TALK TALK REP states signing VIA Quidco means you will not be entitled 2 tech support

NinjaB

Stupidly perhaps I phoned talk talk as mums contract with BT is up on the 23rd. So I was going to sign up to talk talk via quidco so I could get the £50 cashback. Mum received a call though I had asked them not to call her as she doesnt understand it all hence asking me to deal with it. The sales rep told her and i have been told also when i called to check it out that if i use quidco to sign up with talk talk then "you will not be entitled to technical support".

Now ... I said how can this be they are just a referral site, i am signing up with talk talk on the talk talk page? it is not stated on quidco and i can find that info on their site, so i ask to speak to someone who can tell me for sure and was told they dont have anyone at talk talk that could say for sure. So, are they just trying to make me sign up direct with them to get the commission or can i safely do quidco as I do want her to have technical support. Have mailed quidco also but as talk talk reps post here i am sure others will be happy to know what the truth is. So will i not be able to phone tech support at all? will they just charge me? or is it a case of and i am being polite, they have got it wrong for some reason?

I can only get bt and talk talk broadband apparently using one of those checking sites but at this rate and if this is how they are now perhaps she should just stay put with BT

Would really appreciate responses as mum feels pressured to sign up with the rep on the phone and confused now as to what the truth actually is

dylanuk

It sounds like you're being fed a line.

When you sign up "through Quidco" - you're really just signing up through the TalkTalk website.

The only difference would be - because you're effectively signing up online - is if TalkTalk offer a different service/offer via their website sales than they do via phone sales - this is often the case, with say wireless routers that are only free if you sign up online.

Perhaps the call centre staff get sales commission, if they're "cold" calling you (rather than you phoning TalkTalk customer services) - they probably do.

I could be wrong, but for that to be the case, it would mean anyone who signs up for TalkTalk via the TalkTalk website doesn't get Technical Support, which is just ludicrous.

NinjaB

dylanuk wrote: »

It sounds like you're being fed a line.

When you sign up "through Quidco" - you're really just signing up through the TalkTalk website.

The only difference would be - because you're effectively signing up online - is if TalkTalk offer a different service/offer via their website sales than they do via phone sales - this is often the case, with say wireless routers that are only free if you sign up online.

Perhaps the call centre staff get sales commission, if they're "cold" calling you (rather than you phoning TalkTalk customer services) - they probably do.

I could be wrong, but for that to be the case, it would mean anyone who signs up for TalkTalk via the TalkTalk website doesn't get Technical Support, which is just ludicrous.

Thanks for that, you have helped reassure me. It made no sense to me that they would do that, I even read the terms and conditions on Talk Talk to see if I could glean anything. I tried to get them to stop calling mum again tomorrow which they said they were going to do but after being transferred left right and centre for over 15mins repeating myself over again I gave up and just told her to tell them I am dealing with it and not to call again but I know she is still stressed that they are going to call yet again.

ukbill69

Load of crap, dont touch them, they are rubbish and you will regret signing up with them.

kwikbreaks

I think this speaks volumes about their sales staff honesty.

Talk Talk used to get very low ratings on http://www.dslzoneuk.net/isp_ratings.php but now seem to be moving up the tables. In the past I would have said avoid at all costs but now having seen a lot of positive comments I'm not so certain - possibly they are finally getting their act together with the product if not with their staff selection procedures.

The biggest problem with them remains that they fully unbundle your line so should you later want to move to a different ISP it is a PITA, posssibly costly, and you will be without internet for a while as ISPs won't take an order until you have a BT line. They used to have an 18 month minimum contract too which would put me off.

NinjaB

kwikbreaks wrote: »

The biggest problem with them remains that they fully unbundle your line so should you later want to move to a different ISP it is a PITA, posssibly costly, and you will be without internet for a while as ISPs won't take an order until you have a BT line. They used to have an 18 month minimum contract too which would put me off.

I must admit I am totally ignorant to all this. I checked one of those sites which gave choices and it was BT or talk talk, at the moment mum has a speed equivalent to dial up and endless problems. It is also proving very expensive. Do you think that it would be very costly if they prove to be rubbish to revert to BT?

kwikbreaks

There will only be a full unbundling if they have their kit in the exchange so check http://www.samknows.com/broadband/search.php to make sure they are shown as an LLU supplier there.

To get back out from TT you have to get the line taken back by BT. Depending on the offers at the time this may be free but with a 12 month contract on the line, it could require you to take BT broadband, or may cost anything up to ~ £150 although some ISPs will subsidise that if you take their broadband.

TalkTalk may well be fine - as I've said I've seen plenty of good reports recently but you have to be prepared to take the gamble.

You say your mother is having speed problems - if those problems are related to line length then moving to TalkTalk still won't help as they don't replace the actual line from the exchange to the house they just get it connected to their kit in the exchange.

There can be all sorts of reasons for poor speeds - the actual line, the internal wiring, equipment used, ISP and (rarely) some settings on the computer. IMO you really need to get to the bottom of the speed problem before considering changing ISP.

NinjaB

Thanks for being so helpful, I feel like the blind leading the blind. She lives out in the country and bt's site say this is the fastest she would get BT Total Broadband You can get fast and reliable broadband with speeds of up to 8Mb. 0.256Mb download
Talk Talk say they would guarantee 3plus but the more we think about how they lied the less inclined we are to believe anything they say. It doesn't help the speed I am sure that she has a wired connection but this is via a long phone extension cable. At the moment I am thinking she should just stay with BT and get a wireless connection to at least alleviate the extra problems using the extension might be giving. Have told her to speak to a neighbour to see who they use and what their service is like but more and more it feels like it is just as well to stay put. Whilst of course cost is important for mum simplicity is more so.

Re that link thank you she is under hereford and it says talk talk are enabled TalkTalk (CPW):Enabled

NinjaB

Seems like a really good site you have linked to and I shall pass it on to friends. For mum this is what it says for accesssibility

Congratulations, you are in a broadband enabled area.
Click here to compare packages available to you.
However, there is another service on your phone line (e.g. ADSL, LLU, DACS, etc) that would prevent you from ordering a new ADSL connection.

The following services are available in your location:
BT Wholesale ADSL
BT Wholesale ADSL Max
TalkTalk (CPW) LLU

NinjaB

Quidco responded as such ...

@NinaB â You are correct. If you purchase TalkTalk via Quidco and follow all our security guidelines, this has no bearing on post-sale support at all. You must make sure that you have no telephone involvement with their sales team about the actual purchase though. Clear all cookies and temporary internet files in your browser before logging into Quidco, then make the purchase all in one visit. This will minimise the risk of it not tracking or being declined.

Just in case it helps anyone else who gets given the same nonsense explanation on the phone, though I really wish I never called them

kwikbreaks

So she would be fully LLU'd and you may have blown the cashback already

The place to start is with the router stats...
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.php

On the extension front...
When the ADSL signal reaches the router it is at a very low strength indeed - it didn't even start out especially strong and has travelled along maybe several km of wiring originally designed to take voice.

The frequencies used by ADSL match closely those used by the old AM radio which is still going strong. Any long length of wire will pick up that AM radio and phone extensions contain just such a long length of wire that connects back onto the ADSL signal pair through a capacitor in the master socket (the ring wire). For reasons I'll gloss over here the actual signal pair are more immune to picking up electrical interference and it is just that ring wire that needs concentracting on.

Ideally you should connect a filter to the master socket with the router on the ADSL side and any phone extensions on the voice side. Things aren't always that easy though.

Sometimes there are hard wired extensions. On newer sockets the faceplate can be removed revealing an inner socket and with those hard wired extensions connect to the faceplate. If that is how it is just removing the ring wire from terminal #3 is all that needs to be done. On older sockets there is no inner socket and extensions may be connected to the circuit board. You are not supposed to touch these (but it is still #3 that needs removing).

With plugin extensions the best answer is to buy and fit a BT iPlate which inserts a choke in the ring wire circuit.

Running a router on a plugin extension is a great way to screw up your ADSL unless you have fitted an iPlate (it still isn't perfect if you have)