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TalkTalk customers complain about poor service

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We get sent so many complaints regarding TalkTalk here at The Weekly Gripe that we genuinely don't know what to do with them all.  There are many companies out there with a poor track record when it comes to handling customer complaints, but this one in particular seems to be a hot topic.  I've included below some of the gripes sent in by TalkTalk's unhappy customers.

TalkTalk complaint again!  I have been cut me off without so much as an email, phone call or letter because they didn't take money via the direct debit which has been running for 4 years.  I tried ringing their customer services number and the massage says office hours 9 to 5.30 Monday to Friday, same hours as I work.  I finally got through, paid on plastic and they then discovered my direct debit details and took money there as well.  The final insult was to charge me 125 for cancelling their services.  Apparently I had an email telling me to read new terms and conditions in 2009.  They can renew your contract every year without telling you and there's nothing you can do about it as otelo the regulator approved this.  I've used Opal which is the same as TalkTalk apparently, I signed up originally for two years and I was never told of any cancellation fee.  Can they change provider and original contract details without notifying me in writing?  Janet

My gripe is with....  yes you have it...  TalkTalk.  I have been a customer of TalkTalk for 12 years having started with them when they were Onetel.  I have had the normal problems with phone and broadband but the latest one takes the biscuit.  My 84 yr old sister is a customer of TalkTalk but unfortunately she was diagnosed with dementia a year ago and has been in a care home for the last 10 months.  Naturally she has no need of a phone so I decided to have it disconnected.  TalkTalk want to speak to her as she is the account holder.  I have spoken to at least 35 to 40 customer service advisers explaining that she cannot converse with anyone and I have been told that she MUST talk to them to give her permission or...  now this is the clincher...  wait until she passes away and then send them the death certificate.  I am her power of attorney so I am now sending a copy of POA to see if that works, if it does they will not only lose her as a customer they will also lose me.  Ray

I find TalkTalk are so scary because they have no telephone contact number in the UK that I can find.  Their call centre has been absolutely useless; the girl on the phone said they were in SA!?  Anyway, I couldn't understand them and hung up in disgust.  Instead of the bill I was expecting I received a huge one and I am being charged for stupid router that I never asked for it - got my own thank you!  I also feel I was mis-sold this package and I'm in the process of trying to figure out my rights and how I can cancel this dreadful service.  My home phone now continually cuts in and out No I do not want to call SA to advise them of this.  What is the point.  Fedup

TalkTalk - what a lot of rubbish in my opinion.  Since joining them nearly 2 years I have had problems with Internet connection and they have no quick solutions, plus they're difficult to understand due to the heavy accent.  I ended signing up with Geek Squad paying them to sort things as TalkTalk couldn't.  Only a month ago I lost connection again and after spending some hours on the phone they said it will take 4 days to sort out - why as they needed to test lines etc.  and it could be a problem with my landline.  Very strange because I was using it to talk to them with no problem.  They do not have the right knowledge to assist people and over the period I have had to pay Geek Squad some 150 to help me.  Now I wish to cease my contract but again they will only take my call on Monday and not at weekend.  This is an impossible situation and I cannot wait to speak to them to let them know just what I think of them.  Anonymous

How to really annoy an existing customer without really trying.  Today I got an outward bound sales call from TalkTalk.  I'm already a long standing existing customer.  I was offered a new package which made a lot of sense and I went with it.  Great.  I was then asked to hold while the call was transferred to a manager who would confirm my order.  (I hadn't ordered anything, but I suppose that's just me being picky!).  I then spoke to a 'manager' who then proceeded to read out a script repeating everything that I have just been through welcoming me to Talk Talk as a new customer.  I explained that I am an exiting customer and don't need to go through this.  "But I have to read this script" she said.  It was so irritating, irrelevant and a waste of my time that I decided to call customer services (that's a joke).  A nice lady told me that she would log my complaint.  When asked if I could speak to someone in more authority, I was told, no, I couldn't and that no feedback was available, unless I wrote in.  So I made two complaints about the customer experience.  The first about my first call with Talk Talk and the second about their compalint handling procedure (or lack thereof).  I notice that last year TalkTalk opened a very swanky Customer Experience Centre.  Shame the hype doesn't support the actual experience of being a customer as far as I can see!  Joe Espana

I'm a new Talk Talk customer that wishes he had never left BT.  Having set up the account at the beginning of April and given them my full bank details for the direct debit, I get a phone call from their accounts department today 12th May threatening me with disconnection unless I paid my overdue bill!  To "assist" me they could take payment straight away over the phone.  The accounts monkey couldn't tell me why the initial direct debit hadn't been set up, only if I didn't pay straight away I would be cut off.  So I paid straight away, setting up a second DD at the same time.  I insisted I be put through to a customer complaints department who then tried to set up yet another direct debit mandate, explaining that Talk Talk hadn't even set up the first one yet.  I had to explain quite forcefully that I had already paid the overdue amount setting up a second direct debit mandate not two minutes earlier, and had been transferred from the accounts department direct to her.  Absolute stupidity of the highest order.  Not only that but the broadband speed is inadequate for streaming video or BBC I player etc.  I just wish I hadn't left BT.  If they cannot get the account opening procedure right and their accounts department doesn't share info real time with the customer service department, I suppose I shouldn't hold out too much hope for their technical department.  Tonyd


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Compka

Compka

Yes, like everyone else, TalkTalk customer services are so rubbish, it's a insult to call them that! I have written and phoned them in excess of 60 times and my problem is still unresolved. You get texts saying they have tried to contact you, they haven't, letters that ignore what you have written and, my BIGGEST complaint, staff who are impossible to understand. I spell out my email address and they repeat it but with all the wrong letters. Do they even understand the English alphabet? I have gone to a government body to complain about them. They will NOT grind me down! I shall keep on complaining until they listen! DO NOT TOUCH THEM WITH A BARGEPOLE!
21/12/21 Compka
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Bellabots1

Bellabots1

As a broadband engineer who carries out work in customers premises for TalkTalk, and most of the other ISP's, I can confirm that in the majoroty of cases where I need to "escalate" a job, that is to tell the ISP that the fault is on the Open Reach network and not in the customers premises, TalkTalk have me pulling my hair out. They rarely have any technical knowledge of what I am reporting and often ask me for info that I have already provided several times. I'm supposed to be professionally impartial but would NEVER use them as my ISP.
03/08/21 Bellabots1
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butch

butch

hello I am being charged £4pound s a month for what sent email regarding this no reply yet
19/02/19 butch
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Nathan

Nathan

I have had an account with TalkTalk for several years, my motivation having been that it is cheap and voicing the view I am ready to leave for Sky or PlusNet brings the price lower. The free extras that come with the 'phone service are welcome - those that BT charge for and one reason why I would never go to BT (the other being BT's disinterested customer service). Along with the reliable fibre Internet that works as it should it seems I should be satisfied with TalkTalk.
However, I had an engineer out when the Internet was not quite right and he left it as he found it, unable to get to the cause. TalkTalk then tried to charge me for that time-waster. I dealt with that and bought a new BT socket and ditched the one recently installed by BT. Everything was then fine with the Internet and has been for some 3+ years now.

The main issue I have apart from the ignorance of the TalkTalk customer services is the awful TalkTalk YouView service. The box is exceedingly slow to respond to the remote and is liable to intermittent freezes. During such freezes recordings are made, but the TV box has to be reset to gain access to the user interface. I found the service was deteriorating and recordings becoming more and more unreliable and leading to several daily freezes. After struggling with the YouView box for some time, I ditched the TalkTalk 'Not-so-Super' router in favour of an ASUS device. This after it became clear that TalkTalk customer service have scant knowledge of the causes of device problems and rely on scripts. A complete waste of time speaking with them and the same applies to YouView themselves, since they were not aware of the kind of problem I was experiencing.

Currently, the YouView box is working much better and freezes less frequently, perhaps once per month and if it freezes another freeze can be expected within an hour. However, the garbled recordings have gone with the use of the ASUS router, leaving the main problem to be the YouView box having a tendency to stop recording series. I guess this is a problem with staff not entering the correct details in the schedules, or perhaps the data stream to the YouView box gets corrupted. Whatever the cause, the YouView service via TalkTalk does not do what it is supposed to and has fairly frequent errors. My solution will be to go back to Sky in a few months, although only for TV, since TalkTalk have provided me with a good Internet service, despite my misgivings about their customer support. The video quality on Internet channels is also poor and the service compares poorly with Sky.

On the whole, I would recommend TalkTalk if you do not want their TV service and if you are willing to accept poor customer service. This seems to be true of BT as well, although I am put off BT by the price and the attitude of their customer service staff. Customer retention does not seem to be a priority for BT and in contrast Sky, PlusNet and TalkTalk do at least try to appear more interested in the customer. TalkTalk report frequent problems with hackers and admit that data gets stolen, something to consider when giving them your personal information. I find managers are empowered to offer cash or free services, since no doubt that gets rid of customers complaining about the poor service, but does not really improve anything. Anyway, I take the cash or service when offered and ask for it when it is not, but I am inclined to complain when a service is little more than appalling.
20/07/17 Nathan
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anonymous

anonymous

TalkTalk is terribly bad with their customer service. It's almost a lost cause dealing with them. My landline was suddenly cut off even though I have paid all my bills on time. They don't appear to have a valid telephone number which is based in the UK. Instead, calls get routed overseas. The technical services people had at one stage lost (!) all my records, even though I have been with them for over a year. They said on numerous occasions that my phone would be fixed but it never happens. Why also do they lie over the phone ? They say they will call you up on another number at a certain time and it never happens. I'm surprised they have customers at all. If I worked for them I would feel guilty lying to my customers day-in day-out.
21/09/16 anonymous
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ewen

ewen

I can only echo the above complaints about Talktalk's terrible customer service and the difficulty understanding Indian accents at the call centre with hours on the phone .. I have been without my e mail Send/Receive service for 4 weeks and no access to Webmail or my account. I had no problems with dsl.pipex.com (since 2003! ) until they were taken over by Talktalk. I registered 3 fault reports,none rectified until I got a call from Manchester-an English voice at last-a week ago last Saturday who got me back onto Webmail and Receive but I still cant Send any e mails. I am at my wits end. I have telephone/broadband/Sky Sports package for another 12 months so I would incur penalty to terminate early. But Talktalk are in breach of contract for failing to provide a consistent broadband service.Also within a month of the new contract, I had no Sky Sports pictures for a month in February until eventually a British engineer called with a new router and restored service who told me the first visit engineer-an eastern European-had not properly checked connections, router etc ete . The Talktalk CEO has been complaining about BT Openreach monopoly but it is about time she put her own house in order on broadband support. I have now registered a formal complaint but am not holding breath that it will be dealt with. OFCOM next. This is really Dire
30/07/16 ewen
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DeDeDe

DeDeDe

I have nothing but the highest praise for Talk Talk. When all around them were having cyber attacks including Microsoft and Norton Symantec and BT only TalkTalk came clean and was honest about it. You may have been aware of the need to change passwords for most Programs that require them.TalkTalk were most helpful and have been very fair to me. Be nice and stop moaning. The people you speak to are doing a good job, doing their best to help angry customers. I've been there too and found that you can speak to.a manager when something is not right.De
14/05/16 DeDeDe
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talktalkJustSayNo

talktalkJustSayNo

talk talk took almost 3 months to fix a simple problem. upgraded to fibre and WHAM, the next day soon slow. So i raised a complaint. They tested the line and could see an issue. Said they would wort it out. A week goes by and I call using the reference number. Oh - that has been closed, closed ? have you fixed the issue as its still very slow. Well, no... So, what have you done ? what action did you take to fix the issue, after several mins of me questioning them - they admitted that they did nothing !!
So, 1st week of a 1 meg download speed when paying for 50 and all they did was close the ticket. So, why close the ticket ? it makes their Service level agreement responses look good is the only reason.
Raised another ticket, they ran tests, they could see the issue. No sht sherlock. So, arrange for an engineer - gave them 3 dates. all three dates went past, no engineer, no progress, nothing. Rang them again... ticket had been closed. nothing done, not fixed but they closed it anyway...
so, i raised a complaint - someone promised to ring back. Never happened.
raised another complaint, nothing....
after 2 months of nothing happening i said - ok - I am paying for a service I am not getting, we paid to upgrade which ut us back in contract. I quoted distance selling regulations ( can cancel up to the point of installation ). As the installation was not working yet please cancel the contract. Some manager promised to ring back with progress within 3 days. nothing - so I rang them - guess what - they had closed et another ticket. spoke to an actual BT Wholesale support person. They could see that no engineer had ever been assigned a date to visit. By now I had had 6 days off work to sit indoors awaiting the engineer !!! thats six days of my holidays gone....
so, i started the process of cancelling. next day an engineer turned up without an appointment on a Sat of all days !!!
within 2 days all fixed ( after new cooper from pole to house )
the result is that we are now 15 months away from being able to move from talk talk.
hats 15 months of suffering.

in total I spent 15 hours of MY TIME on the phone with a company whose support systems are so poor that when we asked for compensation they said they only do this from the first call reporting the issue and that was 4 weeks ago!!! 4 weeks was the first issue they could find on their system. Luckily I had txt messages from them stating issue reference number - i red this out and 10 mins later they agreed they could see the issue. Why could they not see it before ? well it was hidden!! you mean closed ? yes - closed !!! what a bunch of walls a complete waste of time

any company with a support system as bad as this must be suffering.

the moral of the story - stay away from talk talk
02/01/16 talktalkJustSayNo
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talktalk all talk zero service

talktalk all talk zero service

Let me add my bit to his page. I'm sure it will be continued !!
On the 30th August 2014 I made the mistake of ordering a phone & broadband diservice from talktalk !! After a 2 week wait and receiving a confirmation of the order, I'm told that as a stupid customer I haven't place my order correctly !! Than it transpired that there was a phone line problem and it was blamed on BT. Talktalk great customer service employees on one occassion went as far as to tell me that if I don't like it I can go elsewhere (in those exact words) !! When I explained that I need the phone line ASAP as I have a child with a disability and the area I'm living in has a very poor mobile reception, there answer was a sympatatic one but that's how it is. So another ordered gets processed and I have to wait for another 2 weeks. Close to the date I receive another text telling me that there is a problem once more !!! After kicking up a fuss about it I get connected with Michael Moran from their CEO office. THings started to move so I hoped. Eventually I got broadband and a couple of days later a phone line. I thought things were finally over. Compensation three months service, when I said that this wasn't enough for the amount of calls I had to make on my mobile and while travelling on business to sort this out the answer from the CEO office was that I should be thankful as it wasn't their problem !!

A week and a half into using the service I start experiencing problems getting into various websites. So I call Talktalk and am told that I have a temporary service and have not got fibre broadband yet !! Why I ask ?? Oh silly me again I did something wrong in the order again !! Forget all the phone calls and the email confirmations I received !! So I call Michael Moran from the CEO office again and he doesn't answer me for two days. Than my phone line goes dead !! Since I am now totally annoyed I go on twitter and tweet about this - Suddenly Michael Moran calls me !!! WOW amazing !! He than proceeded to tell me that he had told me that it would be a temporary service to which I replied he had not and that this was not correct and I asked for a recording of this conversation ! As a customer, what do I get ? Thsi guy starts yelling at me and treating me like I'm some idiot and when I remind him that I'm the customer he said that he cannot deal with me and is going to ask for my case to be assigned to another person in the CEO office. Well two weeks later and no one calls from the CEO office not even to apologise. I finally get my phone line back after two days ! And my much promised Fibre broadband is due on the 26 October !! So the 26 October arrives and now my internet is completely dead !! Not only do I not have fibre optic but no internet at all. Call talktalk and they tell me to wait 48 hours until an engineer comes over and if it is found that it is my fault (once again) I will be billed 50 GBP !! Amazing customer service at it's finest !! No wonder ofcom has stated that this is one of the worst serviced providers ! Now I know where they got this reputation from !! It's all true !! To be continued ...........
26/10/14 talktalk all talk zero service
1
Never again

Never again

I ordered the sky boost and they said it will be on in 24hours 5 days later still waiting and sick of the lies they tell u they should be shut down I tried two cancel and was told £152.00 pound two cancel ive only had it 5 days and it doesent work I've spoken two 9 managers and they tell u a pack of lies any way seeing legal advice on Monday I wouldn't use talk talk again
22/09/14 Never again
1
tom

tom

I signed up for talktalk in march this year and the customer service is dreadfull I phoned them over a boost I put on and wanted to cancel it the month after when I checked the next months bill it was still on when iphoned up they said it was cancelled I spoked to 3 different people my bills kept getting bigger I have now canceld my account they told me I would have to pay a cancelation fee whitch I was not told about when I signed up talktalk is the worst company going
15/09/14 tom
1
James Macdonald

James Macdonald

Thought I would sign up to a new broadband provider as BT was costing an arm and a leg as we go over our 10gb usage every month? Strange as we don't stream TV/Films etc.. or use the computer for gaming or social sites and in January and February didn't even have a computer? Talk Talk deal seemed good, unlimited Broadband for £1.75 and line rental, we were happy with phone provider and the package was only Broadband as advertised on their site. I think it's called "slamming" but that is what Talk Talk did, they cancelled or phone provision and said that they would be taking everything over! Contacted one of their untrained Monkey's, "oh, it says in small print". Apparently you can't have different providers for phone and Broadband, according to Monkey Boy, yes you can.... My gripes are with blatant misrepresentation and call centre Monkeys being brainwashed into denial when something is so obviously wrong!
02/09/14 James Macdonald
1
Abegail

Abegail

TalkTalk must do something about this. People aren't going to complain if everything is doing well. And yes, customer service for this company should be too tired hearing about all the complaints and all the irate customers calling in.
07/08/14 Abegail
1
Couldn'tMakeItUp

Couldn'tMakeItUp

Ivan,

Companies like this use polite language to take the path that suits them best. I have found the word "instruct" stops companies doing things like that. You could have written, "I instruct you to refund the money forthwith and do not permit its use to settle future bills, which I will pay only when due. You could work out the expected interest on the money and instruct them to take that off a bill. (This time it's just more likely to be accepted if you do it that way).
03/08/14 Couldn'tMakeItUp
1
Ivan

Ivan

In June 2014, TalkTalk charged me £50 EXTRA due to their WRONG assumption/theory that I had failed to return their set-top box, which I HAD returned in Dec 2013! I called them pointing out that they were mistaken, and that I had PROOF of such via my post-office reseat before the direct-debit was made; yet they STILL took the £50! When eventually (by help of my reseat) they traced the set-top box I'd returned-6 months before! Then-instead of returning my £50, they kept it in their bank, and listed it on my next bill as my credit! Is that not bad manners? In my opinion, they should have returned what is not theirs and apologised-immediately!
03/08/14 Ivan
1

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