Moving house and future services - ***Updated - How I FINALLY escaped Talktalk ***

Katgrit

Hi,

I'm just less than 3 weeks away from moving house. I have no idea whether the new house, which to my knowledge has been vacant for over 6 months, has a working phone line. I am planning on visiting this week with the EA to "measure up", and taking a phone with me to plug in and dial the 17070 number to see if the line is live and there is a dial tone. If the phone is dead that will help me make my mind up with this....


I am currently 13 months into an 18 month essential phone & BB contract with talktalk. If the lineat the new house is still live I can transfer my package, as there is a talktalk LLU at the local exchange ( I hope I've phrased that right). Talktalk will charge me £29.99 to transfer, and I assume sign me up for another 18 month contract. So compared to now I'm worse off by £30.

If i cancel now they will charge me 6 months x £8 cancellation fee = £48. I move house, get settled in and sign up again starting from scratch. Assuming the line is live I can then sign up on-line, get £24 topcashback, and free connection on an 18 month contract. I am therefore £24 worse off than I am now.

If the phone line is dead I assume talktalk cannot directly transfer and I would need to go back to BT or PostOffice to reconnect first? I know there is a charge for this. I dont talktalk can do this can they?

Regardless of money saving I am actually considering not getting a landline at all in my new house, and would like to try a mobile dongle first. The only 2 people who ever call my landline are my Mum and My Nan, and I'd quite happily survive without my Mothers fussing phonecalls!! A phoneline in itself is a waste of time, I only it to get Broadband. I have found out that the highest speed internet I can get will be 1.0 mbps (or whatever it is) as its a bit out in the sticks. I use youtube maybe 3 times a year, I download tracks about the same and 99% of my internet use is just browsing. This site, some other forums and ebay. So I think the 500mb £5 monthly dongle from Orange should do the trick. If I'm going over, or the reception/speed is naff then I'd get a phoneline and broadband installed then. I might aswell see if I can get away without a phoneline & Broadband to start with.

So questions are:

1. Have I missed anything in my calculations? Are there any other taltalk charges I dont know about?

2. Are mobile broadband speeds comparable with 1.0 thingies per sec? The orange website says the coverage for mobile BB is "very good". Will 500mb be enough for me just browsing. I'm not sure whether this is per day or per month.

3. If when I check the phoneline IS dead, and I decide to transfer with talktalk afterall can they get it reconnected without me having to transfer back to BT for 12 months (or post office for 1)?? What will they charge for this, as I know I'll be looking at £120ish with BT?

If it helps I can supply my new postcode. There is an O2 transmitter in the village, and a vodaphone one but ther neares Orange one is about 2 miles away. The local exchange is about 3 miles as the crow flies, and has BT Wholesale ADSL, BT Wholesale ADSL Max, BT Wholesale SDSL, TalkTalk (CPW) LLU.

Its looking to me like I'll just be best off cancelling.

Thats all for now. Thanks for listening and thanks in advance for any advice.

gt94sss2

Katgrit wrote: »

3. If when I check the phoneline IS dead, and I decide to transfer with talktalk afterall can they get it reconnected without me having to transfer back to BT for 12 months (or post office for 1)?? What will they charge for this, as I know I'll be looking at £120ish with BT?

Yes, they can - see http://broadband.talktalk.co.uk/newlines

BT sometimes also reconnect existing lines for free - though you would then need to enter into a contract with them for line rental

Regards
Sunil

TalkTalk

Hi Kat,

As gt94sss2 has correctly advised TT can supply new lines.

As part of the home move process we will install a new line as necessary.

The homemover fee is a set amount of 29.99 irrespective of if a new line is required or not.

As part of the home move if you are connecting to TT at the new address you will need to agree a new contract term. You will not however be charged a cessation fee if you are still in contract at your current address. This is waived in light of the new contract term.

In regards to mobile coverage this would be dependant on a number of factors such as the coverage, indoor/outdoor locations, interference from other wireless devices. As such its difficult to say what speeds will be like as these will fluctuate dramatically if for example you move room to room while using a mobile based service. Provided you can get a good signal in the varying places you wish to use the mobile service then there is no reason why this may not suit your needs. I would however advise that you are conscious of any limitation on downloads etc with a mobile service as these tend to be much smaller by comparison to fixed line BB suppliers. As such if you utilise high usage services eg video streaming/downloading etc you may be reaching /exceeding download limits. You would need to be aware of this before making any commitments to ensure the contracted service is suitable for its purpose.

Regards

M:)

Katgrit

TalkTalk_Company_Representative wrote: »

Hi Kat,

As gt94sss2 has correctly advised TT can supply new lines.

As part of the home move process we will install a new line as necessary.

The homemover fee is a set amount of 29.99 irrespective of if a new line is required or not.

Not according to your overseas call centre its not. Its £69.99.

I have 5 months left on my contract so as above, was contemplating complete disconnection. They said if I wanted to stick with them they would waive the £29.99 home mover fee and it would all be done for free, including the new line. They then put me through to the home move team who said it would cost £69.99, they would ofset the £29.99 against this so I would only have to pay £40. Totally different to what you've said. I disagreed, pointed out what you'd said and while being put through to the "new lines" team I was cut off. After being on the phone for a good 35 minutes to FIVE different teams and getting NOWHERE I really couldn't be bothered to phone back again.

Are overseas called centres staffed by different staff at weekends? They haven't been that bad recently - until today when they have been shockingly bad. 2 phonecalls, spoke to 7 different people and got cut off twice. I'm surprised at myself that I'm actually contemplating staying!!

JustPassingBy

Katgrit wrote: »

Not according to your overseas call centre its not. Its £69.99.

It can be bothersome when you receive conflicting information. You might be reassured by reading some of the posts on moving home at

http://www.talktalkmembers.com/forums/

Katgrit

Katgrit wrote: »

Are overseas called centres staffed by different staff at weekends? They haven't been that bad recently - until today when they have been shockingly bad. 2 phonecalls, spoke to 7 different people and got cut off twice. I'm surprised at myself that I'm actually contemplating staying!!

Make that 6 phone calls, 14 different people and cut off 5 times!!:mad:

Heinz

Katgrit wrote: »

Make that 6 phone calls, 14 different people and cut off 5 times!!:mad:

As they are a telephone company, I assume those 'cut off' calls were the person to whom you spoke getting out of their depth and terminating the call as "too difficult to deal with" or "can't be arsed to deal with."

Outrageous.

What's the betting on Talk Talk Company Representative not coming back now.

Katgrit

Heinz wrote: »

As they are a telephone company, I assume those 'cut off' calls were the person to whom you spoke getting out of their depth and terminating the call as "too difficult to deal with" or "can't be arsed to deal with."

Outrageous.

What's the betting on Talk Talk Company Representative not coming back now.

Nope. It was "a system fault" apparantly, They've cut lots of people off today according to them. All by accident of course!:rotfl:

I have finally got rid of them. I feel free! Somewhat akin to selling your soul to the devil and then managing to reclaim it back!

By coincidence I found elsewhere on here that due to them increasing their charges mid-contact I was free to terminate my contract without charge!! :T I made notes of times and CS rep's names each time I called and had infront of me exactly what I needed to say. I totally whipped their a5s with their own terms and conditions. 15 minutes of phonecall no.5 was just me and poor Armir quoting bits of the T&C's at each other. (if anyone is interested its 9.16 and 15.1 that apply). "But if you look above at 9.15 its says thats for mobile phone services" Rubbish. I'm on about 9.16 not 9.15. 9.16 has got nothing to do with mobile phones. "It says in 9.17 that all subsequent charges are due on termination". Nope. That is overruled by 15.1's "you may terminate your Contract without charge". He told me he could disconnect me for £88 (they STILL think my contract was 24 months when I clearly signed one for 18 months and have told at least 5 times)(AND their termination charge is capped at £70 anyway, so who knows where he got his £88 from) and then said I'd have to argue it out with billing once I'd been offically cut off. Thats when I asked for a manager and got cut off.

Phonecall number 7 was only 4 minutes long as I got someone who agreed straight away and knew exactly what I was asking. Terminated contracted without charge. Hooray!! My service will be cut off just before I move house. And then once I'm in I can recoonect at my leisure IF dongle reception isn't up to much.

So that'll be £69.99 for new line, free connection, 6 months free essentials package (£41.94), with £24 quidco cashback, effectively a total of £4.05 to start again. Not £24, not £40, not £29.99, not £88. but £4.05. Result!:money:

Katgrit

Just to add, I am comfirming the outcome of todays phonecall(s) in writing, with a letter being sent recorded delivery to all the 4 UK addresses I could find for Talktalk.

Belt n braces and all that!

brewerdave

Bet they still send you a bill inc. termination charges :rotfl:

Katgrit

JUST had a phone call from a lovely (UK based) lady called Margaret at Talktalk. She said she had received my letter and did I want to discuss staying, or if they could help in any way (I expect a credit to my bill perhaps) or did I just want to be disconnected. I said I just wanted to be cut off, and she confirmed it would take place on the 31st August. She then explained how my last billing would work and how to proceed if it didn't happen or there was a problem. All in all she was very helpful and polite. I pointed out that in 18 months of banging head against a wall it was ironically the best customer service I had received. I feel a bit bad for leaving them now!

Looks like its worked out ok for me, :T I'll let you all know if and when I get cut off.