TalkTalk Customer Poll

newsgroup_monkey

OK, I'll try and be subjective.......

Firstly, go check out the ratings at

http://www.thinkbroadband.com

For those of you who may have used them before, they used to be called ADSLguide.

They're pretty subjective - anyone can rate their ISP. A lot of people do (whether good or bad). One of the main problems in forums is that people only complain when they get a bad service. Thinkbroadband don't work that way.

HOWEVER, I have found that with ISPs, if things go wrong, you want to know that there is someone useful on the other end of the phone.

I'm sure many of you will use the "Well, I'm sure I won't have problems, I've never had problems in the past and hey, they're very, very cheap!". Fine. If you do want to look into it, please make sure you search around the internet for reviews. Thinkbroadband is a good place to start.

Without wishing to get libellous or talk about individual disputes, I can only add the problems that I have had in general with talk talk. Please note, these aren't things that happened last year (like Martin talks about), these are things that have happened in the last month.

1. Make sure you are moving from another ISP. If you have moved from another ISP, you know that the line works.
Although BT provide services to Talktalk, your contract is with Talktalk. You will need to remind them of this at every opportunity.

2. Make sure they set up your direct debit properly. If they make a mistake, they don't ask questions or contact you. They simply pass the problem off to a debt collection agency who will hound you day and night.

3. Under no circumstances try and call them during peak periods (i.e. after 4pm and midnight between 7am and 9am). You will be lucky to get hold of anyone. If you do, you will (hopefully) get the UK call centre. They are very nice people (but they can't help you - they are a log-and-flog call centre).
Unfortunately, your misery starts there. If you are fortunate (?) you will get passed to the second line Indian call centre.

4. Don't expect a call back. You will be promised one. Don't expect one. If you do, this is a bonus.

5. If you are moving house or leaving them, give a MONTHS notice. Firstly, they will tell you that you MUST give 2 weeks notice (BT apparently will cut you off next day if you have a contract with them). They will then send you a letter after the 2 weeks telling you that you will be cut off within the next 10 working days. 2 weeks + 2 weeks = 1 month.

****** PLEASE REMEMBER TOO! IF YOU ARE MOVING INTO A NEW HOUSE, YOU NEED A BT LINE. BT HAVE A MINIMUM OF 12 MONTHS CONTRACT. THE COST TO GET OUT OF THIS IS AROUND £70. *****

phebe3

We didn't do the broadband bit with talk talk as friends had had such massive problems with it , and still have the odd problem with their phone let alone the broadband and we were happy with our present provider. We have now swapped to having the phone with them too, as they have offered a package. Talk talk phone was ok at first but we waid awhile when the line whent funny to get it mended and it's prices soon started creeping up in line with BT and other phone providers so we weren't any better off. However, we did swap to NTL at one point and that was a NIGHTMARE!!

clarkec321

TalkTalk used to have 2 major problems.
1. The offer was so much better than everything else on the market, that hundreds of thousands of people joined in a short space of time
2. Most of these people were new to the internet (or maybe broadband) as they were previously put off by the price

When you combine the above 2 problems, you got the mess TalkTalk found itself in last year, since then the company has said they've hired and trained a few thousand customer service agents, And I find them the quickest company to get through to on the phone.

What they do seem to struggle with is the overseas call centre syndrome, which so many british companies suffer from, but over the past few months even these have got better.

i've been with BT, ntl & TalkTalk, and TalkTalk are by far the best of the bunch, especaily when you consider their braodband is FREE!

matt_outandabout

Nightmare....

They disconnected out old broadband as we moved house, did not get it back on, ever.....
Then I swapped from the 'pay for' to the 'free' broadband - no service for over 2 months.
Had to get BT to force them to give us a moving code
Signed up with the wonderful Pipex about a year ago
Still getting demands for broadband we don't have from them ,have never had and now they are trying to swap us from Tiscali, as well as see us in court, but when I call (on their 0870 no...) they say they can sort the problem, and they are in the wrong...

Ahh well, I think I will (perversely) enjoy them taking me to court....!:cool:

Macnab

Well I have talk talk broadband plus talk international as my daughter was in the states at the time. She's since come home but is forever on the phone to her new american buddies, believe me without talk talk my phone bill would be enormous. I used to pay £25 a month to telewest ofr broadband but found their service to be getting poorer. I am absolutley delighted with talk talk, the change over happened exactly when they said it would with no problems, other than one. My computer ended up needing to be reset. The helpline that I phoned ended up with me talking to a lovely young man in Preston and we were on for 2 hours and yes he called me back once the call looked like it was to be a long one. He also emailed me the next day to double check the emails were up and running and that I had resolved all my problems

JudyN33

Joined Talk Talk last year for home phone and broadband package, My phone was transferred in June 06 with no problems and I was given an activation date of 15th August 06 for my broadband, I recieved the modem but no confirmation of activation or username and password. I rang many, many times and spoke to more than 20 different people each telling me I would have a username and password with in 7 to 10 working days, this went on for 2 or 3 months,I eventually spoke to someone who told me no order had ever been placed for me to have Broadband, so in effect I had been lied to constantly, in the end I wrote to Talk Talk to complain, they didnt even acknowledge the letter. When I changed my package to Sky last month, Talk Talk wanted to charge me £70 cancellation fee but I threatened them with Telecoms Ombudsman and Office of Fair Trading. They withdrew the £70 cancellation fee. So 15 months after signing up I never got to try their Broadband package but I did spend a huge amount of time being passed around their call centres. I would never use this company again.

Adamski1942

Hello all,

We have had Talktalk for about 3 months now and the transfer was smooth and quick. I was worried about Talktalks fair usage policy regarding games with their broadband, as I play a lot of online first-person shooter games, but so far I have had no problems and lag is very minimal, getting a ping averaging around 40. Havent been dropped out of a game yet but I do live close to the exchange (600 meters).

However my wife calls Italy a lot and she does get cut off quite often, usually within the first 5 minutes for the call. But you can just call them straight back and we have saved a bundle with this package compared to BT.

So overall I would recommend this package, especially if you are on a tight budget.

poundhappy

I have had no problems at all, although only joined 1 year ago, after the initial "rush". Everything connected smoothly and on the days I was told. I have had no connection or speed problems and think value for money is astounding. I have recommended them to several people and none of them have had any problems.

ramsgate

been with talktalk for 12 months with no problem. untill somone without my permisshion phoned bt and tried to take over my line. had standared letter from talktalk askin me if this was ok phoned them and told them no way they told me to phone bt as there was nothing that they could do. i phoned bt they told me must be a mistake and cancelled line takeover. but talktalk still cut me off. when i phoned them they just said i was no longer a talktalk customer and to phone bt. bt said my line was still with talktalk. spent over £50 pounds on my mobile back and forth. so now have no phone no broadband and will have to take out another contract with bt just to get phone put back on great service

Descartes

newsgroup_monkey wrote: »

****** PLEASE REMEMBER TOO! IF YOU ARE MOVING INTO A NEW HOUSE, YOU NEED A BT LINE. BT HAVE A MINIMUM OF 12 MONTHS CONTRACT. THE COST TO GET OUT OF THIS IS AROUND £70. *****

There is no contract for a standard BT Line on option 1.