hello all!!!!!

Can anyone offer advice? I a currently in the process of canceling my bt phoneline and broadband which I have had no problems with but find very expensive. I have two issues:

One:BT tell me i am in a contract, apparently they sent me a letter saying they would renew my contract with them if I didn't reply to this letter, I DID NOT GET A LETTER!! so i will have to pay £74 for early cancelation. Also they have said i am in a contract with broadband and will have to pay £25 which i think is weird as other people from BT have said I am NOT in a contract for broadband, they have also been ringing to try to get me to enter another contract at a cheaper price so I know I' not in a contract.I have asked for proof is this right?

Two: Is Talk Talk any good ?BT have told me they are crap and will probably have connection issues and lose my phone number. I have hd connection issue before I went to BT so just wondering if anyone knew wht they were like......

peronally, I would deal with either.

BT are a waste of space and TalkTalk are nick named BorkBork.

if your in a Virgin cable area, get that.

if its a BT line you have, my money would go to Zen Internet.

If I was being biast, I would say go with Sky as I work for them. On second thoughts......

I found o2 great for BB - getting uber fast speeds. I have a seperate Ukonline connection at my parents and the o2 one at my place is so much better. no download limts either

I have TalkTalk phone line and broadband. Previously I had Tesco broadband, (which was just rebranded BT broadband with cheaper equipment to connect) I had masses of disconnects with the Tesco broadband (even though I forked out £60 for a good quality router!) and next to none with the TalkTalk. They can change your profile to balance stability with speed, and their online "members forum" guys are brilliant. Had no problem with them porting my number accross. BT are bound to say their product is better, it's amongst the most expensive on the market. If you live quite close to the exchange, TalkTalk use ADSL2 which can be a lot faster than BT, but further from the exchange the benefit is lost. It also depends on if your exchange has congestion. Do a search for your exchange, congestion and talktalk

I was with BT changed to Talk Talk no problems the only thing is they dont support newsgroups.Other than that great.

See this is the problem, I live two villages away fom the exchange and have had problems with Tiscali before BT, but it was only whn they replaced the wiring from the exchange did I get my signal back, so am thinking i need an ADSL broadband or maybe thats BT putting false ideas in my head, might try o2? OOOHHH i'm confused!!!

I'm with Talk Talk on a LLU. I've had no problems with Talk Talk either phone or broadband.

Like Locutus said, the online help forum is excellent, though not as good as this one *cough*. They have dedicated support staff on the forum and can deal with the vast majority of problems from account billing to technical problems.

Credit where due - I was on Talktalk broadband but the local exchange set-up meant that they couldn't provide it free like in many areas. This cost me £31 a month for all calls, BB and line rental.

I was delighted therefore when they wrote to me confirming that, from a date back in 2007/08?, they equipment would be upgraded and the package cost would reduce to £21 a month.

I've had one glitch where the line was faulty but they sorted it and compensated me for a month of slightly dodgy phone and BBand connection.

Great value and pleased with customer services.

Hi thanks for reply, only just been able to reply due to loss of connection when switched to talk talk lol ! never mind that will teach me to shop around!!!

Ouch! and no broadband = no online tech support They'd have you sorted in no time in my experience. Oh well, you're connected now. How's the connection holding up? are you getting good speeds?

everythings working fine when i use the lap top but for some reason my pc will not connect to the hub using a wireless connection, it will only do it with the erthernet plugged in, keeps saying i'm getting my key wrong or theres a problem with my computer. The fun never ends......

To be fair, this sounds like a problem with your hardware over talktalk's products.

Start a thread here :- http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/technical-computer-console-satnav/ so more people in the know see it and link to it in this thread.

I'd also sugest a couple of steps to get you started.

1st run a full antivirus check.

2nd go to Microsoft Windows Update and update all you can from here.

hello all!!!!!

Can anyone offer advice? I a currently in the process of canceling my bt phoneline and broadband which I have had no problems with but find very expensive. I have two issues:

One:BT tell me i am in a contract, apparently they sent me a letter saying they would renew my contract with them if I didn't reply to this letter, I DID NOT GET A LETTER!! so i will have to pay £74 for early cancelation. Also they have said i am in a contract with broadband and will have to pay £25 which i think is weird as other people from BT have said I am NOT in a contract for broadband, they have also been ringing to try to get me to enter another contract at a cheaper price so I know I' not in a contract.I have asked for proof is this right?

Two: Is Talk Talk any good ?BT have told me they are crap and will probably have connection issues and lose my phone number. I have hd connection issue before I went to BT so just wondering if anyone knew wht they were like......

A WORD OF ADVICE STAY WELL CLEAR OF TALKTALK THEY MIGHT BE CHEAP BUT IT WILL COST YOU IN THE LONG RUN.

PERSONALY MY ADVICE IS TO GO TO SKY VIRGIN MIGHT BE ALL RIGHT WITH FEW £££

AS TOO TALKTALK ITS A NO NO NO IF YOU GET TIME DROP BY TO THIER FORUM AND TAKE NOTE HOW MANY VERY UNHAPPY CUSTOMERS ARE AND THAT WILL MAKE YOUR MIND UP

I've had the opposite experience with talktalk. £21 per month, decent broadband, unlimited landline calls thrughout europe up to 70 mins per call (which is useful as I get free calls to some family members ) and although my line is at the maximum away from the exchange, they will constantly tweek my profile to give me the best speeds I can achieve on their "member forum" website.

Of course their forum is full of people complaining... Why create an account there if not to get your problem seen to?!

I'm sure there will be customers having probs with Talktalk, just as with any other company.

Considering the deals TT offered and the number of new customers this brought to them, I think they seem to be handling it all quite well. They were snowed under around 2-3 years back, overwhelmed by customer numbers, but it seems they are handling matters better now.

The £21 package offers me all I need - BB, line rental and all my calls free (except 0844, 0845, 0870, etc Grrr) and I reckon it's great value.

The only fair way to compare would be to know how many complaints each company has compared to their customer base.

I'm happy with, and sticking to, Talktalk.

Have been with Onetel for ten years now and no complaints. Unlimitesd BB, calls 24/7 free 0845 etc, free 60 minutes to family in Oz ans NZ, free BT line and all for £30.74 a month. Enquired of Tiscali and Talk Talk but they are not interested in supplying their cheap service to the Lost Land of North Cornwall. Talk Talk ( now owners of Onetel ) tell me that they would supply me with the same service as Onetel but for £32 .74 a month. Have to get my tv from Sky, as reception is crap down here, and have just been ripped off by them but am unable to do anything about it. I was on SkyFreeview when they informed me that I had to renew my subscription but they were offering a much better package which would include loads more channels. Paid up, reset the telly and guess what - the same old programmes on the same old channels. Still good news, we only have to wait until 2020 to get digital radio. Ah! the speed of progress.

hey! I have been with TT for 3yrs no problem - I had to set myself up though as their modem router never arrived. I only just had a problem and find that Customer/technical service don't really care. They have been giving me the run around for 6wks. Until I came on this forum and found a contact that someone recommended at TT, and he is now on the case. I contacted him yesterday and today an engr is at my flat.

I think BT are more reliable as any issue with the phone line like mine TT has to contact BT to help resolve. In my case they never bothered until yesterday. So you will have to choose btw paying a few quid more or having a reliable service.

I have already ordered another line from BT out of frustration that the line was never going to be fixed, and I would have been right had I not come to this forum yesterday. I am still going to leave when my contract ends in 19days, if line is fixed i will cancel the other line I ordered.

It is a strange situation, but BT retail have to contact BT openreach the same way as talktalk have to, so there is not much difference (and you can get shoddy treatment from BT! check around these forums!)

I would suggest anyone having trouble with Talktalk to try their "Member forum". Some good people on there get problems sorted out loads faster than their call centers!

Wow I got a result and line is now working less than 48hrs after contacting this guy. I agree the call centres are rubbish the issue has been with them for 6wks and no resolution.

Talk-Talk are average as a provider as long as you have no problems which you need to contact them to rectify.

Using their standard advertised 0871 XX number, costs you 10p/minute and as their usual time taken to answer your call is around the 15-22 minute mark,- it can cost you!

And trying to cancel your Contract even if you're out of the minimum period seems to result in a host of excuses and problems- a nightmare! (as per my other posts describe)

Seems to stem from their basic Customer Service Dept being in India, their Accounts and Billing in another region, their Collections Dept in yet another, and their Tech Support in yet another, similar with their Cancellations Dept, with their Sales in the UK- one hand doesn't know what the other is doing.....

Had to take Talk-Talk to the Ombudsman some time ago for charging me for Broadband, over a 6 month period after I changed suppliers and cancelled my out of minimum period Contract in writing with them, they bombarded me with phone calls, debt collectors and even placed an adverse Credit entry on my Credit Reference file- the Ombudsman found my Complaint proven on all 6 Complaints, made several Orders against Talk-Talk which included paying me £200 Compensation and amending my Credit Reference entry with an apology.

I knew there would be problems when I heard that Talk-Talk had bought out Tiscali, and I was proven correct.

Join them, but beware.....

Border Collie of Scotland.

Hi Bordercollie,

I assume you had to pay as you were no longer a TT customer, which would be costly.

Whenever I've had to call TT, I call the 0870 4441820 number which is free for all TT customers.

If I were no longer with them, and had to pay premium rates per minute to listen to their music, I reckon I'd bust a blood vessel or two !!

Interesting to read that other have the same problems with TalkTalk.

Anybody considering TalkTalk beware. Take a look at my video. Its in two parts so hold tight. Its just a few minutes long, but wait and see how long I wait on their support line!!

Hi Robsy and welcome to CAG.

Rather than calling their premium rate number, can't you send an email backed up by a written letter asking what they will do to:-

1. Rectify your appalling BB speed.

2. Compensate you for the poor service provided.

Hi.

I think this is the crazy part of the whole situation. I have written many many, very reasonable letters to TalkTalk. Eventually, they conceded to let me out of my 18 month contract but it took months of letters and phone calls with then even for that concession. So I say - any reader thinking of TalkTalk - BEWARE. TalkTalk will try to hold you to a contract even if they know their service is failing completely. They had all the evidence that the service did not work.

In addition I have now asked for a copy of all correspondence and information they hold on me and the case history with my service. (cost £10). There is a legal requirement to disclose this with 14 days. They have not done so which is quite interesting. I intend to persue a case against them for full compensation. For me however, I think that an independent authority should be looking into TalkTalk business practices. They sell something that simply does not work as described. It is not surprising perhaps that Charles Dunstone wants out of all this mess. I would too.

If you've sent them a SAR and had no reply, see items 18,19 and 20 here - The Consumer Forums - Bank charges templates (consumer)

Adapt as necessary as they're written mainly with bank charges, etc in mind.

I'm on their normal 8Meg BB service and my speedo clocks them at 3M download which is fine for my needs. At 24Meg I'd be replying to you before you'd even posted !!

Can you even get speeds like that on the old BT copper wired system.

It tickles me that our present home-based internet system works on the same end feeds that telephones used 60+ years ago.