I switched over to my current ADSL service provider, Eclipse Internet, as I thought they appeared to be fast (from other reviews and the fact they offered me a reasonably good speed – that being 2.5Mbps which was a lot better than the 512Kbps I was getting off BT OpenWorld) and they also seemed to be cheap, charging me only £15 for unlimited use monthly.
For the first month or so, everything was great. Eclipse was fast; Eclipse would give me (multiple) static IP addresses; Eclipse would provide me with a NNTP server to use. Then I started to get disappointed.
The first thing I noticed when it started to go slower was the fact they were giving me sub-dial-up P2P speeds which rarely went above 1Kbps! I emailed them over this matter and they gave me an extremely poor answer:
Peer-to-peer traffic is one of the biggest contributing factors of ISP bandwidth congestion. Users of this will understand that it has quite a detrimental effect on their own connection. This considered, the consequences to the ISP are immense. Therefore, many now are forced to manage P2P and other such traffic in order to continue to provide a fast reliable service to time-critical traffic such as HTTP, VOIP, Email, and gaming.
The performance you get using P2P protocols will depend on current subscriber levels, network usage (in total), and the percentage of P2P/USENET traffic currently being used on our Network. You will notice variation in performance more during peak times.
I really don’t call a few dozen kilobits a ‘variation’ and I suspect that they were in fact using their fair use policy against me. It did annoy me, though, how they refused to acknowledge that.
At the moment, it is taking me quite a while to even load a webpage. I have to say BT offered me better speeds (in reality) despite the fact their line rate was only one fifth of what Eclipse are giving me.
I suspect Eclipse have an appalling contention ratio but rather than pleasing their customers by buying another gateway are choosing to conserve their money.
Sadly, I chose to opt for a new router when I signed up for Eclipse so I am now bound by a contract and can not switch.
My advice to anyone considering switching is not to, unless you truly are only planning on light use in which case I suggest you use their Home Broadband package despite the caps as you will probably find it faster. As for anyone who would normally choose the Evolution Broadband package my advice is just to stay away.
If anybody reading this article has any questions regarding Eclipse, feel free to comment and I’ll try to reply.
Tags: broadband, eclipse internet, eclipse broadband, home broadband, dsl, adsl
Yep – Eclipse have been appalling for me too. They unbundled my line without my permission and for over 2 months refused to be helpful in any way at all. It wasn’t until I found out who they had unbundled me too that they started to listen. Oh and coupled with the fact that I had lodged a complaint with OfCom.
My advice to all users of the net – you really have to shout if you believe you are not getting the service you are paying for otherwise go back to using pen and paper!
It’s about time ISP’s realised where their income is coming from – us the users of the net!
Yeap, I agree too, Eclipse internet are biggest waste of time ever …
I logged a call online 2 weeks ago, still it has not been looked at. I cannot browse web pages in the evening, so I upgrade to evolution option 3 package. Big mistake, I’m getting a wopping 2.5mb off peak, should be around the 7-8mb.
These guys are a bunch of cowboys, its basicly daylight robbery.
[...] Looks like I’m not the only one regretting my decision. [...]
I’m pretty angry with Eclipse right now (you can see why if you follow my trackback link above, but basically they won’t compensate me for my slow connection speed for the past 2 months).
It would be nice to think that a company would offer compensation when it’s service offering doesn’t hit the mark, especially to long-standing customers.
I think a written letter is the only way forward!
TOTALLY AGREE, I SWITCHED FROM AOL, FIRST 2 MONTHS BLISTERINGLY FAST AND REALLY PLEASE, NOW AT PEAK TIMES CAN’T OPEN A WEB PAGE, OFF PEAK DON’T BREAK 0.5MBS, CAN’T WAIT TO CHANGE……
I’m confused re the above responses. I’ve been with eclipse internet for nearly 3 years and have no complaints. P2P speeds are excellent and can’t think of one instance of slow page loading. I pay 29.99 a month for my service and am really happy with it.
tbh ive been with eclipse for over 2 years and i find them fast and reliable , i cant rate them highly enough .
My contract has ended at last. They were appalling for the first few months when usual ’8mb/s’ speed was actually about 1.3mb/s.Picked up after a few months then back to <2. This was slower than my previous, cheaper, connection. They blamed the problem oh hard wiring at home tho this has not changed for years. Beware the 18 month contracts especially.
I’ve just signed up to a 24mb/s 1:1 contention ratio contract which is cheaper…! We’ll see…..
I’ve been with Eclipse for 3years now their speeds are extremely variable, at times they can be fast, at other times very slow, even slower than dialup, when they are slow it can be for weeks on end at all times of day and night. earlier this year I changed my brodband package, previously i had 4mb connection with no problems, now recently they decided line can barely support 2mb!.
Techniocal support is very quick to reply, however the responce is limited to the following instructions:
- Reboot Computer/Router
- Check that the voice line has a dialling tone and is free of interference.
- Swap the ADSL microfilter to make sure this is not faulty.
- Disconnect everything from the telephone line (including extension cables & surge protectors), except for the modem/router and ensure it is connected to the main telephone point;-
Main Telephone Socket -> ADSL Microfilter -> ADSL Modem/Router ->> Check for possible sources of interference from electrical equipment which may be too close to the modem/router or telephone point. This is especially important if the connection is more intermittent at certain times of the day or night.
- To rule out any possible hardware issues can you test an alternative router or modem on your telephone line, or test your ADSL router/modem on a known working ADSL line!!! (like i keep a spare router and have easy access to another adsl enabled line)
+ + + +if you do all of the above and still nothing works, then the technical support no longer exists except to tell you to do all of the above again, and again and again. eventually they might admit there is a problem and check their end and their service provider.
I have on two occasions been prmomised refunds where i have been offline for more than 28days due to their problems and have never seen a penny of them.
I was signed up with Eclipse by a Friend who was “an IT Expert”.
I now use a proper IT Support Company.
I will be changing from Eclipse, just as soon as I can get all my contacts to use my webmail account.
My opinion of Eclipse – !*?*$!& UNPRINTABLE
I plan to sue them under the “Sale of Goods and Services Act”, as supplying a Service NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE.
Totally agree with most of the posts here
Just changed from an old eclipse account to the new evolution package with the promise that it would increase my speeds almost tenfold from my ‘ancient’ existing package but it turns out that the speeds are nearly halved from the snail-paced package I already had. Unbelievable! I am so angry with eclipse right now that I can’t verbalize it!
My advice to anyone on here is to go with virgin media who i’ve just had installed into my flat and i’m now getting a constant rate of between 2 to 5mbps during peak hours and yesterday a whopping 18mbps off peak which frankly i’ve never seen before!
My advice; get rid of Eclipse and get on the Virgin Train!! (Excuse the pun)
i recently joined eclipse for a “bussiness package” its unusable for any service there is with speed never above 56k speed. they constantly blame my phone line yet my phone line has carried a 8mbit connection since i had it installed 2 yrs ago and extensive tests from bt confirm there is no problem on the line. the connection resets and does not connect atleast 15 times a day and will not use any service like ftp or any other not http protocol. its the worst service i have ever seen in my life if you are thinking about getting this service dont save yourself one heck of a pain in the but.
marks out of ten i would give 0/10
I joined eclipse for about 3 years, first couple of years were excellent I was getting 4mbs which is what the maximum was for the particular package. January last year (2007) regraded to new ackage offering 8mbs and 10gb bandwidth, over the next months what was my maxim stable line rate dropped and dropped, at the moment I have about 750k. I had been doing about 1/2 day of p2p each month until mid november. Eclipse now completly blocks P2P (or at least they do for me). like orrin has posted above, I have been promised refund where they took my money by direct debit but i was offline for more than a calendar month due to a problem which eclipse had and they admitted they had. never seen a single penny.
I’m in the process of hopefully moving to another ISP at the moment, I’d advise everyone not to have Eclipse Internet as your ISP
After trawling the net for customer comments with the various ISP’s, I recommended Eclipse to a friend and the service has been fine. I also changed to Eclipse myself and have found their UK based technical support to be truly excellent and have had no problems bar an issue with my Linksys WAG54GS router which Linksys know about and I was able to problem solve easily. They even identified a problem with my line configuration which other ISP’s had always refused to acknowledge. From my experiences so far, I would recommend Eclipse and IMO they are perfectly willing to work with their customers to solve any issues, even at their own expense.
I canceled my account with eclipse 2 months ago. They are unable to explain to me why they continue to send me demands for payment despite the fact that my account is in credit. The only answer I have been given is that the letters are automated and I should ignore them.
When I receive a letter threatening me with legal action to recoup monies I do not owe I find it hard to ignore!! Steer well clear!!
I am having a hell of a lot of difficulty with Eclise in trying to get any email response fom them. I signed up last April in a 12 month Contract which I told them at start of April I wanted to Migrate from. Nearly a week later is was told that I would have to
pay £69.99 to them as I was finishing my contract early.I immedately sent off two rapid emails demanding an explanation and also reminding them that I was only in a 12month contract from beginning of last April. Two emails later I am still waiting for their reply.
I have now cancelled with my bank my Direct Debit with them as I am not going to let them take money out of my account illegally,as I have given them notice and they have taken this months money (£14.99 ) on 6th April even though they should debit on the 19th!
of ea month. I have had enough! What should I do now if they demand more money?
Hi James what did you do when you received demanding letters from Eclipse ? Can anyone please advise with best course of action ?
Thanks,
Phillip
I have never had a problem with Eclipse,yes speeds can be up and down but very rarely drop below 2mb,I find the English support to be excellent,also I have just moved house and my connection was activated on the the same day we moved,find it hard to say anything bad about them,especially after my Tiscali experience,now thats an awful isp,and cant believe they are allowed to be in business,absolute cowboys…
I have been an eclipse customer for some three years and in that time have had a very good service, but in recent weeks the speed to which i have become accustomed has dropped off alarmingly I am hoping this is a temporary situation as I use my Internet for both personal and business purposes. But if something isn’t done soon I will be looking for a new provider.
I have had an Eclipse connection for over six years. Today I am ringing up for my MAC so I can switch. The service has steadily gone down hill over the last 12 months. Recently, I have stuggled to pick up my mail or even surf basic web pages. My MSN won’t connect, although peer 2 peer is being throttled, it does run reasonably out of hours. Last week I had no email connection for over 12 hours, it was VERY inconvenient. Now unless all 5 of my laptops have developed the same fault, or my reliable network equipment has decided it has a preference to which packets it processes, the blame can only lie with Eclipse. So I have had enough, and will vote with my feet, the scores at http://www.thinkbroadband.com are quite telling, Eclipse used to be top of the tree on all categories……Not any More!
Ian
MCSE
i totally agree with the comments posted here stay away from eclipse they are absolutely shocking i have had many different service providers from cable, virgin media, wannadoo and bt and for me in terms of bandwidth service etc eclipse dont even come close to any of the big boys dont be fooled by thier spin they cannot offer you anything like the service they claim to i am currently waiting for a mac code to change to sky for me the best have been cable(only available in certain areas) or virgin (available in the areas where you cant get cable)
also do not pay any attention to people on this forum who say eclipse are ok they probably work for them
ive been with them for over a year on the evolution option 1 and my speeds have always been at least 3.8Meg download, they have always been very good…. no complaints.
Hi – I’ve been using Eclipse for just over 3 years. In that time I have seen connections speeds fluctuate but for the last 18 months my 8mb connection reliably gives me a 5.5mb download speed. I also use Limewire/P2P and am able to download stuff faster than ever with no obvious throttling. And I also host a server with around 10Gb to 15Gb of data traffic per month. I use a static IP address and the connection often stays up for a week at a time.
In 3 years I’ve had a few issues but Eclipse have always dealt with them quickly and professionally. Their Technical support is far superior to most and being UK based is a massive bonus.
Of course there will always be someone out there with some awful bad experience of Eclipse, but that’s true of all companies. As an IT engineer I have broad experience many other ISP’s and I still stay with Eclipse.
And I don’t work for Eclipse!
I don’t work for Eclipse, I’ve been using them for almost three years now. Yes, speeds can vary, but I’ve not had any experiences like those reported on this page. The one time I needed to contact customer services they were very helpful, knowledgable and patient with me over the phone I’ve recommended them in the past, and I hope to be able to continue to do so in the future.
Having moved to Eclipse Level 2 unlimited business broadband on 6th April 2008, they launched new broadband packages on 1sts May 2008 and downgraded the bandwidth available to ALL existing domestic and business broadband packages, leaving us with a 600Kb download speed. This has been confirmed to me in writing by Eclipse technical support.
On complaining at such slow speeds, I was advised “we offer no guarantees of speed and you need to pay another £10 per month for the new unlimited package” – I was already paying £39.99 + VAT per month for a 600Kb download service.
I have today requested my MAC code and “accepted” the £69.99 penalty to terminate my “contract” for a service I never received! My advice – look elsewhere if you are considering Eclipse.
I’ve been quite happy with Eclipse up until recently. I’m a fair distance from the exchange and so was content to accept a download speed less than the 8 Mbps theoretically available on my package. Initially, 2 Mbps was seen (peak) with an average of 1 to 1.5 Mbps. Since I’m a fairly light user, this was adequate. Of late however (last four months or so), my download speed has dropped considerably and now varies between 65 and 650 kbps, with frequently dropped connections. I’m now told that my line is only good for 500 kbps but I doubt this since my line ran comfortably with 2 Mbps initially.
The technical support people at Eclipse have always been polite and responsive. I only recently reported the problem to them and so it is too soon to criticise their effectivness. The initial report indicates no fault on the BT line. My upload speed remains unaffected by the speed variance of the download and for the most part is faster (370 kbps up v 260 kbps down(ave)). Any thoughts on what this indicates about the problem (contention ratio issue?). I’m not locked into any long term agreement and will swap ISP if this speed issue is not resolved in next two weeks. Any recomendations?
Think i’ve been with eclipse for at least 6 years now. Live in a village so could only get 512kb for about 4 years (I know, its absolutely disgraceful since the average connection in the UK is 3.8 meg and living in a village in between 2 towns and 20 miles from London you’d expect the connection to be better).
Although, internet constantly maintained a consistent high average of around 487kb and occasionally crossed the 500 kb mark.
However, the stupid BT people and their van finally installed a 1MB connection down my road 1 year ago in July 2007 which was actually capable of reaching speeds of about 1.3 meg and I was finally looking forward to something a bit better.
1 Meg got installed and for the first 3-4 weeks we had a constant 1.2 megabyte connection which was a lot better than 512kb and very consistent.
Dad buys some server thing though (looks just like a pc), we go on holiday and when I come back, I do a speedtest and internet is 800kb, ever since this server thingy was installed – our internet has been up down up down up down, its been appalling.
500kb one day, 1meg the other day, 700kb the next day, and on average, I’d say our average speed has been around 700kb. Now for 1.2 Meg what we should be getting, 700kb is atrocious and not much of an upgrade from 512kb broadband.
Is it the new server my Dad installed last year or is it eclipse internet, never had any inconsistency on 512kb or for the 3 weeks on 1MB when we had no server.
I’m thinking my Dad has ruined the internet with his crap server thing. Why are we getting 1Meg anyway, we should have at least 2Meg like 95% of the UK. Ridiculous.
for two days now ive had 16kbs line speed but my upload speed is still 50kbs on the evo2 package
Eclipse & BT says theres nothing wrong with my line but having 16kbs download speeds in not right
ive tryed a couple of routers & new filters but im still getting the same problem
Eclipse sucks stay away from them
BAD BAD SERVICE -
I regraded my package after poor service and speeds in December 07. It coincided with our house move, so I signed a new 12 month contract. I went from Evolution 1 (£10) to Evolution 3 (£25), the beauty was that you could change your package as and when required through the evolution options.
Having left it for 6 motnhs on Evolution 3 and not used what I am paying for, I tried to regrade a couple of days ago. Now there are no Evolution Packages.
OK – I call up and ask if I can go on the equivalent package in the new system. No problem, we can do that but we will have to start a new 12 month contract. WTF?!?!?!?
That can’t be right – ‘oh yes sir, we can change the terms and conditions of the contract as we choose, there is a cluase in the terms saying so’.
I offer a middle ground, I move onto the new package (£18 per month) and take the calls package (£6 month) but we leave the same 6 motnhs remaining on the contract. No, No and No Again.
Well, Eclipse, You’ve just lost another customer, I’d never encourage anyone to use you from now on. My girlfriend uses you at her house (which I pay for as its my PC) and we use you at our offices. Only my residential service is in contract the others are month to month.
The upshot – You’ve lost 3 contracts now and anotehr one in 6 months, that have run for 3+ years!!! All because you can’t be reasonable when you change your T&Cs.
Good Thinking Eclipse!!!!
Eclipse – leave now!
Jusr left, and they are stealing another month’s money from me.
T&C’s have changed very frequently since I joined – each time the change made things worse.
Charges for paying by credit card, penalty charges, and preliminary talks with Phorm.
Total bunch of crooks – AVOID.
Must of been with eclipse for 4 years now.
felt good , good speeds.Love the support crew very effective for me.
BUT get your act together you are providing a crap service now.Im busy in the summer but will leave in the winter if it doesnt become consistent.
Excally teh same as R Evans, been with Eclipse for 4 years + now… WAS good speed…
Now the speed is AWEFUL, yes, absolutely aweful, I can’t even watch a SINGLE youtube clip, yet along to online gaming…
Same as everyone else. My first year’s Standard service (£15 p/m) was workably usable and ‘unlimited’ during the day – but since June 08 it’s been throttled down to 30kp/s for filesharing, making simultaneous internet surfing completely impossible and unusable. This isn’t the service I originally signed up for. Eclipse have been indiscriminately breaking their terms and conditions to make all their customers buy higher priced packages to ‘upgrade’ to the same service they used to have. The Broadband industry stinks at the moment because the copyright industries and isp’s are not embracing the file sharing revolution and instead of encouraging and facilitating the growth and speed of the new technologies within the internet, they’re cooperatively stifling them. Most of the country has moved on from 56k modems but Eclipse wants you to return to those speeds. Don’t let them: vote with your feet
ive been with eclipse since 2003 june and it has been all good till about last year 2007 where the usage policy was working against me. im STILL on the evolution 1 product and and they allow me 20GB of monthly usage before he cut me down to 256k till it resets at the end of the month.
the usage policy applied only from 6pm to 12am and then thier new policy which came in place between 9am and 11pm WHICH IS A HUGE problem as that 14hours of slow ’256k’ (30kb/sec) max which i can only get and i am dissapointed with it and would also ADVISE NOT TO EVER EVER go to eclipse internet.
I’ve been with Eclipse for about 4 years with very few issues. And I DO NOT work for them. I have an 8Mb/sec service and regularly see 650 to 700 Kbyte/sec download. I guess I’m one of the lucky ones. Maybe it’s regional, I live in north Surrey. I hope those having problems manage to solve them.
I have been with eclipse internet since ADSL first came out. Not had experience with any other provider as Eclipse were great. I signed up to the Evolution 3 package for £29.99 as month. Speeds were ok ( form my line ). I was only used to modem dial-up so this was great. The package was one of their UNLIMITED packages with no caps. Then things got worse. P2P died a slow death. They told me it wasn’t them. Then it came out in the papers and other boards what ISP’s were upto. Back to today’s experiences and I have an unlimited package with a “Fair Usage Policy” attached. That wasn’t there when I signed up! They applied it last week and said it will last until the end of the month (25kbs). I asked for my MAC code on the 2nd of this month as I’m sick and tired of the lies and deceit. Got an email this morning stating that I couldn’t have my MAC code as work was being carried out on my line and their supplier is unable to respond to requests. I called them today and asked for my MAC code again. Got the same response. I said if they didn’t give me my MAC code within 5 working days they would be breaking UK LAW and I will have no alternative but to take legal advice. I was told I would have my MAC code tomorrow. That’s strange, work must have finished on my line! All I can say is PLEASE AVOID this ISP. They play you with every trick in the book. Most people have no idea about this technology and get screwed left right and centre. Their BS is some of the best
I’m a qualified developer and administrator and I know what is possible and what isn’t. They were transparent to me. I really could see right through them. I didn’t get conned quite as much as most. I had to prove some things before I could face them with the truth. I really feel sorry for the customers of outfits like these. Its immoral! Why does the government let them get away with this?
On a brighter note, to help all those reading this I had a look at the new face plate BT are bringing out. The only thing it has in it is a coil. This is used to take noise off the bell wire. Apparently, its the bell wire noise from radio, tv, transformers etc that cripples your ADSL. My phone doesn’t need the bell wire to ring so I just un-clipped it from the extension I have and it gave me an extra 1.5M (approx).
My router originally showed 2600kbs and now shows 4060kbs and is stable. Mind you I don’t get anywhere near that from Eclipse. They still insist its the distance from the exchange. I’ve told them my router readings and they go all quiet.
If you only use your telephone line for broadband, disconnect the bell wire. If you use it for calls either test without the bell wire or get a face plate off BT. Cost about £10.
If Eclipse Internet was the only provider in the UK I would move abroad. Probably to Sweden where they have Gigabyte connections.
One can dream!
Sorry for the rant but this utter rip-off / scam really does get to me!
I hate Eclipe ! I had the misfortune to be stuck with them for a while and it was a dreadfull experience. All the above stuff when I asked for my MAC code — it took ages — all the nonsence about the distance from my nearest exchange –every bit of BS that you could think of, and as for the help line- well there must be a fortune in revenue there as you are kept hanging on in eternity. ( if you are lucky-or rather unlucky- enough to get an answer ) I am however lucky enough to have moved on and my heart rate now only increases slightly when I read there or see the name. My advise is STAY WELL AWAY FROM THESE COWBOYS
I’ve been with Eclipse for as long as I can remember (7 years I think – pretty much when they started) and it was the good old days of getting straight through to an engineer, being treated like a techie and not a newbie and discovering faults with BT… fast forward to today and what a difference. I concur with many of the other reviews here that in the last 18 months or so there has been definite performance degredation on the line, but as I couldn’t prove it, what else was there to do. I recently moved and when I called them up there was confusion about what could be done. A major annoyance was that I would have to sign up to a new contract on a package that offered a fraction of the line quality (I was on the Evolution Package). First it was cancel (oh that will be £45 charge), then it was ‘move’ (that will be £40 charge), then it was ‘wait while I talk with a manager’ – charge gone. First bill arrives and I call to query an entry. Matter resolved, but I discover that the rate I was quoted for the new line was in fact an ‘introductory’ rate and in three months the price goes up another 3 pounds – so I’m paying more for a worse package! Despite my protests it is ‘my word against theirs’ and unless I can verify by talking to the original customer service agent, I’m contractually tied! OK – Let me speak to them… oh can’t – they are off sick. I know the price quoted at the time as I still have the sheet with my doodles showing the different price comparisons with BT, BE, TalkTalk, etc
Enough from me, the review is simple – not the company they used to be – AVOID AT ALL COSTS!
I’ve had the misfortune of dealing with Eclipse proffesionally for over three years and at no point has there service ever been anything but awful. Their servers are down so often it’s a joke, they often dont respond to outages at all, they rely entirely on their customers to report problems, don’t fix serious problems sometimes for months. It took me months to persuade our company to switch ISP and things have been blissful since, unfortunately we still have to deal with the odd client on Eclipse and I dread having to do any work with them at all! This is easily the worst ISP I’ve ever had to deal with in 14 years of working on the web.
Migrated to Eclipse on Evolution 1 package in March 2007 from Tiscali. I would say that 90% of my access is for gaming and bearing in mind that my local BT exchange only has ever offered 2Meg maximum – I have to say that connections and speeds for PS3 has been faultless. Sadly, uncapped Evolution 1 contracts are no longer offered due to high unlimited use I`m guessing, but if it were, I would recommend it to anyone 100%.
Remember, any package is advertised as `upto` 8 meg accetra..and is not saying that is what you will get. Check with your service provider.
Heres a tip…Always try to call Eclipse customer service in the morning, assuming you have to call them, as they always seem to pick up the phone at that time of day.
i have been with eclipse internet, since the line was connected in my flat, and to be honest, i have had some problems, but i log the issue with them, they fix it within a day or two, they have always been helpful on the phone, and they know what they are talking about, i live in the middle of the countryside, 5 – 6 km from the exchange, and i can pick up 4.5 – 5 Mbps, can download in excess of 500 KBps, and my upstream is in excess of 800 Kbps, my traffic is not capped,
it seems that alot of people have had problems with them, it seems that im one of the lucky ones that hasnt had any problems. i find that as the call centre is in exeter, rather than in india, you also can have a good chat with the people during a call if you have any problems, and this i feel helps give good customer service, my parents were with BT then moved to sky, and the ammount of problems with them, god they are 100% a broadband provider to avoid,
all in all, the problems i have had at eclipse have been sorted quickly, though i dont like that i have had my phone line LLU’ed to a tiscali network!
i have just left eclipse to day for another isp i did this because they said i had hit my unlimited limit ? i was not told that the hours of off peak had changed ie 23:00-09:00 from 18:00-00:00 in all the time i had been with them the service had been slow i had been for the last 5 days been getting 87kbs restriction even though i have not been anywere near the 20g limit on my unlimited evo 1 package, after a couple of calls to customer services to get this lifted no joy were not intrested i was told they are trying to get all there customers on evo packages off them and on to full restrictve packages with new 12 month contracts STAY AWAY FROM THIS ISP YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED .
I was a customer with eclipse for many years. Of late the download speeds got worse and worse and thgen I was told to reduce my downloads (which were never excessive). I went on holiday and when I returned I found an email telling me I was now restricted because I had continued to download! The house was empty.
I straight away looked elsewhere and found O2 who were offering the same package for half the price. I have now been with them for a month & their download speeds are twice those I achied from eclipse.
They were good, years ago, but not now. They live in the past & their fees appear to have increased!
Look elsewhere for a cheaper faster service. I dont know what has happened at eclipse but its not good!
I used to work for Eclipse.
My advice… AVOID AVOID AVOID.
The truth of the matter is really very simple, Eclipse were a fantastic company right up until the point they were taken over by Kingston Communications.
Once this happened they systematically made life unbearable for the long term staff, forcing them to leave one way of the other. The ethos of the customer being first was thrown out the window. Money became the sole priority. No longer was it a small company with a happy staff looking to do a good job. Now it is simply a one of many profit devices used to feed the crappy company KC.
The company is bloody awful. Treats staff like dirt, customers are an even lower priority.
Seriously take your money elsewhere.
Thanks for the comments. I have been pissed off by my current ISP and I am looking. This site has prooven that eclipse isn’t worth going with. So…. well done these comments have saved me from going with Eclipse…. yeah internet!
Have been with eclipse for many years now. The fair usage policy was fine as it originaly stood, but now they have modified it, its beyond a joke.
“18:00 and 00:00 every day. From 01 Aug 2008 this will change to 09:00 to 23:00 every day.”
14 hours of peak time, from the original 6 hours ….
Sick of restricted bandwidth so now im moving ISP’s
Thanks for the advice from everyone.
I have been with eclipse for two years, and received a totally unacceptable service for a fair proportion of the time. In October I finished with them, and found out they were still billing my account even though I had notified my bank HSBC. They gave me a credit for the amount they had allowed eclipse to overcharge, they are still billing me, and threatens to use solicitors, good luck to a very poor sevice.
I have been a customer from Eclipse for over four years now, it started off without any problems other than the odd cut off due to server problems.
Compared to other ISP’s they are a bit expensive but I don’t mind paying a bit more for a better service.
The problems started when I chanced telephone provider and they cut my internet access off for two weeks until I could convince them they had made a mistake, in the mean time still charging me for the connection I did not have, and forced me to use another package of them as the one I had they stopped selling.
When I got the new package they charged me for that and the old one as well, many many phone calls later having received empty promises it finally got sorted, but unfortunately that is not the end of it.
Then my connection started to cut off several times a day and the speed went down from 7+Mb (8Mb connection) to 500Kb and contacted them about it.
Funny enough they had a new package for me to sign up for and it would be guaranteed the speed it says on the tin, I would have expected that from any connection I have as I pay for the speed and download limit of the package.
Now I ended up with 24Mb connection and get no speeds like that at all but I still pay for the privilege, at the most I get 1.5mb on the hours I normally got 7+Mb on my old package.
The dropping of the connection is still happening as my PC is connected to the internet 24 hours a day and I have a suspicion that Eclipse is dropping the connection themselves to reduce use of their service so they can sell more internet access without having to invest in more bandwidth.
Unfortunately it is a practice not unknown to ISP’s including turning your speed down.
As people pay for the service and not getting what they pay for it is a con and the government should regulate and persecute companies for not providing the service customers pay for.
Now I am looking for another ISP as I have my belly full of Eclipse, bad after sales service, bad internet access and a big con, which sums it up for Eclipse ISP.
My advice, sins we know we are getting conned by most ISP’s you might as well pay a lot less for the privilege and go with one of the cheap mainstream ISP’s but stay away from Eclipse.
PS
My connection dropped while writing this up, I wish I known about all your write-ups earlier it would have saved me some hassle but they opened my eyes even more so.
Hi everyone
Although we do our best to avoid it, sometimes things can go wrong with our services. I have read all of your posts and would like you to help resolve any issues you may be experiencing with our services.
Please email eclipsehelp@eclipse.net.uk with your issue including any ticket references and I will do everything I can to help to get the issue fixed, including dealing with a personal contacts internally who will help in dealing with this.
We value all our customers and will investigate your specific issues.
Many thanks,
Katie Thomas
P2P is for freeloaders.
Eclipse internet is the best provider I have ever used, bar none. Quit yer whining, get a job.
I agree with ’45′
They have recently changed my monthly payment which I am disputing, but I may as well talk to the wall.
Eclipse is rubbish, Ive been with them for about 3 years two accounts. Slow downloads, which they said where my equipment or line, which they werent, after loads of mucking about new router new pc, I found it was them as the above posts show. Suddenly puts bills up by £1 to £20 if you dont go paperless. Tech support is rubbish, customer service even worse. Charge cancellation fee for leaving (as well as a month) which is in the fine print. When you contact them you seem to get no where, not helpfull at all. Even for the current £80 referrer bonus I wouldnt recommend them to anyone, unless I really disliked them. Avoid at all costs
I recently closed my account with Eclipse and due to their wierd billing policy they owed me money after final billing.
I contacted Eclipse when I found that they had not made a refund to me after 6 weeks and asked them why I had to remind them to refund my money. Their reply was:
“Apologies that it was not made clear when cancelling that any credit on your account must be requested by yourself before it can be dispatched”.
It wasn’t a big sum but I haven’t been with a utility company that wouldn’t refund the money they owe you unless you ask for it. I think this is totally unfair to sit on people’s money when they are not your customers. I’m wondering if I should report this to OFTEL!
If there are more like these in the market, please let us all know.
I’m seriously pleased i stumbled on this place, I did think about returning to them. I left originally because of similar probs, I got a “3″ broadband dongle when i left eclipse and now my contract is up I am looking around for wire broadband. Maybe I’ll keep the dongle mefinks.
Eclipse is alright speed wise, but as soon as you have a problem they will never fix it for you they will just keep on blaming it on other things.However sometimes there speed does drop really low but I usually get around 4mb speed which I think is okay.
I have had nothing less than a top notch service from Eclipse, being in the north of scotland hampers my choice greatly and after getting burned with freeserve/orange/wanadoo (or whatever their current name is) I found the service great. I am not normally moved to comment on forums but when typing eclipse internet into google and seeing the heading “warning about Eclipse” I felt I had to balance the opinion.
Dear all,
I was with Eclipse in 2007 and was with them for about 6 months until i had decided paying the early cancellation fee was in my best interest to get rid of the shocking service. I work in a company were i am on the phones all day and would not dream of talking to people in the manner i was spoken to. Back in 2007 after i had paid my cancelation fee they assured me the service was now void and all payments up to date (as they always had been).
June 2009 i had a letter come through the post from a collection agency saying i owed £206.18p!! I contacted Eclipse and also the company C.A.R.S who were chasing me. I have never had any correspondance to say my direct debits had bounced even in all the times i had phoned up due to my service being down/faults. Nothing on my credit report to mention anything outstanding and since 2007 i have changed banks, so they were unwilling to help me to confirm payments. I had payed the cancelation fee at the post office and yet again they have not received payment. They have done nothing to help and seem to pass the buck to the collection agency and other departments and i get no were. I had contacted eclipse today to request all invoices to be sent (which they tryed charging me for.. £2.00 each) that supposedly told me i had missed payments but i am wondering weather these will be made up. i look forward to receiveing these invoices and have been assured i would have a case. Suppose this probably isnt of real use to you but its another situation if anyone can relate to it. My advice would to STAY CLEAR!
Hmmm, What do I have to say… Typing Eclipse Internet, and the 4th link is here… I’m surprised it’s not 2nd or 3rd to be honest…
Same as everyone, it started off very good 4 years ago, but gradually the service has gone down hill… I’m currently at university, paying 50% cheaper, and my speed is 6 times faster than Eclipse… and download speed is unlimited…
The speed is awful, though the random disconnection drives you nuts! So unreliable, Eclipse is expensive, unreliable, its just simply awful…
I too seem to have had a problem with Eclipse although I didn’t realise it at the time. My download speeds were around 200Kb per second at best and would drop during “peak” times to less than 100Kb per second, sometimes only slightly better than dial up. When I asked Eclipse about this I was told it was to be expected due to “traffic” at peak times. I took this as the norm. After my contract period was up I switched to an all inclusive, broadband, telephone etc package and what a difference! I now download at over 400Kb per second and it only drops slightly to around 350Kb per second during peak times. It does seem that all the troubles Eclipse are handing out are not isolated by any means. I wonder if the satisfied customers are the ones that are paying through the nose for their connection? Just a thought.
Eclipse just sucks ass…
Type in Eclipse Internet in google, and the 3rd link takes you to here, truly epic!
Eclipse… slow, unreliable, slow, expensive, bad customer service, to much to list…
I’m paying Eclipse 15 pounds a month, for only 200kb download speed if your LUCKY. and also have a download limit.
I’m with 02 now… 10 pounds a month, download speed is 1400kb. UNLIMITED download, fast, always reliable… hmmm, ECLIPSE = SUCKS.
Oh I wish I had seen this page before I signed up with them in 2007. To begin with they were great, really helpful people on the other end of the phone. However after a while the download speed began to drop while still giving me a decent connection speed on the router. After complaints, a temporary increase and then reduced to a speed where you can just about use iplayer. I then volunteer to test out their new 24mb connection thinking I might get some increased speed out of them but now, still slow despite the router having a great connection speed.
When they announced they were going to increase the price of the disconnection fee in late 2007, I complained and reluctantly paid it in advance at the previous rate to avoid the increase. Now as I attempt to disconnect, they are trying to charge me a further disconnection fee. Needless to say I am less than impressed!
I really wish I had changed suppliers earlier, but it always seemed like such a hassle for something that even if it wasn’t up to spec, effectively did the job if just very slowly. Now I wish I hadn’t been so gullible.
Its a shame that this web site appears so high in the rankings. I would like to say how happy I am with the service I recieve from eclipse.
I would be telling porkies if I said I had never encountered a problem with them, but I have always been able to call a person who I can understand, and log my concern, which is always fixed in a timely manner.
It seems to me, that the main cause of complaint with Eclipse is their old Evolution product range. The vast majority of complaints stem around this product, and the majority of the complaints boil down to “Grr I cant steal music and Porn fast enough because eclipse throttle P2P” But hey, thats just my 2 pennies. I am sorry to hear about the more legitemate problems that people have experienced. And for the record, the speeds on their new products are fantastic.
To anyone reading this who is thinking of moving to Eclipse, I will just say that although they may cost a few more pennies each month, the trade off between having an ISP who is based in this country and speaks the same language as you, is better for me in the long run when compared to a conglomorate ISP, based out of bangalore.
3 Years and counting, still very impressed
Been with eclipse for a couple of years. Started out great, but last week the 4M download suddenly switched to 0.5M. An initial call to the helpdesk elicited a loan router from them to check connection speed. SO far so good, but actually this guy was on business support so did not know what was happeneing to the evolution package. Since then I talked to a techie who tried to tell me that the download speed is a normal function of the evolution package, in that heavier usage is restricted and I should move to a newer package which is supposed to give me faster dl but more restricted dl amount. Basically, they are restricting the old evolution package to force users onto a newer package which is inferior. It is now impossible to call the tech helpline as there are waits of over 40minutes and even promised call backs are not made. It seems as though their sudden throttling back of dl speed has got everyone calling the tech line and jamming it. There is no tech help from eclipse residential at the mo.
A while ago they heavily shrank the hours of unlimited downloads and I could live with that, but now the service has degraded too far and tech support no longer exists. I’m now looking round to see what other providers offer.
Eclipse you ballsed up, you should have left evolution alone for those who were already on it and just put new subscribers onto the new packages. Now, you’ve forced us to check out the opposition.
Hi
Yes I am affected too – my speed is now 0.2MBs as of about a week ago.
Are others experiencing this too – I too was told there was a 40 minute wait on the support line so gave up so logged a support call via the website which is unanswered after 2 days so have logged another high priority one.
Their website wont allow me to view my bills to see what package i am – says I am not authorised to do so !
I am on the unlimited package at 14.99 i think – have been with them for 3-4 yeard and until the last week or so have been pretty satisfied.
Is this a blip or an indication on how it will now be…?
David
David, interesting to hear that you experienced a drop the same time as I did. My dl speed is now 0.1M! Will it eventually grind to a halt?
Also interesting that you can’t get through to tech support. The last time I got through the tech let slip that ALL users of evolution were experiencing the same speed (then 0.5M), which means that it is Eclipse policy and not ‘our equipment/setup/BT etc.’ He also claimed that the speed does get better and claimed that one particular morning at 07:30 it was much faster, however I have been on at 03:30 (!) and it’s been 0.1M. No contact possible since then.
It all used to be so good, with the only blip being a drop in January that sorted itself out. I can’t bring myself to transfer to one of their other packages in the hope of better speeds as they claim, if they won’t even answer the phone. Well, my only consolation is that their switch board must be jammed with irate customers: serves them right!
First noticed problem late night 1st August about 11.30pm – watching bbc iplayer which pretty well just stopped. Monday 3rd when helpdesk opened got through Ok, but they denied any problem…
Very interested to see other people affected at same time so will be keeping an eye on this, so will start checking speeds regularly. In June did some downloads (legitimate) from Sky and speeds were atrocious – guess that was the P2P problem perhaps?
I was getting poor speeds on Evo last week but my speeds have since recovered to normal levels. The tech support guy I spoke to said there had been some sort of issue with BT who were incorrectly capping the Eclipse bandwidth but it should be fixed now.
Apart from the issue last week my connection seems to of been generally pretty good lately.
I migrated from the old Evolution product about 12 months ago and I have found the speeds on the new package to be very good. I generally get line speed or near line speed so I’m very happy with the service.
Typical speeds using several testers after a few days testing is between 5-20% of what I got when I signed up with Eclipse years ago. Always less than 1mb, even testing at Eclipse’s ”non-peak’ times.
Why should Eclipse expect me to migrate with them if they think it’s OK to treat existing customers like this, who have never abused their policies with excessive downloads?
It was bad enough when then they reclassified my typically off-peak usage into a peak time last year, but this makes me think they are actually trying to dump customers who just expect the deal they signed up for.
Hi
Further to recent email I have had contact with eclipse and now understand what is going on.
I had exceeded 20GB for the month period which means I had my speed vastly reduced.
When I enquired as to if there are tools for monitoring usage they told me to go to one of the new products which seem far inferior….
Ill give it another month and if I am regularly going over 20 GB will have to look for another product. What do people recommend for higher usage – 20GB sounds a lot but with 3 internet savy children plus myself it maybe that 20 isnt going to be enough….
David
David
I’m on an old Evo package and there’s a limited facility to monitor usage – green ‘traffic light’ turns to orange mid-month if rate of consumption too high. But only way to get usage is to phone them – not sure if they can include ‘off-peak’ Gb though.
Explanation on site control panel. Turned orange for me once when downloaded a lot just at beginning of a month then changed back to green.
Guess where to move depends partly on where you stay /how important speed is / volume & type of downloads / user opinions & surveys. We can only get BT-based line so choice is restricted. Size of download e.g. gaming and online videos are high usage so you might want to check out your childrens’ future needs too!
I changed 2 years ago to Eclipse after a very poor experience with Talk Talk. The latter could not connect me to broadband for 3 months and ended up taking over my phone contract, despite this never having been agreed. I talked to people in South Africa and India who were pleasant but could not fix the problem. Eclipse are a breath of fresh air, I now have broadband and pay about £10 a month, whenever there is an issue someone in the UK is able to give me a straight answer. Better the devil you know
I have been signed on to a package that is supposed to give me 6mb/s . I usually struggle to achieve 2mb/s very occasionally i get full speed. Raising an online ticket with them is a waste of time as all they ever try to do is blame my router. when this contract runs out i`m ditching them fast as i can
Most of the negative comments on here sum up my experience with Eclipse. They were once a good company with low prices, unlimited downloads, no fair use policy, good tech support and everything.
Now they have none of that. I am on Evolution 1, and I barely hit over 1mbps speeds most days – 2 at the most, yet I have to pay for up to 8.
They throttle me a lot since I use 20-25 or more a month which is why I went for the Unlimited package in the first place. The Evolution packages meant you got limited speeds at peak times, rather than the home packages which has limited downloads and top speeds instead. Since my line can only support 2.5mbps max, the Evolution service was perfect.
There is no point even switching to their new business packages as all they offer is more line speed: useless to me.
I would like to switch to someone else asap, but sadly many suppliers won’t give me the good deals at the advertised prices as my exchange isn’t unbundled. If anyone knows of a good deal, please tell us all about it.
I second all the bad comments about them. My browser times out often I cannot use the Internet at all. The speeds are dead slow irrespective of monthly usage. Leave them if you can. I am stuck for another 6 month.
I’m still on an old “Home” package which was advertised as prioritising speed, with a monthly usage limit which is (in today’s terms) pretty restrictive – though I rarely exceed it.
I typically get a 7.2M connection at all times of day and night so have to say I’m more than happy with the service.
Looking at other comments, I guess if you’re a heavy user, e.g. do a lot of P2P, you might be better elsewhere, but for general surfing Eclipse has always been great for me.
been with eclipse 3 years had no problems that a phone call (national rate) to them did not resolve, home internet speed ok and as a plus no call centre abroad
JOY! I migrated to BT on the 24/11/2009.
Today, 08/03/2010, after exchanging a few emails I finally received the money they owed me!I can now forget all about them!
To anyone else having problems leaving them, keep going, they will eventually sort you out!!
I’m sorry to hear about your difficulties. I’d like to offer assistance to anyone who’s been having any sort of issue with our services. Please feel free to drop me an email on community@eclipse.net.uk.
Regards,
John
Eclipse Internet
This is a difficult situation and I can see that broadband providers are starting to clean up their act, People are using compare broadband comparison sites to really weed out the cowboys
Too late, mate!
Sounds like your the victim of their fair usage policy, they dont like people who continually download all the time.
There’s definately not allot of ISP’s that do!
I am not sure if it would be the fact that maybe they havent taken you off that, which is why I would suspect your always getting the slow speed.
Thats why its best to go for an ISP who dont have a fair usage policy, Be there internet are a much better option.
They install their own DNS servers in the local exchange, if they cant house one, they dont bother providing the service in that area what so ever, bit of a bummer sometimes but thats life.
Thats how they can get away from that fair usage policy (its just a con way out for them providing slower connections to busy users on their network thats all, what if you where downloading updates because of a huge computer update? I have that problem with Virgin at the moment and thinking of switching to Be Internet).
Hope you get this sorted out,
Jezza.