TalkTalk should I switch and to whom?

DavidP24

Good to hear that Sky still doing the Voucher thing, I used to refer people from forums and get quite a few of those payments (kept the Ex in knickers as I gave them all to her).

Plusnet doing free broadband for 18m on their website with £16.99 line rental (15 something if your prepay a year).

I saw TalkTalk deal on uswitch with 12 months free fibre then £10 a month with £60 love2shop IF you are switching, I was tempted but I would not deal with TalkTalk again for reasons highlighted above. Is like a walking across a minefield buying from them.

zetortractortrailer

I've had enough of TalkTalk and the utter contempt they have for their existing customers. Despite how badly their customers have been treated, not just in regards to the data hack but over the years generally, I find it astounding that they still persist in charging existing, out of contract customers considerably more than the deals they are offering to new customers, and that's not even including the fact that new customers get a £60 voucher on top of that.

Unfortunately, at the moment no other operator is offering a better deal than TalkTalk offered me, so rather annoyingly I may have to just take out another 18 month contract with them any way, despite the fact it's still considerable more than what they are offering to new customers.

At the moment TalkTalk seem to be taking the approach of hugely undercutting every other operator to attract new customers, while not offering their existing customers such a competitive deal knowing full well that they're unlikely to get cheaper from any other operator any way.

DavidP24

I have had similar experience, utter contempt, I had one guy on Indian call centre telling me I should be happy with what he offered, it was 400% more than I was paying!

I escalated and instead of getting the South African call centre (the only decent one at TalkTalk) I got a Filipino who could say English words but did not understand what they meant, he was just reading script snippets.

I called back 4 times and got the same kwap. Then they tried to screw me when I left with fake charges (I had prepaid to the end of my contract and given 30 days notice to quit).

I would urge you not to sign up for another 18 Months unless the deal is really amazing.

You do not say what the deal they offered is so hard for the community to point you here or there.

Are they at least matching their own offers that they offer on places like uSwitch?

I think others may be right and you have to just swap, up to now TT retentions had been prepared to compete with offers others were pitching, it got them 4 years biz. Now it is hard to imagine me ever dealing with them again.

I am probably going to go with Plusnet, that no nonsense stuff seems to be true.

Susan1942

Talk Talk representative I a currently in Australia until 14th January I did speak to a girl at Loyalty She firstly offered me nothing Suggested saving money by removing my International calls Probably from my account his little I use this
The upgrade all I was offered was a SIM card which I declined
During the time I have been with TT every time I called about any problem I was being bombarded with offers Didn't want TV I have a YouView Humax box and a Smart Samsung TV Told as it was a cheaper deal I could simply put your TV whatever in a Cupboard
Prior to being pushed to move to Talk Talk I was paying £5 60p month plus my line rental That was anytime and international plus broadband
To get me to change which took a lot of persuading over several calls I was offered free line rental for a year Anytime and international and nytime calls plus broadband That was to cost me £7.50 month of per Several tmes after agreeing to this I still had doubts given some of the complaints re Customer Service but taking everything into consideration
The first problem iwas we can't give you line rental I referred you to AOL Yes you would do that
When you billed me it was for an extra £3.50 I was told BB was included I had to pay £12.50 which I reluctantly
Some months you increased the anytime calls to £7.50 from £5 I was not happy as you told me that you were bringing down the anytime and mobile calls from £10 to £7 50 You failed to tell me that I could now make mobile calls It was several months later I discovered It was this increase which triggered the free Broadband until 19th December
I am not impressed with your Customer Servuces. Reading on here what has been written and repeated by many does not inspire me.
I am 73 and like many Seniors I am reluctant to change in case I run into a problem I was with AOL since 2004 and despite some being critical each time I spoke to them about anything they were ordering me fantastic deals
I know I would have had to transfer to another provided at some time I sincerely wish I had known the offer was too good to be true
My bill generated since I have been in Australia is for £37 50 way beyond what I can afford I used to have my telephone calls through OneTel and my line rental through BT
Despite everything that TT customers have had to contend with re security it seems that retention seems to me that you don't really care Like I don't really matter If I had been able to have anytime calls rather than a SIM card it might just might have made a difference I consider I was duped and now you have me it seems like you just don't care !! What others are saying you are back trying to lure new customers but treating people like me with contempt
Thanks to the good people in this Forum who are concerned not only about themselves but people like me who are in a fixed income
I do hope that you take the time to read this or just think it is OK to have another very dissatisfied Customer Sue

DavidP24

Sue I could not have said it better myself, they make you jump through all those hoops and then put up the price.

The Americans have a phrase for when they fire someone or dump a biz, they say time to kick them to the curb.

It is time to kick TT to the curb!

Check here for the latest offers every day over the next week or so

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/cheap-broadband

Currently Sky are £18 a month for 12 months with free broadband and a £50 M&S voucher

Personally I am not into these vouchers, I prefer cash off, the Plusnet deal is £16.99 a month for 18 months with free broadband for that period.

Currently you have Anytime calls and International calls, they have a package for that, I do not make that many calls and my mobile covers my needs, for international I use VoIP which is where you plug a £20 device off ebay into your router and you call over the internet either free to another VoIP user or for pennies if you go via a VoIP provider. Mine has no monthly charge.

These days there are other ways of making free internet calls, WhatsApp have the best quality I have heard, it works on a mobile (connected to your wifi) or on your iPad or PC.

Skype is another alternative, as is Viber, any of these would probably get rid of the international call requirement you have.

As for the anytime, try to get people to call you, or use same services as described above.

Even if you pay for Anytime and International, whichever way you look at it you are better off without TT.

zetortractortrailer

I find that TalkTalk's pricing is not very transparent as it seems to be made up of lots of different components, and rises significantly after 12 months, but averaging what they offered me over 18 months I came to a figure of about £31 a month for fibre and anytime calls.

The lowest price I could find that they are offering new customers for the same package is £26.55 a month averaged over 18 months, including set up costs. They're trying to charge me significantly more than that and have the audacity to claim that I'm getting a good deal because they're WAVING the set up fees! You couldn't make it up!

Really I don't think that £31 a month is a good enough deal to sign up for another 18 month contract and continue with a company that so evidently regards its customers with utter contempt, but I can't see any real alternative.

The cheapest deal I could find other than TalkTalk was with a company called Direct Save Telecom or something for about £30 a month, but it appears that they are a small company and judging by their reviews they're not thought of much more highly than TalkTalk.

Unfortunately I think I will have to just sign up with TalkTalk again because the cheapest deal I can find with established and well thought of providers is upwards of £35 a month for fibre and anytime calls.

As much as I would like to ditch TalkTalk and take my business elsewhere, I don't think it is worth paying consider more per month again just to spite them.

DavidP24

I saw deal on Uswitch, Anytime calls would need to be added but you get £165 back

Personally I would avoid Anytime calls and just use mobile, VoIP, WhatsApp, Skype, Viber etc

The deal includes
BT Infinity Unlimited Broadband & Calls

Get BT's NetProtect Plus with fibre broadband + weekend calls. Free wireless Home Hub 5 & basic McAfee security plus free BT Sport Lite.
Online deal: ONLY £12.50 for 12 MONTHS plus get 5GB cloud storage + a FREE BT Home Hub 5 & a £125 prepaid Master Card + £40 Next voucher!

I also saw Virgin deal on faster broadband with a free Tivo box is only 12 month discount though
Virgin Media Big Easy Bundle

SuperFibre 50 broadband, 60+ TV channels (including HD) & home phone. Free TiVo 500GB and free Super Hub & unlimited weekend calls.
Online offer: 12 MONTHS DISCOUNT plus get a FREE 500GB TiVo box with catch up TV & FREE self-install with QuickStart + a FREE Super Hub wireless route

Use these deals to complain to TT, say you wish to complain and they will escalate you up, use phrases like "you will have to do better" and "OK what do I need to do to cancel can you please give me my MAC code"

Now MAC codes are no longer required but it tells them you are serious.

I think in the new year there will be a load of new offers

Susan1942

Thanks David and others here for advice and support The support for me is everything Having been widowed 19+years ago I value this web site and rely so much on advice in making choices
Will sort it when I get home mid Jan
Temperature 29 and it us 1 45am and was 39 today Air con is a must for sleeping Time I was sleeping !
Sue

emmam202

Hi, I was just on the brink of clicking the button to switch to TalkTalk and having read this I will look into it in a bit more detail.

I am currently paying about £30 per month for EE Fibre Broadband with line rental and weekend calls.

I was looking at switching to the Simply Broadband with Fibre which would cost me £17.70 per month just for the line rental with the BB free for 12 months.

I was a bit concerned when I asked them about the connection fee though, I was told that even though I already have Fibre Broadband they would need to send an engineer to my exchange to swap the cable for a fibre optic one because my current provider won't actually be using a fibre optic cable. He went on the tell me that the TT one is better because it is made of copper. Have I been spun a tale here?

beardiedog

Sounds like a load of cobblers to me.

"Optical technology. A fibre-optic cable is made up of incredibly thin strands of glass or plastic known as optical fibres; one cable can have as few as two strands or as many as several hundred."

The only copper bit AFAIK with FTTC is the cable from the cabinet to your home i.e the telephone line, and maybe the connection at the exchange? But I assume they would all be copper regardless of provider.

I don't know a great deal about telecoms, but that's how I see it.