Talk-Talk What I Know So Far....

Roxanne_2

I recently left TalkTalk phone and broadband service after a year. I was fairly content with the service up to the last few months when there began to be quite a bit of crackle on the phone line and my broadband went down twice for 3-4 days each time. We have 3 computers in the house each used consistantly 24/7. I ran up a £17.00 phone bill to Talktalk technical support 090..number ( then .50p/min - now .10p/min I believe) and, although the staff were professional and helpful both times the fault was apparently "....a BT line problem". I refuse to incurr anymore financial outlay so I have resorted to emailing them at customer support and broadband support@talktalk to resolve a 'situation'. I have cancelled my direct debit and I have been awarded a £6.89 pre tax credit towards the £17.00 technical support phone charge which I have still declined to pay as I also have £10.00 worth of charges to Onetel ( my 1p/min back up internet support) making a total of £27.00 I would be out if I paid both bills. I believe that CPWarehouse has taken over Onetel?? If so they will have received money from me for the tech support calls to that were not a result of my equipment at all and also for the use of Onetels dial-up internet which was my temporary solution!

I have sent them an extract of their Customer Charter as follows:

The five fundamental rules of The Carphone Warehouse
• If we don’t look after the customer, somebody else will.
• Nothing is gained by winning an argument but losing a customer.
• Always deliver what we promise. If in doubt, under-promise and over-deliver.
• Always treat customers as we ourselves would like to be treated.
• The reputation of the whole company is in the hands of every individual.

Due to the confluence of the problems w/ TT and an offer I couldn't refuse (of £9.75/mn for up to 8 meg broadband ) I am currently with Bulldog. Although there were a few glitches getting set up they were extremely efficient at getting a BT engineer person, on a weekend, to sort out the 'crackle and pop' on our line and the problems effecting our broadband supply. And, there is no charge for tech support either!

Ho hum - one day at a time!

amonra

Let's hold our horses and wait till the dust settles before comitting to an 18 month contract (LOONNGG TIME !) If they get a mass imigration to their service I cant imagine it standing up to the demand. Everyone has been "promised" an 8 MB service and when they don tget it there is going to be a VERY long queue on the support line. Broadband can be prone to all sorts of vaguaries, faulty lines, faulty computers, finger trouble, let's wait a bit longer. If it proves to be a winner then all the other ISPs will improve their offers.

viken

I've had a talk talk subsription for some time, but have noticed since the free broadband service has been advertised a new web site has been developed and the tel. No. for customer services has vanished. My broadband provider is telewest and provide a good service, unlimited and very fast. I contacted telewest, threatened to leave ( to talk talk ) and they have now kindly reduced my monthly fee by £18.50. It pays to haggle.

Skyhigh

amonra wrote:

If it proves to be a winner then all the other ISPs will improve their offers.

This may not be true of the majority of the ISP market, although there is talk of a 'broadband price war' you will find that large companies such as BT won't suddenly offer new (or better) deals as they rely on their current user base not 'being bothered' to switch.

One example is BA, its only taken them....7 years? to finally get around to making any severe changes to their air fares.

Unfortunately in this country we pay the most for broadband compared to almost all other EU countries, the same with cars...food...everything really.
Companies want to keep it this way for as long as possible, so they can squeeze as much cash out of us all.
The only problem is, most of us stand for it and just accept it. :-/

:!:

alanw888

--Tony-- wrote:

nonsense, can you substantiate your claim Gmail (Google) intend to spam its users!

That info was given in most computer mags when Gmail was originally announced and I have seen nothing recently to change that.

I give below a few quick snippets taken from the WWW - sugest you look for yourself if you think that Google is NOT an advertising supported Company....

In return for all that inbox space, Google wants just one favor: to be allowed to scan the content of your incoming messages and serve content-targeted ads alongside them

Google's Gmail privacy policy points out that your email will be retained even after you close your account -

"The contents of your Gmail account also are stored and maintained on Google servers in order to provide the service. Indeed, residual copies of email may remain on our systems, even after you have deleted them from your mailbox or after the termination of your account." Quote from Google

"While Google brags that no humans will read your emails, the entire Gmail program will involve extensive automated profiling of you as an individual. Quote Doubleclick Exec.

In England, watchdog group Privacy International filed a complaint that Gmail would violate the European Union's privacy laws. Silicon Valley's paper of record, the San Jose Mercury News, fretted on its editorial page, "If Google ogles your mail, can Ashcroft be far behind?" The controversy bubbled all the way up to late night, where Conan O'Brien joked about Google inserting ads for 1984.

In England, watchdog group Privacy International filed a complaint that Gmail would violate the European Union's privacy laws. Silicon Valley's paper of record, the San Jose Mercury News, fretted on its editorial page, "If Google ogles your mail, can Ashcroft be far behind?" The controversy bubbled all the way up to late night, where Conan O'Brien joked about Google inserting ads for 1984.

Im sure you will be able to find more........ substantiated ????

Claire_DC

Edinburghlass wrote:

With this offer you shift your line rental to TalkTalk and will not be paying BT anything.

I think that, if i have read correctly.. some customers won't be unbundled yet, they'll have to wait for the service to be rolled out to them, and will therefore have to pay £10 a month that goes to BT for the use of the line.. something like that anyway.

Claire_DC

redux wrote:

You make some interesting points, but ...

A BT contact isn't necessarily privy to the whole of a competitor's business plan, even if they are a supplier to it. TT probably has over 28,000 customers for this already. Was this a misprint for a rather larger number?

Bulldog is part of Cable and Wireless, not NTL.

I'm slightly confused about which way is up or down.

Cable and wireless are effectively NTL though as NTL bought them in about 1999.

Claire_DC

--Tony-- wrote:

P2P is the sharing of files over the internet. If we are to be honest with each other its the illegal (not allowed on this site) sharing of films and software (although i'm sure people will say its not) you have a shared file on your pc and so does everyone else which become a massive collection of files available to all (who are members) to download.

Any more just ask.

The activity of file sharing itself is not illegal, unless you are sharing copyrighted material through these programmes.. ie if you make music, take photo's etc and put them into a file sharing programme, then this is not illegal as the work is all your own and no copyrights are being breached.

However, for the most part p2p is used for illegal sharing of copyrighted films, games and music.. ie ones that they do not have permission to share.

redux

Claire_DC wrote:

Cable and wireless are effectively NTL though as NTL bought them in about 1999.

NTL bought a small part of C&W - it mentions here about cable TV, but maybe some other bits as well. C&W have also sold other parts from time to time, like one2one to T-mobile, or bought eg Energis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_%26_Wireless

C&W still exists all round the world http://www.cw.com/about_us/company_profile/index.html

raeble

I looked at this deal and think it is too good to be true. I do not like the 18 month contract - if their service is so brilliant why the long contract? For such a fast service I think the download limit is far too low. It should be double that. You can get to 40gb by using legal services within a month on slower services, with four times the download speed you'll have to keep a close eye on your usuage because you can hit your limit so much faster.