All in UK : Don't use TalkTalk as Broadband
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Having been relatively ok with standalone TalkTalk broadband on a BT rental line I decided to take the plunge and move everything to TT. Mistake. I had a problem with the line/wirless router (this has now been going on 3 weeks) and found myself in the labyrinth of ineptitude and misinformation known as TalkTalk Broadband customer services. I have been lied to, not been rung back when they said 3 times that they would, passed from pillar to post by 1st Level Morons, had a request to be passed through the system downright REFUSED by Idiot1 because I wouldn't give them the name of my wireless router (even though they have asked me everytime I ring so they can't even be @rsed to record that info) only to be told by Idiot2 just now that they don't even need those details........... The saga goes ... 10 ON 20 AND 30 GOTO 10 F ME! My colleagues either side of me are having even worse trouble than me with BT and Sky respectively - they can't even get through to someone to complain. TT are a total shambles and shouldn't be allowed to run a piece of string between 2 cans let alone a telecomms company.
I still remember having to write your own code in FORTRAN rather than be a cut and paste merchant being pampered by colour coded Intellisense - ahh proper programming - those were the days :)
Having a nightmare with BT today. Moved house back in July and cancelled my BT account (actually moved it to the new address). Just noticed that a direct debit of £200 went out to BT last week. Went online and found I could still access old account. Turns out BT never actually cancelled it and the new occupants of our old house have been making plenty of calls. So I ring BT. Oh dear. When I eventually get through to a human, it's an Indian call centre and we cannot understand each other. He puts me through to a UK call centre. Bloke admits that BT are at fault and puts me through to 'Services' who will sort it. I stay on hold for 30 mins. Back to India again. Very stroppy woman tells me, yes, it is BT's fault, but they will need to 'investigate' the matter and I should hear from them within 14 days. WTF? You admit it's your fault, you have £200 of my money which I won't see for at least 2 weeks? Unacceptable. 'Procedure' she says. So I ask to speak to her supervisor. 'I can't put you through, but I will get her to ring you within 2 hours'. Still waiting for the call, 5 hours later. What a shambles.
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No, if we want competent customer service we wait till the Americans wake up and call the US customer service line. If you call any UK customer service line you get a very pleasant and completely powerless person in Bangalore who usually wants to help you but can't. When I had a problem with O2 the only way I finally managed to get anywhere was by getting the real phone number of their real UK office on the QT from someone at the industry regulator ICSTIS who was appauled by what I told them and wanted to help. He of course couldn't officially do anything either. Finally when I got through to the real UK office, warned them that the call may be recorded and then got them to admit that what had occured was fraud they folded, cancelled my contract and sent me the actual details of the crooks who were taking money from my account through their systems. The problem is partly that we Brits are just too polite and don't complain voceriferously enough about telecoms chaos or anything else for that matter.
Nothing is exactly what it seems but everything with seems can be unpicked.
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That reminds me.... I did manage to get online 2 nights ago at 4Mps. Last night it was down to 525kps! Same socket, same modem, same time of night. Rang Tech Support today from work. Usual rigmarole about having to try modem in main socket not extension. Me " I don't want to unhook everything again to try it in a socket that we have tried several times previously" Drone "You don't need to - just plug in the new modem we sent you on the 10th" Me "this would be the modem that hasn't arrived yet???? So I have to wait till the ficticious modem arrives before I can test a line that worked ok the other night?" Drone "Yes that's right!" Me - speechless
I still remember having to write your own code in FORTRAN rather than be a cut and paste merchant being pampered by colour coded Intellisense - ahh proper programming - those were the days :)
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I have BT business at home (company pays) can't say I've any problems at all with BT, I just get a blindly fast line.;P
If you're struggling developing software, then I'd recommend gardening.
My joy for yourself knows no bounds! :)
I still remember having to write your own code in FORTRAN rather than be a cut and paste merchant being pampered by colour coded Intellisense - ahh proper programming - those were the days :)
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Having a nightmare with BT today. Moved house back in July and cancelled my BT account (actually moved it to the new address). Just noticed that a direct debit of £200 went out to BT last week. Went online and found I could still access old account. Turns out BT never actually cancelled it and the new occupants of our old house have been making plenty of calls. So I ring BT. Oh dear. When I eventually get through to a human, it's an Indian call centre and we cannot understand each other. He puts me through to a UK call centre. Bloke admits that BT are at fault and puts me through to 'Services' who will sort it. I stay on hold for 30 mins. Back to India again. Very stroppy woman tells me, yes, it is BT's fault, but they will need to 'investigate' the matter and I should hear from them within 14 days. WTF? You admit it's your fault, you have £200 of my money which I won't see for at least 2 weeks? Unacceptable. 'Procedure' she says. So I ask to speak to her supervisor. 'I can't put you through, but I will get her to ring you within 2 hours'. Still waiting for the call, 5 hours later. What a shambles.
Outsources/offshoring what ever you call it, you 'em peanuts and you get monkeys. Bring back services to the UK. Saying that Sky are UK based and are a complete pile of crap, which reminds me I need a freebie of sky (as he reaches for the phone again!), "put me through to cancelations" always works and you get a freebie of some kind, could be time for a free sky+ box today ;)
If you're struggling developing software, then I'd recommend gardening.
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We do, fortunately, but they tend to all be smaller local companies. They value your custom a lot more and in many cases are run by people like you and I who still place value on customer service.
Ðavid Wulff What kind of music should programmers listen to?
Join the Code Project Last.fm group | dwulff
I'm so gangsta I eat cereal without the milk -
My joy for yourself knows no bounds! :)
I still remember having to write your own code in FORTRAN rather than be a cut and paste merchant being pampered by colour coded Intellisense - ahh proper programming - those were the days :)
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Thanks :-O I have that much free bandwidth, I'm thinking of knocking on my neighbour doors and asking them if they want cheap wireless.
If you're struggling developing software, then I'd recommend gardening.
Don't do that, just move a few doors away from me. You provide the broadband, my TT-rage will provide all the heating you need. I feel more like the Orange-Boiler suit guy in Heroes who turns radioactive when he gets angry and starts to boil water in the glass he is holding.
I still remember having to write your own code in FORTRAN rather than be a cut and paste merchant being pampered by colour coded Intellisense - ahh proper programming - those were the days :)
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Hmmmm thats interesting as my O2 account constantly gets spam messages - upto £50 a month and they wont do a thing about it. I think a phone call is in order. Dan
If they follow the same script they did with me first they'll claim you signed up with someone to recieve the spam. Only when you claim never to have sent anything to the text number involved will they tell you that to stop the spam you just need to send STOP to that number. Your claim to have had no contact with the spammer is now false and they'll breathe easier thinking they've cornered you. If you keep pushing them they'll tell you there's no way for them to determine who is the sender. This is of course irrelevent, it's who they are paying the money to that counts. When pressed on this they will claim they aren't paying the money but these mysterious people are taking it out of their account and they don't know who it is. I then pressed them on how someone could be raiding O2s accounts, somehow attaching the bill to my account and have neither a contract nor an audit trail with O2. Once they agree that this is what was happening (their own lies catching up with them I suspect) I put it to them that this is fraud, or at the least a breach of accounting regs, as they have no way to trace or justify the money going out of their own accounts. "Yes." said the woman on the phone, "I suppose it is," and from then on I had them. An O2 employee also eventually admitted that there is an illegal database used by these scammers which gets passed around from one fly-by-night company to another. Once you're on it you're toast and it's very difficult to get removed. When they finally gave me the number of the company supposedly recieving the money I called them up and was passed between 3 or four front companies with stupid names, central London telphone numbers and depressed sounding receptionists before finally reaching someone who agreed to remove me from their database and refund my money. That turned up as an anonymous postal order several weeks later. I hope you have things easier than I did.
Nothing is exactly what it seems but everything with seems can be unpicked.
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Don't do that, just move a few doors away from me. You provide the broadband, my TT-rage will provide all the heating you need. I feel more like the Orange-Boiler suit guy in Heroes who turns radioactive when he gets angry and starts to boil water in the glass he is holding.
I still remember having to write your own code in FORTRAN rather than be a cut and paste merchant being pampered by colour coded Intellisense - ahh proper programming - those were the days :)
:laugh::laugh::laugh: My Cisco wirless router transmits over 250km radius, I'll probably be able to reach you from here. Saying that I've noticed lesions on my skin, maybe it could transmitting a tad too much radiation:rolleyes:
If you're struggling developing software, then I'd recommend gardening.
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If they follow the same script they did with me first they'll claim you signed up with someone to recieve the spam. Only when you claim never to have sent anything to the text number involved will they tell you that to stop the spam you just need to send STOP to that number. Your claim to have had no contact with the spammer is now false and they'll breathe easier thinking they've cornered you. If you keep pushing them they'll tell you there's no way for them to determine who is the sender. This is of course irrelevent, it's who they are paying the money to that counts. When pressed on this they will claim they aren't paying the money but these mysterious people are taking it out of their account and they don't know who it is. I then pressed them on how someone could be raiding O2s accounts, somehow attaching the bill to my account and have neither a contract nor an audit trail with O2. Once they agree that this is what was happening (their own lies catching up with them I suspect) I put it to them that this is fraud, or at the least a breach of accounting regs, as they have no way to trace or justify the money going out of their own accounts. "Yes." said the woman on the phone, "I suppose it is," and from then on I had them. An O2 employee also eventually admitted that there is an illegal database used by these scammers which gets passed around from one fly-by-night company to another. Once you're on it you're toast and it's very difficult to get removed. When they finally gave me the number of the company supposedly recieving the money I called them up and was passed between 3 or four front companies with stupid names, central London telphone numbers and depressed sounding receptionists before finally reaching someone who agreed to remove me from their database and refund my money. That turned up as an anonymous postal order several weeks later. I hope you have things easier than I did.
Nothing is exactly what it seems but everything with seems can be unpicked.
Hey yeah just had all that - I told them to just cancel the contract - it would be nice to get the money back but I cant be bothered with the hassle. Yip thats the one text Stop - nope i decided against doing that. So if i contact O2 asking who has been taking my money they will be able to tell me? Thanks for the heads up Dan
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Having been relatively ok with standalone TalkTalk broadband on a BT rental line I decided to take the plunge and move everything to TT. Mistake. I had a problem with the line/wirless router (this has now been going on 3 weeks) and found myself in the labyrinth of ineptitude and misinformation known as TalkTalk Broadband customer services. I have been lied to, not been rung back when they said 3 times that they would, passed from pillar to post by 1st Level Morons, had a request to be passed through the system downright REFUSED by Idiot1 because I wouldn't give them the name of my wireless router (even though they have asked me everytime I ring so they can't even be @rsed to record that info) only to be told by Idiot2 just now that they don't even need those details........... The saga goes ... 10 ON 20 AND 30 GOTO 10 F ME! My colleagues either side of me are having even worse trouble than me with BT and Sky respectively - they can't even get through to someone to complain. TT are a total shambles and shouldn't be allowed to run a piece of string between 2 cans let alone a telecomms company.
I still remember having to write your own code in FORTRAN rather than be a cut and paste merchant being pampered by colour coded Intellisense - ahh proper programming - those were the days :)
They are available in my area, but checking withe friends who have TT I decided not to touch them, if it works then great, if it doesn't then you have had it you can be without a phone not only broadband for weeks. e.g. my BT phone line failed just before Christmas last year, I reported the fault at 09:00 an engineer was around at 15:00 to fix it, allegedly a wire had rusted at the main junction box on the road. That is quality the service I want. OK BT like all companies do have their issues but on the whole they are OK, in my experience.
"Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for - in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it." - Ellen Goodman