Help!! TalkTalk broke my broadband and won’t fix it.

Young_dad

Being an avid moneysavingexpert.com follower, I started to look around for the best deal when my broadband service was coming to an end earlier on this year.  I had a fast internet service (34 Mbps) with BT but they were not competitive for existing customers. You know the story... 

With lockdown easing, and having changed provider a few times in the past, I thought it was safe to move to the more competitive TalkTalk offer that was published as a good option at the time on the moneysavingexpert.com website. Ofcom had changed their guidance to say that Broadband providers should start to offer automatic compensation again on 05 June, and my service go-live date was 10 June. Excellent. All protected! 

Our BT service stopped on 10 June as expected. TalkTalk didn’t start the new service.
After 7 weeks of VERY frustrating calls with their customer services team, a few missed engineer appointments, several false promises that the service had definitely been fixed and would start working again ‘after midnight’, and a false promise that ‘the card in the street cabinet has definitely been replaced’, we are still without the fast internet service that we contracted for.  

When I asked TalkTalk when I would start receiving my automatic compensation to cover the additional costs that I am having to pay for alternative mobile services (they refused to provide), they told me that Ofcom had suspended the scheme. Now I have pointed out the OfCom update to them, they are telling me they will cancel my contract totally.

My service was working perfectly well until TalkTalk (or their subcontractor) broke it and now they are trying to leave me without a service that I can use.

Even putting aside the customer services experience, it is unbelievable that they would suggest they accept an order, break the service, not pay the compensation they are obligated to, and then leave a customer with in a worse situation than when they arrived.

Can somebody help me with what my consumer rights are.

JJ_Egan

BT service working >> TT did not break it .

You transferred and during the swap over from BT to TT reads as card in the OpenReach box needs replacing .

If you don’t receive compensation you believe you’re entitled to under the scheme, raise it with your provider. Unresolved complaints can go through an Ofcom-approved alternative dispute resolution (ADR) service.

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ColinD1

I did not believe the tales of poor service and frustration.
Am I getting grumpier or is service getting worse?
Had a couple of questions on what I should do with issues concerning my mother.
The first was what I should do a with her summons for jury service. Although she is of sound mind at 94 in a nursing home she was exempt. Simple phone call to the telephone number provided. I did need to return the form, but didn't need to fill it all in. Result.
Second on N&I Savings. Form not clear that I was acting as attorney. I had assumed they would only be interested in my mother's accounts. I phoned to check, long time on hold finally got through the person understood what I was talking about and said they also wanted details of my own accounts. Result.
Should the executives in charge of customer service at the telcos have to spend a day a week listening to recordings of customers trying to have issues resolved? Also the CEO of OFCOM may realise that is not just the people with disabilities who need to be treated properly.

Young_dad

@JJ_Eganthanks for the pointer to the ADR service. I will get onto that. 
I may not understand how the cut over works, but the end result I see as a customer is that TalkTalk broke something when the service moved to them (or their subcontractor did) and now they are trying to close my contract leaving me with no viable service at all.

JJ_Egan

You broke service when BT closed it   then in the future TT took over the line with a new service and may have changed connections in the box / exchange .

The service is started as new by the gaining ISP  new connections not breaking the old connection .

Not sure if you would be better moving ISP if their is a shortage of space in the box .

Young_dad

I assume there is a terminology misunderstanding here as I definitely did not 'break service'. I used fully managed service from TalkTalk where they notified, agreed and arranged the handover with BT. It is their responsibility to ensure continuity of service and all of their process was communicate with that in mind. At no point did they say there was any risk of the service not being effective and they were able to check the line and provide me with a minimum speed guarantee in advance of them accepting the contract for provision of services.
There is no way that a customer can know if there is a shortage of space in the box, only the service provider could know that and they would need to inform the customer if that was a risk (they did not). The physical and logical elements of the service were checked and confirmed as working by BT just prior to the move.
If there was going to be any disruption it was fully in the service providers capabilities and expertise to manage it. Having followed their prescribed processes completely the only conclusion can be that TalkTalk have failed to provide the service (and migration of the service) that they contractually committed to. 

jean17

I have had issues with TalkTalk in the past as have MIL, in my situation they did not want to spend money on wiring change and said "go back to BT, get them to update and come back to us next year and we will give you a cracking deal" MIL has no choice, apparently it was some shared wiring thing that cost £1k to replace.  If you had 34mb before it is obviously different but the culture is the same.

jean17

ColinD1 said:

I did not believe the tales of poor service and frustration.
Am I getting grumpier or is service getting worse?
Had a couple of questions on what I should do with issues concerning my mother.
The first was what I should do a with her summons for jury service. Although she is of sound mind at 94 in a nursing home she was exempt. Simple phone call to the telephone number provided. I did need to return the form, but didn't need to fill it all in. Result.
Second on N&I Savings. Form not clear that I was acting as attorney. I had assumed they would only be interested in my mother's accounts. I phoned to check, long time on hold finally got through the person understood what I was talking about and said they also wanted details of my own accounts. Result.
Should the executives in charge of customer service at the telcos have to spend a day a week listening to recordings of customers trying to have issues resolved? Also the CEO of OFCOM may realise that is not just the people with disabilities who need to be treated properly.

Not that you are Grumpy, they are blaming pandemic which one can understand but what has crept in is a "don't care" attitude.
OFCOM is not fit for purpose, dominated by people who earned their pension from the companies they are supposed to be regulating.
What I have noticed is that every time OFCOM brings in some scheme to help consumers the companies whack up prices.