CPW/TT to offer FREE broadband (merged)

sloughflint

Haystakk wrote:

It may not look good, but do you appreciate that it is far more likely that people will complain about bad service rather than praise good service? Have you ever wondered why you rarely see any threads that commend when a company has done well?

With this in mind, yes there will be forums and sites that hit out at TalkTalk for being rubbish, but people should remember that there will be far more happy customers than the minority who have had a bad time, otherwise you'd see the company fall quite dramatically.

I've been with TalkTalk for over a year and a half now and am very pleased with their prices, service and packages so I recommend that people do not let bad experiences cloud judgement to such a degree that you immediately dismiss them as a viable option.

I too was happy until I had to get in touch with them and then what a can of worms!
It is forums like this which help people make informed choices.Of course people generally comment on the bad more than the good but when so many people downrate a company surely that should make people's alarm bells ring.
Checking out the adsl website is also useful. People shopping around for a new ISP for a better deal can rate their old one. Just check out TT. I'm not sorry I was able to leave TT and won't go back even if they do try to tempt with apparently appealing prices. They need to sort out their CS before their marketing.

paulhgc

1. Comparative offers for line rental, calls and broadband

Provider Package Monthly cost

Bulldog Unlimited broadband (up to 8Mbps), all UK landline £42.00
calls
BT "Option 4" broadband package (up to 8 Mbps), "Together £55.49
Option 3" calls package
NTL Up to 10Mbps broadband package, "Talk Unlimited 24" £59.99
calls package
Telewest Elite broadband package (up to 10Mbps), "Talk £60.50
Unlimited" calls package

TalkTalk Up to 8Mbps broadband, unlimited landline calls in the £20.99
UK and to 28 countries

inside_scoop

paulhgc wrote:

1. Comparative offers for line rental, calls and broadband

Provider Package Monthly cost

Bulldog Unlimited broadband (up to 8Mbps), all UK landline £42.00
calls
BT "Option 4" broadband package (up to 8 Mbps), "Together £55.49
Option 3" calls package
NTL Up to 10Mbps broadband package, "Talk Unlimited 24" £59.99
calls package
Telewest Elite broadband package (up to 10Mbps), "Talk £60.50
Unlimited" calls package

TalkTalk Up to 8Mbps broadband, unlimited landline calls in the £20.99
UK and to 28 countries

Also worth pointing out that none of the others offer unlimited international calls to 28 countries!

paulhgc

inside_scoop wrote:

Also worth pointing out that none of the others offer unlimited international calls to 28 countries!

yep this is a seriously tempting offer

mikemoate

I'd have more confidence if I could actually get on their website within a reasonable amount of time and also use their checker tool. In the absence of the latter why don't they compile a list of the exchanges they are going to unbundle and when?

Yes I know they are going to be busy today but wouldn't a capable organisation have forseen this and have taken appropriate action?

inside_scoop

mikemoate wrote:

I'd have more confidence if I could actually get on their website within a reasonable amount of time and also use their checker tool. In the absence of the latter why don't they compile a list of the exchanges they are going to unbundle and when?

Yes I know they are going to be busy today but wouldn't a capable organisation have forseen this and have taken appropriate action?

Mike - we thought about it but we chose not to for several reasons:

1. There are many other factors that determine whether you can get free BB and when - are you on cable currently, are you on another unbundled exchange, are you an existing TT BB customer etc. We felt that you need the whole picture to know whether and when you can get free BB so we felt that just giving an unbundling schedule would confuse rather then help

2. We don't want to give our competitors our unbundling schedule for obvious reasons.

3. We didn't forecast such a massive volume of traffic to the websie that we have received.

We are working today on implementing some new hardware which will make the site much quicker.

Hope this helps

koru

paulhgc wrote:

it says here that it is freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

http://www.bt.com/reconnect/index.jsp?obsNoSee=Y&vStore=1114&obsPage=/lines/index.jsp&obsType=LINK&obsOID=83036

Ah, I stand corrected! They have the cheek to charge for a second line, so I assumed they would charge for re-activation. But apparently I was wrong: there are limits to BT's greed/stupidity.

mikemoate

1. There are many other factors that determine whether you can get free BB and when - are you on cable currently, are you on another unbundled exchange, are you an existing TT BB customer etc. We felt that you need the whole picture to know whether and when you can get free BB so we felt that just giving an unbundling schedule would confuse rather then help

2. We don't want to give our competitors our unbundling schedule for obvious reasons.

Good try Scoop but that doesn't really wash. None of those things really effect my ability to get "free broadband" from talk talk, except for when (or if) my exchange gets unbundled by you. I am sure you will be more than happy to provide the service to customers of other llu providers and cable companies if they do the necessary in respect of their telephone line. As for "obvious reasons" you are already saying you are going to do 1,000 exchanges. At the moment it would be like signing up to a "pig in poke" contest.

koru

SamMoffatt28 wrote:

Just checked with my phone no & postcode and got this message:

Sorry
Free Broadband is not available

Because BT still controls your telephone exchange and we have to connect you through their equipment, we can't offer you broadband for free.However, we can offer you high-speed broadband at the great price of just £10 per month, when you sign up to our Talk3 international calling plan.

I dont know whether to go for it anyway. My bt phone bill & bt broadband combined cost me £50-50 per month. I'm not a heavy user on either phone or internet, although I regularly make national calls to my mum(usually about once a week) .I have never made international calls. Will I be any better off with the talktalk deal if I have to pay for their broadband? Do any other companies offer a better deal? I'm sceptical about being locked into an 18 month contract.

Don't just compare with package deals. If you don't make a lot of calls, a package will not be cheaper (not counting the new TalkTalk deal). You should look into Martin's recommendations. Use 18866/1899/18185 for calls and switch your broadband to a cheaper ISP (a light user shouldn't need to spend more than £12-15 on BB).

inside_scoop

mikemoate wrote:

Good try Scoop but that doesn't really wash. None of those things really effect my ability to get "free broadband" from talk talk, except for when (or if) my exchange gets unbundled by you. I am sure you will be more than happy to provide the service to customers of other llu providers and cable companies if they do the necessary in respect of their telephone line. As for "obvious reasons" you are already saying you are going to do 1,000 exchanges. At the moment it would be like signing up to a "pig in poke" contest.

Not really sure what you want me to say. I am trying to be honest here.

Without repeating myself as to the reasons for not telling all our competitors which exchanges we will be unbudling first and thus giving them the chance to focus on the ones that we aren't - the availability checker will be back on line as soon as we can get it back. Once it is - you can check your local exhange using your number and postcode and find out if you qualify. We are sorry it is down, but it is something that we are working hard to rectify - obviosly we would prefer it if it wasn't. In any instance, you cannot sign up without the availability checker working so there is no need for a pig in poke contest. Whatever that is.