TalkTalk feedback needed; good and bad

mcjj

BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE
Know, let me set the scene before I launch into why Talk Talk is SOOOO BAD.

Whilst I love geting Martin's email, there has been probably 2 things that he has told me about saving money that I dont know. I am there about cost cutting and saving money. So, when Talk Talk started their offer, I thought here is another opportunity to save money.

I was with Onetel on a bundle package for my phone and broadband and wanted to transfer to Talk Talk. This is beginning of August

Talk Talk very quickly transferred my phone to themselves from Onetel and broke my bundle. They said that internet would be up and running by end of Sept, it is now mid Oct, and no broadband.

Depending on whom you speak to it will take a different amount of time to result and yesterday, I could not log into Onetel. Onetel said I need to talk to Talk Talk as they have taken over and Talk Talk said it was a problem with Onetel as they hadnt taken over my line. This is a farce, especially as Onetel and Talk Talk are the SAME STUPID COMPANY!!!!

Hence 2 hours later, I got through to a Scottish lad in Scotland (yippeee!!!!) from the Onetel number who said I should use my Talk Talk login and it did work. This is a little confusing as Talk Talk said it would take between 8-10 working days to get my line from BT so that I could broadband.

So, to summarise, if you are still with me, might be cheap, but even I am happy to pay more for a reliable, decent company whose staff have BRAINS and common sense.

ahhhhh, that feels better...................

frances_scholes

I applied early & got connected sooner than forecast. A few problems initially which cost me dearly ringing the help line but staff very helpful. BT still charged me for three months after the switch, so check your statements carefully! Am paying less per month than with BT ( didn't have broadband before) as didn't use web very much due to dial up costs. Now on the net every day! Thanks Talktalk.

danybdan

I signed up with Talk Talk in early June and had some problem with an 'innapropriate product' on my line. I phoned Talk Talk 25-30 times with no joy. Lots of promises. I'm still without broadband and have been told it should be running in about 18 days. I visited ther office last week in person - in desperation - and was told that I would have to pay £70.00 to call it a day. It's been a disaster and I'm sorry I ever got involved with these money grabbing scumbags. It's pure greed. Not enough staff to deal with demand - they say. They have enough money to buy AOL UK for £377 million but wont sort out the satffing problem. I'd steer well clear of them.

m33loo

I am very happy with the Talk Talk deal. I got the phone service in June and broadband was activated last week. My previous isp caused the changeover problem. Talk Talk has been brilliant, let's hope it continues.

MMPUN

I signed up to Talktalk in June 06. The phone went live during July with Broadband scheduled for August. The go live date eventually became 31st August with modem and disc arriving just in time. Unfortunately getting onto broadband was not straight forward with the local BT exchange and PC (old with win98) providing issues. The whole process took quite some time - eventually getting on line on 17th September 06. HOWEVER, in that time I was extremely impressed by the level and quality of customer service that I received.
Without this offer from Talktalk I would NOT have been able to afford broadband and I now enjoy a connection speed of approx 1.15Mb which is at least as fast as my local friends and neighbours.

SPARKLYBLUE_2

I joined from day one,and as much as I can now say how brilliant it is and so cheap, my bill is never more thank £22 a month for everything, the the set up pack arrived, first my laptop was too old, so invested in a mac which I can't praise enough, I ended up taking my macbook into the Apple shop with the free modem, which they couldn't set up either, not powerful enough, I bought a netgear router, which transformed the connection, and now everything is perfect, can't imagine a better package.
hope this gives some confidence to those still pondering, I was lucky as everything was set up as the letter and website showed.:T

ElleWoods

I only wish I had seen this thread a few months ago, it could have saved my sanity. I applied for Talk Talk Call 3 package (think that's what it's called) in August, the phone was connected in the middle of September and my broadband was connected at the end of Sept. I received my modem on a Saturday and installed it - all worked fine. The next day, Sunday, all worked fine. On Monday I couldn't log on, kept getting Error 680 meaning there was a problem with the phone line. I rang their customer services at a whopping £2 per call plus 10p per minute, only to be put on hold for ages before someone answered. They took me through the palaver of unplugging and re-plugging the modem, checking my connections, switching my laptop off and on again etc., this took around 30 mins and I'm sure they talk extra slowwwwllyyy to keep you on the line longer and get more money off you. After 30 mins on the phone I was cut off! Rang back and went through all the options (press 1 for xxx etc) only to be greeted by 'There is no one available to take your call, please call back later' and promptly cut off, thus costing me another £2 for nothing. This happened another 4 or 5 times before I actually got to speak to someone who tried to take me through the plugging/unplugging palaver again (which I refused to do again) before saying that I needed to speak to someone on level 2 technical support, and if I called back later that day I would be put through straight away. So naively thinking this would solve my problem I called back, got the 'There is no one available' a couple more times before speaking to someone who told me that I couldn't be put thorough there and then as the 'procedure' is that they actually call you back and there's a 5 day wait. So I wait...and wait...and after 6 days I call them back. Again. Only to be told, no it;s not a 5 day wait, but an 11 day wait, but they will put my case from a low priority to medium. How kind. So I wait...and wait...and after another 6 days (by now I've had no broadband for 12 days) I ring them back. The guy says he can put me through to level 2 there and then (why couldn;t they do that before?), so I am put on hold. And I wait...and wait...for over 40 minutes, before I have to hang up to see to my 4 month old. Two days later, after being with TT broadband for 16 days but having no broadband for 14 days, being constantly told incorrect information and it costing me an arm and a leg in phone calls, I ring again only for the operator to tell me my modem needs configuring and 20 mins later I'm back online. God knows why the first operator couldn't have diagnosed that and sorted it straight away. I should never have had to call back all those times! As for 'free' well it's not free is it - I've paid over and above the odds for phone calls to their sub standard customer services dept which will more than cover the cost of them supplying free broadband to the entire country.

To say I am cheesed off is an understatement. 1 month down, 17 to go...

sunshinesadly

I applied to talk talk in mid-September. Got a letter saying phone would go live 9th October. No idea if it has, but disconnection letter from BT seems to confirm this.

Was told broadband date was end of October. Then got a letter saying broadband connection date was 3rd October. Got username and password. No installation CD though. Don't really know what to do.

I opted not to get their modem (the £29.99 one) because I want to go wireless. Does anyone know what wireless modem/router works with talk talk? My laptop is already wireless enabled.

Yours, somewhat confused, sunshinesadly

sunshinesadly

Well, what a surprise. Since posted the above (#139) I've phoned Talk Talk. Spoke to 3 very helpful people - one in inbound sales, one in customer services, and one in the broadband team. Hardly waited at all (OK, it's Tuesday early afternoon which might help). Seems my broadband really was up and running about 3 weeks after my application date. Amazing! And the reason i don't have an installation CD is that I didn't buy their modem.

DOH!!! Will be going to Carphone Warehouse shop sometime soon to see what wireless modem/router I need and hopefully get hooked up soon. Must admit I'm waiting for there to be a problem!

Still, anyone had a success story with a wireless modem/router with talk talk??

tawnyowls

I've been connected for a few days. Was switched over within 10 days (but couldn't actually get broadband because BT hadn't switched me, so had to wait another few days). Have had a few problems with the connection, but sorted it out myself - I'm afraid I didn't find their helpline at all helpful. They just don't want to know unless you're using their modem (which I just couldn't install at all and switched back to my own one). Despite apparently not having the 'right' modem, I too am connected at 2.2 Mbps - I don't know anyone who connects at any other speed, so I'm afraid 'up to 8Mbps' is exactly that - up to - with very little chance of actually getting much above 2. Not that I'm bothered; it's 4 times faster than my previous one, and a lot cheaper, and as long as it continues as it is, I'm happy.

From my experience with the helpline (which clearly isn't an isolated case), I really would not recommend anyone paying for the TT modem. All three models are cheaper than the TT price, and there are lots out there that are far easier to set up. Most problems can probably be sorted out through a computer forum - trust me, they will have to know more than the TT minions!