Why I dumped Talk Talk for BT
When I moved to Talk Talk they really were good. The line went over on the day promised and, although we had to wait 3 months the broadband connection went live on the day they said, all I had to do was change the username and password in my router and I was back online. Shame I'd had to wait a month for Tiscali to release the line but that was nothing to do with Talk Talk!
For three months everything was fine. Then we were upgraded to LLU and after a couple of 4-5 hour outages it all seemed to settle down.
Then on December 13th there was absolutely nothing! When I checked with Talk Talk I got the usual "Don't support your router" or "Have you tried putting in the default settings". What part of IT'S NOT THE BLOODY ROUTER, THE LINE IS NOT THERE" don't they understand? Default settings are a waste of time unless you have a line to send them up!
So 3rd January finally persuade them to send an engineer into the exchange. Oh surprise surprise, there a line fault and on the 4th January we were back online again. Still, I had decided by then I was fed up with Talk Talk and sent them letter (recorded delivery no less) stating that I believed they have broken their contract with me and that I wish to terminate at the end of January. I also logged a complaint with OFCOM.
I rang up BT, explained the situation and asked to be returned to a BT line. "Yes sir, no problem at all." My line went back to BT 4 days ago and I’ll broadband back with free Home Hub and IP phone next Tuesday. So far I have heard nothing from Talk Talk.
Yes I am paying over the top (well more than Talk Talk), however the main thing is that whenever I have rung BT with a problem, I get through to an English speaking helpdesk. I get a good clear reply to my questions (some highly technical). TalkTalk must learn from this. The lines, hardware and network are easy, but CUSTOMER SERVICE is the most important thing and they currently don’t have a clue about that!
By: AntEater
Comments from visitors
Good luck with that cancellation fee is all I can say. 1) the only reason you'd join talk talk is for the phoneline 2) Broadband is the only reason you'd go to Virgin 3) TV is the only reason why you'd join sky.
BT you would join for the "customer service" which is just as bad (if not worse on occasion). If you like wasting your money, bet on Blackburn winning the premier league and sign up to BT. By the way this is advice from someone who works at BT ...isn't that funny?
BT you would join for the "customer service" which is just as bad (if not worse on occasion). If you like wasting your money, bet on Blackburn winning the premier league and sign up to BT. By the way this is advice from someone who works at BT ...isn't that funny?
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just read the comments from jolly jack and could not agree more
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Klaus London - 19-Apr-11 19:39
another complaint
I too had problems with talktalk customer service which left me totally frustrated, a simple question regarding billing turned into a major problem. It seems that the staff did on purpose misinterpreted the question and constantly answered unrelated or misleading. constantly beeing refered from one to another all to avoid the question. Totally unproffesional , polite nonetheless but without any clue what they are talking about, I rather put pins in my eye before I recommend talktalk to anyone.
I too had problems with talktalk customer service which left me totally frustrated, a simple question regarding billing turned into a major problem. It seems that the staff did on purpose misinterpreted the question and constantly answered unrelated or misleading. constantly beeing refered from one to another all to avoid the question. Totally unproffesional , polite nonetheless but without any clue what they are talking about, I rather put pins in my eye before I recommend talktalk to anyone.
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Klaus London - 19-Apr-11 19:37
I was under the impression that I am "trapped" on TalkTalk as I have been told that I need to purchase a new BT line to switch. Did you have to pay to go back from an LLU TalkTalk line to a BT line?
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I just moved from Tiscali 9 talk talk now) to BT, Biggest mistake I ever made, I absolutley hate it, AND first time I rung for advice, straight through to India and I caNnot understand half the owrds,I was lied to, and it has most definatley slowed my connection, No doubt although using a BT line Tiscali was faster, crap support but for speed ? MUCH better, my advice , stay where you are where ever you are and NEVER go to BT
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....1 more thing, as an employee of a number of ISP's I can tellyou when an ISP calls BT in regards to a fault 75% ofthe time, we are also directed to an offshore call centre,BT like to give the ISP's a bad deal to make themselves look better, 80% of the issues you experience are exchange related (I.E run by BT). I agree a number of ISP's are crap, but speak to allof them and they will tell you the issues seen daily with BT and Bt causes the biggest headaches for most isp's...Its also worth noting that if you pay less than £10 a month for broadband, you cannot expect anything more than a budget service in what other business do customers want to pay peanuts yet expect the best?...Do you buy a 15 year old mini and expect the speeds of a ferrari?....Customers expectations of BB in the UK are laughable. BT's lines were traditionally built on copper, copper was never intended for BB.
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You know Talk talk (or any provider) cannot set you up on a new line until after BT agree it, the isp part can be done literally overnight, but then they have to wait for BT to get an enginer in. You also know when you had an exchange faults the engineer who goes to fix it is a BT one, and once again the ISP have to wait for BT to have a free engineer to go in and fix it. Bt hold the reigns regardless of who you have the BB with, and as an employee of a number of ISP's I can assure you BT are responsible for the majority of faults and fixes
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I hate
talk talk
BT
virgin
British Gas
santander
nationwide BS
talk talk
BT
virgin
British Gas
santander
nationwide BS
+9
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Tell you why they don't e mail your mac.Its because talk talk are lying cheating thieving scum who believe they have a right to your money.They needs to be a law regarding direct debits.Customers should be able to use standing orders instead.Contracts should be outlawed as well.These C**** think they can take money from peoples accounts wrongly and then hide behind call centres who just cut you off mid conversation.How many people get sick of trying and give up.How much profit does Talk talk make out of that!!!Talk talk needs to be shut down by OFTEL.NOW.
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It is not so simple. I am seriously considering changing BT for Talk Talk. Two days that we do not have a telephone line, we cannot talk to anyone, we wait on the mobile phone for 12 minutes just to be disconnected at the end and we pay quite a bit on our mobile phones for this. They left us a message on my spouse's mobile to check on our side, which we did, but they didn't seem to have checked on their side. And we cannot pass the message back that all is fine on our side. They have been working on the telephone lines in the telephone box in front of our house the day when the line has gone off. Five years ago it was our fault and because they called at our home they charged us £60 or £70. What should we charge them now and how? Frankly, I don't think they care. Why should we stay with BT? I understand the comments of others but it is not that simple. It is not like BT is perfect.
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not able to get my mac code from talktalk after several phone calls they promise to email it to me after each phone call but never have any suggestions
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Ive spent numerous hours to no avail speaking to the Talk Talk customer service representives in the overseas call centres, customer service is non existence and their answer to problems, is to transfer the call to another person or cut you off which lve experienced on numerous occassions and still the problem hasnt been resolved.
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Interesting. Be useful to have a date on Gripes so we know the period of problems experienced. Companies do change (get worse or better over periods). This gripe has put me off changing from BT, a thought which was prompted by BT's recent announcement of ludicrous 10 per cent price rises on phone calls from 1/10/10. I have an unlimited anytime plan anyway with BT -but costs of some calls could increase, and subtle things like using 1471 is going up by over 4p a go which is outrageous. I also do not like the idea of fiddling about getting a new router, setting up two PC's in the house, waiting for a handover that could go wrong, and if it does go wrong, having to pay BT to go back to them! The original outlay in setting up with BT three years ago and buying my existing router is a cost to be factored in. Roughly I now pay BT £237.00 annually for broadband connection plus another ISP for my Outlook email at £25.00 a month, and can expect to pay an average £80 a year on top for calls not within my unlimited anytime package. With Talk Talk I would be paying £179.88 annually for the same type of package, plus the ISP I pay already mentioned but not such a hike in extra call charges (yet!) -so maybe £60.00 a year on top. It doesn't seem worth the hassle to me to change for a possible saving of £78 a year.
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Rosie Brocklehurst - 5-Aug-10 09:43
I agree with you 100%. Seriously considering moving myself to BT.
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Funny how you got through to an English speaking helpdesk with BT. I have been with them for a year, and must have called BT complaints over 100 times in that period. The closest I got to an English speaking helpdesk was Irish. Te rest were Asian, more than likely India. Your beloved BT (British telecom) should drop the British as they ceased to be a British company years ago.
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Left TalkTalk in February '09. March '10 I get a letter demanding 50.00 - phone and am told after 15mins listening to revolting rendition of "Together as one", they are looking over my account, ignore letter. End of April, repeat performance. Beginning of June, Final Demand. Phone them, on hold for 11mins. speak to someone who puts me thru to a manager who says my account is a pig's breakfast, but he will sort it out, ignore Final Demand. 6th June called by Commercial Credit Services, pay the 70pounds now or else. Tell woman whole sorry saga. She says "Yes, but when are you going to pay?" Call talktalk, tell them the problem, they say call credit co back and say it is all in hand. Do so and am told credit co need an email from talktalk.
Call talktalk. Music for 12mins, speak to someone with a modicum of sense who explains things properly but has to put me through to collections to arrange payments. At last am getting somewhere. Lady I speak to says sorry but my account has gone to credit agency . . . and we're cut off
Call talktalk. Music for 12mins, speak to someone with a modicum of sense who explains things properly but has to put me through to collections to arrange payments. At last am getting somewhere. Lady I speak to says sorry but my account has gone to credit agency . . . and we're cut off
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I too dumped Talk talk after losing broadband connection speed and failing to rectify problems, they blamed everything on the phone line or my PC (both of which were fine) instead of their inefficency. It all seemed to happena about the take over time of Tiscali. My PC engineer said they have too many customers and are having big problems sharing the lines. It took from November 2009 to April 2010 to get my refund back for lack of service including countless emails and nearly £32.00 of phone calls before things were sorted. No wonder they boast a cheap service because they make their money from customers having to ring them for help. I am now with BT,it's a been a real pleasure to have some good service and if there is need to contact them it's efficient, a free call and a pleasure to speak to someone with good english. Don't fall for the so called cheapest deals it's false economy.
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Well this went from being helpful to a hateful nice work :\ Thanks to all who gave a review I have read them and now need to stop my dad changing from Bt to talk talk
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Agree- worst company I have ever come across. My contract was with Tiscali but they illegally migrated my line to their LLU 1 week ago without telling me and I only found out because they cocked it up and messed up the broadband connection. At first they claimed it was a problem with my router so £70 quid for a new router I didn't need. Then they would call me back but didn't. Found out when I contacted another provider that I no longer had a BT line and then they admitted they had changed it but refuse to put it back. They claim my contract allows it but my contract was with Tiscali dating back 7 years so no provision to migrate to Talk Talk at all. My contract also says they will write to me in advance (in which case I would have cancelled) but they didn't do so. They left me with a choice of getting BT to reconnect it so I would have to pay BT a reconnection fee or enter into an 18 month contract with BT or they would disconnect my service and claimed they couldn't reverse what they had done. You can't register a complaint via telephone as their routing options don't have that option. I tracked down their registered office but they contract out the switchboard who won't put you through to anyone unless you give a name. However, when I started giving them names of their staff, (Charles Dunstone, Dido Harding, Amy Stirling etc all Directors) they wouldn't put me through to their offices and finally admitted that Talk Talk tell them not to put anyone through. No doubt you can't complain because of the deluge if you could. I am now several hundred pounds out of pocket due to them hijacking my line. I believe they are doing this behind people's backs so as to lock them into Talk Talk so they can't get out.
Avoid like the plague
Avoid like the plague
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TalkTalk - This is the single worst company that I have ever had the misfortune to deal with. Their customer service is so bad that it is really non-existent. As others have said , they are rude, ignorant and do not seem to be able to get past their script.
I have migrated away from them and months later they are still trying to direct debit me every month. All my calls to them so far have availed nothing but misinformation, contradiction and total frustration.
I have migrated away from them and months later they are still trying to direct debit me every month. All my calls to them so far have availed nothing but misinformation, contradiction and total frustration.
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