I need talktalk broadband help pls

RandyRos

I've been with TT since 2008 for calls. in november 2009 i joined them for BB (worst thing i ever did). I was told I couldnt have the "free" BB as advertised, as i "wasnt in their area". they said it'd be £10 a month. as it was cheaper than BT, i agreed. They promised to give me a month free or something (i forget), but they didnt, so i phoned them and they took it off the next bill.

The BB is slower than BT. due to living rurally and having a bad phone line up our road, we can only get up to 1MB anyway. But it was noticeably faster with BT. I had agreed to an 18month contract with TT, which ends next may. at which point, im leaving them.

I phoned to complain about the bad speed. They told me to do this and that to my pc. I did it, even though I knew it wouldnt work. It didnt. I complained by email, they sent instruction on faffing about with it, which i'd just done. so I resigned myself to being stuck in this contract (which incidentally, i have no copy of and i dont remember actually signing anything!) with bad speed.

Today I was billed and it was too high, so I checked it online. They had billed me for "mega download boost" for most of last month and a month in advance! I phoned to complain. The foreigner said That's put on your account when you go over your download limit. I told him in no uncertain terms that there is NO WAY that's possible because my BB is painfully slow and we havent changed our usage in the year that we've been with them. He left me on hold to talk to someone. When he returned, he said "our software has accidentally put this on several of our customer's accounts". He further told me that I will have to pay the full overcharged bill this month & they will refund the £7 on the next bill.

I am very suspicious of this. I wonder how many people wont notice the increase in their bill & pay it anyway? Or if they hope I'll forget about it next month??? aside from that, the BB charge has gone up to £15 a month with no notice! It's been £15 since june, i cant access back any further than that, so ive emailed them to ask if i can have the bills from nov 09 to may 10.

My husband seems to think we could use this as leverage to get out of our contract, so that's why I'm here, to seek counsel of those who know. What are my rights, and what can I do?

TIA

macman

You're not having a good week with household utilities/appliances, are you?
What is your monthly inclusive data limit and how much extra usage have you been charged for-how many Mbs?
Are you connecting to the router by ethernet or wireless? if the latter, is your wireless connection secure (using WPA, not WEP)? If not, half the street could be helping themselves to your bandwidth.
Remember that it's not downloading that counts, it's data usage: uploading, downloading. streaming, surfing, emailing, it all uses up data.
When you say that the line is 'bad', do you mean that you've got crackling/noise on it? Test by dialing 17070, select Option 2, BT Quiet Line test. If so, report it as a line fault to your line rental provider (presumably also TT)-do not report it as a broadband fault.
But if you mean that the line is just a long way from the exchange, there's nothing that you can do about that. Suggest you post your router stats so someone can advise further:
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.php#34
Your chances of getting out of contract on this basis are however nil.

RandyRos

thanks for the reply.

I have no idea what my d/l limit is, as I have NO paperwork pertaining to the BB at all! I wouldnt have thrown it out, so it means I was never sent it.

I live 1/3 of a mile off a main A-road near Norwich, in a rural location. There are only 8 houses up our road & its a dead end. Most of that 1/3 the line is the old copper cable and has been severed and patched countless times! Severed by careless farmers, digging. council workers making gulleys into ditches etc etc. Each time Open Reach come out and are forced to fix it by BT, even though they all agree it should be replaced. I think I've only had BB capabilities for 2-3yrs. so thats what I mean by a "bad" line.

I have a hard wired router, which leads 2 ethernet cables. one to my kids pc and one to mine. the router is wireless and is password protected (WEP im sure) as I have a laptop. My next door neighbours have a BT wireless router (cos it comes up on my laptop when I search for networks & theirs is password protected, too). It did cross my mind, someone jacking it, so if someone can tell me how to change my routers password or make it more secure, I'd be happy to do it.

As I said, our usage hasnt changed. I did the BT quiet test and there was no crackling, just a quiet shhhhhhhhhh-ing sound.

I think I remember being told we're 4 miles away from the exchange, thats in cable miles, not actual car miles.

My router isnt on that link, but i'll post its stats later on my lappy, when i'm in the saem room as it.

RandyRos

ok, just logged into my TT account and got the BB details.

Telephone number:*********
Package name:Essentials Paid BB (was myTalkTalk)
Download allowance: 40GB monthly downloadTelephone

as we cant get any faster than 1MB speed (with bt, less with tt) u can see how i'm doubtful of going over! I says "no usage data available" and i cant see how to check previous months, which isnt helpful.

also (i forgot) i agreed to £10 a month BB. sometimes before june 2010 its been put up to £15 and i wasnt informed. can they do this?

macman

First thing to do is to change your wireless encryption to WPA. WEP is hackable by the average 10 year old-completely insecure.

RandyRos

my router is a HUAWEI EchoLife HG520b

ive put the ip addy of my router into IE and got the details up...........oh, its WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK, not WEP encryption is TKIP/AES, whatever that means.....

NeverEnough

Ros, you will never resolve anything with this bunch of complete wasters by phoning them or using their stupid email forums. You are wasting your time and money doing so. Do a search on here about TalkTalk / Tiscali and you will see!!!!

I suggest that you put your complaint in writing - the overcharging, change of package cost, the claim you have overused the BB etc- and post it to their Complaints Team - the address is on the home page buried in the left hand menu somewhere - and send it Recorded Delivery. Keep a note of when you sent it and follow up their inevitable tardy response with a demand for a deadlock letter - they will at this point probably attempt to resolve the issue. If they don't, after 12 weeks has elapsed, you can approach OTELO with your complaint, in writing again, citing their failures etc, and make a claim against them for your loss of use, overcharges etc.

Then leave them as quickly as possible and never sign up with them again........they are breathtakingly disgusting on the customer service front, other dire companies pale into insignificance by comparison. DO IT ALL IN WRITING and email Watchdog on the BBC about them as well - check the watchdog website, there is a special email address for complaints about them as they featured recently on the program (no surprises then!!)

All the best. I am a former victim, now happily rid of them.

RandyRos

thank you. i cant find a link on the homepage, but i did find this.

How do I make a complaint?


If you're dissatisfied with any of our products or services, please contact us to allow us the opportunity to resolve your query.
You can contact us by telephone, email or post:

• Telephone: 0870 444 1820 (if you have a disability, please call 0870 087 2001)
• Email: http://www.talktalk.co.uk/emailus
• Post: PO Box 360, Southampton, SO30 2LY

RandyRos

I'm just doing the gadget show broadband speed checker. i'll put results here for my ref.

down- 0.92 (wow, its never been that high)
up - 0.23 (thats usual)