TalkTalk feedback needed; good and bad

sparkysi

I have been with talktalk now for some time. Having switched to their cheap £20 package I was dissapointed to find my meg upgrade would not be active until 2007. So no change in my broadband speed but its been at 2meg for since sign up.

My biggest issue has not been with the service for phone or broadband. But the support services have been terrible. I recently switched my bank account and set my direct debit details manually on the web site. Now this worked fine for the phone but not for the broadband. Which is odd as its only ever a single debit. The broadband service was barred and I had to spend a ridiculous amount of time getting through on the number provided. I was then told I could pay cash at the Carphone Warehouse and the bar would be removed immediately. This turned out to be incorrect, Carphone Warehouse cannot take cash payments, all they can do is ring the talktalk line and let you pay by card. Fortunately my father in law was with me and could pay on his credit card. This all came about as the broadband side of the busines did not have my contact details, which the phone side did. This makes no sense to me and caused me great inconvenience and I am awaiting the phone bill, an hour and a half to there premium rate collections line is not going to be cheap, I shall be complaining.

Shedevil07

I have been with Talk TAlk for some time now and thought it would be a good idea to change to Talk Talk 3 with free broadband. I applied in April 2006 and got my live date of 16th June this came and went and in July they changed my phone over but still hearf nothing from them about the broadband.

I phoned them in August and was told that I had waited this long why not wait a little longer. I waited and waited and still nothing. Then 2 weeks ago, after another 6 weeks of waiting I e-mailed them but it was nearly 2 weeks before I got a reply from them and then they told me that the MAC code that I had given them was out of date and could not be used.

I have been waiting a total of 6 months for this company to set up my broadband. When I phoned them in August and asked about the MAC code they told me everything was fine and that I should hear from them in a few weeks! This company is a joke and when my 18 months are up I will be finding another company for both my phone and broadband. :mad:

evergreen

We are currently being 'upgraded 'by talk talk. First we knew of it was that no one could phone in - got this odd voice with a USA accent when anyone rang. Rang Talktalk and 45 minutes later spoke to someone who said we should have got a letter. Upgrade should have taken 4 hours. 3 days later, still no phone in , but we did get a letter yesterday. I notice the internet connection now says 6Mbps, where previously said 2.3. However only difference I have notices is that we have to reconnect to internet every 2 minutes! Bet I have to reconnect to add this post as I have been typing for more than a minute.

My daughter is due to give birth any time now(baby due on 14th), so not having a phone is murder. Never thought I'd say it but thank goodness for mobiles!!!

sunshinesadly

• Signed up on 22nd September 2006.
• Initially told phone date would be 9th October and broadband would be end of October.
• Made some phone calls to customer services at this point and got the Indian call centre. Bless them, they're doing as good a job as they can, but cultural and language difference just made the whole experience long-winded, painful, and sadly a waste of time.
• I think phone line went over as planned on 9th October because BT sent me a letter and refund about the end of my service with them (well done BT).
• Then got a letter dated 2nd October saying BB live date would be 3rd October! So obviously I didn't believe it!!
• Two weeks later gave customer services another ring. Got a UK call centre. Everytime I've called customer services over the past 2 weeks in fact I've got a UK call centre and a damn helpful person on the end. Established that I should not be charged seperately for BB despite having 2 differently numbered accounts (one for landline, one for BB). Yes it was true, my BB was live about 4 weeks early, so I'd better get out there and buy a modem/router!!
• Bought wireless modem/router from Carphone Warehouse shop and had a dreadful time trying to get it to work. In desperation called Talk Talk Technical Support. Did it the cheeky route by calling the Broadband Team Faults Department on the number given elsewhere in this forum. It's a 01 number so I'm hoping free from my TT landline. Got cut off a few times, so redialed and the bods answering this number were again UK-based and helpful and apologetic and put me through to Techie Support.
• At Techie Support I got an unbelievably helpful young man who confessed that Techie Support do not get any training on configuring wireless modem/routers. We are supposed to phone the helpline that comes with the router. He had a go however, and even called me back the next day. Both calls together - probably about 1 hour 20 mins.
• In the end had to phone the Technical Line for the Talk Talk wireless modem/router I had purchased (made by Phillips apparently). The number advertised on the box is a 0800 number which gives some basic instructions by recorded message and then tells you to dial a 0870 number for a proper human being. Grr!
• Told that the 0870 number for the Talk Talk modem techie support was only 0870 to the point it gets answered then gets routed to a local rate number because Phillips picks up some of the cost of the call. We wait and see, because I spent 1 hour 37 mins on the phone getting technical support from another extremely helpful young man. The call took much longer because he also gave me help on configuring my inbuilt wireless card to the modem (as opposed to the usb adaptor that comes with the modem). Something, apparently, he's not allowed to do.
• It was a long-winded, very tiring, and possibly rather expensive experience (all those phone calls) but I have been up and running for a day and have even switched the modem off overnight and it's still working. There are a few outstanding minor issues but I wonder if setting up modems and stuff for the first time on any service would be a nightmare anyway!
• I think there's a lot to be said for how we approach the folk working in these call centres and tech support places - be friendly and you get friendly back is my experience! :rotfl:

Heinz

sunshinesadly wrote:

• Told that the 0870 number for the Talk Talk modem techie support was only 0870 to the point it gets answered then gets routed to a local rate number because Phillips picks up some of the cost of the call. We wait and see, because I spent 1 hour 37 mins on the phone getting technical support from another extremely helpful young man.

A call cannot change from one type to another whilst in progress.

If you dialled an 0870 number, you'll be charged for the entire call at whatever rate Talk Talk charge for 0870 calls (assuming it was a weekday daytime call, so that 97 minute call would have cost £6.79 on BT).

bbb_uk

sunshinesadly wrote:

Told that the 0870 number for the Talk Talk modem techie support was only 0870 to the point it gets answered then gets routed to a local rate number because Phillips picks up some of the cost of the call. We wait and see, because I spent 1 hour 37 mins on the phone getting technical support from another extremely helpful young man. The call took much longer because he also gave me help on configuring my inbuilt wireless card to the modem (as opposed to the usb adaptor that comes with the modem). Something, apparently, he's not allowed to do.

I agree with Heinz, it's actually not possible for the cost of the call to change once you dialled it.

You were getting told lies I'm afraid. Calls from TalkTalk (after October) to 0870 cost upto 7p/min (nearly 8p/min before October) depending on time of day, etc. You basically rang a premium rate number except it doesn't begin with 09x!

jampet

I went with Talk Talk from the start and was quoted a July connection to broadband. I came back from holiday in June to find that I had been brought forward by nearly 4 weeks so I have no complaints. I had previously been on dial up which was very slow.

I signed up to International 3 and the cost is pretty much in line with my old BT bills but I am using the internet much more frequently and for longer.

My only complaint is that initially I was unable to get my e mail set up and getting past the queue to the help line was impossible. In the meantime I just kept retrying the set up procedure and within 4 days I was ok.

Have had no probelms since (I've probably jinxed it now so fingers crossed).

sunshinesadly

bbb_uk wrote:

I agree with Heinz, it's actually not possible for the cost of the call to change once you dialled it.

You were getting told lies I'm afraid. Calls from TalkTalk (after October) to 0870 cost upto 7p/min (nearly 8p/min before October) depending on time of day, etc. You basically rang a premium rate number except it doesn't begin with 09x!

Thanks for this guys - so it will be a big phone bill then?!!!! Seems to me there are few people who've managed to get away without racking up a sizeable bill in order to get their modems up and running. Does anyone know of a way to get through to these techie guys without dialling an 0870 number? On this occasion I couldn't find any joy on the SayNo website.

sunshinesadly

Just spoke to a mate who applied 15th August and is still waiting for broadband. He's furious.

reggow

Why are they advertising this service on the TV?
The phone package was great until Broadband started to be publicised.
Now we have discovered that if you swap bank accounts/DD Payments the minute you miss a payment your phone line gets restricted (incoming only).
We will wait for the 18 months contract to finish then drop them like a stone.
This company makes you apreciate why you pay the extra with companies like BT.