Talk Talk No Talk, loss of Broadband Service

handyman123_2

I am posting this on the Internet access thread in the hope that
a. The Talk Talk rep will pick up on it
b. If anyone else on here has had a similar experience of their service being interfered with.

If any reader has experienced similar problems please post here as I really would like to bring this problem into the light of day.

Sorry for the next part of this post being so long.
This is an email I sent the CEO of Talk Talk a couple of days ago and as of yet I have received no acknowledgement.

(edited as appropriate).


Andrew Mann
The Old Pig Sty,
Hooray Hall,
Hooray Lane.
Scrumpy Land
SH 1TT
Tel:XXXXX

08.05.2012

Talk Talk Account number XXXXXX
In the Name Of Mrs Andy Man.
I have my wife’s permission to act in this matter.


For the Attention of
The Hon. Dido Harding.
CEO Talk Talk Telecom Group PLC.

Dear Madam,
I have recently ceased being a Talk Talk customer. Even before receiving my final bill I was going to contact you to place my dissatisfaction with your company and my reasons for leaving Talk Talk on record.

Firstly my reasons for leaving, and before I continue may I say that prior to December 2011, I would have recommended your company to one and all in the most positive terms.

Around Late November / Early December 2011, every Sunday evening my broadband began to run really slowly. At around Midnight the connection would be lost and not restored until Monday mid-day.

At the time although I found it inconvenient I was not overly concerned as there was a great deal of work being completed on the local Telecoms System including the laying of new fibre optic cable. I put the breaks in service down to system maintenance and upgrading.

Now I am a the sort that likes a bet but only on certainties, by March I would have given 40 -1 on my connection being lost on Sunday evening. Your system logs should show the dates of breaks in service, certainly when I made my first service request when the connection wasn’t restored by lunchtime Monday.

I followed all the instructions given by your service operative, and by Monday evening / Tuesday morning all was fine again. I believe that it was about two weeks later it all failed again but this time apart from a short while it was Wednesday before the Broadband service was restored.

By this time I was getting a little bit more than annoyed with the folk in your first line service department. I had changed all the components, plugged the router into the Master socket, changed the modem cable and the filters Ad Nauseum . I don’t like dealing with operators who just work from a script.

I will come in a short while to the reasons why I am capable of running basic diagnostics on my own before calling for the help of your service department.

I seem to recall that I had one more occurrence of this problem before receiving a call from a company claiming to work on behalf of my ISP (Talk Talk) saying that the service department had referred me to them and that the problems I was experiencing with dropped connections and slow internet speed was due to the corrupted files on my hard drive.

OK I know this scam, but if you look at the coincidence and the fact they asked for me by name.
I also know that on one occasion one of your service operators turned my connection on and off from his desk , leads me to believe that your system has been compromised.

Needless to say I did not allow them remote access to my computer. They were told where to go, but called back a further 3 times that day trying to convince me that they were a legitimate part of your service department.

When a few day’s later I lost the connection again, I raised this matter with your operative who said It must just have been a coincidence. While admitting that coincidences do happen this occurrence was so well timed that It has left me deeply suspicious. I wonder if you were to poll other customers who have left Talk Talk in the last 6 months due to Broadband Connection problems would you see a pattern emerge.

During the last period of disconnection, I was told I may be without Broadband for up to 2 weeks before an engineer could be called. I would commend the chap in Customer Loyalty who did a brilliant job of calming me down when I phoned with an ultimatum, “Fix it or I am taking my custom elsewhere”.

He must have jollied up the service department because I got a call the next morning. On this occasion I was told your equipment had picked up a fault on the line and was showing I had no Land Line or Broadband connection.

I can on occasion be sarcastic , I thought but did not say that “if there is no connection how does this chap think he is able to talk to me , TELEPATHY.”

The BT engineer assigned to my case reported back that he had found a minor fault on the line but not one that would have affected the Broadband in any way. He told me that in his opinion I had a “Bogey Man” or in plain English someone remotely disconnecting my connection.

To my point about basic fault finding and reporting, I think my years of service in the Armed Forces, Business and being a retired Electronic Engineer means that I will endeavour to cure a problem on my own before calling in someone who is less qualified than myself but has access to the on off switch.

Finally in the last bill I received from Talk Talk, I noted you are charging us a £92.76 contract breakage fee.

I was under the impression that my contract had been in place long enough for us not to have incurred any charge.
The Chap I talked to on this occasion told me that I still had 6 month to run on a 24 moth contract.
I find a penalty that equates to around £15.00 per month somewhat punitive.

I went on to tell your operative that I considered this figure something of a cheek seeing as I had been without a reliable Broadband for over 6 months. His reply was that as you include Broadband Free of Charge as part of your package, you could not compensate me for something you did not charge for, nor could he negotiate a reduction in the contract breakage fee.

I was once a director of a Hire Company. If we promised consumables F.O.C. as part of the package and then did not deliver them or charged for, my clients (several were blue chip companies) would have held me in breach of contract.

I am more than happy to pay any outstanding calls, line rental etc. However I refuse to pay the Contract breakage fee as it stands until I have had time to locate the original contract agreement or had a positive response from your office.

In the event of my being unable to locate the necessary paper work, I will be requesting a subject access request from your company for all of the documents, computer notes, screen shots and audio records you hold against our account.

Thank you in advance for your prompt attention in this matter.

Yours sincerely,
Andy Mann

Before I finish I have looked up Talk Talk's contract breakage T&C's
even the sums don't add up, let alone the dates.

I have just completed a one year contract which the customers services chap (Dev wouldn't give his second name) said was only an upgrade. Therefore if indeed I still had 6 months to run this would be on the old £8.00 per month terms (£48.00 not £92.76) even at the quoted maximum rate of £13.50 per month this would be £81.00

Looking forward to any response.

Regards to all, Handy

penrhyn

So your contention is that a rouge Talk Talk employee is randomly disconnecting your service for their own amusement, or someone has hacked into their network management.
I think if you expect a response from TT you need to pr!cis your complaint otherwise it will be put in the bin.

handyman123_2

Hi Penrhyn,
Yes exactly that, I lost my broadband connection at the precisely same time every other week, then weekly.

It would then restore at around lunch time the following day.

Back in March the breaks became more frequent and lasted for longer.

Then I started getting the calls from Scammers asking for me by name and telling me they were working for Talk Talk and they would fix my problem if I allowed them access though Team Viewer.

Now I know from my dealings with Talk Talk Tech Services they can reboot your connection from their end.

I found all this highly coincidental and I am not saying that Talk Talk are responsible for my loss of connection. But in view of how many stories one hears of your data being sold on from Off Shore Call Centres, it would only take one disgruntled Ex Employee with access to their system to add a new twist to and old scam.

The BT engineer finally sent to make a physical check on my line also said that in his opinion that the connection was being interfered with by an outside influence.

As I said I just wonder if this has happened to anyone else?

Regards, Handy