Talktalk nightmare

Talktalk continue to give me a living nightmare!

I'd had years of reasonable service with Tiscali so when a TalkTalk operator invited me to join them for cheaper and faster broadband I signed on the dotted line. I thougfht as they were the same company I had nothing to lose. WRONG!!!

From day one broadband speeds were awful (Iwas promised 6-7mb download speeds but was lucky to get1.5mb). I was constantly disconnected and if more than one PC was in use things were even worse.

I made many calls to their technical support people, but nothing helped, so I phoned to cancel my contract before the "cooling off period" ran out. I was promised 2 free months and a 10 day extension to my "cooling off period" if I gave them another go (something they later denied, despite apparently recording all customer call).

Speeds were still terrible and I phoned to cancel my 18 month contract before the 10 days extention was up. I was told there was no record of such an extention, or 2 free months and consequently if I cancelled it would cost me over £400 as per their T & Cs. I said that I wouldn't cancel but in the meantime I would contact their Head Office to dispute these charges. They cancelled me anyway and billed me for over £400. Head Office confirmed I owed the money.

I sent off several lengthy letters to Head Office, their Customer Liason Officer, even Charles Dunstone (yes, I know he never gets to read these things). I quoted dates, times even the names of people I'd spoken to at Talktalk. I received one reply. Two paragraphs, basically saying "hard cheese, sucker!".

I complained to Otelo. I gave them all the information I'd given Talktalk. They found in my favour. Talktalk had to let me leave my contract with no penalty, get the debt collectors off my back (they'd sold the debt onto them), ensure my credit rating was unaffected, pay me compensation and reimburse me for mobile phone bills incurred when they'd diconnected me.

So a happy ending, right? WRONG!

Otelo's verdict was made back in October. Talktalk have done none of the things they were told. I've still got litigation from the debt collectors pending, and I've just received a letter from Otelo to say that Talktalk had not even replied to Otelo's report, despite being given 28 days and a further reminder.

Talktalk service is poor, their technical support is poor, their complaints proceedure is poor, and their communication is poor.

Worst of all, they don't even seem to care!

[gannite6364]

Sorry to hear your problems, i have not had any problems with them. By the way did you try the talktalk forum, as they are very good at sorting problems. Hope you are sorted now.

I am unable to use their forums as you have to register. In order to register you have be a customer of Tiscali or Talktalk.....and they cancelled my contract!!

I'm glad to hear you've had no problems gannite, but bear in mind that if you DO get a problem, their customer service is awful. Because you can never talk to the same person twice, and get a dialogue going, you can explain your problems to literally 20 different people. And when you are on a mobile phone that works out very expensive.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Talktalk continue to give me a living nightmare!

I'd had years of reasonable service with Tiscali so when a TalkTalk operator invited me to join them for cheaper and faster broadband I signed on the dotted line. I thougfht as they were the same company I had nothing to lose. WRONG!!!

From day one broadband speeds were awful (Iwas promised 6-7mb download speeds but was lucky to get1.5mb). I was constantly disconnected and if more than one PC was in use things were even worse.

I made many calls to their technical support people, but nothing helped, so I phoned to cancel my contract before the "cooling off period" ran out. I was promised 2 free months and a 10 day extension to my "cooling off period" if I gave them another go (something they later denied, despite apparently recording all customer call).

Speeds were still terrible and I phoned to cancel my 18 month contract before the 10 days extention was up. I was told there was no record of such an extention, or 2 free months and consequently if I cancelled it would cost me over £400 as per their T & Cs. I said that I wouldn't cancel but in the meantime I would contact their Head Office to dispute these charges. They cancelled me anyway and billed me for over £400. Head Office confirmed I owed the money.

I sent off several lengthy letters to Head Office, their Customer Liason Officer, even Charles Dunstone (yes, I know he never gets to read these things). I quoted dates, times even the names of people I'd spoken to at Talktalk. I received one reply. Two paragraphs, basically saying "hard cheese, sucker!".

I complained to Otelo. I gave them all the information I'd given Talktalk. They found in my favour. Talktalk had to let me leave my contract with no penalty, get the debt collectors off my back (they'd sold the debt onto them), ensure my credit rating was unaffected, pay me compensation and reimburse me for mobile phone bills incurred when they'd diconnected me.

So a happy ending, right? WRONG!

Otelo's verdict was made back in October. Talktalk have done none of the things they were told. I've still got litigation from the debt collectors pending, and I've just received a letter from Otelo to say that Talktalk had not even replied to Otelo's report, despite being given 28 days and a further reminder.

Talktalk service is poor, their technical support is poor, their complaints proceedure is poor, and their communication is poor.

Worst of all, they don't even seem to care!

_________________

I agree with the description of Talk Talk in the message. Talk Talk have failed to provide any reasonable broadband speed to me for 4 months and their response has been rubbish. The admit that they have failed to provide any reasonable resolution.

I am going to transfer to another ISP, and I'm going to file a complaint with the ombudsman. However, I'm now concerned with the information mentioned in the message, that Talk Talk still hunt for money.

Do other readers have any experience about how to force Talk Talk to stop ripping off customers ?

Suggestions please.

TalkTalk don't talk when there is a problem. They don't communicate with the customer or within the various departments. It is so frustrating. Wait till you have a problem - it's torture.

I completely agree

Since TalkTalk took over Tiscali my peak speed has dropped to 120kbps (from a steady 2mbps in the past)

I can't even browse the web in the evening let alone youtube, iplayer etc.

After many conversations with them it emerges my exchange is not LLU (for any provider) so the pipe is just not big enough - doesn't matter who I am with

What was irritating though was TalkTalk's inability to express this simply and easy - I got a lot of BS for a long time

In the end when I called O2, I got a great UK-based support guy who explained it very clearly

Still stuck with no useful peak time broadband though. It's like I've gone back to the year 2000 and there's nothing I can do about it

Shocking

Paul