TalkTalk's ridiculous rules

Kiko4564

Am I right in saying that the following rules that I have been told by TalkTalk staff are actually 100% legally invalid and have no force of law, contract, or anything like that?

1) You are not allowed to change your router, whether it is TalkTalk one or one supplied by yourself. :eek: Seems like obvious tripe to me, to top it off this joke of a company even has instructions on how to set up your own router on their website! :mad:

2) You are not allowed to run the BT line test facilities by phone if you are on LLU, this applies even if you only running a ringback test, or a quiet line test. Note that this number is not 17070 as dialing this number will only read out your number twice, and then immediately terminate the call. In order to do this a special number has to be used, which I know from finding it out online, but are not going to publish. It does exactly the same thing as 17070 on a BT line. This so called "rule" seems like obvious tripe to me, this joke of a company has absolutely no right to tell me what numbers I can and can't call unless they are being called for a business purpose, or are access numbers. :mad:

3) You cannot test in the test socket without express permission. This so called "rule" is so obviously invalid that it is hard to believe that this is what I was once told is an Openreach rule. Even when I challenged what I was told and correctly stated that the end user can eliminate their internal equipment and wiring by swapping everything out and using the test socket, I was incorrectly rebutted with the classic line that "it doesn't work like that". On top of that, their own website explains how to test in the test socket which completely defeats this so called "rule". What can I say? :rotfl:

4) Openreach require that a "TalkTalk" (Qube GB) engineer must attend the premises and check the internal equipment, and eliminate the internal wiring by testing in the test socket, before a fault can be raised to them. Again, this one is obviously invalid, see above so I don't have to repeat myself. What can I say? :rotfl:

Rant over, and thank you for reading everyone. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

iniltous

Most of what they have told you is nonsense.
You can use a different router, although they can state that as they don’t support any router other than their own, any configuration issues wouldn’t be their concern, and if a fault were being investigated asking the customer to use the supplied router in any diagnostic testing seems reasonable to me,
If you were on TT LLU it wouldn’t be BT line test facility’s , but TT’s own ,which mimics OR’s own, but as you point out , if you can call the number, then obviously it’s available, if they didn’t want the public to use it they should devise a way of only allowing authorised engineering access, simple enough to set up if they really wanted to stop ‘punters’ using it.
The test socket is the demarcation point between what OR is responsible for and what the end user is responsible for, so obviously you can access it, in fact OR insist you use it to eliminate any internal issues before raising faults.
OR don’t require TT use Qube engineers, that’s a TT decision, presumably it’s cost effective, after all , if OR attend on a fault that turns out to be either not on OR infrastructure or not even a fault , OR charge TT , as they cannot charge the end user directly, as it’s the provider that is OR’s customer , so perhaps a lot of TT customers in the past refused to pay TT when they tried to recover call out cost (some TT customers I guess may well be ‘price sensitive’ and would switch providers over such things) , but to suggest OR require TT to use Qube is nonsenses.

Kiko4564

Which part of what they have said is an actual rule and correct then? On top of that, they won't even let you swap a TalkTalk router for another TalkTalk router without permission when I asked. How could something occur that would be "not a fault at all"? How come TalkTalk's own line testing facilities (as you've called it) announces itself as "Openreach line test facilities", and has options 3 and 4 (which are for fast test and fast cleanse) locked to prevent public access? I have to say that Qube engineers are probably a more cost effective option for broadband faults, but why not just require one Qube engineer once instead of one Qube engineer per ticket raised even if it's for the same fault as one previously reported?

Neil_Jones

Kiko4564 wrote: »

Which part of what they have said is an actual rule and correct then?

None of them.

The only real "rule" as such is don't tamper with the top half of the master socket box. If you do and the provider (and/or BT) find out they will charge you for it.

Use your own router if you like, normally you wouldn't do 17070 unless you had to, the test socket does what it says on the tin - disconnects the extensions. If phone works in test socket but not in the normal socket, extensions are causing it not to work, and the provider is not responsible for that anyway. The Openreach thing is impractical for a start and I'm sure they have better things to do than come round your house because you "think" you may have an issue.

iniltous

Kiko4564 wrote: »

Which part of what they have said is an actual rule and correct then? On top of that, they won't even let you swap a TalkTalk router for another TalkTalk router without permission when I asked. How could something occur that would be "not a fault at all"? How come TalkTalk's own line testing facilities (as you've called it) announces itself as "Openreach line test facilities", and has options 3 and 4 (which are for fast test and fast cleanse) locked to prevent public access? I have to say that Qube engineers are probably a more cost effective option for broadband faults, but why not just require one Qube engineer once instead of one Qube engineer per ticket raised even if it's for the same fault as one previously reported?

I was agreeing with your general assertion.
‘how could something occur that isn’t a fault at all’ there is a category of fault clear ‘ customer mis-operation ’ , basically customer doesn’t know how to operate the equipment, presumes it’s faulty, calls out Openreach (via their ISP) and OR point out that there isn’t a fault , just the customer not operating the equipment correctly, , this isn’t a fault, it’s something OR shouldn’t need to attend on, so legitimately could charge for the visit.
I’ve never been a TT customer, but have tried 17070 on another full LLU provider (Sky) and the announcement comes from Sky , if you call 17070 from a TT LLU line, the dialtone is delivered from TT , if the message is Openreach line test facility’s , presumably that is when you call the ‘secret’ number, not 17070, and it interfaces with OR line test systems , after all remote access to the tester is required by OR engineers, and LLU lines are connected via TAMS , this can isolate the TT kit in the exchange from the OR line , allowing the line to be tested.

[Deleted User]

Kiko4564 wrote: »

Am I right in saying that the following rules that I have been told by TalkTalk staff are actually 100% legally invalid and have no force of law, contract, or anything like that?

1) You are not allowed to change your router, whether it is TalkTalk one or one supplied by yourself. :eek: Seems like obvious tripe to me, to top it off this joke of a company even has instructions on how to set up your own router on their website! :mad:

2) You are not allowed to run the BT line test facilities by phone if you are on LLU, this applies even if you only running a ringback test, or a quiet line test. Note that this number is not 17070 as dialing this number will only read out your number twice, and then immediately terminate the call. In order to do this a special number has to be used, which I know from finding it out online, but are not going to publish. It does exactly the same thing as 17070 on a BT line. This so called "rule" seems like obvious tripe to me, this joke of a company has absolutely no right to tell me what numbers I can and can't call unless they are being called for a business purpose, or are access numbers. :mad:

3) You cannot test in the test socket without express permission. This so called "rule" is so obviously invalid that it is hard to believe that this is what I was once told is an Openreach rule. Even when I challenged what I was told and correctly stated that the end user can eliminate their internal equipment and wiring by swapping everything out and using the test socket, I was incorrectly rebutted with the classic line that "it doesn't work like that". On top of that, their own website explains how to test in the test socket which completely defeats this so called "rule". What can I say? :rotfl:

4) Openreach require that a "TalkTalk" (Qube GB) engineer must attend the premises and check the internal equipment, and eliminate the internal wiring by testing in the test socket, before a fault can be raised to them. Again, this one is obviously invalid, see above so I don't have to repeat myself. What can I say? :rotfl:

Rant over, and thank you for reading everyone. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

The Praise, Vent & Warnings Board is that-a-way https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&f=82

That said I'm guessing the only person to bring the term 'legal' to the party was yourself.

If that is what their T&Cs state then it's purely part of the contract that you agree to when taking their service, if you don't like it then either shop elsewhere or don't expect much customer support when needed (not that that is Talktalks strongest feature anyway).

Kiko4564

They don't even state any of that in the terms and conditions, but I wouldn't recommend using them anyway.