TalkTalk Free Broadband "a disturbing nightmare" says CEO

George RobinsonWed 8 November, 2006 3:34pm

In fairness, when up and running with talktalk broadband, there is nothing wrong with it. My personal experience in getting it to work was not good and it took me over a month, and numerous telephone calls, to get all of the bugs sorted. Here, for what it may be worth to others struggling to get up and running, is a short list of "likely and common" problems. Remember, leading edge broadband kit is trying to blend with a myriad of personal computers, exchanges, wiring etc. Without boring you with all of the details the "first line" techies did struggle to help me but the "second liners" were much more with it. They are overwhelmed with demand but, in fairness, are trying hard.

1. Make sure you connect into the BT Master Socket.
2. Connect the modem as near to this socket as possible.
3. If necessary, buy a longer ethernet cable to reach the computer. An ethernet setup is preferable to ADSL.
4. Chuck the TalkTalk filter and buy a branded BT filter.
5. If you have more than one socket make sure that all other telephones etc. are also filtered using a BT branded filter.

If you are still not working as it says on the tin you need "second line assistance"

AnonymousWed 6 December, 2006 5:20pm

I have been acustomer of talktalk for nearly two years and the service has become worse and worse. I have emailed their complaint department and never received a reply. I emailed their press department and did not get a response either.I believe they are in 'breach of contract' and guilty of fraud on a massive scale by telling clients that they will receive 8,000,000 bps but only supplying half of that speed. Most of the time you cannot get through to receive or send emails. It is without dobt the worst service ever. I would like to know why the Office of Fair Trading has not intervened and fined this company heavily 0r better still make it return all the fees collected by false pretenses.

michael fearnFri 10 November, 2006 6:34pm

well I singed up on the 14 of Aug 2006 and online by the 24 of Aug 2006 all thow talktalk told me I would be on line by the end September I was a supprise to me that it was so quick

AnonymousTue 14 November, 2006 11:06am

On Wednesday 8 November TalkTalk cut us over from BT to TalkTalk LLU in the Ealing Exchange. We've had no dialtone or internet since. Today (14 November) a faults technician informed me that EVERY SINGLE 8Meg customer has no dialtone or internet. And TalkTalk have no idea when they'll get this fixed. That's 1000 odd LLU customers without phone for a week or more!

AnonymousSun 3 December, 2006 11:43am

I signed the contract for free broad band in July and was charged for the line rental £9.0 till the broad band became active after that my bill was increased to the contracted £25 permonth. I have never been able to get consitent broadband and every time I log in I have to reboot the system which connects and then disconnects after some time. I have been fed up with the service and the customer service is practically non existant. You wait for hours in que to speak to some on who repeats the things already displayed on the website.
The whole experince has been a nightmare and finally in disgust I have joined back BT line. My children were unable to access the service for thei homework etc.
Its nightmare and I advice people to stay away from this company

AnonymousTue 5 December, 2006 4:33pm

in fairness the service sucks so bad i wish i had never gone with it in the first instance, i have constant disconnects suffer port throttling and shaping lost clients becasue of there terrible service. When you finally get through to broadband technical support in India they finally admit they are only customer support after a lenghty wait and route you to technical support... you hang on for 10 more mins only to be routed back to the same department.

The best of it is im a paying customer! im not even getting it free!

If you want terrible customer service, unreliable internet, unless all you do is browse a few pages now and again, then TalkTalk is the one for you. I'm a medium usage customer who runs his business from home and i can undeniably claim that TalkTalk is the worst internet service i have had the displeasure to come across!

MR M BuxTue 15 May, 2007 10:56pm

The service is still terrible.
i have had my phone line over 35 years with BT and never had a problem. Recently i ordered talk talk as i am new to broadband & internet.
the day my broadband was supposed to go live, i started to receive calls for someone else's number.
i spent the whole day trying to talk to someone who was capable of reporting the fault on my phone line (and obviously my broadband does not work)
then i finally get transferred to someone on Delhi, India
who will eventually log the fault back to my original service provider....BT!!!
and to top it all off it will take 5 working days to rectify..
As the article on CNET states...nothing come for free....oh ho i regret ordering talk talk...once the phone line is fixed, the first call i make will be to BT, to ask if i can have their service back :(

AnonymousMon 28 May, 2007 9:03pm

I switched from BT to Talk Talk last October. I am STILL WAITING for ANY Broadband service at all. They eventually switched my phone line in late February.By end March, it had a fault and I was unable to make ANY phone calls for a month whilst I tried to persuade them there was a fault on the line. Eventually BT sorted out the fault. I have made over 30 calls, reported them to OFCOM and Ofitel who are now tryign to get me compensation. My partner is a doctor who cannot exist without a phone - they dont care. The only person who has been even remotely apologetic to me was in the Indian call centre who told me that their trainign simply was to tell me it would be 10 to 15 days. It has been 9 months. I am told that I cannot cancel as i have an 18month contract and that if I stop the standing order, which they are taking, even thought hey are providing no service, they will have me blacklisted. Ofitel have been brilliant and are takign it up for me. I can only advise anyone who is thinking of dealing with Talk Talk to see a dcotor. There is something wrong with you!

AnonymousWed 2 January, 2008 11:21am

talktalk the pain of my life ....been on to them for about a month line keeps breaking up every night at the same time ,,,keep phoneing them and they keep saying there is nothing wrong with the line ...if it is not fixed this time i am changing back to BT ....every time the fault appears iit drops my internet connection .....everything was fine till they upgraded the telephone exchange...not a happy customer

AnonymousWed 27 February, 2008 1:13am

Hello, this is my first posting on this forum. I have been trying to LEAVE Talk Talk since August 2007, yes AUGUST 2007!! I am currently dealing with Neil Wearing who works in Charles Dunstone's office at Talk Talk. If anyone on this forum would like his e-mail address I would be happy to forward it to you to voice any complaints directly to Charles Dunstone's office.
I have spent so far approximately £2,000 (and rising) in legal fees in trying to get Talk Talk to cancel my accounts. Whilst I have all of the details relating to my account, in writing, in the form of e-mails and letters from Talk Talk explaining the cessation of my accounts, they still refuse to let me go. Originally back in August 2007 I decided to leave Talk Talk and go to another ISP, Plus.Net. After being rudely spoken to by a member of Talk Talk's customer service staff I decided to write to Charles Dunstone to complain at the disservice I received from one of his employees. Whilst Charles Dunstone likes to present himself publicly as a 'customer friendly' CEO he is anything but and I have found from my personal experience that Charles Dusntone is a truly ignorant individual who abuses the confusion surrounding the UK telecommunications industry and bullies customers into forcibly staying with Talk Talk. I am now at a point whereby despite complaining to John Ingham (Ofcom), Charles Dunstone and BT's chairman Sir Michael Rake, I am still unable to leave Talk Talk and transfer all of my lines away from them. One line has been transferred out and one line has been disconnected and ceased. However, two remaining lines that I need and would like to transfer over to Plus.Net have been tagged by Opal Telecom and Talk Talk refuse to let them go despite written assurances from Neil Wearing that they would be 'available for transfer on 22nd December 2007'. I have a list of correspondence between BT, Talk Talk, Ofcom and Plus.Net with my letters currently running at 33 with further letters and e-mails sent by my solicitor. I don't know any of the experiences that the forum members are experiencing but I feel the only way to stop Talk Talk is to publicly shame them and to launch legal action against them via the Small Claims Court. Whilst as an individual Talk Talk probably would not care about one claim. However, sustained action from many disgruntled users would have a wider effect and this I feel is the only way to stop Charles Dunstone and his behaviour as a pariah of Britain's telecommunications network. Talk Talk must be stopped from abusing the LLU system which fundamentally is very good. Ofcom is overwhelmed with complaints but does very little to stop Talk Talk. I know of journalists in national newspapers that when they ran articles about Talk Talk, were inundated with so many e-mails from frustrated Talk Talk customers they had to stop those stories. If you need any proof try and ask a journalist on a suitable national newspaper to run an article on the state of Britain's broadband network, stating that you have a problem with Talk Talk and they will tell you it isn't something they are interested in as there are too many people with the same problem. Legal action is the only way and publicity on the internet such as You Tube. I would be happy to assist anyone with any advice ad I also would be happy to receive any constructive comments regarding the cessation of my accounts with Talk talk and their transfer. Thank you, John

AnonymousFri 11 July, 2008 3:03pm

I am having terrible problems with Talk Talk and would like the email or postal address of the CEO.Please advise.