Check your cables

skea56

Not sure if this has been said before but please check you cabling for your phone/broadband.

Have just received my Talk talk bill with a lovely charge of £50 for an engineer who called to fix my router last month. Apparently because of the use of unauthorised cabling, in this case an extension for our Sky multiroom, I have broken their t&Cs and therefore fully liable for the charge.

My gripe is that it wasn't even me that put the cabling in that way - the BT engineeer who installed out broadband previously (about 18-24 month ago) suggested this extension as a means of connecting up Sky.
The broadband worked perfectly for 2 years with BT and was only a few months after we changed over to TT that the problems arose.
Another thing is that when I first reported the fault to TT, whilst going through a series of checks, I connected the router directly into the master socket, using no other cables and yet the problem still persisted, hence why we thought it was a faulty router.

I grudgingly will accept the charge as I do not want to ruin an otherwise perfect credit rating but this will be forefront in my mind come renewal time.

No new shoes for me this month :(

sk56

kwikbreaks

skea56 wrote: »

I connected the router directly into the master socket

For this test to be valid you have to remove the faceplate(held on with two small screws) and plug in to the inner socket which the faceplate pushes into. Even then there must be no extensions connected to the rear of the master socket which I suspect may be the case if they are talking about "unauthorised wiring".

If there are no extensions connected to the rear of the master and the fault was still there with the faceplate removed then it was a line or router fault. It will have been an Openreach engineer that came and if the router was faulty then TT would have been charged for the visit.

What exactly was done to fix the problem?

skea56

kwikbreaks wrote: »

For this test to be valid you have to remove the faceplate(held on with two small screws) and plug in to the inner socket which the faceplate pushes into. Even then there must be no extensions connected to the rear of the master socket which I suspect may be the case if they are talking about "unauthorised wiring".

If there are no extensions connected to the rear of the master and the fault was still there with the faceplate removed then it was a line or router fault. It will have been an Openreach engineer that came and if the router was faulty then TT would have been charged for the visit.

What exactly was done to fix the problem?

Yes this is exactly what I did - faceplate off, all other wiring removed and broadband line connected directly.

The router was changed and the extension line removed (which I might add wasn't even in use as we no longer have multiroom ) We only joined up with TT in Sept and this problem has been ongoing since at least start of Dec, so the router was only 2 months old when it happened.

sk56

kwikbreaks

Was it an Openreach bod? They wouldn't replace the router but I didn't think any ISP had their own techs for that sort of thing.

Was the extension wired to the faceplate or the back of the master. If it was on the faceplate and there was still an error it's hard to see how it could be to blame and there is no way it could be described as "unauthorised". The only way the extension could stop it working completely would be if it had a short on it so it sounds like it was the router that was faulty.

It sounds to me like you were stitched up. If this were me I think I'd try an email to the CEO office assuming TT have one.

skea56

Not sure what he was - he was in and out in about 15 mins so I barely spoke to him - took him in, showed him where the socket was, put on the kettle for a cuppa for him but he was finished lol!

I had suggested to the advisor when reporting the fault that it seemed to be the router so she said she would ensure a replacement was brought just incase.

No the extension was plugged into the faceplate as a normal cable would be, and then a cable running to the Sky box and another into the router, via a microfilter. There is no short on this extension cable - once it had been removed it was then moved to another part of the house to allow us to install a phone in our sunroom and has worked perfectly ever since.

I tried to explain this to the Engineering Manager last night but he just cut me off.

Thank you for your help I will try go down that avenue possibly.

sk56

kwikbreaks

I think TT must pay subcontractors for this sort of thing then as I'm pretty sure Openreach would not bring a router. It makes sense that they would as an Openreach no line fault found is nearer £100.

I'm not sure what recourse you have as there is no proof one way or the other just what the fault was. It isn't clear why he disconnected the extension other that to cast doubts on it but you had already eliminated it by testing with the faceplate removed.

It leaves a nasty taste in the mouth and I'd be inclined to bin them once the minimum term is up - the problem is it will be a fully LLUd line which can cause problems with migrations even though it shouldn't.

jbuchanangb

TalkTalk have engineers branded as BrightSparks
http://help2.talktalk.co.uk/troubleshooting/about-brightsparks-engineers

Their overseas call centres are pre-conditioned to talk you into booking an appointment. They even tried to send one to me when the problem was a known fault on the fibre-optic backbone.

TalkTalk routers are also not very good. I keep mine unused in a drawer, and have never had any problem with the Netgear router I bought for £20 on eBay.