£75 cashback when you sign up to TalkTalk

Lara99_2

Sorry I didn't get one of the earlier threads.

Is it 14.75 a month and a 29.99 connection fee first?


In reply to an earlier thread, I have had Tiscali for about 2 years and have never had a problem. Fingers crossed if Talk Talk is the same. :-)

Larx

senora3724

Please don't waste your time with this company. After anecdotal reports that their appalling customer service had started to improve, I went with this company. Despite ordering a package of phone line, internet and phone package, I never did receive the internet service and, despite having two computer experts over to my house who confirmed that the problem was with Talktalk, they continued to deny it.
I spent every night on the phone to the Customer Service people who lied their way out of the situation, so it became almost amusing when I used to play off one of their lies against another.
Eventually I cancelled my direct debit citing a breach of contract, and - would you believe it - all of a sudden I was bombarded with phone calls to beg me to come back. Despite all kinds of offers to entice me to come back, I decided that it wasn't worth the bother and they conceded that their customer "service" had been a disaster from start to finish. Thankfully, still made a profit out of them as I received cashback on signing up with them.

BTW - spent my longest EVER on hold waiting to speak to somebody - over 2 hours.

Don't stand for poor customer service. A failure to supply a service is a breach of contract and you are perfectly entitled to terminate your deal. Keep a log of all calls and letters.

Better still, don't waste your time in the first place!

[Deleted User]

senora3724 wrote: »

Please don't waste your time with this company. After anecdotal reports that their appalling customer service had started to improve, I went with this company. Despite ordering a package of phone line, internet and phone package, I never did receive the internet service and, despite having two computer experts over to my house who confirmed that the problem was with Talktalk, they continued to deny it.
I spent every night on the phone to the Customer Service people who lied their way out of the situation, so it became almost amusing when I used to play off one of their lies against another.
Eventually I cancelled my direct debit citing a breach of contract, and - would you believe it - all of a sudden I was bombarded with phone calls to beg me to come back. Despite all kinds of offers to entice me to come back, I decided that it wasn't worth the bother and they conceded that their customer "service" had been a disaster from start to finish. Thankfully, still made a profit out of them as I received cashback on signing up with them.

BTW - spent my longest EVER on hold waiting to speak to somebody - over 2 hours.

Don't stand for poor customer service. A failure to supply a service is a breach of contract and you are perfectly entitled to terminate your deal. Keep a log of all calls and letters.

Better still, don't waste your time in the first place!

This is very similar to my experience. In December 2006 I signed up with Talk Talk for phone line, call package and broadband. The only reason for doing so was in order to get broadband, but my internet service was never set up. I spent hours on the phone to Customer Service and they kept denying it was their fault; first they kept citing a "faulty line" as being the problem, but after I demanded to speak to their faults department and confirmed that wasn't the problem, they started blaming BT for never having transferred the line over properly. And after I told them that BT insisted I was no longer with them, they reverted to blaming the problem on a faulty line. It went back and forth like that for months. Several times the customer services rep would claim the problem was finally resolved and that my internet service would be up and running soon, but it never happened. I had also repeatedly asked for my contract to be cancelled but they said they couldn't because the line had never been transferred over from BT in the first place.

The problem remained unresolved until this Spring. I phoned Talk Talk on a regular basis throughout (I can also attest to the incredibly long hold times), and wrote 5 or 6 letters to their complaints dept with absolutely not a word of acknowledgement. I also called BT to try to see if they could help in any way, and also wrote to Oftel, who claimed they could not help because I hadn't exhausted every avenue. I received so many promises from Talk Talk customer services reps/managers who said they would "take ownership" of my account, and each time nothing happened. Finally, BT said that they could take back my line by going directly to the exchange without my having to cancel it with Talk Talk. I only wish they had suggested this sooner. So I gratefully went back to BT in the Spring.

However I have since been chasing Talk Talk for a refund of the fees for the monthly call package. Unsurprisingly, although everyone I've spoken to has agreed to, and started, the processing for a full refund, their systems are set up so incompetently that they have been unable to do so. Recently I finally found a customer service rep who not only promised to get the refund issue sorted once and for all, but actually followed up on it with a phone call and promised that the refund would be credited to my bank account. While I hope it will happen, I'm not holding my breath.

While it may be that the initial problem was due to TalkTalk's teething problems, I have not seen any evidence that their capabilities have improved over time. And while problems of this magnitude may be fairly rare, I don't think it's a chance worth taking. Personally, in future I would rather pay a little more and go with providers with better reputations in order to minimise the chance of things going wrong

potbelly

Shrewdmoneysaver wrote: »

Well done to Martin for mentioning TalkTalk's previous service problems. A lot of people continue to have problems. I need reliable broadband so would not touch TalkTalk or Tiscali. If they were confident people would stay with them they would not need to use such long contract periods.

I wholeheartedly agree with Shrewdmoneysaver. Unfortunately Martin promotes companies/ deals based on costs alone but the services provided can be attrocious. Recently he has rated Tiscali but I was moved to Tiscali last year having been with Pipex for five years. Since that change I have had my phone contract bumped, my ISP speed dropped from around 6Mb to current average of 3Mb, customer service is non-existent and worst of all they say I can't break my contract as, according to them I started a new one when they switched me over. Nightmare!
And with regard to Talk Talk, I have several friends who moved to them because of similar promotions and now find the line speeds are very poor, nowhere near the claimed speed of 8Mb. When pushed, Talk Talk engineers admitted it was due to the number of subscribers and their contention ratio.
Buy cheap if you want, but don't expect quality product or service.

Andy_Hamilton

I have been with Zen internet since I moved into my new build house last year. Zen have always been brilliant. A couple of rings of the phone and someone speaking english and knowing their products is on the other end of the line.

The main problem with this for me is the cost.
I've dropped my monthly broadband from £24.99 to £17.99 per month but I keep hitting the download limit (5Gb) so have to consider moving to a cheaer supplier.
My savings work out as:
£13 per month
£75 cash back.
Over 18 months (including activation) I will save £279

I signed up last week through Quidco and it was tracked well.
Beware that the payment of £75 can/will take 3 months to be paid out so you'll miss the xmas bonus.

PaulX

Hello,

We signed up to an 18 month deal for Talk Talk phone and broadband. Earlier this year we had a problem with the broadband and spent two months trying to have it sorted with no success.

The big problem is that when you take the package you are charged for the telephone but the broadband is 'free'. This means they are under no obligation to fix it and they don't.

If you like talking to abusive people at a South African call centre for weeks on end then go ahead and sign up for it, otherwise pay more and get a service that you can rely on.

Paul.

mikeD

Thanks Guys & Girls, I am now persuaded to change to BT. I've had Tiscali for a few years now but have had serious problems with them. I have a new computer using Vista and have not been able to connect due to driver problems. Having spent a couple of hours on the phone to them going through their rituals they finally sent me what they say is their latest driver disc. It didn't work. My son has had BT for a long time and has had no problems at all. I don't mind paying a bit extra as I must have a reliable connection.

b0ardrider

Regardless of which broadband provider I've tried for 'free' or cheap broadband (O2, Talk Talk and Tiscali) I always appear to miss out on the best rates as my exchange does'nt except said company. Ok if I lived in the highlands I might not be surprised but Bournemouth isn't exactly remote. How wider a problem is this? Is this offer of cheap or 'free' broadband simply a bait to reel you in? Many promise new exchanges are coming soon but I've not known of one starting up, so how long should I wait, presumably the week after I sign up for 12/18mths will be the week the exchange opens! I've also noticed under my current arrangement (Tiscali for broadband with phone calls) I'm now getting charged by BT for the 1571 and caller display services as I make less than 6 calls on BT (because Tiscali put claim to them all). They all get you in the end!!!

Heinz

b0ardrider wrote: »

I'm now getting charged by BT for the 1571 and caller display services as I make less than 6 calls on BT (because Tiscali put claim to them all).

Welcome to the MSE forums b0ardrider.

Can you clarify that please?

You are clearly still paying your line rental to BT but you state Tiscali "put claim to" all your calls.

Are you saying you have tried to make the necessary 6 calls per quarter via BT (using the 1280 prefix) but Tiscali ignores that prefix and sends those calls over its own network?

tomtom_2

Well I must be the only one in the country that seems to be happy with talktalk.
I may be chancing it, but I have never had any problems with the phone or broadband, so if anything goes wrong after this I know who,s to blame.
I,m pleased to have free broadband, as I used to pay £14.50 a month for it, and I now pay reasonable costs for my telephone.