15 comments Add a comment
TalkTalk woes... yes it's a common enough complaint topic. I moved from Tiscali because I only had a 0.5MB link capability to my house due to the distance from the exchange giving a poor line quality. I became a so-called bandwidth abuser under their fair usage policy but when I asked to increase (and offer to pay for) my increased usage, I was told to upgrade to an 8MB package. Why would I with only 0.5MB capability to the house? They don't care about actual bandwidth, only the quantity you download. When the line was problematic it averaged 3 days to get BT involved to re-route my signal, which took the (very efficient) BT engineer only 15 minutes to do! So, after being fed up offering to pay more but only being given their standard package offers, I moved to TalkTalk. What a mistake that was.
TalkTalk offered 'free' broadband. This basically means you get bugger all comeback on asking for refunds and allows them to have a poor service and poor support to go with it, yet still bind you to contract because its 'free'. My situation, I still had a poor quality signal, even in a new housing estate area in a brand new house. This isn't helped by Joe Bloggs the builder trashing the BT connection regularly. Firstly the poor SNR (signal to noise ratio) was causing the card in the exchange to lock-up. After days of phone calls logged, the engineers would reset their card in the exchange and declare the problem as resolved. Resolved meant I got a carrier signal (green light stays on) but the download speed was 1.5KB/s which in layman's terms means 1 web page every 10 minutes. Not exactly broadband!
Anyway, the card kept locking up. Further complaints - they reset the card and said the end users equipment or wiring must be faulty. Incorrect assumption, bad assumption. I changed micro filters, modems, unplugged everything and went through all the usual diagnostics. It was definitely not my house, so three and a half weeks later I finally get an interactive relay to the engineers through the 2nd tier support service and they test my line with nothing plugged in. They FINALLY aknowledge that the line between me and the exchange is at fault.
Phew - we're getting somewhere and it's only taken then three weeks so far! So it will be fixed in 3 days then, just call out BT? Nope, apparently the service centre has to issue a callout ticket to the engineer, who will then call out BT, even though they've just figured out the line is at fault! Why so complicated?
Anyway, this new ticket arrived blank for the call out to BT, so instead of questioning why they had blank tickets they just ignored it. Now four weeks later and the support centre have re-sent the ticket to the engineers to call out BT. God only knows whether or not their incompetence can extend any further, but when I am back online I intend to download hacks for WEP and use the neighbours wireless connection, and hope and pray that WiMax is received in the area soon.
I spent 6 years living in Canada and since returning the the UK I have been utterly appalled at the complete lack of customer service, it has to be the worst in the world. I think the relevance of the arguments about using international call centres pale into insignificance compared to the way issues get escalated. One of the options on the phone should be "please press one if you have an IQ above 100, please press two if you don't know what an IQ is". For a degree qualified electronics engineer with 16 years experience in designing wired and wireless modem silicon chips, I find myself wanting to go postal at the idiotic way the ISPs handle real problems rather than the numpty "reset the box" type issues.
If its not fixed after a month I will have to call trading standards to try exit the contract. All ISPs jump to threats once you try to exit a contract, its probably the only time you'll get immediate response from them.
Frustrated.... i'll say!
By: Chris
Leave a comment
Talk Talk sound as bad as 3, which admittedly is a mobile service but it's extremely well documented online how bad they are. A business model of stack 'em high and sell 'em cheap will never lead to a satisfactory customer experience and it shouldn't be permitted.
Ofcom are pathetic and that is typical of rip-off Britain.
Crisis at Talk Talk Tiscali
Not newsworthy then is it? I was reprimanded by the Talk Talk help centre (oh no please no more my ribs) for ringing three times in three days. They pointed out I was TOLD on the previous three days the changeover to their new server would be completed by 25th. I was treated like a naughty little schoolboy. The problem is not fixed and they have received an update from their engineers advising they have been TOLD that it will now be fixed by the 31st. They have now TOLD me this. I asked if it were possible, they would receive another update politely advising him, this date may be extended. After a long argument the manager that had not previously existed but appeared after I stubbornly refused to accept one was not available admitted it was possible.
I also asked if the website and recorded message on the helpline (there’s that little rib tickler again) that some of their customers may be experiencing problems with their emails meant most of their customers. He eventually admitted some meant most and probably all.
When I complained to the Billing centre they said sorry we can’t give you a reduction because emails are free with Tiscali Talk Talk. Back the manager at the old rib tickling help centre who after 15 rounds admitted that if I left Talk Talk Tiscali or whoever they are my email address would be discontinued and therefore it was not free.
Any MPs out there want to have a chat with the chief executive of this company about honesty not to mention first class service for my first class money, which like all of yours is hard earned.
By the way, you would think the Talk Talk spell check recognised Talk Talk.
One more thing I live down South it took my mums neighbour up North a month to get this sorted and they refused to give her a transference number to go to BT.
Submitted 25 October 2010.
having any problems?
I am not sure if it is just a coincidence that we are both having these difficulties or if there is something wrong with TalkTalk ( I mean apart from rubbish customer service !
And it NEVER will!!!
"I was about to sign up to a service but just thought I'd check the brand name together with 'rubbish' and then 'scam'. I read enough to put me off and saved myself some money."
I suggest you do the same as this gentleman.
"I find myself wanting to go postal at the idiotic way the ISPs handle real problems rather than the numpty "reset the box" type issues. "
I was asked what operating system I use - as if that has any relevance. When I explained to the highly qualified script reader --- sorry, technician --- that I use a laptop, a PC, a netbook, sometimes I'm using a computer at a client site, he told me that was why I was having problems, ideally you should only use your email from the same computer and the same location all the time.
Let's see now .... if I never use my car it will never break down or use any fuel. In fact if I kill myself I'll never have any more problems with anything. Amazing logic!
I contacted my ISP by phone and subsequently followed that up with an email from the account in question, regarding an email problem (sporadically emails sent to me are returned to the sender with an error message indicating that the email address is non-existent, even when correctly addressed and formatted).
Today I got an email from them asking me to confirm my full name, date of birth, etc, for security reasons, and asking me my email address.
I've heard that Utility Warehouse is a company that has been winning awards for both their UK based customer service and for their cheap telephone/broadband bundles? I would swap but I'm still tied in with this ridiculous 18 month contract! I understand UW don't even have a contract which seems great to me.
Has anybody had experience of them? I've been given this URL to check them out. www.telecomplus.org.uk/b47963
I was about to sign up to a service but just thought I'd check the brand name together with 'rubbish' and then 'scam'. I read enough to put me off and saved myself some money.
With ISPs you can get lucky or be treated like rubbish. Talk Talk comes in for a lot of stick but my experience of them was good when I helped a friend sort out a recurring BB problem.
It has seemed to me for some while that if you want something done, you have to be creative if a company drags its heels or has little idea. In the past I've exaggerated things in order to speed up escalation, or 2 years ago mentioned a friend's disability and hinted at discrimination - that shook 'em up and things got sorted in 2 days instead of the usual 7-10 days.
So Chris, maybe think out of the box a bit? Can't offer more than that I'm afraid.
I'd be interested to know if Canadian companies generally employ telephone menu systems. In the UK it's getting worse, and you sometimes have to wait nearly 2 minutes before you can be put through to - another menu!
My last three months have been blighted by Toucan and its lack of service and debt recovery staff who do not understand it is offensive to chase a bill that is under dispute. A small problem over broadband speeds 100kbps escalated when they charged me for incompentant technical support on a preminum rate number (without telling me its a premimum rate number), then when I refused to pay the bill they passed it to debt collectors to harrass me more.
I have sent 7 letters, a number of emails and phonecalls but cannot get this company to see commonsense. I gave them two months to resolve the issues and they couldn't Changing ISP's meant my download speeds are now averaging 3-4Mb.
I am still refusing to pay the account as its incorrect. And I think we all should be standing up and demanding better service from our ISP's. We are looking for more people who have had problems with Toucan. (Toucan are part of Tiscali btw who also own bulldog, and pipex)
www.toucansucks.org.uk has information on Toucan and how to complain but also has other information on how to find a better ISP, and what constitutes a reasonable expectation of service in regard to broadband speeds.
talktalk all talk zero service
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 ...........