TALK TALK COMPLAINT - What are my rights

fluffymovie

Good afternoon

We are having a total nightmare with TALKTALK and I would just like to find out what my rights are.

I have posted on the TT forum but sadly, they won't help me and told me to complain - they are pretty much saying that I am lying by telling them that I had a total loss of broadband for almost 3 weeks rather than an intermittent loss and therefore, not entitled to a refund. It started as intermittent but as I stated in my post, eventually, even resetting the box didn't do it.


Good Morning

Incident number 13058-002630

I would like to raise an issue that meant we were without an internet connection for 2 weeks and request compensation for the poor service we received as a result.

Following a total nightmare at the end of last year, we upgraded to Fibre with TalkTalk. After we got that sorted, the fibre was working ok although not near the speeds we had been told to expect but I understand that may not be something you can help with.

Anyway, in early April, we started to have an intermittent loss of service. We rebooted the 2 routers a number of times and service would resume for the day but when we came downstairs in the morning, the red light would always be on the talktalk router.

Eventually, even resetting the box didn't do it and so we reported it to talktalk


To make matters worse, the BT engineer only came around 02.05.2013 and this morning, the internet is not working again.

As I work from home sometimes, this means I can't work and it's causing me real financial stress.

I have cut and pasted the conversation from the TT forum but would appreciate any views on what rights I have? Contract started in Nov but this is the 2nd time in a month we have lost the service - can I cancel? Is there an ombusdman?

I have tried to e-mail as set out in their complaint code but no joy, the form won't send and obviously, I can't do it at home as have no sodding internet!!!!!! :mad::mad:

I would like to raise an issue that meant we were without an internet connection for 2 weeks and request compensation for the poor service we received as a result.

Following a total nightmare at the end of last year, we upgraded to Fibre with TalkTalk. After we got that sorted, the fibre was working ok although not near the speeds we had been told to expect but I understand that may not be something you can help with.

Anyway, in early April, we started to have an intermittent loss of service. We rebooted the 2 routers a number of times and service would resume for the day but when we came downstairs in the morning, the red light would always be on the talktalk router.

Eventually, even resetting the box didn't do it and so we reported it to talktalk. After speaking to the call centre, who to be honest, I found very difficult to understand or to get my point across to as they keep interupting whenever you are speaking, checks were done and a 'ticket was opened' on our account whatever that means! We were told that the matter would be escalated and that we would receive a call back from the escalation department in 48 hours. After 72 hours, we had not had a call back so rang again and were told the same thing, it would be escalated and we would receive a call back in 24 hours. When that didn't happen either, we rang yet again.

As I work full time but my wife sometimes works from home, she rang to chase and was told that we would require an engineer to come out and see us as there appeared to be a fault. Although my wife has asked to be placed on the bill, she has been told this is not possible as there has to be 1 account holder named on the account. We pay the bill jointly from our joint account and as I work weekends, it makes sense for her to call but we were told that her name cannot be added to the bill as is common with utilities companies and so TT had to call me to get my authorisation. I wasn't available and so had to call when I finished work which was another delay.

We were told that a TT engineer could come and see us anyday the following week but the day that my wife was working from home, was not available! I then booked the visit for a Saturday when I would be working, but she would be home.

The engineer came and did some tests and found that the fault did not lie with TT but the BT box itself. As a result, he had to call the call centre himself and ask that the issue be raised with BT - as my wife was there, with the engineer, on his phone, she spoke to the call centre person who again said that you had to have my authorisation as account holder - this is ludicrous - she was there with your engineer at the address concerned but despite this, was told you could not accept her authorisation. I work selling cars and was on a test drive when she rang me to ask me to speak to TT which is ridiculous I am sure you will agree.

Anyway, the BT engineer could not come out until the following Thursday so another week went by without the internet.

During this time, my wife had to travel to work twice when she would otherwise have been able to work from home. As she works 40 miles away, this has caused us considerable expense. We have both had to use 3G on our mobiles to get any internet and as a result, have incurred increased phone costs and that is not to mention the time that we have both wasted on the phone to India.

The BT engineer came out and replaced the box which he said was faulty. He said they had been told that there are a batch of routers which are faulty. The very first one he took out of the box was also faulty - why has this not been flagged to customers?

However, he has indeed fixed it partially. The issue we still have is that once the home phone rings and is answered, it knocks the internet out for a period of up to half an hour - why is this happening?

Basically, what I would like is;

1 - Compensation for the time we were without internet
2 - Compensation for the poor customer service in terms of not receiving the call backs we were promised
3 - An explanation of the issues that we are still having and a promise of a resolution
4 - An explanation of why my wife cannot be added as a named account holder and therefore able to give authorisation for things such as engineers visits?

Please do come back to me as I would like to raise this as a formal complaint in line with your complaint policy as well as a request for compensation.

and their reply

Compensation is only available should a total loss of service be experienced. I am afraid I can not offer a credit to your account on this occasion as your fault is logged as a dropping conneciton as confirmed in your post. The complaints process is detailed in my signature.

and I went back with

Thank you for your reply Emma but it isn't correct.

We initially experienced a dropping signal but as I stated in my original post, after resetting the router failed to resolve it after a week, we called you.

We were without broadband for 2 weeks and if you check our useage, you will see this.

I was never told what the ticket said so could not have known that the fact that it was no longer intermittent was not noted. However, had I received any of the call backs I was promised, I could have told you this.

When the talktalk engineer and the BT engineer came out, they both could see that there was a problem. The talktalk engineer thought that there was a problem with our authorisation on the line but the fact remains, he could see that we had no connection and had to escalate it himself.

As I had no broadband, and the call backs I was promised did not happen, I believe that I am due some refund for the lost service.

Then they gave up on me....

I would need to advise you to follow the complaints process detailed in my signature if you are unhappy with the response from the forum team.

macman

There is no SLA on a residential contract. Compensation is limited to a credit for the downtime only.
Use of such a contract for business purposes is techncially a breach of contract. If you need a guaranteed response time, then the only option is to upgrade your contract.

Buzby

Talk talk have no engineers - they rely only on BTO. That said, you are entitled only to any goodwill gesture they are prepared to offer - if this is not forthcoming your only 'right' is a rebate for services not provided, nothing more.