TalkTalk Broadband

julietbravo

Hi everyone

I hope you can help me.

My broadband provider at the moment is TalkTalk. The service lately has been poor, the internet drops out constantly and I have to reset the router frequently. When it does work, the connection is not good.

My housemate called the helpline last night and was on hold until it closed so we've been unable to speak with customer services to see what the issue is this time. This isn't the only time we've had problems with the service and trying to get a fix for it.

My question is: can we leave our contract? We're only a few months in but we're not being provided with a good service. I'm a little sketchy on what's acceptable and what's not with contracts. I briefly read an article on MSE re broadband earlier that stated that you can only opt out early if the provider increases prices mid-contract without having warned the customer of it when joining, but I'm unsure if the "not fit for purpose" rule applies here?

Your help would be mucho appreciated!

Thanks all.

JB

JJ_Egan

My question is: can we leave our contract?

Essentially NO .
Fit for and all the other get outs free .
You need to go through the TT complaints .
Have TT sent an enginneer out .
Is this dropout over WiFi ( thats usually your fault ) .

julietbravo

Thanks JJ Egan.

We've requested an engineer previously but they were reluctant to send one. It sounds like we'll have to try again.

"Is this dropout over WiFi ( thats usually your fault )" - can you explain this further? We're not doing anything differently now from when we first signed up to TT so I'm unsure how it could be our fault? (genuinely would like to understand what we could be doing that's affecting it!)

Thank you!

kwikbreaks

The real question is does it work OK on a wired connection? ISPs do not gurantee wireless to be trouble free because it is outside their control. Environmental issues such as the building's construction and other interfering signals will all have an impact on performance. There are countless guides on the internet including threads on this forum discussing maximising wireless performance.

In short if their connection to your router is constant (which it more than likely is) that's the end of their liability. Even if it isn't internal wiring issues in your property can be the cause of problems.

julietbravo

Thank you kwikbreaks!

I don't know if it works ok on a wired connection, that's something I'll need to try and see. Really useful information though, I'll have a look into maximising the wireless performance.

poppasmurf_bewdley

I changed from BT to TT for landline and broadband almost two years ago.

The change was motivated by price above all.

From the moment the changeover happened, we were without broadband more than we had it. It would drop out for no apparent reason at all times of the day and night.

TT sent a BT Openreach engineer and their own engineer, both of whom could find no problem within the house and could not explain the dropouts.

After six weeks, I emailed the CEO of TT and received a call back from someone in her office who asked what I wanted.

I told him I was a retired journalist, and I wanted out of the contract as I needed a reliable connection. He agreed without quibble and without penalty.

I returned to BT with a decent discount negotiated and have continued to have a reliable (but still slow) connection in my rural cottage ever since.

I really learnt my lesson with that switch. I had previously been of the opinion that TT couldn't possibly be as bad as some people made out.

julietbravo

Thanks for sharing that poppasmurf_bewdley!

editor1

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

I changed from BT to TT for landline and broadband almost two years ago.

The change was motivated by price above all.

From the moment the changeover happened, we were without broadband more than we had it. It would drop out for no apparent reason at all times of the day and night.

TT sent a BT Openreach engineer and their own engineer, both of whom could find no problem within the house and could not explain the dropouts.

After six weeks, I emailed the CEO of TT and received a call back from someone in her office who asked what I wanted.

I told him I was a retired journalist, and I wanted out of the contract as I needed a reliable connection. He agreed without quibble and without penalty.

I returned to BT with a decent discount negotiated and have continued to have a reliable (but still slow) connection in my rural cottage ever since.

I really learnt my lesson with that switch. I had previously been of the opinion that TT couldn't possibly be as bad as some people made out.

T/T can be a God Awful company to deal with, by contrast, and from personal experience, I prefer Sky and Plusnet.

julietbravo

Thank you editor1!

weejangus

Hi JB,

Can you explain what you are doing when the connection drops? The reason I ask is that Talktalk currently have compatibility issues with some devices (such as the Playstation 4). If you try to use these devices to stream tv shows / movies etc from the internet - wireless or wired connection - the router will reset periodically. This can be every 5 - 10 minutes. I had this very issue when trying to watch The Grand Tour on Amazon Prime.

If you've only been with Talktalk for a few months now, I would assume you have the HG633 router (it will state this on the back). That being the case, the Router comes as standard with Firmware Version 1.21t installed. You can check this by logging into your router using a PC or laptop. Instructions are on the back of the router. Once logged in, click on "Maintainance" in the top right corner. It will show you on this page the firmware Version.

To rectify the issue, Talktalk are having to revert these routers back to an older version of the Firmware - v1.16t. They can do this in a matter of seconds either over the phone or with a request on their Community page.

It fixed the issue for me (and countless others) but it's not widely communicated within the company that this is an issue so you really need to tell them what you want them to do.

I now intend to ride out the rest of my 12 month contract then jump ship! Not an easy company to deal with if things go wrong!

Hope that helps!

Cheers,

J

MurkySurfy

weejangus wrote: »

Hi JB,

Can you explain what you are doing when the connection drops? The reason I ask is that Talktalk currently have compatibility issues with some devices (such as the Playstation 4). If you try to use these devices to stream tv shows / movies etc from the internet - wireless or wired connection - the router will reset periodically. This can be every 5 - 10 minutes. I had this very issue when trying to watch The Grand Tour on Amazon Prime.

If you've only been with Talktalk for a few months now, I would assume you have the HG633 router (it will state this on the back). That being the case, the Router comes as standard with Firmware Version 1.21t installed. You can check this by logging into your router using a PC or laptop. Instructions are on the back of the router. Once logged in, click on "Maintainance" in the top right corner. It will show you on this page the firmware Version.

To rectify the issue, Talktalk are having to revert these routers back to an older version of the Firmware - v1.16t. They can do this in a matter of seconds either over the phone or with a request on their Community page.

It fixed the issue for me (and countless others) but it's not widely communicated within the company that this is an issue so you really need to tell them what you want them to do.

I now intend to ride out the rest of my 12 month contract then jump ship! Not an easy company to deal with if things go wrong!

Hope that helps!

Cheers,

J

Don't know about that. I can perfectly watch the Grand Tour on the PS4 or any other devices just fine with a HG633 v1.21t. I am using a separate Unifi AC Lite as my main wireless network. Perhaps the HG633 isn't coping well enough to be a modem, router and wireless access point at the same time.