Incompetent TalkTalk (Qube GB) engineer
Kiko4564
Posts: 217 Forumite
A while back I remember dealing with a certain "TalkTalk" (Qube GB) engineer who had been sent out to deal with a voice fault although it did also affect broadband service, and who shall remain nameless. It had already been confirmed as an external fault (and not an internal fault) by two Qube GB engineers, one of who was the area QAO, which resulted in escalations to Openreach. However TalkTalk were adamant that they would have to send out yet another one before they would be escalating the matter to them any more.
So having been booked, on the understanding of a £50.00 charge being payable in the event of them needing to fix an internal fault which was not caused by TalkTalk, or Openreach supplied equipment, a "TalkTalk" engineer turned up. I expected him to know his stuff and be just as competent as the previous ones. I was proven wrong as his competence was very limited, he didn't even speak much English, and was an immigrant from somewhere in Eastern Europe. I made it clear to him that there was a line fault causing a total loss of service at times, to be precise I said to him something along the lines of "the phone service disconnects at times". To avoid being fobbed off, I made sure to omit any reference to the ADSL (broadband) service. However I was nonetheless fobbed off by the laughably incompetent engineer, who insisted (without even carrying out a visual inspection!) that the router was faulty, so popped to his van to go and get one. I then explained the other way in which the same fault would manifest itself, that being noise on the line (as confirmed by one of the other engineers who had listened to it himself).
He then went back to install the said router, which is a job that I could have very easily done in about 5 minutes if TalkTalk support had allowed me to do so, before then making it clear that the job was done, he was adamant that there was no further fault even after I challenged him due to the fact that I knew that he could not be sure. I then made a last resort attempt to show him what was also wrong (apart from the intermittent fault) which was the noise on the line, I did this by picking up a phone and dialing the number for BT line test facilities (which is the equivalent to 17070 on a BT landline) which I had found online. I then heard the words "This circuit is defined as, followed by my phone number", and then the words "Welcome to your BT line test facilities", etc being read out. This included an option for a quiet line test, which I duly pressed.
This resulted in said engineer asking me "What are you doing?", and then explaining "You don't need to call us", which I could sense was a massive red flag. I then explained that I am carrying out a "quiet line test", which instantly pushed his buttons, again much to my horror. :eek: I was about to offer him the oppurtunity of listening to the noise on the line (which was part of the fault), but didn't even bother and ended up just hanging up, before I almost tried to explain myself, only to be berated by the engineer who explained that "you shouldn't be performing tests, only we should" (which is a load of tripe and is not something that is made clear anywhere in the Ts and Cs, in fact the number is a phone number that any member of the public can legally dial at any time and for any reason) and then said something along the lines of "When you carry out your stupid tests, that will cause the DLM to sense that the broadband service has disconnected. This will cause it to reset the broadband speed.", this is a load of tripe which makes my blood boil and is in itself an example of their generally poor service, which is a very good reason in itself not to ever recommend using TalkTalk's residential services (which are a joke anyway) or accepting a visit from a Qube GB engineer to anyone, ever. :mad: The "TalkTalk engineer" then left without taking any further action (he didn't even call the call centre) as he believed that he had fixed the fault.
This is an extreme example of bad customer service which in itself I found extremely annoying, would rate 0/5, and would describe as beyond a joke. To then be charged £50.00 for the "privilege" would be even more of a joke. :mad: This raises the question of how on earth TalkTalk and their partner (Qube GB) can get away with this sort of behaviour? Could another company in another industry get away with this sort of behaviour? I seriously doubt it. What advice would you give to someone who had been charged the £50.00 "engineer" (more like technician) charge for a visit like that which resulted in no action being taken on the fault?
So having been booked, on the understanding of a £50.00 charge being payable in the event of them needing to fix an internal fault which was not caused by TalkTalk, or Openreach supplied equipment, a "TalkTalk" engineer turned up. I expected him to know his stuff and be just as competent as the previous ones. I was proven wrong as his competence was very limited, he didn't even speak much English, and was an immigrant from somewhere in Eastern Europe. I made it clear to him that there was a line fault causing a total loss of service at times, to be precise I said to him something along the lines of "the phone service disconnects at times". To avoid being fobbed off, I made sure to omit any reference to the ADSL (broadband) service. However I was nonetheless fobbed off by the laughably incompetent engineer, who insisted (without even carrying out a visual inspection!) that the router was faulty, so popped to his van to go and get one. I then explained the other way in which the same fault would manifest itself, that being noise on the line (as confirmed by one of the other engineers who had listened to it himself).
He then went back to install the said router, which is a job that I could have very easily done in about 5 minutes if TalkTalk support had allowed me to do so, before then making it clear that the job was done, he was adamant that there was no further fault even after I challenged him due to the fact that I knew that he could not be sure. I then made a last resort attempt to show him what was also wrong (apart from the intermittent fault) which was the noise on the line, I did this by picking up a phone and dialing the number for BT line test facilities (which is the equivalent to 17070 on a BT landline) which I had found online. I then heard the words "This circuit is defined as, followed by my phone number", and then the words "Welcome to your BT line test facilities", etc being read out. This included an option for a quiet line test, which I duly pressed.
This resulted in said engineer asking me "What are you doing?", and then explaining "You don't need to call us", which I could sense was a massive red flag. I then explained that I am carrying out a "quiet line test", which instantly pushed his buttons, again much to my horror. :eek: I was about to offer him the oppurtunity of listening to the noise on the line (which was part of the fault), but didn't even bother and ended up just hanging up, before I almost tried to explain myself, only to be berated by the engineer who explained that "you shouldn't be performing tests, only we should" (which is a load of tripe and is not something that is made clear anywhere in the Ts and Cs, in fact the number is a phone number that any member of the public can legally dial at any time and for any reason) and then said something along the lines of "When you carry out your stupid tests, that will cause the DLM to sense that the broadband service has disconnected. This will cause it to reset the broadband speed.", this is a load of tripe which makes my blood boil and is in itself an example of their generally poor service, which is a very good reason in itself not to ever recommend using TalkTalk's residential services (which are a joke anyway) or accepting a visit from a Qube GB engineer to anyone, ever. :mad: The "TalkTalk engineer" then left without taking any further action (he didn't even call the call centre) as he believed that he had fixed the fault.
This is an extreme example of bad customer service which in itself I found extremely annoying, would rate 0/5, and would describe as beyond a joke. To then be charged £50.00 for the "privilege" would be even more of a joke. :mad: This raises the question of how on earth TalkTalk and their partner (Qube GB) can get away with this sort of behaviour? Could another company in another industry get away with this sort of behaviour? I seriously doubt it. What advice would you give to someone who had been charged the £50.00 "engineer" (more like technician) charge for a visit like that which resulted in no action being taken on the fault?
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A while back I remember dealing with a certain "TalkTalk" (Qube GB) engineer who had been sent out to deal with a voice fault although it did also affect broadband service, and who shall remain nameless. It had already been confirmed as an external fault (and not an internal fault) by two Qube GB engineers, one of who was the area QAO, which resulted in escalations to Openreach. However TalkTalk were adamant that they would have to send out yet another one before they would be escalating the matter to them any more.
So having been booked, on the understanding of a £50.00 charge being payable in the event of them needing to fix an internal fault which was not caused by TalkTalk, or Openreach supplied equipment, a "TalkTalk" engineer turned up. I expected him to know his stuff and be just as competent as the previous ones. I was proven wrong as his competence was very limited, he didn't even speak much English, and was an immigrant from somewhere in Eastern Europe. I made it clear to him that there was a line fault causing a total loss of service at times, to be precise I said to him something along the lines of "the phone service disconnects at times". To avoid being fobbed off, I made sure to omit any reference to the ADSL (broadband) service. However I was nonetheless fobbed off by the laughably incompetent engineer, who insisted (without even carrying out a visual inspection!) that the router was faulty, so popped to his van to go and get one. I then explained the other way in which the same fault would manifest itself, that being noise on the line (as confirmed by one of the other engineers who had listened to it himself).
He then went back to install the said router, which is a job that I could have very easily done in about 5 minutes if TalkTalk support had allowed me to do so, before then making it clear that the job was done, he was adamant that there was no further fault even after I challenged him due to the fact that I knew that he could not be sure. I then made a last resort attempt to show him what was also wrong (apart from the intermittent fault) which was the noise on the line, I did this by picking up a phone and dialing the number for BT line test facilities (which is the equivalent to 17070 on a BT landline) which I had found online. I then heard the words "This circuit is defined as, followed by my phone number", and then the words "Welcome to your BT line test facilities", etc being read out. This included an option for a quiet line test, which I duly pressed.
This resulted in said engineer asking me "What are you doing?", and then explaining "You don't need to call us", which I could sense was a massive red flag. I then explained that I am carrying out a "quiet line test", which instantly pushed his buttons, again much to my horror. :eek: I was about to offer him the oppurtunity of listening to the noise on the line (which was part of the fault), but didn't even bother and ended up just hanging up, before I almost tried to explain myself, only to be berated by the engineer who explained that "you shouldn't be performing tests, only we should" (which is a load of tripe and is not something that is made clear anywhere in the Ts and Cs, in fact the number is a phone number that any member of the public can legally dial at any time and for any reason) and then said something along the lines of "When you carry out your stupid tests, that will cause the DLM to sense that the broadband service has disconnected. This will cause it to reset the broadband speed.", this is a load of tripe which makes my blood boil and is in itself an example of their generally poor service, which is a very good reason in itself not to ever recommend using TalkTalk's residential services (which are a joke anyway) or accepting a visit from a Qube GB engineer to anyone, ever. :mad: The "TalkTalk engineer" then left without taking any further action (he didn't even call the call centre) as he believed that he had fixed the fault.
This is an extreme example of bad customer service which in itself I found extremely annoying, would rate 0/5, and would describe as beyond a joke. To then be charged £50.00 for the "priviledge" would be even more of a joke. :mad: This raises the question of how on earth TalkTalk and their partner (Qube GB) can get away with this sort of behaviour? Could another company in another industry get away with this sort of behaviour? I seriously doubt it. What advice would you give to someone who had been charged the £50.00 "engineer" (more like technician) charge for a visit like that which resulted in no action being taken on the fault?
Use one of the postal addresses on the following, I'd use your post above as part of it but try not to make it too long as they may just stop reading. Use recorded delivery.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/bills-and-utilities/phone/talktalk-complaints-contact-details-need-including-email-addresses/0 -
Good advice thanks, fortunately it didn't come to that as at least they didn't have the nerve to charge a penny for this so called "engineer" visit, let alone £50.00!
That said TalkTalk were guilty of not allowing the customer to change their own router, which is why they agreed to an engineer visit as they had no other option for getting the fault fixed. In my opinion TalkTalk were clearly in the wrong! :mad:0
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