TalkTalk - How can we get set up? Who can I contact at TT to get help?

[Speasy]

We moved into a new property and the previous owners were with TalkTalk and when they spoke to TalkTalk they were

told we could simply replace our details with theirs on the date of the move. This would have been perfect as both of

us work freelance from home and need the internet every day, all day. So the previous owners were sent a form to fill in.

However, when the previous owners received this form, things did not add up so they called just to be told they had been

ill-advised and such a switch-over was not possible, the line would have to be disconnected and re-connected. This could

take up to 3 weeks for us.

 

Although it was very frustrating for us, there wasn't much we could do and we agreed to having a new line etc all put

into place in about three weeks' time. We were told a BT engineer would come to ours on the 3rd December 2010.

The couple of days before the 3rd December we had heavy snow in London, which is why we called TalkTalk on the

3rd December to check everything was going ahead. By this point there was no more issues with travelling due to the

snow and it was confirmed by TalkTalk that the engineer would be with us by 6pm. Which he wasn't.

No phone call, no message, no nothing.

 

So we called TalkTalk who told us that it was because of the weather. Which was a ridiculous excuse. School, trains,

busses, everything was back to normal service by then. Never mind. The chap on the phone told us we could have a

new date, 11th December. We told him that this was VERY inconvenient as BOTH of us work from home and have to

rely on the internet to be able to do our jobs - pretty much 24/7. In addition, we have family abroad so phone calls

from mobiles are very expensive, never mind all the extremely expensive phone calls to TalkTalk, which would be free

from a landline.... if only we had one. So we asked whether there wasn't an earlier date. The chap (we have his details)

said that unfortunately there wasn't, so we agreed to this date.

 

Throughout the week running up to the 11th December we received a number of phone calls from TalkTalk asking whether

we wanted to arrange a new date for a BT engineer, so we kept telling them we already had one. I got very suspicious

by this and my worries were confirmed when we were told on the 9th December that, in fact, NO new date had been

arranged and that, because of this, we would now have to wait until the 26th JANUARY for an engineer to come round.

 

Speechless doesn't even come close to how I felt. We then asked him why the engineer would not come on the 11th and

the chap told us as a matter of fact that we had told him we didn't want the engineer to come on the 11th but before then

so he hadn't booked us in for that date.

Well, we would've LIKED the engineer to come before the 11th, but there was no question about taking the date of the

11th as there was nothing sooner and we had CONFIRMED we wanted the 11th December! He told us this was not what

had happened. Ie he was telling us we were lying. Why - I ask you - would we refuse a replacement date to receive our

landline/internet?! So he said unfortunately it would have to be the 26th January.

 

To cut a long story short we made a number of phone calls, and called again and asked about the dates. Another person told us there should be an earlier date and that he would call us back. Which he didn't. We then called again (each time from a mobile phone...) to say that it is ridiculous that we would have to wait until the 26th January. The guy on the line was very polite and said that he can see that we'd been messed around a little and that he had filled in an escalation form. Someone would call us within 48 hours about this. We told him we wouldn't actually believe someone would call, but he confirmed this would be the case and gave us his details in case there were problems. Sure enough, no one called. So we called, again. This time we spoke to a lady, again from a mobile, again telling her the whole story. She then said she wouldn't be able to tell us when we might get connected. ...? Well, that's just not good enough, is it? At the moment we have to pay 2 x £30/month on VERY weak dongle connections that won't allow us to do 80% of the work we need to do. Furthermore we spent a lot of money on calls to TalkTalk, and have to make all other calls from our mobiles. With having moved house there are a lot of 0845/0870 etc numbers we need to call, as well as having to call family abroad. Ie, we spend a good £100/month because, apparently, no replacement date can be sorted out before 26th January because of TWO days of snow! 2 MONTHS delay because of 2 DAYS of snow? How can that be justified?

 

TalkTalk blames BT - BT blames TalkTalk. I don't care. All I want is a working landline and broadband connection - is that

too much to ask from a broadband company? NO engineers available between now and the 26th January after the engineer failed to show up on the 3rd December?

 

So anyway, this lady tells us there is nothing she can do other than to offer us some compensation so she put us through to

yet another person. After minutes of waiting in a queue we got through to yet another polite guy (whose details we also have).

First thing he says is "I believe you want to cancel your subscription?" No. We just want it to work. So we tell him, still hanging

on a very expensive line, our whole story again. He is very sympathetic and tells us that there might be an earlier date but he

cannot guarantee it and can't tell us more. He tells us we get three months free connection (not even covering all the expenses

we will have to pay if we are not connected before the 26th January...). We tell him that is a nice gesture and will accept the

discount, but that we want to speak to someone more senior and ask him to put us through. This isn't possible. However, he

promises his duty manager will call us within the hour. We tell him we don't believe this as NO ONE has kept ANY of the promises so far and we have had NO person returning ANY of the calls. Well, he says we have his details and can get back at him if this call doesn't take place. Lo and behold, here I am, FIVE hours after the duty manager was supposed to have called us, and we have STILL NOT had a call back!

 

A lot of broken promises and the unbelievable claim that a failed engineer visit on the 3rd December cannot be rectified until the 26th January?!

 

What can we do? Anyone can help?

[maroondevo52]

Hello and Welcome, Speasy.

 

I'll move this thread to the appropriate Forum.

 

Regards.

 

Scott.

[locutus]

personally, I'd cancel, get a BT line, and a good value broadband package. My favorites are o2 if you have a mobile with them and spend £10 per month or more and if your exchange is enabled for them, then sky if you have TV with them and if you're exchange is enabled for sky broadband, then plus.net if you dont have either of the previous 2.

[rebel11]

Hi Speasy

 

Send a Formal Letter of Complaint to the Chief Executive of TalkTalk, [email protected] Tell him whats happened, tell him what you want him to do and give him a reasonable time to sort it out. Tell him if it's not sorted out, you will lodge a complaint with OFCOM.

[Speasy]

Thank you both for your advice!

Unfortunately, the email address you gave me (and several others that I have tried) doesn't work

I'll send a letter through the post, see whether I hear back, otherwise I will indeed try and switch over to O2!

Thank you!

[rebel11]

Hi Speasy

 

There shouldn't be a gap between the U and P, in the e-mail address.

 

Thank you both for your advice!

Unfortunately, the email address you gave me (and several others that I have tried) doesn't work

I'll send a letter through the post, see whether I hear back, otherwise I will indeed try and switch over to O2!

Thank you!

[Speasy]

I know, I had that email address before and have tried it twice - without the gap - and it still bounces back :-S

[Surfer01]

Do a search on Talk Talk on this forum and then Google it adding "complaints". I doubt if you would want to be with talk Talk after spending just 30 minutes reading up on them. Two months was more than enough for us!

[Speasy]

Thank you

I know - it's very scary. However, you do a search like that for any provider and you get horror stories about all of them. I have had numerous people telling me to steer clear of Virgin Media etc as well... in the end it's a bit of a gamble I guess.

 

I thought I'd share my latest communication I have had with TalkTalk on here.

I submitted a COMPLAINT. Not just an email, but a complaint. It said they would aim to get back to me within 24 hours. I took them 3 days, and after I asked them to please call me and discuss the problem as it's costing me a fortune from my mobile and I don't get anywhere by calling customer services I got this reply (remember the complaint is about not having a landline and broadband):

 

'Dear ....,

 

Thank you for email regarding the poor services that you have received from us.

 

I would like to offer our apologies for the negative experience you had. We can assure you this is not in any way our normal working practice. At TalkTalk we pride ourselves on a high level of customer service and at no time do we accept staff being uncooperative towards our customers.

 

I would appreciate it if you could contact our New Lines department on 0800 049 1423 as they will have full knowledge in assisting you with regards arranging a earlier date for the connection of your landline.

 

I appreciate your patience in this regards.

 

For any further queries, please visit the TalkTalk Helpdesk for answers to common broadband and landline questions. Alternatively, you can contact us by telephone on 0870 444 1820. Calls to this number are free from your TalkTalk landline.

 

Kind regards,

 

...............,

TalkTalk Customer Relations.

 

 

Isn't that just unbelievable?! Simply pushing the responsibility away from them again, asking me to do exactly what I had done numerous times before and emphasizing that (if only I had a TalkTalk landline...!!!) calls to this number would (or should I say 'could') be free! Absolutely unbelievable!

[Surfer01]

Go to BT as the re-connection will be free, within days and with less hassle! After a year have a shop around for a better deal but in the meantime you have a landline.

[locutus]

Phone o2, ask if they do a SIM PROVIDE with BT. You could get up and running before xmas if they do!

[PammyG]

Just over a dreadfull experience with TalkTalk which may shed some light on your problem.

 

 

1. TalkTalk supply my phone and broadband service and have done so for 3 years
   
2. Regular (nightly) problems of broadband throttling between 7pm and 7am
   
3. 2 weeks ago broadband went off totally but phone stayed on.
   
4. Called their tech support who informed me that due to their internal billing error the broadband had been terminated and that the telephone would also be cut off!
   
5. The whole issue would be resolved by them within 7 days
   
6. After 7 days elapsed the phone was never cut off but the broadband was not re-instated.
   
7. Called technical support who now had a totally different and more cogent reason and solution.
   
8. TalkTalk have recently changed, or had changed, all of their broadband settings and those people with open routers at home without resilient firewalls had their settings changed by TalTalk.
   
9. Those people with resilient firewall routers inaccessible by TalkTalk need to take a note of the settings and re-configure their own routers.
   
10. Unfortunately many of the TalkTalk call centre staff seem totally unaware of this issue and are being inundated at the moment
    

 

We moved into a new property and the previous owners were with TalkTalk and when they spoke to TalkTalk they were

told we could simply replace our details with theirs on the date of the move. This would have been perfect as both of

us work freelance from home and need the internet every day, all day. So the previous owners were sent a form to fill in.

However, when the previous owners received this form, things did not add up so they called just to be told they had been

ill-advised and such a switch-over was not possible, the line would have to be disconnected and re-connected. This could

take up to 3 weeks for us.

 

Although it was very frustrating for us, there wasn't much we could do and we agreed to having a new line etc all put

into place in about three weeks' time. We were told a BT engineer would come to ours on the 3rd December 2010.

The couple of days before the 3rd December we had heavy snow in London, which is why we called TalkTalk on the

3rd December to check everything was going ahead. By this point there was no more issues with travelling due to the

snow and it was confirmed by TalkTalk that the engineer would be with us by 6pm. Which he wasn't.

No phone call, no message, no nothing.

 

So we called TalkTalk who told us that it was because of the weather. Which was a ridiculous excuse. School, trains,

busses, everything was back to normal service by then. Never mind. The chap on the phone told us we could have a

new date, 11th December. We told him that this was VERY inconvenient as BOTH of us work from home and have to

rely on the internet to be able to do our jobs - pretty much 24/7. In addition, we have family abroad so phone calls

from mobiles are very expensive, never mind all the extremely expensive phone calls to TalkTalk, which would be free

from a landline.... if only we had one. So we asked whether there wasn't an earlier date. The chap (we have his details)

said that unfortunately there wasn't, so we agreed to this date.

 

Throughout the week running up to the 11th December we received a number of phone calls from TalkTalk asking whether

we wanted to arrange a new date for a BT engineer, so we kept telling them we already had one. I got very suspicious

by this and my worries were confirmed when we were told on the 9th December that, in fact, NO new date had been

arranged and that, because of this, we would now have to wait until the 26th JANUARY for an engineer to come round.

 

Speechless doesn't even come close to how I felt. We then asked him why the engineer would not come on the 11th and

the chap told us as a matter of fact that we had told him we didn't want the engineer to come on the 11th but before then

so he hadn't booked us in for that date.

Well, we would've LIKED the engineer to come before the 11th, but there was no question about taking the date of the

11th as there was nothing sooner and we had CONFIRMED we wanted the 11th December! He told us this was not what

had happened. Ie he was telling us we were lying. Why - I ask you - would we refuse a replacement date to receive our

landline/internet?! So he said unfortunately it would have to be the 26th January.

 

To cut a long story short we made a number of phone calls, and called again and asked about the dates. Another person told us there should be an earlier date and that he would call us back. Which he didn't. We then called again (each time from a mobile phone...) to say that it is ridiculous that we would have to wait until the 26th January. The guy on the line was very polite and said that he can see that we'd been messed around a little and that he had filled in an escalation form. Someone would call us within 48 hours about this. We told him we wouldn't actually believe someone would call, but he confirmed this would be the case and gave us his details in case there were problems. Sure enough, no one called. So we called, again. This time we spoke to a lady, again from a mobile, again telling her the whole story. She then said she wouldn't be able to tell us when we might get connected. ...? Well, that's just not good enough, is it? At the moment we have to pay 2 x £30/month on VERY weak dongle connections that won't allow us to do 80% of the work we need to do. Furthermore we spent a lot of money on calls to TalkTalk, and have to make all other calls from our mobiles. With having moved house there are a lot of 0845/0870 etc numbers we need to call, as well as having to call family abroad. Ie, we spend a good £100/month because, apparently, no replacement date can be sorted out before 26th January because of TWO days of snow! 2 MONTHS delay because of 2 DAYS of snow? How can that be justified?

 

TalkTalk blames BT - BT blames TalkTalk. I don't care. All I want is a working landline and broadband connection - is that

too much to ask from a broadband company? NO engineers available between now and the 26th January after the engineer failed to show up on the 3rd December?

 

So anyway, this lady tells us there is nothing she can do other than to offer us some compensation so she put us through to

yet another person. After minutes of waiting in a queue we got through to yet another polite guy (whose details we also have).

First thing he says is "I believe you want to cancel your subscription?" No. We just want it to work. So we tell him, still hanging

on a very expensive line, our whole story again. He is very sympathetic and tells us that there might be an earlier date but he

cannot guarantee it and can't tell us more. He tells us we get three months free connection (not even covering all the expenses

we will have to pay if we are not connected before the 26th January...). We tell him that is a nice gesture and will accept the

discount, but that we want to speak to someone more senior and ask him to put us through. This isn't possible. However, he

promises his duty manager will call us within the hour. We tell him we don't believe this as NO ONE has kept ANY of the promises so far and we have had NO person returning ANY of the calls. Well, he says we have his details and can get back at him if this call doesn't take place. Lo and behold, here I am, FIVE hours after the duty manager was supposed to have called us, and we have STILL NOT had a call back!

 

A lot of broken promises and the unbelievable claim that a failed engineer visit on the 3rd December cannot be rectified until the 26th January?!

 

What can we do? Anyone can help?

[newmoses]

I have a similar problem.I was contacted back in October 2010 from a TalkTalk member of staff stating that talkTalk had boought out AOL and were in the process of changing existing AOL customers over to talkTalk.I was told that my phone package and broadband would be around £6.odd a month cheaper.As of today I only have TalkTalk phone.My broadband is still with AOL as I have not yet had a router or any software from TalkTalk.My caller display doesn't work because it comes through my broadband(allegedly).After several phone calls enquiring where my broadband set up pack is, and an email stating that I will cancel my direct debit to TalkTalk if I am not connected by 14th January, I still am waiting.I have mentioned the sale of goods act and the mis-representation act in my emails to TalkTalk.Looks like I'll be going elsewhere then.

[Surfer01]

Two of my friends went through the same hassle and eventually cancelled. I recommended them to another provider and within less than a week they were connected to broadband again. Talk Talk are a waste of space!

[sir_gilmour]

Hi

Welcome to The Consumer Action Group.

 

 

I am just letting you know that as you haven't had any replies to your post yet, it might be better if you post your message again in an appropriate sub-forum. You will get lots of help there.

 

Also take some time to read around the forum and get used to the layout. It is a big forum and takes a lot of getting used to.

 

 

Once you start to find your way, you will soon realise that it is fairly easy to get round and to get the help you need.

 

It can be bit confusing at first.