Talk Talk Complaints

NeverEnough

TalkTalk_Company_Representative wrote: »

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:)

Just different methods of having more endless drivel spouted at you!!! And the emails take days to be answered! I've not had a response to the letter I wrote and sent two weeks ago via recorded delivery to the brain-dead at the Complaints Department at Head Office.
The mind boggles trying to think who would ever work for such a disgusting bunch which make the lives of so many consumers paying so much for so little, so difficult.

Talk Talk is a COMPLETE SHAMBLES AND A TOTAL DISGRACE with regards to customer service - I have tried for months now to cancel a service which is NOT EVEN IN CONTRACT and before then, had endless issues with extremely poor broadband speeds and pathetic Indian Call centres whose mandate seems to be as arrogant and rude as possible while wittering in incomprehensible non-English that everything is actually your fault.......

Oddly enough, my broadband speeds and connection have improved astonishingly since my new ISP has taken over.

But still the bills from TalkTalk arrive.......it seems they TalkTalk a load of rubbish and drivel and should really be listenlisten-ing to customers instead!!!!

Mark_In_Hampshire

PhylPho wrote: »

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!

I think the error people make is to assume that large companies must have some degree of basic competence - for instance, to get bills right, supply what has been ordered, and be able to support it in some fashion.

That's not such an unreasonable expectation, but it evidently escapes the likes of Talk Talk and BT where customer churn is the order of the day, and retention only has any relevance when the customer actually calls to cancel as opposed to a policy of trying to mitigate against reaching that point.

Smaller companies such as the one you mention (AAISP) have a very good reputation amongst their customers for, on the one hand, actually supplying what was ordered, and then on the other, going the extra mile.

It's much more expensive. But it does do what it says on the tin.

nicktanner

First, apologies for the long reply. Second, it's been immensely good to see so many complaints about TT. Third, thanks for all the post and email addresses, and phone numbers over the past few pages.

Mark of TT, please reply...

I shall also be posting in the TTMF - please advise under which section as this is billing and technical.

I moved House in April 2010, and asked TT if I could take the service with me. I was told no, I could not transfer my TT account to the new address; I would need to cancel my current contract and take out a new 18 month contract.
I said no thank you, I would leave TT and go with a new ISP.
I moved house, searched for an ISP and still found TT to be the only one to offer the best international package we required. I was also offered the first month free and no connection charge. I'm sad to say I was suckered into going back to TT.

I continued receiving bills from TT for my old address, so phoned and spoke to 'AJ', who advised me that in fact the account should have already been closed and would be done so within a few days, WITH NOTHING TO PAY. This was in June. I've just received a bill for September (nothing for July or August...) for approx £60 - when I haven't been in the previous property since April!
I contested this last night and was told that the bill is legitimate because TT left a voicemail (apparently in April) at the old address requesting a call or email to confirm closure of the account. Needless to say I did not get the message. The girl I spoke to last night also informed me that "AJ" had failed to inform me of some other charge which I couldn't understand what for.
That's the billing problem in brief.

At my current address there has been an on-off-on-off fault continuously since the go live date in June. Symptoms - crackly noise on the line defeating audible conversation. Broadband connection intermittent and rare, connected approx <5% of the time.
The follow-up pattern has been pretty much covered to exhaustion buy other message posters here; contact TT, wait for ages in the queue, speak to someone who follows a script and doesn't listen etc. Suggests line tests, confirms line tests OK, receive text message from TT tech team saying fault fixed, fault ticket closed even though I respond saying fault not fixed (because the tech dept have not updated the system and therefore let the ticket drop by default) Over the past months I've had 2 TT 'Cube' engineers and 2 BTOpenreach engineers visit the house. All communication on the part of TT has been one attempted call always promising a follow up call (which never happens), or text messages with no recourse, and no actuation of my responses. No follow up. I work 9-5.30 so every time I call TT myself I leave an instruction to call the mobile as I am not at home. TT always calls the home number.
The latest instruction by TT was to disconnect everything but the phone plug the phone into the master socket, and monitor the line for 24 hours. 48 hours later no contact from TT.
Another 24 hours later TT calls home and speaks to my mother in Law asking to speak to my wife in relation to the fault...my wife? Why? She's NEVER been on the phone to TT, been involved or even been mentioned to TT!
TT phone again (at home) and leave a message with my M-I-L saying please disconnect all but the phone, plug into the master socket and monitor for 24 hours - for 'line testing' blah d blah d blah. The same hopeless cycle as has been ongoing for months.
TT tech team clearly don't read the notes as they fail to notice that there have been 2 BTOpenreach visits, which have replaced the original wall socket with an uptodate one which does not have a faceplate to remove to get to a 'master socket'. I've lost count of the number of line tests that have been carried out by TT.
Apparently the fault has/had/was raised to 'K level 1' for priority handling - didn't stop it being abandoned and closed after 7 days by default though.
Clearly TT cannot resolve the issue or read their own system notes.
Yesterday I requested a copy of the notes to pursue this further through legal routes and was told I would have to pay for these.

I was promised a call back from the billing 'manager' between 9 and 11 this morning to resolve the billing issue. That never happened.

I work from home too so have been forced to use a vodafone dongle for connection - at cost.

So, TT, Mark; is our fault going to be fixed? Am I going to be reimbursed for my costs? I will of course be leaving TT once both have been achieved, but of course TT will then try and charge me a disconnection fee for breaking the contract right? £119, right? So at what point have TT been upholding their end of the contract by provided their services as per the contract? Oh, and TT'll probably lose the house number when we leave, which has been unchanged for the past nearly 40 years so everyone in the family and friends all over the world know it.

I look forward to your prompt reply Mark.

nicktanner

So I've just tried to register on the TTMF and get a message saying my account number and phone number combination do not exist. Really? I've got an email with the account number just come in with the October bill, and I don't think I've forgotten my own phone number in the past 10 minutes...
Mark, your input please?

PhylPho

Mark_In_Hampshire wrote: »

I think the error people make is to assume that large companies must have some degree of basic competence - for instance, to get bills right, supply what has been ordered, and be able to support it in some fashion.

That's not such an unreasonable expectation, but it evidently escapes the likes of Talk Talk and BT where customer churn is the order of the day. . .

Eloquently put. Servicing the needs of 4 million TalkTalk customer households is a massively complex and massively expensive business. In the manufacturing sector, economies of scale are achievable by volume. But TalkTalk isn't a manufacturer. It's a service provider. So the greater the service, the greater the cost to resource and maintain it.

But TalkTalk appears to cling to a business model which holds that commercial profit and competitive edge can be maintained through pricing alone. What rubbish. When it comes to the pile it high and sell it cheap philosophy, TalkTalk hasn't a chance. All it can do is sell it too cheap and then watch customer dissatisfaction pile far too high.

I've already said how unenviable a task the TalkTalk rep has in being on this thread, especially as the rep seems in no position to handle any specific, individual case at all, but must instead direct any poster here to range of options whose very existence -- phone, email, letter (!), online forum -- no self-respecting, small UK-based ISP would even think of itemising.

There would instead be (1) UK-based tech support email / phone number; (2) UK-based accounts and billing department email / phone number; (3) Customer Services complaints investigation email / phone number. And postal address.

That's four lines of type. No more are needed, nor should ever be.

nicktanner wrote: »

First, apologies for the long reply. Second, it's been immensely good to see so many complaints about TT. Third, thanks for all the post and email addresses, and phone numbers over the past few pages.

Mark of TT, please reply...

I shall also be posting in the TTMF - please advise under which section as this is billing and technical.

Must admit, I smiled wryly at your mention of "posting on TTMF". . . and so was not at all surprised by your follow up:

nicktanner wrote: »

So I've just tried to register on the TTMF and get a message saying my account number and phone number combination do not exist. Really? I've got an email with the account number just come in with the October bill, and I don't think I've forgotten my own phone number in the past 10 minutes...
Mark, your input please?

As this was the same situation my friend encountered, it was at that point that I advised him to give up. TalkTalk has more hoops to go through than a championship croquet field, but why should he play along?

TalkTalk has set up a support facility in a damage limitation exercise following the BBC TV Watchdog report. Losing existing customers may not be of great concern -- see MarkinHampshire's comment about 'churning', above -- but failing to attract new customers is serious stuff indeed: adverse publicity that impacts negatively on new business gets bean counters and Board members alike in a tizzy.

So, using my computer and my email via my ISP, my friend emailed

[EMAIL="watchdog&#64;talktalkplc.com"]watchdog@talktalkplc.com[/EMAIL]

with a copy to

[EMAIL="watchdogwebteam&#64;bbc.co.uk"]watchdogwebteam@bbc.co.uk[/EMAIL]

And, as I said in the update earlier in this thread, that was it. Instant action.

Though I (obviously) have a lot of time for MSE, adverse publicity arising in this or similar threads really isn't on the scale of a national TV broadcast.

You're going to have to decide whether you wish to await the soothing administrations of a single TalkTalk rep on an Internet forum, or the immediate involvement of corporate fire-fighters specifically there to cope with the revenue impact of BBC TV's original broadcast as well as the Beeb's ongoing monitoring.

Good luck.

nicktanner

PhylPho wrote: »

So, using my computer and my email via my ISP, my friend emailed

[EMAIL="watchdog&#64;talktalkplc.com"]watchdog@talktalkplc.com[/EMAIL]

with a copy to

[EMAIL="watchdogwebteam&#64;bbc.co.uk"]watchdogwebteam@bbc.co.uk[/EMAIL]

And, as I said in the update earlier in this thread, that was it. Instant action.

Good luck.

Is there any chance you could forward me (with your friend's consent) the email so I can see what format to use? Or should I just send pretty much the gist of what I've posted thus far?
Thanks.

ginx13

Hi any advice about Talk Talk would be so welcome
I signed up with talk talk a couple of months ago and all seemed to be going well but on my last bill I was charged £55.44 for a 14 minute reverse charge call from an 01 number in the UK. I have found the details on their charges and the charge should be 20p x 14mins + £2.80 connection a total of £6.31. They agree with the lower rate - but won't change the bill or put forward a complaint!
What on earth do I do, they know it is wrong and still insist on taking the money. My phone call was passed to Cordelia in South Africa who gave me a reference and acknowledged that the £6.31 is correct, I also made sure that the call was recorded. Cordelia said that the complaint may not be actioned!! - How does that work? Your advice and help would be most appreciated.
Virginia

Mark_In_Hampshire

ginx13 wrote: »

Hi any advice about Talk Talk would be so welcome
I signed up with talk talk a couple of months ago and all seemed to be going well but on my last bill I was charged £55.44 for a 14 minute reverse charge call from an 01 number in the UK. I have found the details on their charges and the charge should be 20p x 14mins + £2.80 connection a total of £6.31. They agree with the lower rate - but won't change the bill or put forward a complaint!
What on earth do I do, they know it is wrong and still insist on taking the money. My phone call was passed to Cordelia in South Africa who gave me a reference and acknowledged that the £6.31 is correct, I also made sure that the call was recorded. Cordelia said that the complaint may not be actioned!! - How does that work? Your advice and help would be most appreciated.
Virginia

You'll probably need to write to them describing the issue, who you spoke to and when plus that reference, and asking for the difference to be put in dispute. Then only pay the bit you owe and throw the ball back in their court to sort it out.

If you pay in such a way that the money is "pulled" from you, rather than you paying them, then unfortunately there's not a lot that you can do - companies like direct debit or recurring payments, as they get their money whether the bill is right or not and leave the customer begging for a refund.

Heinz

Mark_In_Hampshire wrote: »

If you pay in such a way that the money is "pulled" from you, rather than you paying them, then unfortunately there's not a lot that you can do - companies like direct debit or recurring payments, as they get their money whether the bill is right or not and leave the customer begging for a refund.

If you pay by Direct Debit, you can use the Direct Debit guarantee to require your bank to reverse the call if you do not agree with the amount called. You do not have to prove the amount called was incorrect, the bank must reverse the call.

If, however, you pay my credit or debit card 'recurring payment', you cannot do that.

Mark_In_Hampshire

Heinz wrote: »

If you pay by Direct Debit, you can use the Direct Debit guarantee to require your bank to reverse the call if you do not agree with the amount called. You do not have to prove the amount called was incorrect, the bank must reverse the call.

If, however, you pay my credit or debit card 'recurring payment', you cannot do that.

You can have the DD reversed - but then you're in breach of contract and the payee can then seek remedies against you and/or cancel your service, because you didn't pay what you did owe - you paid nothing.

You can't just get the "incorrect" bit reversed.

It all works in the payee's favour both contractually and legally.