Suffering and problems with TalkTalk broadband signup

[swainston]

Carphone Warehouse broadband not proving cheap
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carphone Warehouse is finding out the cost of a rapid roll-out and growth
in the broadband market, posting a £4.7m pre-tax loss for the year so far.

Posted: Thursday, 02 November 2006
Read this story in full:
http://www.adslguide.org.uk/newsarchive.asp?item=2851

[The Dynamo]

Carphone Warehouse broadband not proving cheap
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carphone Warehouse is finding out the cost of a rapid roll-out and growth
in the broadband market, posting a £4.7m pre-tax loss for the year so far.

Posted: Thursday, 02 November 2006
Read this story in full:
http://www.adslguide.org.uk/newsarchive.asp?item=2851

Originally Posted by swainston

Well actually I am also a BSkyB subscriber but I prefer the Talk Talk option package for their telephone and broadband service.

Just a little more info

[TalkTalkBoy]

Fair enough posting facts and figures, there is a large initial outlay for the cost of the LLU upgrades but the revenue these can generate once the LLU update on the network complete is far bigger.

[stotty_79]

Huzzah!! We have internet at last!

It was disappointing that we had to go through such poor service at the start, but we got there in the end.

I have to give credit to TalkTalk for pulling no punches this week and getting things sorted out with good customer service from 2nd line. Just a shame it couldn't have been like that from the start. Cheers TalkTalk.

[swainston]

now just wait until you have a talk talk phone or internet problem!! lets hope you dont,,,,good luck ole boy....................regards

my mate cant get anywhere at all with talk talk and rekons he can just swap providers says he aint signed nothing yet but im not so sure

[pmilne]

The problems with signup should have been resolved now.
....
6. You may have previously missed a callback from a second line advisor who will have tried your house number as well as your mobile number (in the timeslot requested). If there is no answer then a voicemail is left asking to call the technical line back if still having a fault. If thhey do contact you on your mobile number and you are not at home, they can arrange another callback for you.

Originally Posted by TalkTalkBoy

<Hollow laughter>

Is TTB naive or deluded? TT started transferring me from Pipex on Sept 9th and have so far failed 11 times to call back when arranged and never on my mobile number. I am locked in a weekly cycle of

• Call the helpdesk to find out what's happening
• Get promised an evening call-back from 2nd line
• No call happens (or a message is left on my house phone during the day)
• Call the helpdesk to findout whats happening
• etc

The one time I did speak to 2nd line they expressed horror at the delay and were very helpful - but didn't fix the problem.

So now I've been cut off from BB for nearly three months.

Can TTB or anyone else suggest a way to break this loop? Write to CD?

Pete

[TalkTalkBoy]

Sorry to hear that youve had so many problems trying to get through to the second line support team. Next time you speak to a 1st line advisor ask if they can transfer you to the 2nd line team as there is a warm transfer trial that is happening at the moment, if your lucky you may have come through to one of the 1st line advisors that is included in this trial. The warm transfer system only operates 8-8 mon-fri and you will have to go through the first line checks again before being transferred.

If your not lucky enough to get through to somone that can help you stay on the phone until they have filled in the "first line fault form" and also ask for an ISP admin fault reference number.

If they are doing the theyre jobs as they should be and not thinking about theyre call handling times then this would have been done as it should be and you should have recieved your promised call backs.

If all else fails theres always charles's email address floating about that seems to get stuff done most of the time.

[pmilne]

Thanks for the sympathy TalkTalkBoy. I'm getting that by the bucketload from the helpdesks too, just no broadband. I've had a warm transfer on the one and only occasion I reached a UK helpdesk (Nov 1st). I have asked for it on every call since but the Indian helpdesks I've spoken to just haven't had the ability.

I did email Charles Dunstone on Saturday, having found his address in this nforum - and had a reply 4 hours later. It could have been a boilerplate reply sent by a minion in India or from the fingers of the man himself. Who knows? I'll cross my fingers.

Why should I be so patient? If TT works, it'll save me £20/ month. That seems worth a little pain. Of course, I'm spending that on calls to the helpdesk and dial-up Internet access at the moment! If I hadn't got dial-up, I'd have chewed up the carpet and gone to another ISP by now.

Pete

have had tt broadband running since april 2006 no problems at all,then bang no p2p no gaming could connect and surf but no downloading on any p2p or torrent sites.

after reinstalling my system and checking all the f.a.q on tt website i eventually phoned there helpline( ha ha ha ha ) my next door neighbours six year old would have been more help,they told me to ring technical services ( more untrained idiots only this time you pay 10p a minute) i asked "why is my p2p not working" and was told we do not support p2p by there agent.

when i pointed out that there homepage stated that they allowed p2p and that if a customer was hogging bandwidth regularly they would contact people to advise them of the problem and that they may in extreme circumstances suspend services the line went quiet for a moment then he said that he was unaware of this and would pass me on to a supervisor.

the line went dead and i was cut off..
after many more call and emails eventually i got a call from a manager ststing that i had had my p2p stopped because i had exceeded there limit for downloads,when i asked if i had exceeded 40gb in a month,again silence then came back" you have exceeded your p2p limit" i asked where it was stated that there was a set limit the phone went dead

three weeks later no response from talktalk,sent emails phoned at least twice a day. if you are considering signing up to talktalk then my suggestion to you would be dont

[TalkTalkBoy]

Talktalk certinly do not hide the fact that they restrict peer to peer usage on theyre network. It is due to your own inability to read the terms and conditions and your want to use the internet to download copyrighted material for free of charge which obviosly talktalk cannot condone at all. Im fairly certain it also mentions this in the terms and conditions you agreed yo during your verbal contract and which are available on the talktalk website for your own viewing.

You really dont have anyone to blame as it is a well known fact that this is done. And you wont find any help from talktalk if you have been put on the bad boy list for over use of P2P software.

I have had a nightmare with Talk Talk. I have been corresponding with them now for 2 months regarding a call charge on my bill for £200! I was out of the country at the time and they still claim the call came from my phone! It makes no difference as to what you put in your emails, you only get the same bog standard reply. It's even worse when you call customer services. I struggle to understand what they are saying and visa versa. They repeat the same thing as in the emails. I am getting nowhere fast. I have written to head office now and am hoping they will actually address the issues. I won't hold my breath. They have written to me saying if I don't pay it will effect my credit rating. I am not prepared to pay £200 for a call I did not make! I would never use Talk Talk. I originally was on Onetel but they bought them out. Absolutely useless customer service or support

[The Dynamo]

Talktalk certinly do not hide the fact that they restrict peer to peer usage on theyre network. It is due to your own inability to read the terms and conditions and your want to use the internet to download copyrighted material for free of charge which obviosly talktalk cannot condone at all. Im fairly certain it also mentions this in the terms and conditions you agreed yo during your verbal contract and which are available on the talktalk website for your own viewing.

You really dont have anyone to blame as it is a well known fact that this is done. And you wont find any help from talktalk if you have been put on the bad boy list for over use of P2P software.

Originally Posted by TalkTalkBoy

Thanks for that TalkTalkBoy.....I understand what the implications are.

I know that my Grandson actually downloads stuff on my laptop using P2P.......it's something I ain't happy about having already been warned from various sources.

I certainly wouldn't want to loose the hitherto excellent service from TalkTalk so I am taking the necessary corrective action

[gunv]

glad i found this forum as i am having a a nightmare with talk talk. i originaly was with pipex for my business phone lines and virging for broadband but i thought changing to talk talk would be better + save me money + i have talk talk at home but i was very very wrong .here is my story

Following numerous conversations with staff at Talk Talk call centre, I have decided to put my grievance in writing in an attempt to get some resolution.

In August 2006, a salesperson from TalkTalk Business, visited my business premises). I agreed to take out the package for a business account at a cost of £34.99 per month for landline and broadband.

Due to the fact we were moving premises, I accepted the package, but requested that the line be transferred to our new premises ( ). The person I spoke to said it would take 30 days to transfer the line. We received our ‘go live’ date for our TalkTalk broadband, and this date was given as the 1st October. On receipt of this go live date I informed you that we had still not received an active telephone line in the new premises (which also meant we couldn’t receive broadband). I tried the landline number that we had been using in our old premises, and that should have been transferred (xxxxxxxxxx) and the line was still connected to the old premises. I contacted TalkTalk and they said that they would try and rectify the problem, which they said would take a further 30 days. We did not get a working line in the new premises until 2nd November. They charged me £50 to send an engineer out to tell me I did not have an active line wich I already knew.

We have been charged on this account from August, when we were unable to receive or make phone calls from our new business premises and consequently unable to receive broadband. We are still not in receipt of broadband. Ironically, you have been able to send the bills to the correct address.

As a business, I am sure you will appreciate that the loss of business over these past months is irreplaceable. We can not afford to be without broadband any longer.

I expect you will resolve this as a matter of urgency to supply our business with broadband, and also amend the bills you have given us to date.

[annette]

dont do it I have just left after 3 months no care no consideration and no service.

[DanNic]

We have also been one of the suckers to believe that if we joined Talk Talk we would receive a great internet service.

We joined Talk Talk on 11 August, and were told we would receive our service sometime in September. We thought that was awful, but we could live with it. That was then changed to the end of October. Two days before the end of October we called to say we hadn't received anything in the mail (it takes ten days from receiving the mail to actually getting connected).

We were assured by Rajv in the call centre that it would be done in 10 days. Ten days later we went in to the Carphone Warehouse in Stirling to chase it up. Val told made some calls and filled in some forms and assured us that in ten days, the connection would be made.

Of course, ten days later we were back at the Carphone Warehouse talking to the manager, who assured us in twenty days time we would be connected. Guess what - we're not. So it was back to the Carphone Warehouse again today to speak with someone in their London office. Dave assured us that we would be called by a Queue Manager. Of course not! We are back on the phone to the call centre at this very moment, still trying to get past the lies and deceit.

We are not five weeks past the date we were supposed to be signed and past many assurances it would be ten days.

Why is Talk Talk still advertising a product they can't service. Why arn't our 21 pounds a month (which adds up to billions of pounds a month when they are getting 143,000 new customers a month), being put into providing more service? Is anyone taking legal action? We'd like to hear? Has anyone else tried the media? Are they interested in what is going on?

We'd give up and change providers, but we have family and friends in too many countries, so we need the free overseas calling. Actually that service is getting worse too - often we just can get connected.

Oh my goodness, how are they getting away with this!!!

Nicki

Thanks for your detailed post.

I have been waiting since May for my migration from Virgin, after being told it would happen in July.

I have sent a very angry email to customer support, but I would really appreciate having Charles Dunstone's email address so that I can forward it to him.

Can you help me?

Thanks

dunstoc@cpwplc.com is one of his addresses. I've had a conversation with his office using that.

Pete (waiting since May!)

[flag]

I too have similar problems with TT and waited far too long to be connected.
I signed up back in June and I was told that my Go Live date will be at the begining of September. The offer was up to 8MB and I chose International 3

My phone line was started 3 weeks after sign up and I was waiting for broadband.
During August-September I had many disconnection on my phone line and that lasted sometime over 24 hours. Sometime I could make outside calls but not recieve them and vice versa.. After numerous calls to customer services from my mobile and payphone they managed to fix the phone line.

July, August,September, October, November no internet, no phone calls from TT and no replies to my emails.
Finally on 27th of November I spoke to a manager and I wanted to cancel the whole thing. After all I was within my rights to cancel because they haven't connected me yet. She couldn't apologise enaugh(that what she said anyway) for the delay and she gave me the Go Live date for the 6th of December. She also gave me the user name and password. She also promised me to refund about £100 of calls I made over the phone due to lack of internet.

I waited for the 6th of December and no welcome pack nor modem. Having been given the user name and password the previous week I tried my luck with my speedtouch modem and was connected straight away.
Now, 1 week gone and I had no trouble with disconnection at all. I don't use P2P or any games.
I must point out though that I have a website where sometimes I need to upload some photos and apart from first two days, now I cannot access that website anymore. I don't know why and if that got to do with some restriction from TT.

When I got connected on BB I noticed that the speed was only 2MB and I thought maybe it will take couple of days for them to put it right. I waited for TT to increase my BB speed, because when I signed up I signed for up to 8MB, depending how far you are from the exchange box ,but to no avail.

Last night I call TT to find out and I was shocked to hear that I will be getting 8MB sometimes next year.
They told me to wait until they upgrade my telephone exchange box and this will happen next year.
I wasn't happy with the Indian guy's answer, which by the way, I know my English sucks cus is not my first language but his was unbelievable and very hard to understand.

I said to him that this is BS because I was with at least 4 ISP for the last 2 years and they all could provide me with up to 6 MB if not 8 and they all used the same telephone exchange box. Also I said to him when I checked if I could get the up to 8MB before I signed up, I was told that I am very close to the exchange box, hence I signed up. How comes now I cannot get more than 2MB.
His reply was " Your account is provisioned to get only 2MB"
To cut the story short, I demanded to speak to a manager but for obvious reasons no one was available.
IMO, TT is in the breach of contract for failing to connect me on exact date that they promise.
They failed to send me the welcome pack as well as modem when they should've done. I am still waiting for the modem and welcome pack to date.
Also I believe that they cannot charge us for moving from them to another ISP since they advertised that BB is free.

If it is free then I should be free to decline their free service? Or am I wrong?

Also for those new TT customers who signed up recently and haven't been connected yet, according to TT boss CD's blog, they can cancel anytime before they get connected to BB or phone line.

I am hoping to speak to someone first thing in the morning today and take it from there, if they don't provide me with more than 2MB then I will cancel the whole thing. I know it will be very hard to save on international calls with other phone providers, which this was the reason why I got TT in first place, but I will save my self from having a breakdown.


P.S. ADSL broadband availability
You are connected to the Kensal Green telephone exchange.

ADSL is available in your area
Your exchange is also enabled for ADSL Max services

According to BT Wholesale, your line should be able to support a 6Mbps or greater ADSL connection via ADSL Max.
You are approximately 881 metres from the exchange (straight line distance).

Thus, I don't know why did TT provisioned me to 2MB only, is beyond my believe.
Flag

I signed up for talktalk broadband, heard nothing, I phoned talktalk and asked for a user name and password, I used these and connected with no problem. I created three email accounts and tested these by sending emails to myself from a different account and everything was fine. I phoned and cancelled my account with BT and used talktalk broadband(I think). However my talktalk email has stopped working and at this moment in time I have no idea if my BT account has been deactivated or if in fact I am placing this message through talktalk or BT. I cannot find contact details to enquire what my position is with regards to billing or why my talktalk email accounts have stopped working. If anyone has any idea as to how I ensure that I am not paying for two accounts and how I can contact someone at BT or talktalk to resolve these issues please let me know. My BT email account still works although it should have closed on the seventh of Dec. Perhaps in a virtual world (which seems virtuless) I can pay these bills with virtual money, say Monopoly money.

[The Dynamo]

I signed up for talktalk broadband, heard nothing, I phoned talktalk and asked for a user name and password, I used these and connected with no problem. I created three email accounts and tested these by sending emails to myself from a different account and everything was fine. I phoned and cancelled my account with BT and used talktalk broadband(I think). However my talktalk email has stopped working and at this moment in time I have no idea if my BT account has been deactivated or if in fact I am placing this message through talktalk or BT. I cannot find contact details to enquire what my position is with regards to billing or why my talktalk email accounts have stopped working. If anyone has any idea as to how I ensure that I am not paying for two accounts and how I can contact someone at BT or talktalk to resolve these issues please let me know. My BT email account still works although it should have closed on the seventh of Dec. Perhaps in a virtual world (which seems virtuless) I can pay these bills with virtual money, say Monopoly money.

Originally Posted by barneyo

I suspect the problem is caused because the correct procedure hasn't been followed when changing from BT to TalkTalk.

This has probably resulted in the confusion.

My son had exactly the same problem, he was using the net but he couldn't establish if it was via BT or TalkTalk, when he tried to resolve the issue it resulted in being completely disconnected for quite a while.

The only way he resolved the problem was by contacting OFCOM, he is now getting his BB free as TalkTalk promised.

[flag]

at this moment in time I have no idea if my BT account has been deactivated or if in fact I am placing this message through talktalk or BT. If anyone has any idea as to how I ensure that I am not paying for two accounts and how I can contact someone at BT or talktalk to resolve these issues please let me know. My BT email account still works although it should have closed on the seventh of Dec. Perhaps in a virtual world (which seems virtuless) I can pay these bills with virtual money, say Monopoly money.

Originally Posted by barneyo

Well to find out if you are placing this message via TT or BT, on the internet explorer click Tools+Internet Options+Connections, under dial up & Virtual Private Network settings you will have all the connections. Here you should see BT probably as your default or if you have used the BT dial up prompt window to insert your TalkTalk username and password instead, then this should be your talktalk account but under BT name. Or if you've created a new dial up connection and you named that connection as TalkTalk or whatever you name it, highlight that account, click set as default and tick the box ALways dial my default connection and then Apply
Highlight this account and click Settings and now below Dial up Settings you will see the username and password with ******. Now that you see this usename, see if it is BT username or TT?
Once you establish which account's username is then click OK and then restart your connection. TT username is your telephone number so it is hard to confuse with other usernames.

As per your BT email account still works and should've been closed by 7th of Dec, well I don't think the email account would've been closed so soon. I believe the email account will be closed or suspended after awhile, and if you don't sign in for let say a month. Maybe you meant for BT BB account rather than BT email account?
As for your question if you are paying for both accounts(BB), that can be established if you follow the above steps to find out the usernames of each account. Try Bt account and see if you can connected and then TT account. If you cannot connect with BT then you will notice that the account has been deactivated.
I don't think you can get 2 BB providers in the same phone line or same number.

I hope the above info with my poor english will help you somehow.

regards
Flag

I signed up for talktalk broadband, heard nothing, I phoned talktalk and asked for a user name and password, I used these and connected with no problem. I created three email accounts and tested these by sending emails to myself from a different account and everything was fine. I phoned and cancelled my account with BT and used talktalk broadband(I think). However my talktalk email has stopped working and at this moment in time I have no idea if my BT account has been deactivated or if in fact I am placing this message through talktalk or BT. I cannot find contact details to enquire what my position is with regards to billing or why my talktalk email accounts have stopped working. If anyone has any idea as to how I ensure that I am not paying for two accounts and how I can contact someone at BT or talktalk to resolve these issues please let me know. My BT email account still works although it should have closed on the seventh of Dec. Perhaps in a virtual world (which seems virtuless) I can pay these bills with virtual money, say Monopoly money.

Originally Posted by barneyo

I applied November 15 and was told December 20th but went live Monday 11th Dec - It's true!
Everything was fine until today when emails stopped, smtp still works for sendind.
I phoned TT helpline and was told to use their webmail to get round the problem, however, webmail no longer recognises my usernames that I created and tested on Monday, so I believe they have a major problem.
I have now emailed them asking for confirmation of their service status, which I expected to be able to find on their website.

Just wait for the fun when they unbundle your exchange and you have issues. My exchange was unbundled 4 weeks ago, and after ringing up on numerous occasions and being given the same technical advice repeatedly - ie reinstall your modem, check the cables (the usual helpline stuff that would not help if you have no connection into the house). I knew this because my router was not picking up a dsl line, though i did check the line with another modem as talktalk dont believe in supporting anything else apart from their modem. I found it strange that after pointing this out and telling people that our connection was fine up to the point where they unbundled our exchange noone said anything on my many calls, i finally managed to speak to someone in a different department who said no problem, it would be fixed in a couple of days, it wasnt of course. I now am having to pay Talktalk 55 pounds for them to come out and look at the exchange and my connection, which im waiting for until the 28th december, and which will no doubt prove to be their mistake at the exchange. I am annoyed that i have spoken so many times and that talktalk do not have any method of looking back to previous support calls and that it will take so long.

I signed up for talk 3 international at 21.99 a month and have had no issues with phone line or charges all my calls have been free my main issue was broadband as i was persistently disconnected from the internet but they did issue me with an ethernet modem and all seems fine now

Well, a couple of hours after sending that mail I got a phone call from one of the Senior customer service executives (thats what she said she was anyway).

She apologised profusely and promised that positive action would be taken.

I later got a call from a senior tech guy, who gave me various options.

At least they have been honest enough to admit that everything is their fault and one monumental cockup.

I've now got back to my old service provider, and got them to re-enable my service for 1 more month, this would allow TalkTalk to delete my orders, and then start from scratch, which is their proposed plan.

I'm not sure what to do at the moment. Due to several people commenting on the fact that there broadband service is good, I'm tempted to give them a chance, especially as I am likely to get a few months free service as compensation.

On the other hand - perhaps I should just go with Hi-Velocity 1mb for my broadband, and someone else for my landline, just to be safe.

Decisions!....

Originally Posted by kev_gordon

Stick with PIPEX (wish I had), Id still have 2mb speed, I think I''ll cancel today.

My goodness, I so wish I had seen this sight before I signed up with TT! They called me in May 06 and offered free broadband if I took the Talk 3 International plan. I received the land line and calls fine from June but no broadband. I couldn't get through to customer services by phone and they didn't reply to my email.

Finally in September I lost patience and cancelled the contract as was my right. They now have the cheek to be pursuing me for payment beyond when I cancelled the contract and are threatening legal proceedings! Unbelievable!!

Clearly I will defend the action and counter claim if it goes the whole way but I am so mad that they seem to be getting away with this all over the country. How can that be right? They are still advertising this free broadband too, which should not be allowed if they cannot fulfil their obligations.

I'll keep you posted, but in the meantime I will email Charles Dunstone, although writing to him in September seemed to make no difference what-so-ever...

[FrNigel]

It would help me (a little!) to add my bleat. My order was placed on 4 May 2006 and I still wait for any sign that TT Broadband will be available soon. I actually have provided three MAC codes from my existing supplier - Pipex - and, bless them, each time TT have let me down they have continued to provide a service with only a 2 or 3 hour break. Nice people!!
What bugs me is that one person I spoke to at TT - of the many - advised that my exchange was not yet set up to provide TT Broadband.
The TT website still advises "Expect your Welcome Pack....very shortly!"

I would simply like the truth. Is that too much to ask?

I signed up with TT in Aug 06, and seeing all the previous posts, I think I've been pretty lucky. I signed up for International 3 plan, and my landline has been perfect. My free broadband was also perfect until 6 Feb 07 when they upgraded me (something to do with unbundling?). I did get faster connection (6mb as opposed to 2mb), but I found that I couldn't connect to the internet. Various calls to technical support (first line) each suggesting something different. Tried them all, but still unable to resolve problem of not being able to connect. Made appointment for second-line support to call me (only 20 minutes late), their solution was to sell me another modem for 29.99, funny that, I bought a modem from TT when I signed up for 29.99 - it was supposed to be much faster than the free one they were offering.
Have to say that that if second-line support are supposed to offer more expertise, they are crap at it. Total waste of my time. Will consider whether to buy new modem just to save myself the hassle of calling technical services anymore.

[max131]

Hi,

I have been helping a friend over the last few days who has suffered horrendous problems with TalkTalk, the least of which is that she has now been waiting 3 months for her router and despite endless calls to them and promises that it is on the way, has been left high and dry. In desperation, I have been trying to set things up for her using a spare BT Voyager 105 router, but cannot access the settings page. I have tried http://192.168.1.1 to no avail. Can anyone advise and perhaps give me any idea of things I need to do the make the process as painless as possible.

In addition, would anyone have the url of a page which provides advice on how to cancel the service, i.e the best route to take, the options available, the pitfalls to avoid etc, as this soon may be the only option available.