TalkTalk Customer Poll

ehux

APPALLING

My connection fails totally in the evenings, every evening for the last 28 days. Getting throught to 2nd line support regularly takes 45min; they tell me there's nothing wrong. They promised a new modem which never came, call backs which never happen, nothing new and no improvement. No-one takes ownership - I've spoken to a different operator each time. I've kept a log of my calls, the service is THAT BAD.

I've told the retentions dept that I WANT to stay - the deal is great. But if they don't supply what they promise, what choice do I have..?

I have worked with plenty of service operators. I thought Metronet were bad but TalkTalk take the biscuit & the whole tin. SIMPLY THE WORST SERVICE I HAVE HAD FROM A SERVICE PROVIDER

I'm trying to cancel as I write this but have been on hold for 35min now.....

ehux

55min before getting through then they hung up after 2 min

I may as well share what I've been told by the various TalkTalk reps I've spoken to.

• 1st line support is based in India - 0870 087 8777. They have a set number of simple questions to filter out basic issues. This is the best staffed but lowest skilled part of the network. They have the authority to upgrade your issue to 2nd line and give you the number. Alternatively they can 'warm-hold' - they go on hold to 2nd line support and hang up with you. When they get to 2nd line, they call you back & pass you onto 2nd line.

• 2nd line support - 0870 087 8080. Based in the UK or S. Africa. Best time to call is 8am - much after this & you're facing 30min + wait times. These guys know their stuff & don't run from a script. They go through plenty of check and have the authority to change your internet 'profile' - that is the way settings governing your internet connection. This may/may not make a difference to line speed. If they can't solve the problem, they pass onto Opal Telecom.

• Opal telecom - the company that manage TalkTalk's lines. They don't talk with the client, only with 2nd line support. They run line checks etc.

• Retentions Dept. - very fast at picking up (unsurpirsingly). They can refer you to 1st or 2nd line support & can also warm-hold for you (although some operators tell you they can't - don't believe this). They are authorised to give disconts etc.

Some notes:

• The system fails because 1st line immediately people to 2nd line, meaning the 1st line job as a 'filter' doesn't work. The result is 2nd line (who have fewer operators) are deluged with calls, resulting in impossibly long hold times
• Opal typically take 48-96hrs to turn around a request from 2nd line to investigate a problem
• As long as you have a connection, they won't send someone round - I was running a 1kb connection and this was enough to convince them that the problem wasn't my setup, so they didn't send a person round
• An issue has to run for at least 28-days without resolution before you can leave TalkTalk without a penalty fee
• The staff are utterly miffed there too - several have told me how the support system (ie poor 1st line support, everyone being pushed to 2nd line) is failing. Some recommended I leave....
• There is no ownership or continuum in a call - every 2nd line support person asked me the same questions every time I called. They told me Opal couldn't find a problem, they saw me getting 5mb but in reality I was getiing 28k. So they bounced back to Opal, all the while I have no effective broadband
• The Carphone Warehouse shops have no association with technical aspects of TalkTalk
• Everyone is very polite - retentions & 1st line pick up quickly, 2nd line takes 30-60 minutes

In short, the support service is creaking. For me, it was frustrating - no ownership and being talked in circles while nothing happened. I had an issue for 4-weeks and hadno progress whatsoever. I will be leaving TalkTalk this week.

piglet33

I feel I really need to say how disappointed i am about Matin promoting this company on his website-when thousands of customers have revealed the numernous probems with this company, I am surprised that Martin isn't slating this company as opposed to promoting it! My personal experience with them is AWFUL. No broadband for 6 weeks, continued bills and threats from debt colelctors after account closure-absolutely nil customer service-shocking!

TalkTalkBoy

There is currently work under way to increase the size of TalkTalks second line team. The first new agents go live onto the phones tomorrow and over the next few weeks, you should see a drastic improvment in the 2nd line call queues.

nafan

i was wondering is it possible to change from talk3 to talk2 before 18mths?
(is the 18 month contract with talktalk or the call plan?)
it would be cheaper for me. were not using the phone as much

TalkTalkBoy

nafan wrote: »

i was wondering is it possible to change from talk3 to talk2 before 18mths?
(is the 18 month contract with talktalk or the call plan?)
it would be cheaper for me. were not using the phone as much

Im afraid not, if you did there would be a £70 cessation fee which automaticlly goes onto the account (im fairly sure this is correct)

nafan

TalkTalkBoy wrote: »

Im afraid not, if you did there would be a £70 cessation fee which automaticlly goes onto the account (im fairly sure this is correct)

thats what i thought, thanks anyway though.
its still worth it though! :beer:

helping_hubby

I've been with talk talk (broadband and calls) for nearly 3 years. I didn't have any problems setting up, and the one time I called technical support with help regarding VPN they were extremely helpful.

My only complaint is my internet is a little slow at times, but given that I don't download anything I don't find this is a big problem. From my personal experiences I would recommend them as long as you didn't want to download huge files everyday.

roodles_2

We were one of those who joined early on cos it was and still is the cheapest but boy did we have problems! And we couldn't get out of the contract back then. :mad: However, I am happy to report that they now seem to have everything under control (still some annoying outages i hasten to add) and even the technical support phone number is FREE! :j - which you do still need from time to time as it is not without fault. However. My hubby works from home sometimes and unfortunately talktalk have changed their static IP address and now he cannot connect to his office computer system, and talktalk cannot and will not give us a usable address, so he is having to connect through orange broadband to get a stable connection so we will have to change provider.
If only it wasn't so much cheaper than all the rest............. I guess you get what you pay for.

TalkTalk

Hello,

Sorry to hear about your problems. If you need a static IP address then unfortunately we don't offer them to residential customers however our business customers can get fixed IP for just £1.00 a month. Also note that Business customer can get our free broadband !.

Hope this helps
Stephen