Talk Talk - any better?

whattochoose

Recently, I've received a few leaflets from Talk Talk pushing special offers to entice me to join them.
In the past I've heard some horrendous stories about them, from the time you have to wait when wanting to speak to somebody on the phone, to the actual inferior quality of the services they provide, not forgetting, too, that many of their customers account details were hacked recently.
However, I suppose everybody deserves another chance, and they do seem to be trying to make improvements.
With that in mind, can anybody on here who is a customer please let me know if they think Talk Talk have improved as a broadband/TV/phone provider.
Thank you.

whattochoose

DavidP24 wrote: »

Be warned that TalkTalk have admitted on here that there billing system screws customers at the end of a contract and charges an extra month. Their rep said on here they refund it if you complain but not always automatically.

I cancelled my direct debit with them and they even charged me for that, needless to say I told them to foxtrot oscar but they still put a negative on my credit file which impacted me.

I hate talktalk, this is a utility and IMO not a credit agreement, I too had prepaid a year so there was no credit.

Now that we have class action effectively in law I am just waiting for someone who had had a large loss to sue TalkTalk or get a consumer organisation to sue them so that everyone can join the class after the decision and bankrupt TalkTalk for the consequential loss suffered by millions because THEY ALLOWED themselves to be hacked, not once but twice.

It was confirmed on R4 that there is a scam to fiddle bank accounts which
is only possible because of the data obtained from TalkTalk.

Noticed this, doesn't sound good. I'm with Virgin at present, so perhaps better the devil you know...?

TalkTalk

Hi there Whattochoose


We have some great offers currently I wouldn’t want you to miss out! We understand there may be some apprehensions when choosing a new provider, I just want to assure you that we’re always looking for ways to give our customers the best as well as always listening to our customer needs. If there was anything you ever needed we have some great support channels, from phone to Live Chat to Twitter. We’re always here to help!

Please give us a shout if there is anything that you need!

Thanks
Abbie

macman

I handle my MIL's TT account online, and CS does seem to have improved since the hacking scandal. But forget phoning; do anything you need to online or via Live Chat.
They've still got a long way to go, but for a budget provider I'd rate them higher than BT or EE

Cornucopia

whattochoose wrote: »

With that in mind, can anybody on here who is a customer please let me know if they think Talk Talk have improved as a broadband/TV/phone provider.
Thank you.

I've been with Talktalk for several years now, and not had any major problems with them.

In fact, every time they increase their prices, I have phoned in and ended up paying less than I already was.

I have 38Mbps Fibre BB + Landline for £25 per month. The speed guarantee is 30Mpbs, which is accurate.

The only "bump in the road" was when I moved, and the ADSL BB at my new address was inadequate for the TV contract I had. It was eventually resolved amicably, but only after escalating through 3 different people. That was 3 years ago, though.

Charis

I had a rough time one afternoon this October with TalkTalk. As a customer of many years, I was already a 'fast fibre' customer so had ordered a new router from them and decided to test the much vaunted ‘up to 38Mbps’ fibre speed. Having just upgraded my account for another 18 months' contract I found I was getting 17-20 Mbps. Sometimes less. Rural Herefordshire is not quite Silicon Valley, so I wouldn’t have expected a bottle neck due to traffic flow. I tested it one morning at 1am, when I was the only one around here with a signal. No difference.

So I contacted TT and could only get through to an engineer via a chat line, which was dependent on my mobile phone because TT wanted me todisconnect the fibre line to check the fitting. I was asked to perform various tests and even dismantle the master socket, which is under the office table and in a position which was difficult for me to access. I only had a window of two minutes because the chat self-closes if it gets no input after that time. I was struggling for what ended up being almost four hours of typing on a mobile phone screen, I lost count of the times I had to redial and start again, explaining the whole thing to a new advisor. In the end I was getting agitated and they still didn’t know what to do so they arranged to send a (BT Openreach) engineer to test the line. According to the engineer the line was receiving 30mbps. He showed me the test app on his mobile phone. After he left I did a speed test on three sites, including TalkTalk's own, and the speed had gone up a little. The best I ever got was just over 20mbps in the hours after midnight. TalkTalk sent me emails asking if it was fixed, to which I could only reply Yes or No. I tried to text a short message but it only accepts 'yes' or 'no'. In the end I said yes because I had given up expecting better. I felt cheated then, but I was hopping mad when I read my bill today and found I have been charged £65 to add insult to injury.

I tested the download speed again today at lunchtime. It was back down to 16.19 Mbps. I phoned, got the usual kind of Asian customer assistant whose accent I could barely understand and he wouldn’t budge. I got very annoyed but kept my cool and told him very pointedly that in that case he need not expect me to extend my contract as I was getting less than half of the advertised download speed.

He has escalated my claim to a senior manager. If I don’t get a refund and an apology I will take it further. If I bought a packet of biscuits that was advertised at ‘up to 38 in each pack’ I would not expect 16!

littleboo

To be fair to TT, the master socket is a standard way to test at the demarcation point between yours and Openreachs responsibility and it's not their issue where your furniture is placed. How are you doing the speed test - wired or wireless?

Cornucopia

littleboo wrote: »

To be fair to TT, the master socket is a standard way to test at the demarcation point between yours and Openreachs responsibility and it's not their issue where your furniture is placed. How are you doing the speed test - wired or wireless?

True.

I would expect any competent technical staff at TT to ask the wired/wireless question fairly early in the dialog.

Although I'm quite happy with TT, I do think that their decision to place call centres overseas is a bad one, and I'm probably only one bad call away from leaving them as a consequence. (I originally left BT for this reason, although they didn't even have the justification that they were cheap).

@Charis: I think you'll find similar discrepancies on line speed from all ISPs. That's simply the nature of the technology - 38Mbps is the name of the product, but it isn't possible to guarantee that speed to every single customer under every conceivable situation. However, TT have begun to issue line speed guarantees - these are contractual in that if they regularly fail to provide them, you have a right to leave without penalty.

suzialwaysbroke

Sorry, have had hideous problems with TT, not once, but twice. You can only judge a company on their care when things go wrong, and for me I wouldn't touch them ever again.

fromdusktilldawn

I have complained formally (by letter) twice because I found it impossible to get a straightforward answer via online chat with Talk Talk. The first time was to establish whether or not they could offer fibre broadband which was showing as available at my local exchange and cabinet and the second was to insist that no termination charges will apply because I am leaving due to the recent price increases. In short, the technical service has been fine (if a little slow with ADSL) but the interaction with customer services is diabolical.

LadyCoupon

We were with TalkTalk years ago and it was the worst internet connection ever! We would never ever go back with them, horrendous isn't the word. Maybe they have improved now but there is no way we would be willing to take that chance.