TalkTalk feedback needed; good and bad

avrilallan

This truly has to be the worst company in the world for communication. They simply never communicate with their customers by telephone. It is impossible to get through by phone and once Charles Dunston put his own voice on voicemail giving apologies. If you have any trouble with broadband you will NEVER get a decent response from this company.
Please do not use. Just pay a few pounds for hassle free broadband.

nexus53

We swapped from BT to Talk Talk in August. We had no problem at all with the phone being swapped over but the broadband however, was an absolute nightmare. We were supposed to receive our equipment in September this didn't arrive until October then when the equipment eventually arrived it didn't work. I spent ages on the phone to customer services being charged at 10 per minute because we needed technical help. The call centre staff although apologetic were very difficult to understand and promises of further help just didn't happen. Although Talk Talk were cheaper than BT their customer services is rubbish. We have gone back to BT and it was great to speak to an advisor who could understand English.

nexus53

We swapped from BT to Talk Talk in August. We had no problem at all with the phone being swapped over but the broadband however, was an absolute nightmare. We were supposed to receive our equipment in September this didn't arrive until October then when the equipment eventually arrived it didn't work. I spent ages on the phone to customer services being charged at 10 per minute because we needed technical help. The call centre staff although apologetic were very difficult to understand and promises of further help just didn't happen. Although Talk Talk were cheaper than BT their customer services is rubbish. We have gone back to BT and it was great to speak to an advisor who could understand English.

hgmoring

irritable wrote:

We have now got the call and broadband package. Everything seems ok at the moment except that we have had exceptional difficulty in connecting to the internet.
The modem which they sent out is a Huawei SmartAX MT882, which Talktalk know as "Sprint 2". My other half has no technical knowldge whatsoever but that shouldn't be a barrier to using their software. She actually managed to do everything right, without obtaining a positive result.
After of hours of work by me (semi-computer able and certainly more than able to load a modem) and several calls to non-English Call Centre staff, I was informed that that particular modem doesn't always work via USB.
That led me to connect via Ethernet and voila Success! However at the end of the session I switched everything off and smugly went away on business promising her indoors that everything would be fine. In fact when everything started up she found that the internet connection had been lost. After a call from home on the subject I was close to losing the will to live and certainly the prospect of going home at the end of my trip was not a happy one.
After a further session on the machine I finally discovered that the cause of the problem is that, when the modem is powered down, the connection to the internet is lost and cannot be recovered when the device is powered up again. Have spoken with Talktalk today (guy may have been English for a change) @ 10p per minute (and I think £2 connection charge). They appear to be looking into the probelm.
Has anybody else had a problem with that model of modem and if so have you found a fix which enables the modem to be powered down and restarted without losing the connection?

Yes, I had the same problem and got nowhere with TalkTalk CS. However by asking around on other forums, I managed to solve the problem.
The reason is that the TalkTalk set up CD program does not appear to save the username and password on the modem which is necessary to make the connection. So it is lost when you switch off the modem.
I'm not on a TalkTalk connection at the moment, so some of the instructions to follow may not be exact.
You need to logon to the modem. Should be able to do this from Internet Explorer. Type the URL http:\\192.168.1.2 in the address bar (might need to be 192.168.1.1). You will be prompted for Username and Password. These are both "admin" without the quotes.
You then need to find the setting for WAN and click on it. This shows the WAN settings and I believe on some versions has entries fot your username and password as given to you by TalkTalk. It didn't show on mine but you can get to it by clicking on the "Edit" button which is an icon looking like a pencil on RHS. This shows the Username and Password fields which do not have the correct values saved in them. Insert the correct ones for you. Click on Apply or Save and reboot compter.
Should work next time. If you mess anything up in the process, you can always run the Connect and Go program from the CD again.
Hope the above is intelligible. It all worked for me - this is with Ethernet connection.

Supersnapper

paul2772 wrote:

On the positive front, I was actually migrated to broadband 6 weeks ahead of schedule and have had no problems. And further thanks go to BT who managed to charge me for an additional 3 months!! All ISP suppliers I suspect are as good or as bad as each other - but at least I have the luxury of knowing that now I'm not paying anymore!!

Hi, Sorry if I make a mess of this, i'm new to the forum and not to sure if what i'm doing is right.

When you migrated from your BT internet connection did you ask for a MAC number, the reason I ask is I had the same problem when I migrated from BT, to TT, they also charged me a futher five months connection fee. I made enquiries with TT and they told me when you ask for a MAC number from your ISP, this means you wish to terminate your contract (providing you are over your minimum contract period) I challenged BT with this fact and have now received a refund for the over payment.

Hope this helps

Graham

Xign

I'm really pleased with my TalkTalk broadband.

However, ever since i was upgraded to LLU my sky digibox won;t go online, additional my mothers typetalk disconnects.

Has anyone else had a problem with modems and the talktalk LLU service?

The error i get is that the call was "interrupted".

rmh_3

I signed up on the 4Aug06. Phone went live on 18Aug06 - no problems at all.
Broadband live date wat 28Sep06, but I didn't receive their modem until the 5Oct06!

The modem they sent is the SmartAX MT882 - and their Broadband set up CD procedure DOES NOT WORK for this modem. You must configure it manually. Otherwise when you switch it off it will lose all the settings & you will have to go through the set up procedure again!

Connect up the modem via Ethernet, then open Internet Explorer and go to http://192.168.1.1. The username and password are both set to "admin" (lowercase, no speechmarks).
Click Tools and select System Management. Click the pencil (edit) icon.
Change the password to something else for security and click submit
Log on again with new password
Click Basic and select WAN Settings. Click the pencil (edit) icon
In the username field enter your phone number 999999999@talktalk.net
In the password field enter the password that was on your letter (or phone 0870 0875 562 to get it)
Click Submit then click Save All, OK
Click Tools then select Save & Reboot
Select Save and click Submit. Select Reboot and click Submit

Now it should remember the settings so you should be OK when you switch it off!

Stuartli

acezing wrote:

Islandman is correct the programme did imply that the contract only lasted for 18 months.

However you won’t get charged for Talk Talk broadband after eighteen months, you’ll just be out of contract at this point.

The reason the ASA made them drop the forever part because they thought it implied that you would still get the broadband after you left Talk talk.

There appears to be some confusion about the terms of the contract.

It is for a minimum of 18 months - after that you will not notice any difference to the service, payments etc unless TT decides to make changes after this period of time or in the foreseeable future afterwards.

I originally signed a 12 month contract with Tiscali about 18 months ago (the same as with most ISPs at that time); once that contract period was over I could either just continue as before or change ISPs without penalty.

It's understandable that ISPs would wish to set a minimum contract to recoup initial costs for each subscriber, such as free modems etc.

The profit from £14.99 a month I paid to Tiscali would be comparatively small as it (obviously) had to pay BT for the BB service delivered to my home on its behalf.

p_h_p

TalkTalk are terrible although when you complain to high reps you actually speak to helpful talktalk employees.

TalkTalk bb was never connected during peak periods so we cancelled them and had were very patient with them giving them 3 weeks to sort the problem out phoning South Africe every 2/3 days as the second rate support team never phone back after 48 hours. The 1st line of support (South Africa) is terrible, all you get is cheak of them although i must say there are some pleasent employees but not many.

All i'd say is talktalk have expanded to big in to short of a time and cannot cope plus i had the usual foreign call centre problems.

Bones_2

I signed up for TT BB in late July - promised an early September "go live" date, which, needless to say, did not materialise. The phone line switch went very well, and BT sent a cheque for an outstanding credit on my account. I've never had any complaints with the phone service, and I have a cheap TT SIM card in my mobile. The complaints only start when BB is brought into the mix.

Currently, my case is being dealt with by the High Level Complaints department. I've decided to give them a chance to sort out the mess before I cancel all my business with this company. The only way to get High Level Complaints in on the act seems to be to go a little nuts with the emails. Basically, the email address for Charles Dunstone (dunstonec@cpwplc.com) eventually gets through to High Level Complaints.

I also tried calling the directors of the company personally on 020 889 65000 (especially Steve Rescorla, Customer Service Director) - did not get through, (not important enought, he is a director you know...) although apparently my email will be forwarded to him.

The High Level Complaints team operates a stones-throw from where I live, (heh, know where you are guys...) and now I have a direct line phone number! (which I think I'll publish here shortly - when something's been sorted with my case!)

I'm basically an easy going, patient person - I was just trying to save some money, as times are tight. What has annoyed me most about TT and trying to get broad band set up is the truly, truly, abysmally awful, arrogant and incompetent customer service.

Continually being put on hold, and being cut off more times than I can count.

Explaining my details over and over again, only to have them misquoted, lost, ignored or completely misunderstood.

Asking to speak to a manager or supervisor only to be told that there was not one in the room (again and again and again).

Is it any wonder customers get soooooo angry dealing with this firm