Talk Talk are offering "free Broadband" to service personnel

[NutLoose]

Just a heads up for you all,

TalkTalk announces free broadband for armed forces - Broadband Finder (http://www.broadband-finder.co.uk/news/talk-talk/talktalk-announces-free-broadband-for-armed-forces_19858270.html)

Members of the Army, Navy and Royal Air Force will be receiving free broadband from TalkTalk as the organisation gets behind British Armed Forces Day.

Writing for the company's blog, communications director Mark Schmid said service personnel "deserve recognition" and so the offer is being extended to them and their families.

According to Mr Schmid, the offer is only available for a limited amount of time, so anyone who is interested in signing up, or knows of someone who would be, should contact the organisation as soon as possible.

"As well as getting free high-speed broadband for 12 months, armed forces personnel will benefit from a call package that include free evening and weekend calls to any UK landline," he added.

The executive allayed fears that switching over broadband provider may be troublesome, claiming that TalkTalk will engineer the process to ensure armed services members are able to start making savings "straight away".

He said that the deal is exclusive and the company noted it will help individuals to save £6.99 a month in fees. However, Mr Schmid did highlight that it will cost £29.99 to connect to the TalkTalk service.

The organisation claimed that signing up could help people to save £198 more in the first year than if they were currently subscribed to BT, based on discounted subscription feeds, connection costs and line rental charges.

Those looking to support British Armed Forces Day were advised to visit the campaign's website to obtain more information on events going on around the country.

Are you eligible for the deal?

[getsometimein]

But you have to pay for the line rental, moving away from BT...

and I think you need to pay extra if you want high speed broadband, otherwise you just get the 2mb or something.

[November4]

If it is their Essentials package (http://broadband.talktalk.co.uk/products/broadband/) then

Essentials

All the phone and broadband you need, plus lots more you'll really want, all at a tiny price.

* The fastest possible speed - that's up to 24Meg
* Generous 40GB download allowance
* Evening and weekend calls to all UK landlines
(including 0870/0845 numbers)
* FREE technical & customer support

Line rental £11.49

Note the upto 24Meg reality is liable to much less than that but that is the same with any ISP.

BT line rental £11.54 and

# Unlimited calls to UK* landlines at weekends
# Inclusive 0845 & 0870 calls at weekends Click for more information

Broadband with a 10Gb limit will cost another £14.49 per month.

Even with the connection charge looks a good deal to me.

Wish I was still in as I signed up to Talk Talk last year as they worked out a lot cheaper than BT - had no problems with them so far.

[Vage Rot]

Bugger, I knew I should have stayed in!! :ugh:

[billynospares]

Made it sound exclusive to forces people but they are offering that to anyone. Have a look at the reviews on talk talks customer service they are awful !

[Thomas coupling]

I have spent the last 4 months extricating myself from this dreadful company - join at your peril!

[dc1968]

I happen to have some pretty good 'insider knowledge' via BT on Talk-Talk and I would advise caution for anyone considering taking up their services. It is true that they do indeed perform very poorly with regards to the technical support and should users encounter broadband issues, they are very quick to blame the problems on the BT network rather than their own servers. I'm convinced that most people are unaware that the majority of the broadband deals available via providers other than BT, actually only operate by using the existing BT wholesale network equipment. This only adds to the confusion as to 'who's responsible' should the customer start to encounter broadband technical issues. Bottom line is if you don't have the luxury of a cable service provider or you live outside of the city centre, then chances are that regardless of whichever broadband provider you actually choose (O2,Talk-Talk,Plusnet etc) it will still be BT equipment that delivers your service.

[shobakker]

Come on dc1968, BT would say that about any of their competitors (other than Plusnet who they own!)...

TalkTalk have come a long way from the shambles that they were during the initial "Free Broadband" offer...I know this due to "inside information" of my own.

Feel free to PM me if you've got any queries about TalkTalk broadband...:ok:

[Cornish Jack]

Shobakker -
I don't know how far you think TT have come but it certainly isn't far enough!!:mad: From personal experience of them, and their recently acquired subsidiaries, their DISorganisation is almost unbelievable. It has taken me 18 months, AND a letter on my behalf from Otelo, to rectify a continuous stream of payment demands (including debt collection agencies) for an account which they repeatedly acknowledged had been long since closed:mad: Dealing with them is like talking to the proverbial brick wall - whatever they are offering their service for, it is too much.:*

[dc1968]

shobakker... I was a BT network engineer when I first rotated back to the real world in 06. Trust me...I've actually stood on many of T-T's customer's doorsteps only to tell them that there was 'no fault found' with their BT lines. Bearing in mind too, this would usually be after many calls made to T-T tech support who would convince the customer that it was a line fault and just pass it to BT....and then BT tech would just return it back to T-T....and the whole process would restart once again causing the customer no end of grief. Now don't get me wrong because I'm certainly no fan of BT in any shape or form...but in all my time working there I never heard a single positive thing said on behalf of T-T....Bottom line mate, I'm glad you appear to be a fan of T-T and the very best of luck to you, but I think you'll find that you are definitely in the minority here!

[Tyres O'Flaherty]

You can understand all the difficulties they're having though surely ?


Going from being a 80's synthpop, then avant garde band, to ICT

It's a big ask I tells yer

[dc1968]

Granted mate...but 'life's what you make it'?

[Justanopinion]

I have been a customer of talktalk for over 18 months - i rang them yesterday when i saw the military deal and they said that that was the contract i had signed for and not exclusive to the military.

Ref the quality of the broadband speed - generally crap and i live in sunny oxford so not exactly the sticks.

What else... Oh yes, ordered a new broadband box from them last month as the original decided for no apparent reason to die - they promised said box would arrive in the next 5 working days - 28 days later and still waiting. ... average 50 min wait before they pick up their customer service phone too but to be fair the call is free to customer services IF you are a customer already.

Mmmm - apart from that - great.

[bayete]

I had the same response as Justan, I asked if I could switch to the free broadband deal for the Armed Forces, the chap at customer services said that the Essentials package was 6.99 and that it included free broadband!
So not really a special deal for the Armed Forces and a bit of faked spin for the company me thinks.

As for TalkTalks reputation, I joined them when they first offered the free broadband for everyone years back and yes there were some teething problems, but in the last few years they have been OK, good with free customer services calls (unlike Sky TV) and some really good deals for free calls especially the European free calls, (I travel a lot and the missus can call my hotels free) definately get my moneys worth from them.

I will caviat the above with the fact that I have never been with anyone else for broadband so can't compare.
I am moving house soon and will stay with them as they are significantly cheaper than anyone else I can find for calls and broadband packages.

[Pontius Navigator]

bayete, like you I have been with T-t on a legacy deal and I get free worldwide calls and internet.

As DC says, you get passed from pillar to post when you have speed or connection issues which strangely resolve once reported. Once their broadcast stated they had issues in our area buttheir script obviously stated 'deny everything.'

It is vital that you retain the original contract. They tried to increase the flat rate line charge for broadband (as my line is not unbundled) from £10 to £12.99. I pointed out that my contract was a fixed price at £10 for life of the contract. I now pay the £12.99 charge and get a £3/month discount.

[Thomas coupling]

Bayete whats the point of paying the least amount for a service which is worse than dreadful?
In all my experiences in life - in dealing with inefficient organisations, TT has to be number 1.
Disorganised
disjointed
blame everyone else but themselves.
Have the slowest server in the civilised world!
Accounts dept - haven't a clue what they are doing.

Personally it is only a matter of time before this operating arm of carphonewarehouse goes under - mark my words.

steer well clear - everyone!

[Jabba_TG12]

Likewise. I worked for these guys in 2003 in their IT division; the biggest bunch of cowboys ever to masquerade as an IT services company that I have ever ever met and that includes GEC-Marconi.:}

It has arguably got better since they outsourced most of the business critical stuff to India, but... for all their sins, you're probably still better off with either a cable provider or BT. Whichever one you go for the overall standard is pretty poor, but some are worse than others...

[Chugalug2]

Coincidentally I have just been called by Talk Talk as I am their customer, paying for calls only diverted by their "widgets" from my Virgin Media cable, which provides Broadband as well as the Telephone Line (£20/month incl line rental). TT will take over all of that for the same price but all calls will be free, incl non-geog low cost and certain international destinations. Only when I spoke to the "New Line Specialist" did it become clear that the new line would be an overhead one, in an area where there are now none! Retro or what? Sorry if this is thread drift but TT seem to be becoming very keen to expand all of their customer bases suddenly.

[TRX75]

The offer doesn't appear to be anything that isn't available to anyone but here's a tip from a satisfied customer of over 5 years - don't try to sort out any problems using the completely useless telephone customer 'helpline'
Use the members forum instead - they'll sort you out in double quick time if my experience is anything to go by TalkTalk Members (http://www.talktalkmembers.com/)

[SirToppamHat]

Agreed that this deal seems to be identical to that which arrived through my letter box yesterday and is available to anybody.

None of the ISPs consistently delivers the service advertised across the country; this will continue unless and until the Trading and Advertising Standards people grow some balls. Of course those of us on married patches don't have the option of cable.

Unless the ISP has its own eqpt in your local exchange (Local Loop Unbundled (LLU)), you will be purchasing a service which is actually provided by BT Wholesale, so you should expect less bandwidth than they provide for their own customers.

The view I take is that I only have to deal with one company if I lose my service, though I accept it's relatively expensive. I echo the comments here about Talk-Talk wanting to blame everyone else, based on the experience of family members.

STH

[bayete]

Thomas,
You obviously didn't read my post properly or did not pick up on the sentiment.
In answer to your question: "whats the point of paying the least amount for a service which is worse than dreadful?"
I have not found them to be worse than dreadful and any queries have been delt with without any trouble and I have moved house 4 times with TalkTalk and each time I have had an upgraded router.
So I am happy to stay with them and save my £177 or thereabouts compared to BT equivalent.
TRX75 has a good tip the members forum looks to be excellent for sorting out issues although I have not had cause to use it.
I will agree that there is plenty of evidence that that they can provide a shocking service but that has not been my experience, and I am sure that if you look there is plenty of evidence around of shocking service given by other providers.
I think TalkTalk have become the company everyone loves to hate.
A quick Google search:
From Independant online...

It's not so good to talk – BT is named worst landline provider
By Martin Hickman, Consumer Affairs Correspondent
Tuesday, 8 April 2008
BT was voted the worst-performing landline provider

Britain's biggest phone operator, BT, has been named the worst landline provider in a customer satisfaction poll.
In an internet survey of 11,000 customers, BT had the lowest score for all but two of 11 categories for home phones, making it the worst performer in an industry with a poor record of customer service.
Three million of BT's 10 million landline customers are dissatisfied, according to the research for the price comparison site uSwitch.com.

[November4]

As I said in #2 I am with Bayete and never had a problem with TT. BT managed to disconnect me for 5 days....sorry no according to BT Customer services, the fault was in the house and I would have to pay for any repairs as there was no fault with the line. They eventually came out and yes the fault was on the line. I am saving about £15 - 20 per month by being with TT compared to BT.

[bayete]

Update, FWIW.
BT have not yet unbundled the line where we are moving so TalkTalk cannot provide their service but said I could pay them £14 on top of the £6.99 for free calls to get the BT broadband.

When I said that I may as well go with BT as in that case it would be cheaper they put me through to the cancellation team who gave me a credit and monthly discount which would effectively make the cost the same as BTs cheapest broadband and phone package, for a 12mth contract instead of 18.

Also they give me 40Gb usage Vs BT 20Gb, no fees for going over the limit Vs BT+£1/Gb, free evenings and weekend calls Vs BT just weekends and free international call saver (worth £2/mth with TalkTalk).
:ok:
Couldn't really say no and now I have one of those super BT lines that everyone raves about!

[Vortex what...ouch!]

Talk Talk are barely above a criminal organisation, avoid them like the plague if you know what's good for you.

[dc1968]

It's like I said at #10... I honestly do believe that you're far more likely to come across an un-happy TT customer than a satisfied one.