With Talk Talk and looking to move...Where to??

lichlass

Hi

I am currently with Talk Talk for phone and Broadband and keep dropping connection on net and its driving me crazy. (Think its because phone wire is old and frayed leading from main socket to outside and they have said an engineer will cost £140+ to come and look at it)

I pay on average £23 a month as I have international calls but no longer need that as my brother is living back in UK but Talk Talk told me its cheapest package!

My question is I am looking to move phone, tv (Currently have freesat but would like more channels again) and broadband to one provider. Can anyone recommend who to change to or would I be better keeping phone and broadband together?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Niv

I went all in with sky and fell the service is decent. Apart from little teething trouble (already posted on this) I am happy with them. As I have sky tv I also recive a discount so unlimited BB costs £7.50 pm. I have not actually been charged for my full service of tv, BB, line and calls yet so not entirely sure what it costs overall but I do know that the line,calls and BB portion is cheaper than the deal I had with TalkTalk, ironically the worst company I have ever talked to!

macman

If you have a line fault, changing ISP wil not make any difference whatsoever.
If the fault is upstream of the master socket then you will not be charged anything for the repair as long as the damage is not user -inflicted.
However if the fault is on your own equipment or extensions then yes, a minimum call out charge will be made by OR.
Retesting the line from the BT test socket behind the master socket split faceplate will determine where the fault is, if it's still present then you can be confident that your line rental provider must fix the fault at no charge to you.
Have you tried changing your ADSL filter though?
Do you have filters on all active extensions?

Niv

ooo Macman reminded me of something. I had the problem of my net connection dropping. It turned out to be a faulty filter. They are pretty cheap so may be worth buying a new one and trying that out?

Niv

lichlass

Hi thanks for replies.
I have done the test with master socket in past and fault still there and also changed filters. Talk talk have said that if the fault turns out to be theirs then they will refund the fee but I still have to pay it upfront. I've had the problem since moving into this house so i'm pretty sure this is what the fault is.

I'm not technical at all, but i'm gathering that with Virgin the internet doesn't come through phone line so therefore I shouldn't drop connection if I went with them, can you confirm this please?

P.s, would love to have £140 to fork out but can't risk loosing it if this is not the fault.

Thanks

macman

So since it's perfectly clear that the fault is not on your side, you should have no hesitation in getting TT to report the fault to OR and get them out to resolve it. That's what you are paying your line rental for.
You don't pay a fee upfront, you only pay if OR find the fault to be on your equipment or extensions.

bod1467

If TT said you have to pay it up front then it is repaid if the fault is not on your side then (IMHO) they are lying. Telco companies must advise you that you MAY be charged AFTER the visit, and that you must accept the PRINCIPLE of being charged. But they cannot actually charge you in advance of the work being carried out.

MrsTinks

Possibly the confusion is that you must AGREE up front to the fees if the fault turns out to be your responcibility? You would not be charged until OR have charged TT and they would then pass the charge on. Not sure if the fee is £140 either - it could have gone up recently granted but I thought it was £100+vat... so £120. I coudl be out on that though!

TalkTalk

Hi lichlass,

it would seem you have been misinformed by one of our colleagues. If you have a fault and we send out a QUBE engineer who will check internal wiring and setup there is a fee of £49.99. If the QUBE engineer determines the fault is outside your property and not your responsibility then a BT OpenReach engineer would be sent who if no fault was found would be charged at £99. No charges are made in advance, however you will be asked to accept responsibility for these possible charges in advance.

If you have tested at the test socket with alternative equipment as requested by Customer Services there should be no charges.

I hope this helps

Ady

bod1467

Ady = OCE_Ady from the TT members forum?

lichlass

Thanks for all your help on this. Just to confirm before i ring talk talk again. I have only the master socket and the wires leading from this box go through my window to outside. I was under the understanding that anything from the master socket was Talk talks responsibility and any extensions etc (Which I don't have) was my responsibility. Am i correct in thinking that? I may have understood it wrong and they may have said i need to pay after if its my fault. (Will listen carefully when i ring!!)

When i reported it last (about 12 months ago) they were very good and could see how many times i got disconnected and gave me £5 off my bill for 6 months but this still didn't solve my problem.

Also if I book this repair am I tied in to a further 12 month contract with them as I may change at some point? I have been with them since i think they merged with AOL
And back to my original post, if i went to Virgin and didn't get this fixed with talk talk would I still drop connected or is cable completely different? Sorry for sounding thick!!