TalkTalk - The Pros and Cons?

[Ape]

Hey all.

 

 

 

My parents today, decided they want to save a bit of cash and get TalkTalk broadband. Obviously, being a happy BT customer, I protested... But, sadly, they have the final word.

 

 

 

Can people list the experiences they've had, compared to the experiences they've had with BT? Or just singular experiences would be handy.

 

 

 

I know my friend's TalkTalk cuts him off frequently, gave him very slow speeds and capped his download to an insanely low amount, instantly. I also have heared that their customer service is absolutely rubbish too.

 

 

 

Can anyone support this?

 

 

 

Thanks alot in advance, I hope this persuades my parents to stick with BT.

[Jaziek]

Yes talktalk is bad. Customer service is abysmal for a lot of providers, talktalk is not unique in that. I dont know about speed, what sort of package are you looking at? Most providers have an unlimited downloads package.

 

 

 

 

 

In my opinion BT is one of the better providers for the UK. They dont cap downloads, dont have bad speeds. the only problem I have is that during certain peak times the speed can decrease A LOT.

[Rhys]

Well, I can't say my experience with TalkTalk has been entirely a bad one.

 

 

 

When they provided 2mb broadband, I can't say we had any problems. However, when they decided to switch to BT's 21CN system and provide us with 8mb, their service really took a dive.

 

 

 

On the promised date of 8mb, our phoneline went dead. Completely dead, that is. No dial-tone, couldn't ring out, couldn't ring in and as a consequence, no internet. We made a complaint with their customer service and it took about three days to get the connection back.

 

 

 

Since then, the phone line has been bad quality with constant noise, the internet disconnects all the time when set at 8mb, and is equivalent to dial-up if we ask them to limit us to 2mb. There is no "in-between" so don't think you can get away with a 4mb or 6mb connection because they will only put you onto one of those two profiles.

 

 

 

Customer service is horrible. You listen to some cheesy music for about half hour before getting through to first-line support. They generally tell you things you already know and absolutely refuse to put you through to a supervisor. If, by some obscure chance, you are forwarded to second-line support, they promise you they'll fix the problem and report back to you within 48 hours. Not once have they done this with me. At one point, it took so long to get through to them that their support center closed for the night before we'd had a chance to speak to someone.

 

 

 

Oh, yes, did I mention they also make up contracts so you stay with them? To my parents' knowledge, they have never signed a contract with TalkTalk, yet when we requested to leave TalkTalk they told us there would be a ÃÆââ¬Å¡Ãâã70 cancellation fee because we were within 3 months of our 18 month contract. Funnily enough, when questioned further we were told that we were in the last month of the contract. Odd? I'd say so.

 

 

 

In all, it's a shoddy service and customer support only manage to pass you from pillar to post. Nothing ever gets done even though they promise to fix problems.

 

 

 

Trust me, if you decide to join TalkTalk you will have endless problems and frustrating discussions with poor customer service reps.

[Doomster]

When it's good, it's good, a friend gets great speeds.

 

 

 

When it's bad, it's bad, they changed something and it broke, and support was flaming useless.

 

 

 

Some other possibilities, if they have O2 contract mobile, O2 broadband offers high performance at a special customer price.

 

http://broadband.o2.co.uk/

 

 

 

If they have Sky, then Sky see, Talk & Surf is a great package.

 

 

 

I'd consider both of those to be probaly more reliable than talktalk

 

 

 

https://www.bethere.co.uk/ - another good one, an ISP that people actually like, and that's very rare - They are OWNED by O2