Talktalk whinge escalates to meltdown...

[SammyQ]

I moved to a wee town in the north-east in early October and did my homework on broadband/costs/distance from enabled exchange etc etc, yada, yada. We were well inside the five miles quoted from the exchange, but also sufficiently far from it not to have old copper lines. Talktalk went 'live' about 10 days later and 'phone and internet seemed fine initially. We were renovating, painting and making several trips up to Edinburgh to support No1 Child finish her kitchen (after fitters took advantage of fact she is a single female to extend her new kitchen fitout to 43 days...).
Long story short, we didn't explore all capabilities of the Talktalk TV box until 5th November...no streaming telly! How was my Casualty-addicted Missus to update her fix? How could we watch a movie on Netflix?? There was also the problem that once we pressed a button on the remote, it took between 10 and forty (yes, forty) seconds for the box to repond....the Kindles would not download and one of our two mobiles would not get Internet on Wifi.

History: HOURS of convoluted, semantic, gratuitously grovelling, pabulum from Talktalk call centre, Manila. They are totally unable to handle a call without starting EVERYTHING from scratch and repeating themselves endlessly. They promise "72 hour callback" that never happens, or at least 9 DAYS go by...Three engineers have called. One very nice, but awkward, lad from "Cube" who verified my router and box were OK, 'cos he swopped them out AND replaced telly connections with an ethernet cable...problem still there, then left, having fully informed Talktalk. BT sent one bloke out , whom we never saw, 'cos he called when we were in Edinburgh - despite having 'arranged' with Talktalk that he would call when we were in....A telephone conversation with a Manchester lad who - mercifully - was able to step away from Manila's nonsense and talk straight...the wonderful Angus, BT engineer, who spent 90 minutes up various poles checking every inch of our overhead supply...NO FORKIN TV!!!
We have been mired in this disatisfactory state for nearly three long months now, and I am absolutely certain Talktalk are a bunch of charlatans.
Anybody want to comment??

Sam, pushing hot pins through wax effigies of Talktalk.

 

[flying haggis]

my sympathies are with you over a "communications" company abject failure to communicate. I know how you feel as I have had similiar from BT, ending up with the BT "executive level complaints" team via an e-mail to the CEO Gavin Patterson.
Mine started in late Nov and I still havent got my FTTP connection yet!! despite the pole being 20m from the house in my garden

 

[SammyQ]

I was with Virgin back in Belfast. Fibre optic to the gate and 10' of coax to the house; BRILLIANT TV and wifi.....

 

[flying haggis]

when and if it gets connected, latest date is now 11/1 having moved five times from 12/12 we will have fibre to the house and 150+ Meg broadband

 

[tomatwark]

We had this issue with BT

It kept dropping out and after a period of 6 months BT sent out 6 engineers.

Engineer number 6 fixed it.

When i told him he was number 6, his face fell on realising it was an intermittent fault.

I then explained what the problem was, he then smiled and said " I know what the problem is, back in 20 mins "

So off he goes and returns in 20 mins or so, problem fixed.

It turns out that there is a problem with the exchange in the village near us and while it works ok for the phone it does not like the broadband.

The reason he knows this is that he had the same problem with another customer in the village and after a lot of messing around he discovered what the issue was.

He did what is apparently know as a "lift and shift" I think i means they put you onto another part of the exchange.

The problem seems to be that Open Reach don't have a reporting system which the engineers can access to see what the other have come across.

Ask the next one to try that.

 

[SammyQ]

Thanks Tomatwark. My problem is not dropping out, but rather that the internet is not 'strong' enough to carry a streaming TV 'signal'?? I will pass on your tip to the magnificent Angus - if BT send him again - but I am more inclined to think the fault lies somewhere in Talktalk's programming of my account, or their unfit-for-purpose-router; they just don't want to admit their considerable shortcomings.

Sam

 

[RogerS]

Oh Sammy...Sammy...Sammy. How could you go with TalkTalk ? Do you not remember the debacle when CEO Harding attempted to bluster her way out of the meltdown they had? I see she is stepping down and about time to.

Ditch them. Now. Go with a proper provider like Zen. End of !

Must pop over and have a coffee :wink:

 

[tomatwark]

Thanks Tomatwark. My problem is not dropping out, but rather that the internet is not 'strong' enough to carry a streaming TV 'signal'?? I will pass on your tip to the magnificent Angus - if BT send him again - but I am more inclined to think the fault lies somewhere in Talktalk's programming of my account, or their unfit-for-purpose-router; they just don't want to admit their considerable shortcomings.

Sam

It was not always dropping out, sometimes it would run at about 2mbs or less.

It was like the old days of 56k modems at times.

Have you done a speed test?

http://www.speedtest.btwholesale.com/

Does not matter that you are with Talk Talk

 

[RogerS]

Where we used to live the 'green cabinet' that fed many rural houses and farms was in a flood plain. Twice it got flooded up to about 6 inches short of the top. Below that line most of the connections were covered in verdigris. Everyone connected below that line had ongoing problems. The BT engineers knew that the longterm solution was to replace and resite the box but years went by and the BT bean-counters refused to do it.

Then suddenly one night, a loose chain attached to a tractor (no-one knows who it was or they're not saying !) found its way wrapped round the green cabinet. You can guess what happened next.

Anyway, without phone or internet for a day or two while they replaced and resited the cabinet so we were all dead chuffed. Internet was perfect.

 

[SammyQ]

Thanks Tom, done a broadbandspeedcheck, from website of same name, via my mobile. About 32/8 on what is supposed to be a 40/10 line. In Edinburgj presently, will do your linked testvwhen I get back.BT's Angus DID find "interference" on the line and traced it to two old connectors, duely replaced. No change; still naff all.

Cheers RogerS! Didn't get a chance to call in at Haltwhistle(?) on our charge across the Pennines. Passed through your neck of the woods 9.30pm and wanted to get to our son's place asap to get him to bed as he rises at 6am!
You are very welcome to call for a fix of caffeine if you are over "on the sunset strip" for any reason. I'll PM you contact details, but warn you in advance, I expect this place to be a building site for the next month at least ( but hey! so's your place? ).
Sam, phoning, planning, not quite panicing he's bought a money-pit...