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TALKTALK's reputation in tatters

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TALKTALK's reputation in tatters

Old 30th Nov 2014, 07:02
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TALKTALK's reputation in tatters

Articles appear in the press about their terrible service and now I personally believe it is justified - and I have been a customer almost since its inception .


Right now! Its email service is down just as it has been since Thursday. I have not received one email - OR - have I been able to send any emails, although TT insist that they are 'getting through' its the receiving of them that is the problem. So THEY say!


I have been trying to get as much info on what to expect but their communications based in India are about as much use as the people who answer you without almost any knowledge of the English language. TT say it saves money - costs more is more likely. I got a guy called Vijay to answer my questions on a online chat thingy but that only exacerbated the problem. In fact it turned to be worse that speaking to him! TT are ruining their own business and our trust in them.


Anyway, I started the process of changing to Outlook.com and that is the most complicated thing of all. There is one security check after another - literally, which leaves it complicated. They almost admit it!


Of course there are those who will disagree. That's fine. But who is the VERY best who have a service that is reliable and steadfast? Is there one?
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Old 30th Nov 2014, 07:16
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TalkTalk have always been diabolical. Friends of mine took a contract with them, against the advice of many other people, because they were 'the cheapest'. Invariably a bad choice, and in fact so bad that the frustration of having no service and trying to get the 'help line' to solve problems almost drove my poor friend to an early grave.

I have yet to hear anyone say anything good about TalkTalk, other than that they are 'cheap' ...... but that's not good.
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Old 30th Nov 2014, 08:20
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I may get shot down for saying so but I know many people who have ditched Talk Talk for BT.
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Old 30th Nov 2014, 09:59
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Of course there are those who will disagree. That's fine. But who is the VERY best who have a service that is reliable and steadfast? Is there one?
Well TT remain light years better than ghastly BT.

But I've said a million times before on here. Pay peanuts get monkeys.

My usual suggestions are to look at Zen or Easynet ..... But you have to be prepared to pay for the quality and knowledgeable UK call centres !
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Old 30th Nov 2014, 10:12
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If you think being a TT customer is bad you should experience the cancellation procedure!!
Long waits to talk to their 'customer service' people. Taking a firm line on my intention to cancel resulted on either the call ending or being transferred to technical without my agreement or being sworn at.
This whole thing took many hours but the final insult was they would not let me keep my telephone number even though I had it for a number of years before I was with TT.
My advice..... Stay away from these people!!!
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Old 30th Nov 2014, 10:34
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You might want to check out these guys? Allegedly they only serve businesses, but you can always make one up / put your name with "inc." at th end...
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Old 30th Nov 2014, 10:56
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Demon is a Vodafone brand. Avoid accordingly.

Much like BT and Plusnet, be weary of incumbent providers milking legacy brands.
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Old 30th Nov 2014, 11:42
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I've been with Eclipse for 12 years - absolutely no complaints at all. They are Exeter based, their tech people (no scripts used!) are also Exeter based on a standard charge phone number and really know what they are talking about. On the few occasions when I have had a slow connection - I'm miles from the exchange so slow anyway - they have sorted it efficiently and I've never felt rushed in dealing with them.

Certainly not the cheapest by any stretch of the imagination but you get what you pay for. I also have a domain name hosted by them which I only use for a more personalised email address and the transfer of that from GoDaddy to them was handled without any problems.

Edit: Having not been on their website for ages it seems that they now don't offer residential contracts but do offer a Home Office option at the same price as I'm paying for residential.

Last edited by Democritus; 30th Nov 2014 at 12:03. Reason: New info
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Old 30th Nov 2014, 13:56
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I may get shot down for saying so but I know many people who have ditched Talk Talk for BT.
Bloody hell, just when you thought things couldn't get any worse.
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Old 30th Nov 2014, 14:57
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Evanelpus

Yup. I've said on here before, the fewer contracts you have with BT, the better your life will be !

Based on a lot of experience, I actively avoid all parts of the BT omnishambles (retail, wholesale and openreach) as far as possible, and thouroughly encourage others to do so so !

BT Retail in particular should be avoided like the plague, and that goes for any brands such as Plusnet that they've got their sticky fingers in !
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Old 30th Nov 2014, 16:25
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I have one friend still with TalkTalk. She couldn't get through the labyrinth to escape, so puts up with it. She expects to move soon, and will be set free.

Our rural abode is Openreach wires or nothing. I've found them OK. When it goes wrong (and the telephone or Internet provider manages to contact Openreach - the customer can't), the team who come are knowledgeable and competent.

I've had experience of BTInternet and PlusNet. PlusNet is owned by BT, but run at "arm's length". No complaints there. I think BT has two problems: the Yahoo connection, and the script-based Indian call centre. Contacting the BT UK call centre usually gets the problem solved.
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Old 30th Nov 2014, 16:35
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Having been in telecoms most of my life, and most of that competing with BT I think some of the views on here about hem are a bit extreme.
I use BT for phone line and high speed broadband, well the UK concept of high speed.
Generally I get a good service but I do pay £10 month for UK tech support from people who can speak English (well Geordie English) but are helpful and competent. BTs normal customer support based in India is useless and frustrating.
Perhaps it’s because I know the buttons to push I get a discount or added features on all aspects of my BT service and the only really bad thing is BT Mail which they have botched up transferring from Google.
BT are not the cheapest but not prohibitive , the problem in UK is the scandalous but typical lack of consumer focussed regulation which means companies can advertise dishonestly, spend all their promotion money on new customers and do not give a toss about existing ones unless forcibly reminded. Also unless you are a Virgin customer all ‘last mile’ network belongs to BT anyway and although through Openreach the service for fixing faults is meant to be the same irrespective of ISP you can guess what happens in subtle but important ways in practice
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Old 30th Nov 2014, 16:56
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I have been a TalkTalk customer for many years (phone and standard Broadband). Four months ago we moved home, only just over a mile, and wanted to keep the same phone number. Initially TT said that it couldn't be done so I told them that I would change to BT. TT then agreed that it could be done and it was all set up. The move then got delayed, as they do, so I had to cancel the arrangements and then go through the whole rigmarole again which was frustrating but did work.

We moved on a Friday and would have to wait until the Monday for an Openreach engineer to come and reconnect the line. He arrived on time but warned us that it could be a day or so before everything worked. Five minutes after he left I had a phone connection and Broadband. Both BT and TT had done exactly what they promised and done it most efficiently.
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Old 30th Nov 2014, 17:11
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Keef "and the telephone or Internet provider manages to contact Openreach - the customer can't"..... Yes you can, Try 0871 050 5318

BT Openreach for BT customers, AND the free phone number... 0800 800151

Openreach external network team, AND the free phone number.... 0800 0232023

Might help.
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Old 30th Nov 2014, 19:11
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I'm with mixture on this.

I pay more for Zen. Sometimes I look wistfully at what other providers charge and consider moving.

But over the ten years I have been with them, they've been rock-solid. If it costs an extra fiver a week, it's money well spent.
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Old 30th Nov 2014, 19:29
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Having been in telecoms most of my life, and most of that competing with BT I think some of the views on here about hem are a bit extreme.
Well, either you were extremely fortunate, have not really done that much business with BT, are wearing rose tinted spectacles, or otherwise you had some office minions dealing with BT.

I've had *A LOT* of dealings with all corners of BT, I know others who have had *A LOT* of dealings with BT, I know lawyers who have had *A LOT* of dealings with BT .....and the stories from all corners are the same !

Appalling post-sales support (I've just finally got BT to resolve a *VERY* simple line issue after 4 months of ping-pong), loss of about 80% of porting requests, unintelligible processes and the inability to produce a credit note are amongst the many issues with BT....

There is very little good to be said about BT.

Also unless you are a Virgin customer all ‘last mile’ network belongs to BT anyway
Yes, but the point is that 99% of the time, the problem is not on the physical copper !

Hence the need to have either (preferably) a decent LLU provider such as Easynet, or otherwise a BT Wholesale based provider such as Zen who won't take bull**** from BT.
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Old 30th Nov 2014, 20:53
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Mixture
Certainly no rose tinted specs nor minions.
BT do have problems-all big 'phone companies do because they have millions of customers and when things go wrong organisational inertia and lack of enterprise makes them hard to fix.

I can understand your frustration in the circumstances you faced but I could make the comment that your view is impaired by red mist much as you inferred that mine might be rose tinted.

All I meant to point out was that BT are not uniformly rubbish and are a viable choice for a lot of people, I agree that not that many faults are caused by the local loop but it can help with one party dealing with the whole service chain.
And just to be clear I am not carrying any torch for BT but I think you have been unfortunate with your problems with them rather than it representing things overall-if you want really bad service try Telefonica in Spain or FT Orange who charged me for 4 years of internet service without ever providing it or answering any complaints about it either
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Old 30th Nov 2014, 21:09
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your view is impaired by red mist much as you inferred that mine might be rose tinted.
Not at all. As I said, I've openly compared my viewpoints with others. So no red-mist.


BT do have problems-all big 'phone companies do because they have millions of customers and when things go wrong organisational inertia and lack of enterprise makes them hard to fix.
And that, my friend, is why you don't deal with the incumbents who suffer from the problems you describe ! BT just happen to be the worst of the incumbents I've come accross.

I think we should agree to disagree and leave it at that.
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Old 30th Nov 2014, 23:11
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Demon is a Vodafone brand. Avoid accordingly.
My bad, I thought they were still independent
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Old 1st Dec 2014, 05:33
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BT Openreach cannot provide a connection to various properties yet alone anyone who dares choose an ISP.......

BBC One - Watchdog - BT Openreach

Last edited by crewmeal; 1st Dec 2014 at 16:49.
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