No internet for 3 months, please help

Vederan

Apologies if this is wrong for this forum I have absolutely no idea what else I can do to get help for this.

We have recently moved into a new house (end terrace built in 2001, London E9, Hackney) On the 29th October I advised my existing broadband provider talktalk that I was moving home on the 2nd November and that I wished to take the service with me to my new address. I was advised that talktalk would be able to continue to provide my service at the new address, I was also advised that fibre up to 150mb was available and I took up a new 18 month contract.

On the 2nd November the service was ended at my previous address and due to appointment availability I was told my new service would begin at my new address from the 10th November when a openreach engineer was available.

The service was not installed and no engineer came out at the 10th due to 'works' needing to be done by openreach to the cabinet to allow for fibre, on the 18th of December, after these works were apparently done an engineer attended and advised us he couldn't connect us and more work needed to be done on the telephone pole this time.

On the 29th December I had an email out the blue that my order had been cancelled, 2 months after the initial order was placed! I was then told that I had to be downgraded to 65mb speed and that an entirely new order  would need to be placed as openreach had said I needed a new line, talktalk did a credit check and I was told to wait until the 18th January for another openreach engineer appointment.

18th January, now 2 and a half months later, another engineer attended and couldn't install the broadband due to the work needing to be done at the pole, something that I advised him I was told was already done but he was insistent there’s nothing he can do.

Everytime I speak to talktalk they give me a new date of work being done but I’m usually passed around departments as no one can understand what’s happening or help me. Openreach won’t talk to me and tell me to go through the provider (talktalk)

Although my work have been patient with me using my phone to hotspot for internet access, I am now at risk of losing my job from not having reliable internet connection.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I’ve started a resolver case but that looks like it will take weeks, I’ve tried Twitter, CEO emails, complaints procedure.

MalMonroe

When we moved a few years ago we were five months into a twelve month contact with Virgin.
After we moved we discovered that Virgin weren't able to operate in our area. It was a big disappointment as we'd been really happy with them.

I phoned them and said that as they were unable to supply us, we requested a refund of the prepaid contract fee and needed to cancel the agreement. They were argumentative at first but as they couldn't supply the service we had paid for, they agreed that they had no alternative but to  refund the 7 months we had overpaid. We went to BT and have not looked back.

However, I know that talktalk is part of BT so that wouldn't be any good for you. But if talktalk cannot provide the service you need you should start looking for a more reliable provider. I'm assuming that when your 18 month contract was cancelled, so were your payments?

You could also report them to Ofcom. It's time to stop being understanding about their total incompetence.  Ofcom link :  https://www.ofcom.org.uk/home  You should also really stress the point that you are going to lose your job if you cannot use the internet. 

It's a difficult time, obviously, with us all being in lockdown but even so, they've made promises they haven't kept. Time to move on.

J_B

Vederan said:

 I am now at risk of losing my job from not having reliable internet connection.

Surely (if you don't mind me calling you that ) if that's the case, then your employer should provide you with 'reliable internet'?

littleboo

MalMonroe said:

When we moved a few years ago we were five months into a twelve month contact with Virgin.
After we moved we discovered that Virgin weren't able to operate in our area. It was a big disappointment as we'd been really happy with them.

I phoned them and said that as they were unable to supply us, we requested a refund of the prepaid contract fee and needed to cancel the agreement. They were argumentative at first but as they couldn't supply the service we had paid for, they agreed that they had no alternative but to  refund the 7 months we had overpaid. We went to BT and have not looked back.

However, I know that talktalk is part of BT so that wouldn't be any good for you. But if talktalk cannot provide the service you need you should start looking for a more reliable provider. I'm assuming that when your 18 month contract was cancelled, so were your payments?

You could also report them to Ofcom. It's time to stop being understanding about their total incompetence.  Ofcom link :  https://www.ofcom.org.uk/home  You should also really stress the point that you are going to lose your job if you cannot use the internet. 

It's a difficult time, obviously, with us all being in lockdown but even so, they've made promises they haven't kept. Time to move on.

Talktalk is not part of BT

mohammed1111

As a potential solution it might be worth looking at mobile broadband, Three do 30 days cooling off period might be worth a shot. 

With regards to talktalk, I think they're part of the ofcom automatic compensation scheme, so they'll owe you £8 a day for delayed activation which will be a tidy sum by now. 
Also if talktalk are just longing it out no harm in canceling and trying another provider even if they use the openreach network they might be more competent than talktalk