my other solar panel is huge and I don't have a garden so I'm gonna have to get creative about that one if needed be!

I've also got an Amazon basket full of various non-food items, and I'm ready to smash the Buy button very soon, I'm getting more twitchy by the day.

Serious question..... Why so much vaseline. Does it have some special prepper use?
Twitchy about the Middle East situation in particular?

I don't like my lips to feel chapped so I like to have a tin in each bag, in the car etc.

[Peter]

Frnc, a landline and any CHEAP pug in phone, not cordless, will work for a couple of days ( on BT’s batteries),
when mobiles die if power is cut to cell towers (blackout or deliberate) or the government can just tell the
company to shut them down as in the 7/7 London terror attack.

itsybitsy, same here with amazon, bet my basket’s bigger than yours

[Frnc]

I just ordered 6 tins of vaseline, a tube of diclofenac, an Anker 12v charger so I can charge phones/power packs/laptop in the car if needed and a portable 60w solar panel with USB-C output. Feel better now that's on the way as my other solar panel is huge and I don't have a garden so I'm gonna have to get creative about that one if needed be!

I've also got an Amazon basket full of various non-food items, and I'm ready to smash the Buy button very soon, I'm getting more twitchy by the day.

Serious question..... Why so much vaseline. Does it have some special prepper use?
Twitchy about the Middle East situation in particular?

Smear a cotton wool ball in Vaseline, and you have a superb fire starter. For real wood fires. I had to buy a small tub when I scalded my hand, but now I'm using it on some dermatitis on the palms of my hands. I didn't want to break into my prep tub.