Hi spranglebolt (great name - where did you get it?),
To be fair, the speed people get varies from house to house and area to area, and it's the provider stating that the maximum speed is 'up to xMbps' - we'd be in all sorts of trouble for misleading customers by advertising it as 'xMbps in your area'!
However, yours is an excellent reminder for people to use our broadband speed tester to make sure you're getting the speed you pay for - currently you can see that O2 Broadband still has the moneysupermarket.com crown for 'Fastest Actual Speed'.
It's also a good idea to read (and contribute to) our broadband reviews to check up front what other customers are saying about a provider. As Ofgem reported in July of this year, faster products can often be poor value for money. People need to check how their providers fare when choosing a broadband package.
As always, it's very important before you choose a provider to make sure you will be getting the right product for your requirements and to see how that product compares in terms of cost, service and reliability.
I'll certainly suggest a survey to our broadband team, spranglebolt - an excellent idea.
It would be good to get some discussion going around the speeds people are getting in various areas. Are you getting the speed that you're paying for?