Talk talk

[effortless]

Anyone got any experience with this shower and ADSL? I have been askked to look at a system for a friend and as far as I can see the connection is intermittant on their side. Been on the blower to them but they suggested "The Geek Squad" at £80. This is a bloody cheek as far as I can see. I may not be a geek but I do have thirty years experience of computers on and off.

[frostbite]

Been with them for just under a month. Only problem I've had is occasionally the connection seems to go to sleep when I've not used it for a couple of hours or so, and no amount of trying gets it started again.

Don't know if its me or them, because a computer restart has always brought it back to life.

Usually get 2.5 - 2.9mbps which is fine with me, having crawled along on unreliable dialup for many years.

[PPRuNe Pop]

Just coming up to a year for me and in the beginning I found great annoyance and difficulty in getting in touch with anyone who was English and understood it. Worse still I couldn't/still can't understand them!

Getting a fault fixed is as difficult as it is to walk on ice on a hot day. They are awful. I have another 6 months before I can change my contract and that I will do. That would have been with Tiscali but after trying to solve a problem for a friend with them - they are worse. All of the departments I spoke to today are 'management companies' - that got me loads of grief and I found that ALL of them use 0870/1/2 numbers which, of course, earns them loddsa dosh and they cannot answer simple questions. They are in southern India - probably working alongside TalkTalk people!!

In 6 months perhaps I will find a really good reliable service.

[crewmeal]

So who is a decent company to use? (Please don't say Orange) When I return home from the Middle East I need to start all over again. It seems to me Customer Service in all these Companies is absolute s**te!!

[P.Pilcher]

I will put in a word for Plusnet here (www.plus.com (http://www.plus.com)). Their telephone enquiry line only connets to ther British call centre and they claim to have won accolades for service from some of the computer mags. I've been with them since my exchange was BB enabled about 4 years ago and never had a problem. The only fly in the ointment is that they have been acquired by BT. This has not affected their service or prices - yet - and they seem to be successful in keeping the BT paper pushers at bay.

There are other excellent providers out there as well, however, despite my advice, a friend of mine has just signed up with Tiscali with the same problems as those described above. Despite this he still expects me to sort out his problems and get his broadband up and running.......... grr!

P.P.

[Keef]

PlusNet had an awful time a year or so ago. They learned from that, and I've found them reasonable lately. They're among the cheaper ISPs, and to some extent you get what you pay for. I use them in the Norfolk hideyhole.

My main ISP is UKFSN, who are an Entanet reseller. Quality is better, and they are dearer.

If I had to pick one, and didn't mind paying £20 a month, it would be any of the Entanet resellers. If I wanted cheap, it would be PlusNet.

Next door neighbour is with TalkTalk, and wishes she hadn't done that.

[effortless]

I use BTbroadband, no frills but a solid connection with good support. £19.00/month. My office uses BT and Virgin. Boith been solid and we have been happy with support and speed. But then business customers get better service anyway.

Virgin cable is good once it is running and it is cheap.

[OverTq]

My daughter gave up on Talk Talk because of frequent disconnections and dreadful customer service. She has now joined me with a small provider called Vispa. They are based in Chester, and when I have rung their helpline (only twice in 4 years) it has been answered immediately by one of their English engineers who sorted the problem in seconds (and at local call costs). Not overly expensive either.

[pulse1]

I have used TalkTalk for the last three years and, until a month ago have had no problems. They sent me a letter telling me that they were going to upgrade the exchange and, on that day, I lost internet and incoming calls. I could make outgoing calls.

It took three days before they did anything (weekend) and then I lost outgoing calls as well. I then left the country for 10 days and it was still not working when I returned.

I called them again and, the same day, they got it working. In the meantime they had sent me a new wireless router for which they charged me £50.

I wrote a polite letter to their Service Director and they have now credited me with the £50 + £30 for the loss of telephone for 22 days.

Over the initial period I made many calls to their Technical Support and sometimes I got an Indian who I could hardly understand and othertimes someone in the UK. If I hadn't gone abroad I expect that I would have lost the phone for 4 days, including the weekend.