Talk Talk Cut us off to force Fibre Contract - GDPR Breach

SuzeQStan

Update: we’ve purchased an unlimited data sim so that I can work from home and not have to use my mobile as hotspot. at this point our options are limited. TalkTalk have offered to sign us up to their fibre contract but we would have to pay for the connection. Beggars belief. They have failed us entirely despite the fact we have approx 15 months remaining in our contract with them. It stung this morning to see the direct debit for TT leave my account.  They are refusing to engage with us and one of their representatives put the phone down on my husband after he had been on hold with them for over 30 minutes. 

SuzeQStan

As of 6pm tomorrow we will have been entirely without broadband for a week - I know this is a 1st world problem but it really has been eye opening to see how little regard Talktalk has for their customers. They refuse to reinstate our copper connection despite our landline still being connected - so they could reconnect if they wanted to

km1500

don't forget you are entitled to £8.40 each day you don't have service, even more so as they are still taking the dd !

I would keep it simple - complain you are still in contract, paying the monthly fee, and don't have bb, and want £8.40 a day until you get it as per ofcom regulations. 

It's irrelevant how they get it to you (fibre / not fibre) as long as you are not expected to pay any more for the remaining contract term

alleycat`

There is an aspect to this i want clarifying. Are you "in contract" or has your previous contract expired and you're just on whatever you signed up for years ago? When you're out of contract, i believe a supplier can inform you of withdrawal of the current tariff / service and give you options. The initial contact may have been a request for you to move of your own choice but was any subsequent contact actually "telling you" that it's happening as you're no longer in contract and they no longer offer the service you're on?

TT, and a lot of low margin suppliers, are notoriously crap (how did you feel about them losing large swathes of their customer data btw - see 2015?).

FTTH is the long(ish) term future for most and you might have to embrace it - regardless of TT.

As to the Telephony bit:-

It is true that the old POTS network is due to be taken apart, mostly, by 2025. Some of this is due to age / faults / SystemX literaly falling apart. Some of it's due to power costs (currently your line has DC/UPS/Generator backup from the local exchange - this is not true of VOIP). Personally I'm still unconvinced that the new service is as solid, engineering wise, as what it's replacing (certainly life lines, connected alarms, etc are challenges) but Telcos have convinced regulators most people now have mobiles as alternative contact methods. I suspect Mobile and the upheaval of internal house phone wiring, reduced phone location choices, etc will be the death knell of fixed phone connections.

SuzeQStan

@alleycat`-we are definitely in contract - doesn’t expire till Nov 2023. If we cancel we have to pay £10 per month remaining in contract. Really interesting points you raised said the same about the phones to OH - what do you do in a power cut / servers down etc. 

400ixl

Use your mobile is the alternative really when their is a power outage.

Some will see it as a step backwards and a safety risk, some will be pleased they no longer have to even have a home phone that they don't use but are charged for currently.

SuzeQStan

@km1500 - absolutely - just need to
find someone at TT who will take ownership of the problem. Each time we ring it’s a different issue - the last person OH spoke to denied that we even had a lack of bb. Challenging times. OH has sent formal complaint fao CEO etc but we haven’t heard anything at all back. Just a reference number by auto reply. 

SuzeQStan

@400ixl - good points raised there - but does anyone ‘have’ to have a phone line even now? Regardless we are happy to move with the tech / times. Just wish we’d gotten the memo about it all happening

400ixl

Many suppliers will only do broadband with a phone service, thankfully things are changing and some now do it without and even more when you get to FTTP services.

You have my sympathies with having to deal with TT and hope you get it sorted. As mentioned, make sure you get the compensation you are owed, hopefully it will more than cover the cost of the temporary measures you have had to put in place.

Good luck, keep us informed of progress.

iniltous

TBH , this probably is a simple error that TT have made but don’t know how to fix ( or don’t care ) they offer to upgrade you to FTTP ( this is advantageous to them and OR but is not compulsory ) , you say ‘ No thanks’ and that should be the end of it , but for whatever reason they start the migration, the OR tech turns up to do the work etc , and you send them away .
Chances are this is the point of no return, TT have already set in motion ceasing your ‘copper’ based products, and in effect cannot understand why you are not on FTTP ( even though you never agreed to transfer ) .
Once an area has access to FTTP, Openreach can close the order books on copper products and insist on any ‘new’  customers taking FTTP ( if someone moved in next door they would have to take an FTTP package ) , because TT messed up, they have made your address look like it isn’t served at all, and to get service , you are effectively now a ‘new’ customer , and as such you won’t have access to copper products , so they cannot just reinstate what you had.

 If they had done what you wanted , and accepted you didn’t want FTTP ( and there is nothing wrong with that ) they should have simply left your service as it was, but they , in error , started the unwanted upgrade and now cannot go back.
This appears to be a problem entirely of TT making, but the chances are if you want any provider that uses Openreach based service , it will have to be FTTP , even if you manage to leave TT penalty free, and sign up with someone else.