Can I cancel TalkTalk broadband within 14 days?

Andycolch

I recently signed up to talktalk essentials (phone and broadband) - I have only been connected to their broadband for 5 days.

I took an amazing deal which between value rental and cashback is equivant to paying 7£ per month for phone and unlimited broadband.

However the bad part is that my worst fears re the quality of the service have turned out to be true. My broadband speed is significantly lower than it used to be with plusnet - I get 3-4 MBS while I used to get 6-7 MBs. The connection often drops and sometimes becomes incredibly slow - tonight it was taking 2-3 seconds to open simple webpages. This is appalling especially considering that they wrote that 19.5 Mb is the average speed my line could handle and the minimum is 14.2 Mb.

I am trying to figure out whether the right to cancel within 14 days applies to this instance - and if so whether the 14 days start from the go-live date or from the day I took talktalk.

Any help on how to get out of this without losing too much money will be greatly appreciated.

suki1964

Don't you have to keep your router on for 10 days for the line to stabilise?

Andycolch

Never heard of something like that and I live in a new house - when we moved in last year we experienced excellent broadband from day 1...

Buzby

I'd give them the benefit of the doubt and wait until 7 days before raising concerns. However, you are mistaken if you believe you can terminate after 14 days. There is no approval period, and you only have 14 days to cancel from placing the order, not from when service starts. If the supplier connects you earlier, the risk is theirs.

How are you testing - direct or over WiFi? If a new router, local interference may be impacting it too.

Andycolch

Buzby wrote: »

I'd give them the benefit of the doubt and wait until 7 days before raising concerns. However, you are mistaken if you believe you can terminate after 14 days. There is no approval period, and you only have 14 days to cancel from placing the order, not from when service starts. If the supplier connects you earlier, the risk is theirs.

How are you testing - direct or over WiFi? If a new router, local interference may be impacting it too.

If I wait that long I might well get beyond the 14 days since placing the order.

I am testing in exactly the same conditions as I was testing with my previous provider. Why would the new router suffer more than the old one (which was only one year old anyway)?

AJG88_2

Only one way to find out, phone that cancellations department number, but make sure you have a full battery in that phone expect to be constantly disconnected. I would cancel ASAP but you have to at least make them aware that there is a problem if you don't cancel, I have found TT totally useless, they maybe cheap but definetly not value for money.

My BB was kicking out 18mb when i signed up with TT, a few months later it was down to 3-6mb and very unreliable. New microfilters, new router, cables never fixed it. Even had TT reps knocking on the houses down the road because of customers complaints.

Changing a router would change the testing environment especially if you are testing over WiFi. The channel your WiFi broadcasts is more than likely to be different, which could cause interference if your neighbours are using the same channel.

I also found the quality of the TalkTalk router to be substandard, but then again this is provided by TalkTalk. I had 3 replacements from TT, in the end I used an old BT Hub I had to broadcast wifi.

Also if you ever need to complain your complaint probably wont be logged or if you have any issues whatsoever say with billing you are just passed from pillar to post and end up spending 11 weeks going back and forth and you still wont have any resolution even with the CEO's office.

Andycolch

AJG88 wrote: »

Only one way to find out, phone that cancellations department number, but make sure you have a full battery in that phone expect to be constantly disconnected. I would cancel ASAP but you have to at least make them aware that there is a problem if you don't cancel, I have found TT totally useless, they maybe cheap but definetly not value for money.

My BB was kicking out 18mb when i signed up with TT, a few months later it was down to 3-6mb and very unreliable. New microfilters, new router, cables never fixed it. Even had TT reps knocking on the houses down the road because of customers complaints.

Changing a router would change the testing environment especially if you are testing over WiFi. The channel your WiFi broadcasts is more than likely to be different, which could cause interference if your neighbours are using the same channel.

I also found the quality of the TalkTalk router to be substandard, but then again this is provided by TalkTalk. I had 3 replacements from TT, in the end I used an old BT Hub I had to broadcast wifi.

Also if you ever need to complain your complaint probably wont be logged or if you have any issues whatsoever say with billing you are just passed from pillar to post and end up spending 11 weeks going back and forth and you still wont have any resolution even with the CEO's office.

Thanks for your reply - I really don't think this has anything to do with the router. I was getting <1MB around 8:30pm earlier today and now it is up to 4-5MB which is a strong indication that this is likely due to the way TT are managing their peak times. Again, never had that issue with plusnet before.

I had read bad stories about TT customer service, but I had also read n this site that things were improving... decided to take my chances... close to regretting it. I guess I will try and give them a call tomorrow.

AJG88_2

I changed to BT on 18th Feb because TT turned out to be that bad, they even had the cheek to bill me £405 contract breakage fee for Broadband. I am on my 2nd TT CEO Manager, probably be on my 3rd by the end of the week.

Remember you are probably covered by the distant selling regulations, I believe it is not 7 days from when you ordered. It is 7 days starting the day after from when you received the paperwork.

I've read many threads about TT CS, yes there are some happy people who tell everyone that TT forums are the best ever but those people probably just wanted to ask simple technical questions so yes the TT forum is better for this. How on earth are you meant to get a resolution from a public forum when its very account oriented like when TT take £35.23 from my card 5 times.

macman

Andycolch wrote: »

If I wait that long I might well get beyond the 14 days since placing the order.

I am testing in exactly the same conditions as I was testing with my previous provider. Why would the new router suffer more than the old one (which was only one year old anyway)?

Read post 6. Possibly because it's running on a different wireless channel, which is clashing with a neighbour's one? Use InSSIDer to find out. Unless you redo your speedtest using ethernet from the BT test socket, any comparison or test is meaningless. TT are not responsible for your service between router and device.
What date did you place the order-I find it hard to believe that you were switched in just 9 days, if you have had the service for 5 days already, and are not already beyond the 14 day cooling off period?

penrhyn

Hello OP, have you logged onto your router and looked at your router line statistics, if not do so and post the results.
Downstream speed, noise margin and line attenuation are the critical details.

Buzby

You miss the point I made. When service starts, your ability to cancel ends. The cooling off period is for your commitment, and this terminates when the service is activated.

Lastly, routers use a variety of channels and suffer from their own WiFi issues, over and above the bottlenecks of the BB connection. Depending on the channel used, your speeds can alter dramatically. Only a direct connection speed test is relevant. Further, this affected by the useage of your neighbours - who all impact on what you get. None of this is seen as a 'fault' .