Let down and mis-led with my broadband contract

Hallux

Sorry, it's a bit long-winded:

My broadband contract was coming to an end 23rd Jan so I negotiated a new 24 month contract that I was happy with. On 1st Feb my broadband stopped working completely with the router just flashing orange.  

TalkTalk tried to sort it but failed and sent me an identical replacement router but this failed to make any difference.  I spent frustrating hours on the phone speaking to reps who all didn't speak very clear English trying to get it sorted but line tests etc. failed and they said City Fibre would attend on 7th Feb 8.00-13.00 but I stayed in for the 5 hours and no one came, nor did I get any feedback or apology.

After another long time on the phone a rep (who did speak clear English) urged me to upgrade to a new Eero router and said it would be much faster and give a strong signal throughout my bungalow.  Speed has never been an issue to me but the signal range is so I agreed reluctantly because unlike my existing 24 month contract it was only 12 month and I was keen to avoid having to go through all this hassle in 12 months or less.

The Eero router finally arrived 10th Feb.  When I installed it I found that the signal would not reach the other end of my bungalow.  I'd been without internet over 9.5 days (massively inconvenient and with consequences) and wasted many hours on the phone and their chat app with lots of frustrating drop outs.

I can't understand why it stopped working in the first place and still won't on my old router after 2 and a half years with no issue.  I even suspected that it was a deliberate tactic to get me to upgrade!  (like Apple slowing down the old iphones)

What can I do?  What are my entitlements?  A main frustration is that the rep said my signal range would not be an issue at all - it is!

Aylesbury_Duck

Have a look at what your contract says about service levels.  You may be able to cancel and go elsewhere on the basis that they have breached the contract.

35har1old

Hallux said:

Sorry, it's a bit long-winded:

My broadband contract was coming to an end 23rd Jan so I negotiated a new 24 month contract that I was happy with. On 1st Feb my broadband stopped working completely with the router just flashing orange.  

TalkTalk tried to sort it but failed and sent me an identical replacement router but this failed to make any difference.  I spent frustrating hours on the phone speaking to reps who all didn't speak very clear English trying to get it sorted but line tests etc. failed and they said City Fibre would attend on 7th Feb 8.00-13.00 but I stayed in for the 5 hours and no one came, nor did I get any feedback or apology.

After another long time on the phone a rep (who did speak clear English) urged me to upgrade to a new Eero router and said it would be much faster and give a strong signal throughout my bungalow.  Speed has never been an issue to me but the signal range is so I agreed reluctantly because unlike my existing 24 month contract it was only 12 month and I was keen to avoid having to go through all this hassle in 12 months or less.

The Eero router finally arrived 10th Feb.  When I installed it I found that the signal would not reach the other end of my bungalow.  I'd been without internet over 9.5 days (massively inconvenient and with consequences) and wasted many hours on the phone and their chat app with lots of frustrating drop outs.

I can't understand why it stopped working in the first place and still won't on my old router after 2 and a half years with no issue.  I even suspected that it was a deliberate tactic to get me to upgrade!  (like Apple slowing down the old iphones)

What can I do?  What are my entitlements?  A main frustration is that the rep said my signal range would not be an issue at all - it is!

When it came to the upgrade did you receive a email highlighting your options?
As when I viewed my renewal options online I was offered only one that was for the same speed but it would mean a increase of £8.95 taking the cost to £34.95 plus come April another increase of £3 and the following April another £3.
But the email gave three options 
1st option do nothing stay on £26 and in April the increase would be CPI
2nd option upgrade to 150 at a cost of £28 come April increase of £3 and the same the following April might be a £4.95 charge for P&P
3rd option sign new 2 year contract for the same speed (65) £28 come April +£3 +April 26 £3
Free to leave after contract end date

35har1old

Hallux said:

Sorry, it's a bit long-winded:

My broadband contract was coming to an end 23rd Jan so I negotiated a new 24 month contract that I was happy with. On 1st Feb my broadband stopped working completely with the router just flashing orange.  

TalkTalk tried to sort it but failed and sent me an identical replacement router but this failed to make any difference.  I spent frustrating hours on the phone speaking to reps who all didn't speak very clear English trying to get it sorted but line tests etc. failed and they said City Fibre would attend on 7th Feb 8.00-13.00 but I stayed in for the 5 hours and no one came, nor did I get any feedback or apology.

After another long time on the phone a rep (who did speak clear English) urged me to upgrade to a new Eero router and said it would be much faster and give a strong signal throughout my bungalow.  Speed has never been an issue to me but the signal range is so I agreed reluctantly because unlike my existing 24 month contract it was only 12 month and I was keen to avoid having to go through all this hassle in 12 months or less.

The Eero router finally arrived 10th Feb.  When I installed it I found that the signal would not reach the other end of my bungalow.  I'd been without internet over 9.5 days (massively inconvenient and with consequences) and wasted many hours on the phone and their chat app with lots of frustrating drop outs.

I can't understand why it stopped working in the first place and still won't on my old router after 2 and a half years with no issue.  I even suspected that it was a deliberate tactic to get me to upgrade!  (like Apple slowing down the old iphones)

What can I do?  What are my entitlements?  A main frustration is that the rep said my signal range would not be an issue at all - it is!

Did you go through the process of turning the router of and waiting for a short time before turning it back on?
Seeing the orange light may have happened once or twice with me but the router always reset
Did it cost you anything to upgrade ?

Peter999_2

Hi,

I had the same problem with my parents.   They were with TalkTalk for years and when they upgraded to fibre the signal from the Eero didn't reach the whole of the bungalow.    I posted on the TalkTalk forum about this, they remotely checked the Eero and could see that devices did have a poor signal and quite often dropped off.

They sent me a second Eero for free which we put in the centre of the bungalow and it fixed it and everything could connect.    I personally think the Eero's are poor as they drop off for a couple of minutes every other day which is annoying.

The forum can be found here if you want to give it a try : 

ForumIndex - TalkTalk Help & Support

400ixl

Eero is designed to be a mesh network utilising additional pucks to extend the network.

They certainly shouldn't be dropping off every day though, so something is not right there.

iniltous

The router change is irrelevant if the service to the router isn’t working….if you are TT via City Fibre you are FTTP , so presumably will have an ONT where the City Fibre network is presented and you  connect your TT router , what lights are lit on the ONT ?, if the PON light is lit the CF network is OK , if the LOS ( loss of signal ) is lit , the CF network is broken…

TBH , it’s pretty clear that in renewing your arrangement TT have messed up your account, so it’s  likely to be an account /configuration error within TT that TT need to address , sending out various different routers won’t fix that 

Hallux

iniltous said:

The router change is irrelevant if the service to the router isn’t working….if you are TT via City Fibre you are FTTP , so presumably will have an ONT where the City Fibre network is presented and you  connect your TT router , what lights are lit on the ONT ?, if the PON light is lit the CF network is OK , if the LOS ( loss of signal ) is lit , the CF network is broken…

TBH , it’s pretty clear that in renewing your arrangement TT have messed up your account, so it’s  likely to be an account /configuration error within TT that TT need to address , sending out various different routers won’t fix that 

Changing a Sagemcom router to another identical replacement did not help but upgrading to an Eero router DID fix it.  I even went back to the old one briefly to make sure that it was not still not working.  We checked the ONT. - no problem with it.

Hallux

35har1old said:

Did you go through the process of turning the router of and waiting for a short time before turning it back on?

Seeing the orange light may have happened once or twice with me but the router always reset
Did it cost you anything to upgrade ?

Yes.  Fully aware of how to reset the router but no way would the old type work even though it did for the previous 2 and a half years.
The upgrade was a similar price except that the contract was only 12 months instead of 24.  Also the promise of fantastic signal range throughout my bungalow proved to be totally untrue.

iniltous

OK ,  it wasn’t clear ( to me at least ) that your service is now actually working, but if it is , I’m not sure what your question is , you should be due compensation in line with whatever TT policy is ( that’s assuming  they have a policy ) , if the second new router that they supplied works , something the first replacement didn’t , but WiFi coverage is worse than the original router ( that presumably was the cause of your period without service ) , unfortunately no ISP guarantees WiFi performance as there are too many environmental variables, so I’m not sure if you have any valid cause for complaint there ,  you could explore WiFi extenders to improve your WiFi coverage and contact TT to find out what compensation they are providing for the 9 days without service,