How can I make a TalkTalk complaint? - I work there

jizadine

Margaret_Clark wrote: »

What I don't understand is why he didn't turn to other colleagues for help - is the place that unfriendly??

I can't speak personally on Dex91s behalf - I did send a PM with some more information should they wish to take further action.

In my own experience it is a very good company to work for. I have been there 12 months and it is an exciting, innovative, versatile company and I have never been made to feel that my comments or suggestions are unwanted.

J

Inactive

jizadine wrote: »

In my own experience it is a very good company to work for. I have been there 12 months and it is an exciting, innovative, versatile company and I have never been made to feel that my comments or suggestions are unwanted.

J

Shame none of that seems to extend to the benefit of the long suffering customers.:)

sassy_one

I have used TalkTalk are a awful company, as is Carphone Warehouse

CGG

At last! At last! At l-as-t! Have finally got reconnected to the internet after having no connection since Friday.
How wonderful (not) of TalkTalk letting it's customers know there were likely disruptions to their service before hand.
TalkTalk = !!!!.

PaulHUK

jizadine wrote: »

SpeakUp - a confidential external hotline if you wish to "to raise serious concerns about irregularities or wrong doings within the business"

Brilliant. I want to speak up. There is a serious concern about "irregularities" and "wrong doings" within TalkTalk right now. The Information Commissioner's Office in London is discussing it with TalkTalk at present. It's called "STalkSTalk".

What happens is this. And I'll start by saying what TalkTalk say to defend their activity... They are wanting to offer a free new service called anti malware. What will happen is you will be able to opt-in to have warnings displayed if you visit any web pages that they have identified as having dodgy software on. So it's a bit like installing anti-virus on your PC at home, but they would say, much better because you don't have to install anything. Ok, that out of the way, what are they doing now?

When a customer visits a website, TalkTalk are taking a copy of the website address (the http stuff in the address bar of your browser now). When you visit websites, TalkTalk literally Stalk you. They visit the site using the address bar detail, they say they are doing this to scan it - to check for malware. It is as if you walked into a real shop, and then they follow you in to see if the shop sells anything dodgy.

Only thing is, this is not optional. The STalkSTalk bit is not optional. Every customer has to accept it. Until mid July there was no information at all about it, yet it started well before then.

So they now say it is not privacy invading, no personal information etc. Yet there is evidence that the address bar text is sometimes specific to you or I. It can contain user IDs, personal data and certainly unique ID numbers that are specific to your visit to a website.

Inactive wrote: »

I think that the CEO of Talk Talk is well aware of how his company is run.

Hmmm, not so sure!

As pointed out:

jizadine wrote: »

the CEO is NOT Charles Dunstone.

Charles Dunstone (CD) is the Chairman.

A customer, who also has a website on the web, told CD that his company must stop putting extra demand on the resources of his website (by visiting his site a second time when a TalkTalk customer did using the STalkSTalk thing) and he ultimately told the chairman that he would charge TalkTalk if they did not stop doing this. Mr Dunstone told the gentleman he had a laughably naive understanding of law in this country and he told him that he was putting the supplied invoices in the trash. Mr Dunstone said he was not even going to forward the communications to his lawyers.

What is so funny is that TalkTalk has terms and conditions on their website that impose conditions not much unlike what that man wanted to do, to limit his costs (it is not "free" to send website information to the computers of MSE visitors, as I am sure Martin and the MSE team could explain!)

What happened next? The man had a communication from TalkTalk's legal people. They wanted to discuss the matter.:o

Now, either the chairman tells porkies or he doesn't realise that his legal people go through his office trash to check for any naive communications he has sent out that they need to review/backtrack/respond to.

:rotfl:

CGG wrote: »

At last! At last! At l-as-t! Have finally got reconnected to the internet after having no connection since Friday.
How wonderful (not) of TalkTalk letting it's customers know there were likely disruptions to their service before hand.
TalkTalk = !!!!.

If you were an Internet Service Provider and you were trying to do more than your customers expected you to do... if you were trying to "tap into" the stream of information between your customers and the individual websites they visit... If you were doing that to "take a copy" of the website address data, including any parameters after the website address itself, and then you were using that later to visit the website... well if you were an ISP doing just that, you might break the internet doing it too!

jizadine wrote: »

In my own experience it is a very good company to work for. I have been there 12 months and it is an exciting, innovative, versatile company and I have never been made to feel that my comments or suggestions are unwanted.

I shall assume you are not in their PR/Marketing team! TalkTalk would describe STalkSTalk (or whatever they call it internally) as "very exciting" I think. It's actually quite a good idea but so badly implemented. Like, why keep it secret from customers? Why wait until they find out? Then why not come clean about it fully, from the start?

I'm sorry to you for if you have only been there a year it is hardly your "fault". They are treating their customers badly, not being honest about what is happneing with their private communication content. Not saying how it is being processed by them for TalkTalk's future benefit. Not giving customers the opportunity to Opt-In (as required by law since if this is an interception of communication it is covered by the RIPA 2000 act of parliament). And claiming "no personal data" when there demonstrably IS personal data involved (which is contrary to the Data Protection Act)

It is so wrong and customers are entitled to complain. I believe the address in this thread to be useful, or pick up the phone and ask them about the STalkSTalk anti-malware project. I predict there is absolutely nothing illegal and nothing to worry about. If you don't know how to complain in detail, just tell them you're not interested if it is legal or not, but it is not in the terms and conditions you agreed to when you signed up.

I imagine someone will point out that "if you're doing nothing wrong why are bothered"... Read up about the latest behavioural targeting of adverts etc.

Only last week a journalist reported: he visited a flight seller, got his flight price, tried a competitor site which cost more, so he returned to the original website and the flights cost more the second time around - only minutes later. He deleted cookies. He went back to the site. The flights were the original price.

In the US, there is a court case going on now about adverts and cookies. Website visitors found they deleted cookies but then, later, the cookies were "re-created" including the original data that had been deleted. It uses something I don't understand, via Adobe. So, enough to be concerned, not anxious, but concerned. We should take an active interest in our own data or data created by others about us.

BT tried something similar with Phorm a couple of years ago. Phorm are nowadays trotting around the globe trying to flog the system (have been to Korea... last seen struggling in Brazil?) and BT pulled the plug eventually. TalkTalk should do the same before they lose the positive ground they have achieved defending consumer rights as an ISP in the last year or so.

Sorry I cannot post links to sources for the above (too new on MSE), but you will find them on a good search engine. NODPI, TalkTalk customer forum, ThinkBroadband, the-phoenix-broadband-advice-community site (with copies of the emails between the webmaster and TalkTalk legal team)

Good luck to the webmaster I wrote about above. I like big business. However big business has a responsibility not to trample on smaller groups or individuals, ignoring their wishes and their costs. And big business cannot ignore regulations that exist to protect individuals.

Happy to respond to any comments and if anyone can post links here to provide more for TalkTalk customers I think it would help. For example, although I think it is pathetic, there is a TalkTalk blog with a "sort-of-repsonse" to customer concerns and I think you could get more ideas on how to complain there.

PaulHUK

TalkTalk_Company_Representative wrote: »

As an employee of TalkTalk I am sure you, as all TalkTalk employees, receive the Process Change Communications Emails. For reference there was one sent yesterday at 18:51, likewise on Tuesday at 17:30, Monday 17:37 informing of process changes and communications across the business.

Hey

Has STalkSTalk been covered in the emails you describe? Does it say why there have been untruths spoken by TalkTalk when responding to complaints from customers? Does it answer the point about URLs (web address text) actually containing specific communication content which is sometimes personal and private?

And, does it explain why customers are not able to say "No thanks, I don't want to be part of your anti-malware system creation, count me out and just do what I want my ISP to do and connect me to websites without using my communication content for things I have not agreed to"?

Have your colleagues been briefed, any better than your customers?

:mad:

Did Charles Dunstone change his mind after saying to that webmaster "Your understanding of of English law is so laughably naïve, that I haven’t even bothered to forward it to our legal team."?

Or do the TalkTalk legal team raid his trash bin to try and protect him from himself?

Take note people who want to complain to TalkTalk...!

TalkTalk

Hi All,

This thread does appear to be deviating from the orignal topic.

In relation to the network Security issue here is an official statement in regards to this here:

http://www.talktalkblog.co.uk/2010/08/23/keeping-customers-safe-online-update/

To bring the thread back to its original point however yes this does appear to be a line management issues Margeret. If the OP feels the immediate process to provide feedback is failing i.e. via a line manager, then there are relevant procedures in place for this to be bypassed and there is also anonymous feedback facilities available should an agent feel a manager is being dismissive or obstructive of the relevant processes available to agents.

Regards

Mark

schnibsey_2

Re - "This thread does appear to be deviating from the orignal topic".

Not disimilar then to your organizations ability to provide a decent internet connection, provide customer services that deliver just that.

Your company is an absolute disgrace! :mad:


Matt

toll_collector

Back on the original subject I think the original poster should be a bit more creative with his protest, cause lets face it you want to get some attention to the issue and get it sorted, rather then it just sitting in somebodies inbox (no offense to TalkTalk, just my experience of big businesses).

Try this, get mugs or mouse mats printed highlighting the issue, distribute around the office. That should get the right persons attention!

TalkTalk

Hi schnibsey,

If you are experiencing any trouble with your TalkTalk service feel free to post on the TalkTalk Members Forum and we can assist you with any issues you may face. No BB service can be provided with a 100% guarantee against any faults, we can only respond to these as they are raised to our attention.


Toll Collector

It is an innovating idea for the OP to regard and I can appreciate there is nothing more frustrating than feeling your feedback is not being considered. It is however down to the individual to empower themselves, I can assure you that all the necessary resources are in place for an employees to raise an issue, grievance or complaint internally and in the event they have issue with line managers we have HR contact to fall back to, anonymous whistleblower submission can be made for any potential issues with process practices or procedures which may be identified by our colleagues.

Regards

Mark