Leaving Talktalk mid contract

Cazjazz

Hi all I am wondering if anyone can help . At the moment we are in our 8th month of an 18 month contract with Talktalk. We have just been told that Ultrafast Broadband is now available to order and we would like to do this. The problem we have now learnt is that we can only have FTTP ( Fibre To The Premises) we were never told that TalkTalk can not provide us with FTTP, in fact only BT and Zen and a couple of smaller companies can.
We spoke to Talktalk this morning and they say that if we want to leave them mid contract they require £150 to end the contract. What we are saying to them is they cannot provide what is available in our area so we should be able to leave them penalty free. We do know one or two people who have left Talktalk free of any penalties. What are peoples views on this?

Mister_G

Probably the only thing that you can do is wait until the next Talktalk price rise, which will then give you the opportunity to leave penalty free.

macman

What do you currently have? Would not normal FTTC do the job? FTTP is only available in a very few areas in the UK and is I believe only available through BT and BT resellers like Zen. So TT would not currently be able to offer it.
You are seeking an upgrade that your provider does not offer, and is not contracted to offer, so I can see no reason why they should let you leave without paying an ETC.You won't be able to get out early due to a price increase, as TT guarantee no price increases while you remain in minimum term.

yfp234

Hi there
I have a similar question about leaving Talk Talk mid contract, but for different reasons..(but am also interested in trying to get FTTP - apparently it is available in our area..have been looking on the thinkbroadband forums and they are very useful)

We want to leave due to poor internet service issues, we've just had 4 days of no internet due to a fault at the exchange which was miraculously cured after a 1 hour call to India this morning...apparently they had tried to call me, (i don't think so..)

We have consistently had variable broadband/internet service, we do live in a fairly rural location. We are just over 3 miles from our local exchange, our nearest cabinet is 100m from our property, our cabinet is Fibre enabled, and we have the cheapest fibre service now from Talk Talk. Its still not great, we probably get similar speeds to the fastest ADSL, and we are considering downgrading..(why are we paying for Fast Fibre when we dont get the speeds...) The likely reason given for our inconsistent broadband service is that this is due to the last 100m distance from the cabinet to our property which is not fibre.
We work from our home and run a small business and weeks like this where we have had to rely on our mobile hotspots are just not cutting it..its not sustainable and I don't have faith in the standard of our future service from TT. Which is why I'm looking at other providers (like Zen, ID net, Fluid..) However we are also in a 24 mth contract...(why did i agree to that!) and to break will cost us £254.

I've started a complaint procedure today, and plan to follow this up with Resolver too..my question is about enforcing the break penalty - if we we have an inconsistent and below standard service. Is this something we can explore? I've read the MSE guide to how to complain and that process but just wonder if anyone has managed to get out of the contract based on a poor internet service/below standard speeds..

thanks in advance
any advice appreciated.

Cazjazz

Thanks for your reply Macman we are unfortunately unable to have FTTC hence BT openreach providing FTTP as we live in a rather remote part of West Wales, as much as it would have been easy to stay with Talktalk. But I do appreciate your reply.

Cazjazz

Thank you Mister G we are on a fixed contract so Talktalk will not be raising the price to us. But thanks anyway much appreciated .

Cazjazz

Thank you yfp234 it sounds as though you and I are in a similar predicament as our Exchange is over 3 miles away and no cabinet as I suppose we do not need one for overhead cable FTTP and we are a half mile out of the village too.
Our internet today and a few times recently is way too slow I am thinking less than what Talktalk promised when we first signed up 18 months ago. We discussed with them that we would be hoping to be connected to Superfast Broadband and were never told we couldn't get FTTC .

mac.d

Cazjazz wrote: »

Thank you Mister G we are on a fixed contract so Talktalk will not be raising the price to us. But thanks anyway much appreciated .

You either pay the price to break the contract or wait until the minimum term is up then you can leave. The fact that TalkTalk can't provide a newly available service to you is meaningless, they are still able to provide the service that you signed up for so why should you be able to leave penalty free?

As for it being a fixed contract, it might be a fixed term contract, but that doesn't usually mean fixed prices, you'll see threads about the BT price rises in January and a lot of people have either phoned up BT and negotiated a new deal with them, or informed BT they are leaving due to the price rises, and that is how they are able to leave penalty free. So as Mister G says, watch out for the next TalkTalk price rise, and you should be able to leave then.

mac.d

yfp234 wrote: »

Hi there
I have a similar question about leaving Talk Talk mid contract, but for different reasons...

yfp234 you should really start your own thread on this, but no you are unlikely to get out of a contract due to service issues, not unless you signed a business contract that states minimum speeds, guaranteed uptime etc.

molerat

The TalkTalk "point of difference" was no price rises during the contract term. A very clever way of ensuring customers are locked in.

jb66

Its not talktalks fault BT has a monopoly on FTTP