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

pricefighter

devsen wrote:

I use a 0871 service to call round the world (landline and mobile) and it costs me 10p/min to call landline or mobile to India.

Have you checked the Intl Call Checker lately :http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/intcallchecker/

Lots of providers offering cheaper deals.

Heinz

Skyhigh wrote:

Gmail does not "read" your emails, it simply scans for keywords and displays targetted ads that are barely noticable.
Definitely less noticable than the damned flash banners you get from Hotmail and Yahoo.
Lets also mention Gmail offers superior customisation, filter customisation, RSS feeds and even the handy ability to search your emails.
Have a look about, alot of companies are copying Google, (can you say MSN search?), also the Gmail service.

And, apart from the massive 2.7Gb storage and forwarding, they offer free POP3 - so you never have to logon to webmail and never see the ads (because your e-mails arrive via OE or whatever).

darrenf_2

MyUserNamesTaken wrote:

Ooohh...forgot one more thing - and it's a very important thing to consider. If you do take up this offer, remember that your line rental will move away from BT. That means that should you wish to leave talktalk to go to another ISP (which a lot of people will do when they discover just how crap the service really is), you have to move your line rental back to BT before signing up for broadband with anyone else.

I have recently moved my line rental to TT from BT (Feb) and my broadband connection is still with BT working fine (seem to be getting this for free since I throttled down from Option 4 to Option 2), and at work we have Tiscali business broadband on our network, but our line rental is not with BT. So do you have to have line rental with BT to connect with another ISP?

hethmar

Well, Ive signed up - I was already on Option 3 with them - free 24/7 national calls and though I cant get the free broadband as my exchange hasnt been unbundled - at a tenner a month it is £20 a month cheaper than the wanadoo service I have.

I cringe when I read about bad customer service - but lets face it EVERY provider seems to have rubbish customer service - its only when you need it that you find that out.

Wanadoo recently rang me in the evening saying I hadnt paid my monthly sub - as this is a direct debit couldnt understand it. Very rude young man suggested I "didnt have enough money to cover it".

Hours later and with blood pressure rising it turns out Wanadoo accounts department had failed to activate direct debits for a large number of people that month.

I am still fuming from the rudeness of their "accounts collector" who rang me.

I have phoned them a dozen times since - each call on premium rate and rarely answered in less than 20 mins - asking them for an email to verify I am no a debtor and for compensation for all the calls I had to make to sort this. It is now over a month and I havent had one word from them.

So, Im signed up with TT - I shall be £240 a year better off and lets just see how the customer service is. If it is rubbish then surely they are breaking the terms of their contract and disgruntled users should be able to dump them without the £70 charge.

Skyhigh

Heinz wrote:

And, apart from the massive 2.7Gb storage and forwarding, they offer free POP3 - so you never have to logon to webmail and never see the ads (because your e-mails arrive via OE or whatever).

Very true, I also forgot to mention:
Keyboard shortcuts
9 months dormancy on accounts
Inbuilt anti-virus scanning
The 'labelling' system
Gmail notifier for Firefox and even IE 7
Mobile access :oD
and finally the best thing:
Actual improvements and growth you can see in the service, its not stood still like so many others!


Again as for Talk Talk its really a good deal for light/standard users.
Messenging systems such as 'MSN' (bleh!), Trillian, ICQ, AIM, Yahoo! etc don't really take up too much bandwidth unless you're transferring files over them, webcams do use more - but not a huge amount.

The connection should even be ok for P2P user requirements, as I said before if you 'seriously' download anything in large quantities then you'll be using a dedicated connection with unlimited bandwidth and probably a specific download manager....so you probably won't even be thinking about switching to TT.


All I can say is, remember 56k? remember 14.4k?
'BBB' (before broadband) - waiting 5 minutes for a simple text 50kb file to download?
So maybe broadband, even with throttling and bandwidth limits....at up to 8mb (even 1mb) isn't so bad

Mind you, we should all move to Japan, where its about £7.50 a month for a 50mb connection....and the connections can go over 100mb


:!:

neilbell

terryfow, I have to ask, which provider IS that? A month by month contract sounds great with unlimited access and 8mb. How much are you paying per month (including any line rental, etc)?

blueorigin

MyUserNamesTaken wrote:

Tech support at 50p a minute..... There's so much wrong with this particular company. It's really not worth the hassle.

If you read Charles Dunstone's Blog (yeah right, he really writes this stuff...) he would have you believe that Tech support is now only 10p per minute, which apparently now has some self-service aspects for the simple things but then there is a one-off £2 charge if you actually wish to talk to someone (see http://www.talktalk.co.uk/talktalk/servlet/gben-LLU-PageServer?article=MAIN.UK.TALKTALK.STATIC.BLOG.HOME ).

I can find a reference to the 10p/minute elsewhere on the site but not the one-off £2 (naturally...).

I'm an ex-TalkTalk Broadband user and my experience of Technical Support has been mixed. I got excellent support (at 50p/minute) for a technical problem I had but had a nightmare getting my MAC. I basically got fed up with the traffic shaping under normal use so I moved to F2S, which also now has traffic shaping and went through a very difficult period after the Pipex takeover. Luckily I have not had to contact Technical Support there yet...!!

Anyone thinking of joining TalkTalk on this offer should proceed with caution for a lot of the reasons stated previously on this thread but not least because once committed it will be both difficult and expensive to get away again. Especially since an LLU'd line (once available, June at the earliest I believe) currently requires a cease and reprovide of the broadband service where you will potentially incur extra costs and/or get tied into a long contract taking up a service with another ISP.

Oh and BTW anyone who thinks that the broadband is really 'free' needs to do some sums. TalkTalk are charging full whack for the line rental (they used to charge £9.99) and it is doubtful any average user will spend £9.99 on calls, international or otherwise!! I still have TalkTalk Landline on the free tariff and I struggle to spend more than £2-£3 a month.

I'd be inclined to wait until the dust settles and see how the rest of the market reacts to this offer. I would also be interested to read the experiences of the people who have taken the plunge (very brave).

That's my 2p worth. Good luck.

CHALKY7

fagun wrote:

Martin - could you ask Talk Talk why they don't allow you to delay taking the landline until they can offer the broadband? The way they've structured it, I'll be on their £10 a month tarrif by the end of April, but won't get broadband until end June - that's an extra £20 they're getting from me for free as I'm on Primustel at the moment.

Fagun/Martin Like Fagun I went on the internet to apply for this free broadband package. I could have the line and phone in 3 weeks but would have to wait for the internet until the end of June. ( This morning Broadband has been extended to August). I telephoned the free phone number to explain that I currently have a phone and broadband package from Homecall which is inclussive. If I cancel the phone then I loose Broadband. So could i defer the phone connection until the Broadband was available. No said the operator, I needed to wait until the end of June and then apply. I explained that the dates for broadband had in four days moved from the end of June to the end of August. Sorry, was the reply "I cant help you". Great news for anyone who already has a broadband and phone package. Surely its not too much to ask to defer the phone line change over until nearer the broadband connection date? I have also written to Talk Talk but have yet to receive a reply.

Bob1000

After reading all 9 pages of this saga, I am staying with telewest and BT.

I telephoned Telewest and said I was going to move unless they matched the offer, they agreed to reduce the price on my monthly broadband fee currently £17.99 to almost half for 6 months and I am not tied in and can move if I still wish.

I am happy even on 2mb broadband, at least it is constant!

Claire_DC

robbieinbath wrote:

In addittion to Kondormind's comments - Talk Talk confirmerd that I won't pay for broadband until it is connected. Aslo, the call line fetures such as call diversion and Featured Call Minder are cheaper than BT

Won't pay for broadband until it's been connected? It's free so you'll be paying the same amount without broadband. :rolleyes: