Our new TalkTalk haggling guide- please share your feedback

DavidP24

That is a very good question, I was asking the same thing for a friend I referred to TT (before I knew better) because TT were charging them a fortune for BB.

They had served an 18m sentence with TalkTalk and were given a proper YouView box, not the tat they give out now.

So knowing YouView is supposed to work on BB connection I contacted them and asked if the TT YouView box would still have recorded programmes if they left. YouView said they would and that it would be a breach of agreement if not as is basis of freeview.

Dropping TT Plus TV means they remove

Rewind live TV (limited on essentials)
Recording Live TV (this is confusing as with YouView you just record off Schedule if I remember)
The 6 crappy Sky Channels that nobody wants, the anytime calls and tacky SIM on naff tariff!
Anytime Calls




Anytime calls is worth £8 if you NEED it but nothing if you don't

It would be interesting to see what happens if someone takes their YouView box to a mates house to see what it shows.

So for my money the Plus is not worth a Sheeeet.

Cornucopia wrote: »

The one big question that I have about Talktalk is what is the TV fee actually for?

At one stage (pre-haggling) I was paying £18.50pm for TV and Broadband but all the bundled content had gradually disappeared from the service over the 18 months of my contract. I should have complained, really, but knew I was moving and would likely need to transfer or re-negotiate at that point anyway.

Because my new address could not provide TV over ADSL broadband, I suggested to TT that they should take me out of the last couple of months of contract. Which they did. I then upgraded to fibre, and because they hadn't asked for my Youview box back, I still have it, and am still able to use it for the free catch-up services.

It seems like the TV Essentials payment is just to cover the cost of the Youview box.

I pay £27.70 for line rental, fibre BB and anytime free calls on an 18 month contract. (Free calls was extended from 12 to 18 months as recompense for the data hacking incident).

Cornucopia

So it looks like they have two different types of YV boxes.

On Essentials you get a non-recording box and no Sky channels.

On Plus you get get a recording box with 6 Sky channels.

Confirmed here: http://www.cnet.com/uk/news/new-youview-box-is-free-on-talktalk-but-doesnt-record/

On which basis, Essentials is possibly worth doing, but only for the contract duration, after which the box is paid for and there is no further benefit from the sub (although you might have had it for free anyway).

Plus is poor VFM compared with getting a Now TV box and Sky Entertainment pack - especially if you already own a reasonable Freeview PVR. The only thing it offers above that configuration is the ability to record Sky channels.

In my case, I did 14-15 months or so at £18.50, and now have a YV box that would have originally been worth £300. So not a lousy deal.

I assume that they are expecting people to carry on subscribing to TV packages long after the equipment is paid for - if there is a gotcha with Talktalk, then that must surely be it.

DavidP24

They gave me an essential box included when they did £27 deal for me a few years ago, better to get Simple and get tv box off ebay, unless you need evening and weekend calls they include with essentials.

Box was dire, better to get a Roku, a NowTV box is £10 from Sky and no sub required.

To be honest with massive call charge price hikes to near mobile rates and call types that are NOT included in plans I would just never use TT for phone calls.

My mobile phone contract includes calls, although I do check saynoto0870 to avoid some numbers, if I can't avoid bad numbers I use moble which has better rates than I got from TT

malid

Does anyone have an email address for Talk Talk please? Just phoned regarding price hike and got a rubbish response. Not interested when I said I would be cancelling/looking elsewhere. Thought I'd give email a try...

DavidP24

Email is a waste of time

You need to call back, then say "that is rubbish, you are insulting me with that ridiculous offer, please put me through to a manager I wish to make a complaint".

If they ask about what say "about you!"

If you are hard enough, able to quote other deals like MSE, Quidco, etc etc.

Then they will usually come up with something better.

There are quiet periods and it does seem to depend on who you get, for example the rudest and least willing to budge have been Males from Indian Call Centre, the most Polite and really helpful seem to be females from South African call centres. Phillipines call centre are just rubbish, seem to have no authority to deal. These are my experiences, others may have their own.

I would never deal with TT again, their complete disdain for users, the two big hacks and way they have responded to their complete and utter failure to protect customer data has in my opinion been disgusting.

I heard a segmenton BBC You and Yours saying people are still being hacked because of data stolen from TalkTalk, some of it tens of thousands in losses. The way TT pretended it only affected a small number of people actually made things worse, they should have warned EVERY customer, past and present. It was an absolute lie because they had no idea how much data the hackers got, I have seen the data traded on the dark web and they are talking millions of customer details.

This data can be used in ways you can't imagine, for example they have your mobile number, they identify the network online, they then call the mobile company, use your DOB that they obtained from TT and port the number to another provider, they then download a banking app that allows your mobile to be used as your debit card at a cash machine.

They also transfer money to people you already have authorised and then contact them to say it was a mistake and ask for it to be repaid (to their account).

I am amazed there is not a class action against TalkTalk for the consequential loss caused by their failure to protect their IT infrastructure.

I can tell you that services exist that they could have used to protect their network and prevent the hack.

As a organisation with 8 million plus customer records to protect, this seems like professioal negligence to me.

joe134

cash-strapped wrote: »

I contacted TalkTalk recently because they were going to charge me a contract cancellation fee of over £18 - I was unaware I was even on a 12 month contract as I had been on a 1 month rolling contract with AOL for years. I am in the process of taking up SSE's excellent offer of free broadband for 2 years combined with a phone package with free calls for a cost of £20 per month.

When I was speaking with one of their reps, his final offer, after trying his best to retain my custom, was a phone package including free calls, free broadband for life(!) and a few other benefits all for....... you guessed it, £20 per month.

One of the main reasons for leaving TalkTalk was because they had hiked my broadband (when they took over AOL) from £10 per month to £15 per month, as well as the SSE offer. So, given the above offer I suspect I was being fleeced for the best part of a year.

My reason for this post is simply to say, call them up and tell them you are going for the SSE offer and, with luck, you may get the same offer. And, by the way, the cancellation charge is being dropped (so they're not all bad).

Good luck.

You didn't keep a very good eye on your contract, as Carphone warehouse took over Aol , then Talk Talk took over CPW, ages ago.
I've been with them since AOl days, and renewed my LL and contract ever since, with no bother,or price rises, other than LL, which all companies have had, and change of ownership, didn't interfere with my price, or their good service.
Why would anyone stay on a rolling contract, when there's deals to be had.
I'm still paying the same now,for my BB and calls as I was 15 years ago with Aol, only my LL has gone up.
£2.50 BB unlimited
£5 boost unlimited anytime calls to LL and mobile.
+ LL= £23.50 pm, cannot be beaten in my opinion.
Just renewed for new 18 month for the same.
I cannot fault them.

Cornucopia

I received a confusing email from TT that talked about a price rise to £37.95 when my existing deal is only £27.70. Although the email also says that it excludes any discounts already applied, that only works if you know that your deal is discounted.

Anyhoo... the nice call centre person told me that the only aspect of my package that is increasing is the Line Rental, by £1.25 per month. I still have misgivings about any real-terms increase whilst I am in-contract, but I suppose that's not a huge amount. I already know that the only cheaper option is Vodafone no-phone line at £25pm, but I think a LL plus free calls is probably still worth £3.95pm to me.

Cornucopia

Okay, so I re-read the email, and it said I could transfer to any current new customer deal.

So, onto their website and they have a £27 Fibre BB deal.

Onto the phone, and they offer me that deal for £25pm...

... which I've just signed up for (I don't need free calls, as I have some bundled with my mobile phone).

So, no price rise for me, but a price fall of £2.70 per month, fixed for the next 18 months.

Cornucopia

I was surprised to get a text from Royal Mail today, saying that they had a parcel from Talktalk for me.

It turns out that my contract renewal has triggered dispatch of a shiny new router, which has improved my download speed considerably.

All highly satisfactory.

Terry98

Cornucopia wrote: »

I was surprised to get a text from Royal Mail today, saying that they had a parcel from Talktalk for me.

It turns out that my contract renewal has triggered dispatch of a shiny new router, which has improved my download speed considerably.

All highly satisfactory.

Was it this one http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/review/modem-routers/talktalk-super-router-review-3625746/ or have they got a new model?