Talk Talk Complaints

metallurgist

Greetings.

I too have had the worst of experiences with Talktalk (and fomerly Tiscali) over the years. It is only inertia and the huge inconvenience of changing internet provider that has kept me with them. They habitually send bills at irregular intervals so that it is difficult to monitor what they are charging.

When I cancelled the TV element of my package, they continued to charge for it and they will not reinstate overcharges to your bank account but only compensate by reducing subsequent charges.

This week the phone line went down. Oh dear! I have only been able to access their (so-called) Help Center in deepest Asia where, it seems, nobody is at all interested in helping the customer. It also seems that BT provide them with a very limited service and we have been without telephone and broadband access for a week now. We have spent a fortune in telephone calls from mobile phones to their premium rate helpline.

Should anyone reading this be inclined to consider Talktalk as their service provider, DON'T.

NeverEnough

Inertia and the perceived huge hassle of switching put me off too, until I finally took the plunge. I had used Plusnet at my rented house as I was working away from home and they were very uncomplicated with local call centres and I'd had very good service, although there are people who moan about them too!! (Not in the millions that complain about TalkTalk though!!) so I transferred the Plusnet service over to my home when my work contract ended, gave notice to Talk Talk for the ex-Tiscali account and Plus Net and BT were excellent - the transfer of line and Broadband took place on the day, simultaneously, and even had a phone call from Plusnet to ask if everything was up and running as it should be!!!

Unfortunately, of course, TalkTalk failed to cancel the account and are now sending me threats and demands. I've written to their Head Office via recorded mail and sent an email via Watchdog as I'm sick to death of the rubbish Indian Call centres who couldn't care less what drivel they spout.

Take the plunge and CHANGE - Move away from Talktalk, it isn't difficult, except the arguments with them later about cancelling!! But that is to be expected from the shysters!!!

PhylPho

Now 24 days since his TalkTalk Internet connection ceased -- and still without a single call-back from TalkTalk Support, despite all the promises from the Delhi, India, call centre -- my friend has now used my computer to send emails to:

[EMAIL="watchdog@talktalkplc.com"]watchdog@talktalkplc.com[/EMAIL]

and:

[EMAIL="watchdogwebteam@bbc.co.uk"]watchdogwebteam@bbc.co.uk[/EMAIL]

That it is necessary for a TalkTalk customer to have to resort to a special BBC monitoring team and a special TalkTalk response team set up in fear of the ongoing reputational damage caused by BBC reporting, says all there is to say about this ISP.

pruessie

I am in the same boat at metallurgist. Over a week with no TV, phone or internet access. Former Tiscali customer who's never dealt with such useless, incompetent, script-reading ignoramuses as I have this past week. Every mindless monkey with whom I speak provides wrong information on the BT fault and promises a call back, but of course never does. Basically dealt with all the same mind-achingly painful issues as everyone else on this thread. I even tried to call and cancel on Saturday, but was told I had to wait till Monday. So, now that I am about to cancel, and will probably deal with that headache, has anyone switched to someone less appalling? Has anyone had any success with OFCOM or Watchdog?

PhylPho

pruessie wrote: »

I am in the same boat at metallurgist. Over a week with no TV, phone or internet access. Former Tiscali customer who's never dealt with such useless, incompetent, script-reading ignoramuses as I have this past week. . .
>
.. . So, now that I am about to cancel, and will probably deal with that headache, has anyone switched to someone less appalling?

Hi Prussie: sorry to hear of your troubles. As to which ISP to change to, the problem here is that individual customer experiences can differ wildly. And recommendtions then finish up as a kind of bun-fight with one person saying, my ISP is better, and someone else saying no, mine's the best!

To get around that, might I suggest you set yourself some criteria before embarking on a change? In my experience of friends' behaviour, it seems they always -- but always -- think of monthly price first. And, er, second, too. Nothing else (unless the prospect of a free router has also hoved into view.)

But that's surely a bit short-sighted. If it helps, the criteria I've always used are:

1) Must be a UK-based ISP with UK-based support. The very idea of having to talk to someone in Delhi is ridiculous.

2) Must be a UK-based ISP with a rolling monthly contract. Signing up to anything longer -- like, say, BT's 18-month lock-in -- is strictly a no-no. Any customer of any shop should be free to walk into, and walk out of, that shop at her / his choosing. Allowing oneself to be locked inside that shop for a mini-eternity makes no sense.

As to ISP choice: I tend to use an independent (and well-regarded) website as a guide:

http://www.kitz.co.uk/index.htm

Kitz has been around a lo-nn-g time and the amount of broadband-related information held within its pages is, well, vast. Within those pages is a section on UK-based ISPs -- who they are, where they are, what their contact numbers are, their range of services etc etc:

http://www.kitz.co.uk/isp/isp_info.php

What's especially good about this is the format: each ISP is given a single page. So all the relevant info is there close to hand.

I've no connection with Kitz and Kitz has no connection with any of the ISPs whose information it compiles: it's not a click-through commission affiliate, like many out there.

As to personal experience, well: I'm very happy with my existing ISP, Newnet. But were I ever to change, for whatever reason, then I'll probably give Andrews & Arnold a spin. Yes, I know it sounds like a bank, but I've a relative who's an aaisp.net customer, and when her service was bedevilled by disconnections due to line / exchange failures, I've never seen any ISP bulldoze British Telecom so hard, and so fast.

Good luck!

TalkTalk

Hi All,

If any customers are experiencing issue swith their TalkTalk Account please feel free to Visit the TalkTalk Members Forum and we can investigate into these issue in more independant detail.

Regards

Mark

PhylPho

Just an update on the situation here.

After 25 days during which the India call centre of TalkTalk managed to achieve nothing, an email to the special address set up by TalkTalk in the wake of BBC Watchdog's hostile publicity achieved a minor miracle:

A support engineer actually telephoned my friend to discuss his plight.

The engineer said -- and others with greater technical nous than I will understand this -- 'your settings appear to be so low, it's no wonder you've never had an Internet connection all this time'.

As "the settings" were at TalkTalk's end of things, not my friend's, he was told to "wait a few minutes" whilst the settings were "tweaked", and not to do anything to his router or computer in the meantime. Result: his Internet service fully restored.

It would be good to say well done, TalkTalk, but sadly, that isn't the case: it has taken TalkTalk 26 days to "tweak" their settings in a job lasting no more than 2 minutes and restore to a customer an Internet connection he is paying for.

No amount of corporate b/s from TalkTalk is ever going to alter the fact that this blatantly dysfunctional ISP, with its epically dysfunctional India call centre, isn't worthy of even a moment's consideration by any UK resident seeking a reliable Broadband service with dependable Customer Support.

TalkTalk

Hi PhylPho,

Glad to see these issues have been resolved.

In regards to telephony support there is the alternative to contact TalkTlkvia the forum, email or letter in the event customers have any issues with the telephony support systems in place. These alternatives provide a different manner of support which may result in a different experience and perception.

Regards

M:)

PhylPho

Hi Mark:

Point taken. My friend certainly had a different experience, and developed a different perception, of TalkTalk's service when he attempted to join the online forum. . . but was blocked from doing so because his account number wasn't in the right 'format' (Tiscali account, y'see) and his home phone number wasn't linked to a TalkTalk telephony subscription.

I also take your point about what action to take when an ISP support centre in, er, India is too witless to do anything and the ISP customer urgently needs to re-connect to the Net: 'I know, I'll write a letter!'

As to your adroit wording -- that a TalkTalk customer's various desperate attempts to obtain support "may result" in a beneficial outcome -- you're spot on: something may indeed result. . .

Providing that customer is prepared to wait more than three weeks for TalkTalk to carry out a less-than-two-minute "tweak" of its own equipment.

Nice try, Mark, but no cigar.

Domfox

Hi I am looking to speak to a talk talk representative as I have had 12 weeks worth of problems since I first applied with talk talk and I am getting nowhere. My story is far too long to explain on here but if a representative could e mail me I will reply with the details which I have already got written down.

Much appreciated.