Warning — don’t switch your phone/broadband provider

weevswo

My ISP and phone line is with Talk Talk. My broadband service dropped after a snow storm on the 4th of February and I phoned customer services for help. Hours of frustration with the Talk Talk call centre merry-go-round, suffering polite incompetence from robots, eventually drove me to threaten to leave if they did not fix my broadband which I need to be reliable as I work from home. The threat was ignored and they showed not the slightest interest in making any effort to keep me as a customer and I was still repeatedly promised callbacks which never happened, so I made good on my threat and switched to another ISP (with UK call centres) and was given a switch-over date of the 24th of February — so still with Talk Talk until then.
Big mistake ! Warning – Don’t do it ! As soon as I informed them of the pending switch-over two weeks hence Talk Talk refused to fix my line, the tech department refused my repeated requests to speak to them and I was told repeatedly that they would only fix my line if I cancelled the switch to another company and stayed with Talk Talk. I consulted Ofcom to see if there are rules about what I considered to be tantamount to blackmail and discovered that there are no rules governing this situation and thus Talk Talk can refuse to fix my line even though I am still a paying customer right up to the day I leave them.
I feel I have cause to complain so have followed Talk Talk’s complaints procedure and have now (apparently) escalated my complaint to the office of the CEO. So far the promised phone call has not been forthcoming.
The full history has been logged and fills four sheets of A4 to date. Comments, advice and any help would be greatly appreciated.

Inner_Zone

weevswo wrote: »

eventually drove me to threaten to leave if they did not fix my broadband which I need to be reliable as I work from home.

You read the T&C's then:

1. General Provisions Relating to the Services Eligibility

1.1 The Services are for home use only and not for business.

weevswo

Inner_Zone wrote: »

You read the T&C's then:

1. General Provisions Relating to the Services Eligibility

1.1 The Services are for home use only and not for business.

Thank you for my first ever reply to my first ever post........NOT
Why are you jumping to conclusions instead of addressing the issue raised?
I do not run a business from home. I am not self-employed.
I work for a company that requires me to use the internet as the main communication to be able to carry out my job.

If this harsh and pedantic response is all I am going to get from this forum I will never post again.

esuhl

The problem is that you have a contract guaranteeing your continued subscription to the service for a minimum period, in exchange for a reasonable provision of service.

If you're telling Talk Talk that you are going to breach your agreement, then they have no reason to meet their side of the terms either.

It's not blackmail -- it's adhering to the terms of the contract. What terms did you agree regarding the provision of service? Did you agree any terms that allow you to cancel if the service is unavailable for a certain time?

If Talk Talk will actually let you cancel without penalty, presumably your new provider would be responsible for fixing any technical issues that prevent you from getting the contracted service. Maybe that would be an option...?

I have to say, I've heard so many bad things about Talk Talk, and their prices are so unbelievably low, that I'm not surprised at their alleged incompetence at dealing with this issue (not that it should make any difference, of course, both parties are entitled to having their contractual terms met).

cajef

weevswo wrote: »

I work for a company that requires me to use the internet as the main communication to be able to carry out my job.

If this harsh and pedantic response is all I am going to get from this forum I will never post again.

While you may think it is harsh, I think the poster was intimating that if you need the internet and depend on it for your employment then no matter how you think it may not be it is actually being used for business.

In which case if you cannot do your job without the internet really you should be with an ISP that provides a business service that will ensure a fast response when there is a fault and Talktalk are hardly recommended and known for their customer service.

weevswo

esuhl wrote: »

The problem is that you have a contract guaranteeing your continued subscription to the service for a minimum period, in exchange for a reasonable provision of service.

If you're telling Talk Talk that you are going to breach your agreement, then they have no reason to meet their side of the terms either.

It's not blackmail -- it's adhering to the terms of the contract. What terms did you agree regarding the provision of service? Did you agree any terms that allow you to cancel if the service is unavailable for a certain time?

If Talk Talk will actually let you cancel without penalty, presumably your new provider would be responsible for fixing any technical issues that prevent you from getting the contracted service. Maybe that would be an option...?

I have to say, I've heard so many bad things about Talk Talk, and their prices are so unbelievably low, that I'm not surprised at their alleged incompetence at dealing with this issue (not that it should make any difference, of course, both parties are entitled to having their contractual terms met).

Thanks for taking the time to reply.
I am still with Talk Talk.
TalkTalk broke the contract weeks ago by not providing a reasonable service (broadband) and as the contract was broken with no attempt on their part to fix my internet disconnection issues or keep me as a customer I chose to change provider ....
Yes I am leaving them and yes I am still in the interim period before the actual switchover and the point is I am still paying them until that day so their contractual obligation to supply broadband is still not being met.
The contract does not end until the day I switch.
Oh and by the way - my new provider is cheaper each month. It has UK call centres and very helpful people in their call centres who can think for themselves. I have searched these forums and have not found anyone with a good word to say about the Talktalk call centre merry-go-round and have also never read a bad word about my new provider.

mustmakealist

I also had big issues with talk talk. After the best part of 2 weeks without broadband I wrote a 7 page complaint letter detailing my issues. This finally got a response from the CEO office which the previous complaint raised by the advisers hadn't.

I have been given even more credit (now stands at £90)

my account has been marked as not in contract so I can leave at any time I want (I'm waiting for the credit to show up on my account and then I will go)

I've been told I don't need a MAC code, which their advisers twice refused to generate for me anyway

I've got a direct phone number for someone in the CEO's office to use if there are any more problems. I'll use this if the credit doesn't show up.

I suggest you write a letter outlining what you expect as your solution and send to the CEO's office. They should respond fairly soon.

Good luck

weevswo

mustmakealist wrote: »

I also had big issues with talk talk. After the best part of 2 weeks without broadband I wrote a 7 page complaint letter detailing my issues. This finally got a response from the CEO office which the previous complaint raised by the advisers hadn't.

I have been given even more credit (now stands at £90)

my account has been marked as not in contract so I can leave at any time I want (I'm waiting for the credit to show up on my account and then I will go)

I've been told I don't need a MAC code, which their advisers twice refused to generate for me anyway

I've got a direct phone number for someone in the CEO's office to use if there are any more problems. I'll use this if the credit doesn't show up.

I suggest you write a letter outlining what you expect as your solution and send to the CEO's office. They should respond fairly soon.

Good luck

Thank you very much for your thoughtful and constructive reply.:T
I am expecting credit for my loss of broadband but not holding my breath as I have been reminded by TT many times that my broadband is 'free' with my phone/line rental package.
I am eagerly waiting my final itemised bill as evidence of the dozens of calls and several hours spent connected to so-called customer services who wasted my time that could have been more usefully spent - browsing the MSE site !

spud17

weevswo wrote: »

I do not run a business from home. I am not self-employed.
I work for a company that requires me to use the internet as the main communication to be able to carry out my job.

So, the company require you to use the internet in the course your employment?
Then surely they should supply and pay for your internet.

weevswo

Once again I have been misinterpreted. I meant emails.. I also require my landline phone and my mobile for work-related communication. It would be unusual for every employer to pay for the means to communicate.
Why are you and others such as Inner Zone concentrating on one irrelevant phrase and not commenting on the real issue which is that I am paying for a broadband service that TT are not supplying or maintaining.

macman

You appear to have cancelled very shortly after losing your service on 4/2 if you have a switchover date of 24/2? So I'm guessing that you cancelled in less than a week from 4/2? Since a residential contract does not offer any SLA, there is no definition of what is a 'reasonable' break in service. But, given the freezing weather and snow, you would have been in a queue with every other residential user, and so a wait of 5 days or so would not be an unreasonable period for OR to get to your problem, assuming that it was escalated to them.
So you appear to have jumped the gun somewhat by cancelling your contract. Whichever ISP you were with, you would still have been in a queue with OR to fix any faults on the local loop.
TT's call centre hopelessness is notorious, so that can hardly have come as a surprise. You get what you pay for, and TT is cheap for a reason. Your post would have been better entitled 'Don't take out a contract with TalkTalk'.