Tiscali/Talktalk criminally negligent..................

[martin]

Once upon a time........... well, in fact for several years, I've enjoyed an excellent and fairly-priced telephone/line/broadband deal from Tiscali, which has served me well, and I've recommended several others to use down the years. All was ticketty-boo, until November last year when we received a letter to inform us that Tiscali was being taken over by Talk Talk, and that there was absolutely nothing to do, just another different name would appear atop the bills............
Then in late November, a rather pushy "rep" type 'phoned, and wasted 45 minutes of my time telling me how wonderful the new service was going to be, were we happy to proceed with the change, and please could he take our direct debit details for the new account - I gently explained that I really wasn't prepared to give them to him as he could just as well have cold-called looking for Tiscali users - eventually we furnished them with the required details so they could set up a new direct debit........
Then on Dec 9th I noticed we'd acquired caller id on the 'phones, and assumed the transfer of line/phone/broadband had gone ahead as arranged - all appeared well until we received a paper copy of our new Talktalk bill - they'd only billed us for phone and line charges - a few days later Tiscali helped itself to another £30 odd from the account for broadband........(I'd thought this was a take-over.... )
When I complained (which took forever) about a week ago, they muttered about apologies/would put it right/refunds etc.......... it rumbled on for several days by email, and as it was "getting nowhere fast" decided to take the bull by the horns and use the 'phone this morning...........
After 6 hours hanging on/speaking to assorted dumbrils in Tiscali/Talk Talk (even they are not sure who they work for - conveniently you need to speak to the "other company" about everything, and waste 30-45 minutes getting through every time, at 5p minute!) the upshot is as follows ............
The "rep" had only transferred the line/phone and not the broadband connection, and that when I'd queried it about a week ago, all they'd done (after promising to "sort it all out for you sir") was to cancel my broadband connection as of this Friday, and were unable/unwilling to tell me at what hour, had NOT ordered a new connection with TT, and that it may take up to 3 weeks for them to reconnect my broadband.
Needless to say, I'm transferring to PlusNet who have been very helpful, but it looks like I may be without phone/line/broadband for at the very least a few days - all due to Tiscali/Talktalk's blithering incompetence - my advice is to avoid this bunch of criminally negligent nincompoops at all costs!

(Tiscal/Talk Talk  transfer [Incident: 100107-003191])

[hiccup]

And don't be tempted by Pipex either - similar story  been going on since September.

And guess what - Pipex is also part of that same group! 

We'll be going elsewhere as soon as possible

Hic!

[desperate]

Funny you should report that,

a few years ago My partner had a Talk Talk phone acount for land and mob I think, his land line went belly up, and when he reported the problem they said "oh you have to speak to BT as the problem is on their line. BT insisted it was nothing of the sort and couldn't help, after a few weeks of to-ing and fro-ing Talk Talk finally acepted that it was their problem and it was fixed in a couple of hours.

It seems as if the B/S took several weeks and the repair a few minutes

Is it worth the aggro to save a few pennies? I have always been BT and the service is excellent, have an applaud BT

Desperate

[dhaslam]

I had the same experience with BT  who took over  Ireland on Line customers. All I was doing was moving from one house to another but  it threw them into confusion because the data rate was lower in the new location.   They made a big fuss about having two  witnesses to a phone call  to cancel one contract and make a new one and  then messed everything up.    

[langstroth2]

Technically can't fault BT. Had no problems with phone or broadband. However....their "customer call centre" process is appalling. Missed a Broadband payment as we'd changed CC. First knew when I couldn't log on to webmail (broadband still working fine) - got a message saying account in arrears. Then the fun began

1) Tried to update account details on-line. Kept failing login, although I know the details are correct (they work fine for pulling down email via pop3).
2) Rang the number provided on screen. Got recorded msg saying number is no longer in use, a new number given
3) Phone new number. Usual press 1 for this, 2 for that, 3 for billing enquiries. "Sorry sir wrong department", I'll transfer you.
4) Gave details all over again to second "customer assistant". Ah, you'll have to talk to bt yahoo broadband team. here's another number
thinks, does this company actually want my business?
5) Phone third new number. Give details again. "Can't find your account sir". Takes some generic details. I'll phone you back.
6) Still waiting.

Fire off a strongly worded complaint to BT about their so called customer handling process, just to make me feel better. Sigh.

[Pat_]

langstroth2: Just went through exactly the same sequence for the same reason (someone stole my credit card details on-line so its number changed).


Then... towards the end of a couple of hours phoning, a guy said he'd take a one-of bank debit, as their credit card system was being updated.  A week later, my email stopped working, because the bank transfer failed because he used someone else's name. The email site on-line then offered to take the new credit card number, but used the wrong name and got that card stopped. I finally got email back by using my wife's credit card.

We're going to switch to a new broadband supplier as soon as I can face it, and the hassle of losing our email addresses.

[daftlad]

I kind of think of Talk Talk as being like Ryan air and BT as being like British airways, We are with Talk Talk and so far they have been fine, even with faults but when we signed up we expected customer service to be erm well cheap.
BT are expensive, too expensive but at least you can call 150 for free.
When I move out of my mums (when my back is better) I will probably go with 3 mobile broadband with a tesco internet phone to give me a land line number.
ta ta

[Rooster]

I'm afraid I'd have to disagree with those singing BTs praises. Their customer service is appalling, and accounts a nightmare (They still owe me money from 2004, I've just given up! Also six years on they still can't get my btyahoo email working)

The Indian call centre is the stuff of comedy sketches only it's not funny when your trying to resolve an issue. 

I'd suggest avoiding BT like the plague, they're certainly not a premium service worth paying extra for!!


TalkTalk also seem to be well known for poor customer service and ridiculous accounts errors.

Plusnet are now just a subsidiary of BT so I'd be giving them a miss as well. Plusnets history is littered with issues often going from being a decent ISP to disastrous in a matter of weeks (They've also lost enormous amounts of customers emails most notably http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/11/plusnet_email_fiasco/ but many other instances exist.)

One of the most important things I'd look for in a new ISP is monthly contracts! All those mentioned above have 12/18 month minimum contracts so if the service is poor your stuffed and can't change for ages.

I'd also recommend arranging your own email addresses and not using those supplied by the ISPs!

[desperate]

oh dear, if nobody is any good we better start breeding some Navi-pidgeons.

Desp

[Rooster]

No need for the Navi-pidgeons yet .......  there are good ISPs out there ...... you just need to avoid the hype, spin and BS!

Some of the smaller independent UK companies provide excellent service.

To name a few ... AAISP, IDnet, Zen, Vivaciti, Newnet.

[martin]

Well, the die is cast, I signed up for Plusnet this afternoon - give 'em their due they were very helpful (unlike BT who manage to hide their sales telephone number!), on the face of it the package looks reasonable. Pro tem I'm going to have to faff about with a dongle (which could be fun  - mobile reception here involves leaning over the sink.........)
I've decided that having wasted a day of my life, and nearly worn my voice out on Tiscali/Talk Talk 'phone lines, I shall keep my communication with them to terse and pithy emails  (having made my views VERY plain to them by email), and will be billing them for a days consultancy fees, telephone calls, dongle and airtime - if they don't pay - small claims court!

[jotec]

Same problem with Talk Talk.
I have been very happy with Tiscali since before they were Tiscali. (used to be Liberty surf dialup at £20 per year)
Rep called and got very short shrift and was very put out (oh dear)
Letter arrived - I can keep the same broadband for additional £5 per month OR reduce and have free weekend calls, still with Tiscali but 18 month contract.
Spoke to rep assured that it would only be weekend calls and it would not affect my BT free weekday calls and I could have a new wireles router.
OK
Letter from BT all calls transfered. No router.
Spoke to tiscali /Talktalk. "this is what we said and we would have not offered a free router" NOOOOOOOO
Now they can not transfer me to a free weekday calls without changing to Talktalk and associated changes to email names etc.

Spoke to a rep in person, face to face, "Talk talk and Tiscali are the same company no problem" Web site is now Talk Talk even if you log in as Tiscali.
Phone reps are different companies and can not do the transfer. "try again in a month" (at least they are in UK)

The saga goes on.
D ick

[grevls]

Similar problem, we lost broadband because of an old debt on the phone line with a previous tennant, so they cut us off.
Phoned BT to set-up a new line, which started off fairly problem free. Was told to wait at least a week for it to happen, but there would be no re-connection charge. However, would then need to inform Sky (our previous ISP) of the change in phone number so they could re-transfer broadband to that. Adding a further 10 days after the 7.
Also Sky's automated phone service is without a doubt the worst.
Decided waiting 17 days for broadband was ridiculous. Cancelled the order with BT and went to Virgin. Initially they were easy to deal with. I suppose all of them are when you want to place an order.
Told the guy at Virgin that my condition for ordering with them would be that they get us up and running in less than 7 days, which he promised me would happen.
Got an email 2 days later saying broadband would be installed in 2 weeks time! Rang back, evetually got the correct person. Had a good moan. Was told there was no way of getting installed sooner as an engineer from BT would need to be sent to our house to re-activate the line. Told them I'd cancel the order, to which they said OK. So I did.
Phoned BT to get a complete phone/broadband package. Was estimated a one week installation time, but a £110 re-connection charge (which now seemed to apply for some reason). Told him to F-off.
Went back to virgin. Got an even later installation date, which I went with. Have now been back up and running for 2 weeks after a month without internet.
Only problem is now I think Virgin might be billing me twice. Oh and an engineer never turned up to activate the line, it was something they could do with a simple flick of a switch, so why it took 2 weeks I don;t know.
The moral of this story is pretty much all the big phone/internet companies couldnt give a sh*t if they have your business or not and if you want anything done, ask to speak to a manager straight away and threaten them until you can get a direct contact line for them.

[renewablejohn]

Totally given up with BT after 6 years of losing the landline every time it rains finally managed to get the truth from the engineer that the copper cable had degraded so badly that it needed replacing and because only 3 homes used it it is was not cost effective to replace the one mile of cable. At which point I cancelled and switched to an orange mobile, although not perfect at least I can communicate and have broadband most of the time.

[Stuart]

BT is good unless there line is faulty, they will never tell you its there fault. This is the same across all there departments. I have worked with them for years.
Of course when the engineer comes out, and meets someone who knows phones they just own up. Turned out to be a taped up joint in the street pit!

Ex girly had similar problem to you John, they promised her 3 meg broadband. Even though she lived out in the sticks. Engineer sad it was the house wiring at fault.
But I had checked that and knew there line voltage was pathetic, and moved with the wind!

Obviously they didn't want to replace miles of overhead line through trees so they said sorry and refunded.

Can confirm the accounts dept have not a clue. Im still being charged a few pence a month, and then refunded the same day as the DD is cancelled.

Broadband wise was with BT for years, there OK no problems with flaky connection.

with O2 as there way cheaper and faster, very good so far.