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19th-Jul-2007 10:41 pm - Less TalkTalk, more WalkWalk

Hi. Now first of all let me say that from the time I signed up as a new customer with TalkTalk last June after getting my own phone line put in I've been very happy with the service. I've had only a couple of minor problems which have all been resolved via e-mail to my satisfaction. I'm aware of the numerous complaints about this company and after the experience I'm about to document I have a theory about that.

Anyway mum has had her line rental with TalkTalk for a few months now and been on the standard pay-as-you-go service with no problems. Her broadband was with Tiscali.

Early in July TalkTalk called pushing their Talk 3 package with the free broadband included. Mum has always been an advocate of seeing things in writing before subscribing to them, so asked the agent, a man named Adrian Seville, to send her all the information about the package, in writing, and said that she would then give confirmation to go ahead with the change. At no point did she give TalkTalk consent to just go ahead and mess things up as they have now. Also note that Adrian said from the time the order was placed to the time the changes took effect would be about 5 weeks. Note also that the requested printed information was promised within 5 days. So the call ended with mum satisfied that nothing unwarranted would happen and that she had plenty of time to decide whether she wanted to change her broadband and phone service from the original.

So today we got back from lunch to find that the internet wasn't working. I checked the modem's control panel, and noticed that it wasn't logging in via PPP, indicating an authorization problem. I also noticed that the upstream and downstream speeds were considerably higher than previously with Tiscali, and I know for a fact Tiscali have not upgraded our service. I immediately suspected TalkTalk to be the culprit. We had not received any of the promised printed information during this time so, as far as we were concerned nothing had changed.

Now here's where the rollercoaster really begins. I phoned TalkTalk and spoke to Aundun (that's how his name sounded). He listened to the story, during the recollection of which I pointed out, multiple times, that we HAD NOT GIVEN CONSENT for any changes to be made. Anyway after explaining things, he transferred me to a woman named Jamie, supposedly in the Accounts Management department. After explaining the situation and being kept on hold for nearly 20 minutes, she came back and reported a strange fact. there was no account for mum's telephone number other than a new one created on 4th July, co-incidentally the very next day after the chat with the original agent who started this whole mess. So where on earth has our original account, for basic line rental and pay-as-you-go phone service, for which mum has been faithfully paying each month, gone? Jamie then transferred me to Robin, apparently working at the cancellations department. I explained myself once again, and whereas he said he understood what I was saying, he notably failed to agree with me that the transfer was carried out against our wishes and without our permission. He offered to either guide me through getting the broadband connected or assisting me in cancelling, I of course chose the latter option.

I was placed on hold whilst he tried to get through to the cancellations department (another one?) but after another 20 minutes he came back on the line apologising that as there were long queues not even he could get through. He said he would call me back tomorrow morning to get this matter resolved, and took my mobile number just in case.

Now I should say that the experience with TalkTalk thus far leads me to think that the likelyhood of getting this resolved without a fight is quite remote, but I will give Robin a chance to work his magic and will try my utmost not to shoot the messenger. I must again say that my own personal experience with TalkTalk is a stark contrast to the sorry tale of woe above, and I take my hats off to the staff who've helped me over the last year. I would also like to advise members of the public reading this that I will be drawing the attention of Charles Dunstone, CEO of TalkTalk to this blog post and asking him for both an explanation of why this mess happened in the first place and seeking assurances that this will not happen again. I'll keep you posted.

Mum is of course quite upset at the lack of internet (remember, we've had no communication from TalkTalk whatsoever since the early July telephone call) and I think she'd just rather go back to Tiscali where we at least knew where we stood as regards our account.

I said I had a theory about the complaints made about TalkTalk. Most of the ones I've seen involved customers who were sold their packages by TalkTalk, rather than applying for them themselves. You'll note from my posts last summer that I signed up to TalkTalk for my own line via their website and had no problems. So, it seems that there is a major problem with their telesales team, who do most of TalkTalk's direct marketing, and from which most of the complaints I've seen stem. Maybe they need to invest more into staff training, who knows? I'd advise anyone considering going with TalkTalk to make your application directly, via their website and not via the phone or through their sales or marketing teams.

Tags:broadband, carphonewarehouse, charles dunstone, cpw, rant, talktalk, telephone
Mood:frustrated

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