This year sick of being charged over £60 a quarter by BT for my landline when my calls came to less than £5 a quarter & the rest was line rental & tax I was thinking of changing to another provider maybe with broadband too as I was paying £20 a month for dial up as well as my £60 -£80 a quarter to BT so when I was called by TalkTalk and offered broadband plus free night & day calls & line rental for £22 a month (just £2 a month more than I was paying for dial up) a result I thought, until I experienced the HELL TalkTalk & their customer (non) service was to put me through, read on!!
Let me inform you of My experience with TalkTalk since joining TalkTalk on May 21st 2010. I was cold called by a TalkTalk sales person, while fed up with high £60-£80 bills by BT, when I only spend £5 - £10 a quarter for calls on my landline & I was advised to swap to TalkTalk & to include a broadband package, rather than have my then present dial up by Eclipse & was told it would be a lot faster (after checking my line) so I agreed to move to TalkTalk, as the package was only £2 more than my Eclipse monthly bill alone & I was told they would liaise with BT & Eclipse, to inform them of the changes on my behalf, to save me time & effort, and I would be with TalkTalk from May 21st.
So I called customer services at 10am & was told my old PC was NOT compatible with TalkTalks broadband, I asked why the sales person didn't check I had a PC that was compatible for the package, before selling me it? I was told in a blaze, patronising, manner, "Oh they wouldn't do that, one would assume people used up to date PCs etc!" I said that I was desperate to get back online, as I was between jobs, an used my PC to do job searches & send off CV's and apply for auditions & I needed to be able to check any replies which could mean possible job interviews.
So on the hottest day of the year, I had a 2hr round trip by train to my nearest PC world in Hemel, to get the upgrade but nobody there knew what on earth I was talk talking about?? saying an upgrade to Windows 7 would cost me £97-£98 (I can't find piece of paper I wrote exact price on, at the moment)
So now both livid, hot and frustrated I spoke to TalkTalk customer services "Yet Again!!", I spoke to a nice American man, in America & I was told that, as dial up and broadband were different, I should still be able to use my dial up provider, or he could close down my account & open up a new TalkTalk account which was phone only, BUT I'd lose my present number, and be assigned a new one, which I didn't want, as I had an excellent memorable phone number plus a stack of printed CV's and business cards with my number printed on them & so said as the broadband was practically free in my package it was probably better to stick with present package, in case I got a laptop or similar in the future for my birthday (that was coming up soon) but said he could (as some form of compensation for situation) reduce my package by £2, because at the moment I couldn't make use of my broadband, I said that seemed fair and I'd contact Eclipse.
I contacted Eclipse & they said TalkTalk had NOT informed them of my change (like the sales girl said she would) & my Dial up was suspended the moment my BT line was disconnected, I asked if they could re connect me, via TalkTalk phone line, but they said their dial up was not compatible with TalkTalks phone line (after doing a line check) frustrated, and after being in floods of tears of frustration, on the phone to my friend, who called my mobile, I called TalkTalk customer services "Yet Again!!"
"Hi Is That Talk Talk????"
I was now yet again, talking to three another TalkTalk customer service people from a variety of country's who all seemed to accidentally (on purpose) cut me off when they seemed stumped at what needed to be done, so for the 4th time I dialed & spoke to a TalkTalk guy in India, so I went into the long lengthy story of what had happened so far, which I had to repeat several times, as his grasp of English was Very VERY poor.
He asked if I wanted to close my account?? I said even though after today's events I felt like going back to BT out of sheer frustration, I did NOT want to cancel, as I want to keep my TalkTalk phone-line, but I did want a solution to my problem.
He spoke to the tech dept & got back to me & said if I'd have bought the expensive Windows 7 upgrade, at PC World (like previous TalkTalk Customer Service woman had got me to do) it probably would of been too advanced to be compatible with my windows 98 PC anyway, but it would upgrade to Window Excel & that could be done for £10 - £20 from PC world.
He said if he could do that would I be happy to stay with TalkTalk then? & I said of course, I don't want to leave I just want the problem sorted!! & quick!!.... so he said he would credit my account with another £10 in case upgrade costs £20 & gave me the number 0870 087 0870 to call PC World on.
So tired, irritated and stressed I called 0870 087 0870 & when a voice greeted me with "Carphone Warehouse Mobile Phones how can I help?" I didn't know whether to laugh, scream or cry!!!...
So yet again I called TalkTalk Customer Services, this time I spoke to a woman in South Africa, by then it was 5pm & I had spent 5hrs on the phone talking to TalkTalk & 2hrs on a wasted journey to PC World (at TalkTalks customer services suggestion), yet again I went through the whole story, from beginning to end, she said on the screen of my account that I wanted to cancel my account, I said to remove that, as it was wrong, I did NOT wish to cancel, I'd discussed the possibilities of cancelling my account & opening a phone line only one, with an American chap, but we came to the conclusion it was not worth the trouble & best to keep present one.
I told her about my Trip to PC World & Call to PC World, that turned out to be the mobile phone dept of Carphone Warehouse!!... she was very apologetic about my stress & said she would talk to her supervisor for advice.
She got back to me and said she thought she had a solution that would work, that would also save me having to go through any more bother myself, she would see if she could send someone out from TalkTalk Tech team, to come out to upgrade my PC to Windows Excel for me, she said as it was now 5.30pm the UK office was shut and not answering the phone, but she said she would call them 1st thing tomorrow morning & call me back to let me know the outcome tomorrow, they would need to know my address etc for the appointment, but legally she couldn't give them that, but she would get them to call me for needed details, if I am happy with the response/outcome the following day (Tues 25th May) she took my mobile number & home number, then mentioned that she noticed we shared the same birthday June 20th and said she would call me the next day & I thought, at last someone doing something pro active who's taken my details to call me back on, for once I felt optimistic.
Later that night my friend Jeff , who had called me earlier (when I was in tears of sheer frustration) came round & he had bought me a Packard bell notepad, as a pre Birthday Prezzi to cheer me up, and to be able to check emails & apply for jobs online until TalkTalk sorted out my PC, he also gave me a 3 plug & play USB modem, in case I needed to use note pad away from home.
Just as well he did do that, as Tue 25th May Came & went & no promised call back from the Lady from TalkTalk happened..... by May 30th Still no word, very frustrating, annoying and down right unprofessional of TalkTalk, but thanks to Jeff, at least I could make use of my broadband now with my new notebook, and I had too much on interview wise, to hang on the line to Talk Talk customer services Yet Again for hrs at a time!!.
Then on the night of June 2nd (12 days after becoming connected to TalkTalk & 9 days after the TalkTalk woman had promised to get back to me) in the middle of sending off an important document I lost my TalkTalk Broadband connection, thank God I had my 3 plug & play USB modem, that Jeff had got me with notebook or I'd not have been able to save my work to drafts, or send it, I restarted the TalkTalk modem no joy.
I checked phone line & I had a line & thought as its 1am I will wait until office hrs to call customer services about problem tomorrow, 3rd June BUT when I went to call that morning, I now no longer had a phone-line either?????
I tried customer services on my mobile but my pay as you go £5 credit was eaten up before anyone answered, deeply upset by this never ending saga I tried to contact TalkTalk via email on talktalk.co.uk/help/welcome using my 3plug & play USB modem, but the 3 attempts I made would not send.....
My friend Jeff called by to see how I was & found me in tears of anger & frustration yet again, and let me use his mobile to call customer services, where I spoke to someone in India, I said that I had no Broadband or Phone-line & didn't know why?? & he said the line/broadband had been disconnected, I said why? as I have only been a customer 12 days & had not asked to close my account!! nor had there been any problem with my connection fee, as far as I am aware?? nor had I received notice by post, email or phone of any pending disconnection!!
He said he would try to sort it for me & apologised for the poor customer service I had received thus far, (it was way beyond poor at this point I'd say appalling!!) but before I got any answer he cut me off (accidentally or not I don't know)
My friend Jeff had to go to a business meeting so couldn't leave me his phone & I had a DHSS appointment in 15mins time, so had no time to call again anyway. only for me to have to go through the whole thing again, to yet another customer service person, anywhere in the world. As he had my details on screen before he'd cut me off, he should of called me back on my mobile, to continue to solve my dilemma!!! Customer services my arse!!.....
Frustrated I gave my "contact us" form one more go, which has finally 4th time lucky, sent to TalkTalk but on the 4th writing was a lot more brief in its explanation of the problem, than the other 3 had been !!...... I ended email with - please can you get my line & broadband up & running again I NEVER canceled it!!
(though I said I'd came close to, several times when answering online, the HOW DID WE DO customer services survey) F**king Badly That's How You Did!!
They replied
Dear Miss.Smith,
Please accept our apologies for the delay in responding to your email. We always aim to provide a high level of customer service *that's a joke* and will respond to emails as quickly as possible.
I can confirm after viewing your account that you did speak to our Options Team to cancel your contract. If you would like to re-join TalkTalk please contact our Sales Team on 0800 049 9999. For any further queries, please visit the TalkTalk Helpdesk for answers to common broadband and landline questions. Alternatively, you can contact us by telephone on 0870 444 1820. Calls to this number are free from your TalkTalk landline.
Kind regards,
Amraize Hussain,
TalkTalk Customer Relations.
Totally Pissed Off, I replied.......
Dear Amraize
Thanks for your reply but I did NOT ask for my contract to be canceled, I discussed the possibility of cancelling with one guy (one of many) when solutions were being offered to problems & we decided against it!! Again later when talking to someone else, they said it said on my details I wanted to cancel & YET AGAIN I said that was WRONG! & not the case & to remove that from my details, as it was discussed, but I'd opted against it!!
The last woman I was speaking to, who was going to get back to me, said she was going to sort my broadband problem & there was no talk of cancelling was involved. The cancellation was only mentioned once re broadband that I couldn't use NOT my land line & I was told as it came as a package the whole package would have to be cancelled & I said that I didn't want that, so I wanted to stick with package & work on a broadband solution.
NEVER did I confirm to cancel, in fact once, when I was told that a cancellation request, had been put on my account screen, I said for them to remove it, as it was incorrect & even if I did ask for account to be cancelled (which I didn't) like BT I would think TalkTalk would either, write or email me that a cancellation was going through, giving me a few days to change my mind should I wish to!!. which never happened...
Obviously having no TalkTalk land line now, that FREE phone number is of NO use, to my mobile, which ate my £5 credit phoning TalkTalk customer services yesterday, without even getting to speak to anyone!!... I guess I will have to try find a neighbour to let me use their land line phone.... And as I have no TalkTalk land line as YOU Cancelled it NOT at MY Request, so that number being free from it is of no use!!!
As I said before, one of your operators have wrongly put me down to cancel, Probably down to a language barrier, as I was told it was on my screen to cancel, (which I said to remove) the next time I went to customer services after talking to someone in India, who had very poor English & to who I had to repeat myself to over & over again to be understood, despite having no strong dialect accent (which he still didn't seem to fathom) and I told the next operator who said it was on there, that that was wrong & to remove it!!.....
You would think after all the messing about done to me, I would have customer services calling me on my mobile, to re connect me, as I did NOT ask for this, and you think you'd bee keen to keep a customer, your claim in email above re aiming to deliver a high level of customer service, is wide of the mark to say the very least.
JS
Somewhat long winded I admit, but it seems you have to spell out every nuance to these morons, or they misunderstand and screw things up!! Thankfully my friend in the corner shop let me use their landline, so I called TalkTalk & spoke to an Indian woman either in India or England, I think the latter as her English was good, so I sent Amraize another email
Dear Amraize,
Thankfully my neighbour was kind enough to let me use her phone I have asked to be reconnected, but would take 2-3weeks, my new ref number is NL10330467 I was told there would be a £69.99 connection fee & after talking to sales, she put me through to customer services who said as I NEVER requested to be disconnected in the 1st place they could remove that fee or refund if I find it on my bill, Sales also told me I'd lost my 01727 84 85 80 tel number as it went back to BT when I was disconnected, which I was very angry about as that was one of the main reasons I opted against disconnecting when discussed originally, she said once I got my new number, I could go to customer services to get my old one to replace it, I hope this info is correct, she also said she would contact me on my mobile in 1-2 days to try sort things I hope she is true to her word as last time the girl in SA who I spoke to last on May 24th said that she would call me back on May 25th to sort my PC problems out, BUT I never heard from her since & then I got the shock of a disconnected phone/broadband on 1st June which it seems is the Norm with TalkTalk customer services. They say they will do something & then they don't!!
His response.......
Dear Miss.Smith,
I can confirm all the previous correspondence sent to you from myself regarding the disconnection, are based on the notes on your account, however it is obvious you do want to be with TalkTalk and I sincerely hope we can regain your trust and give you better service than you have previously experienced. For any further queries, please visit the TalkTalk Helpdesk for answers to common broadband and landline questions. Alternatively, you can contact us by telephone on 0870 444 1820. Calls to this number are free from your TalkTalk landline.
CALLS TO THIS NUMBER ARE FREE FROM YOUR TALK TALK LAND LINE!!! was he trying to piss me off further? ..... I replied
Dear Amraize,
I last spoke to you, via email on the 3rd June Re me getting back in touch with TalkTalk via my neighbours phone & being given ref No NL10330467 to reconnect me to my Essentials package that I NEVER requested to be disconnected from in the 1st place (no matter which of the 10 customer service operators I spoke to on May 24th put that on my on screen info!!) last time I spoke to you I said the last lady customer services I spoke to, said she would put on my account that I would NOT be charged the £69.99 reconnection fee as I NEVER requested to be Disconnected in 1st place, it was discussed as an option re broadband non compatibility problems with my PC, but dismissed as not an option as I didn't want to lose my brilliantly easy to remember 01727 84 85 80 number, that's on all my printed up CV's and on all my work agency details etc, she also said she would endeavor to get me back my original number, as it was due to a TalkTalks operator's mistake, that I had lost it, and would call me back on my mobile in 1-2 days to confirm that that info was on my on screen info for ref NL10330567 as it takes 24hrs to be logged in system.
You may be surprised to hear (I'm Not) that she didn't call me back on my mobile after 1-2 days in fact 10 days later she still hasn't (despite me asking her to promise to several times, after saying to her, that so far EVERY TalkTalk customer service person who'd promised to call me back on my mobile/home phone, the next day, after hearing all past customer service people, who promised this before, NEVER had)
Today I waited in for the engineer to come in & connect line etc as today is my "new" go live day, he was confused by TalkTalks instructions to connect the line, but give no dial tone, as that's normally for work premises that want broadband but no telephone number, which is not the case, as I want to be reconnected to my same essentials phone & broadband package which I was wrongly disconnected from in the 1st place!!..... he said he also had no number assigned for my phone, which he also thought odd, but after hearing my experiences with TalkTalk Thus far, he said maybe it was because TalkTalk intended to reconnect my old number to my line (I wish I had as much optimism re TalkTalks actions as he has) maybe he thought that was why he was asked to give me no dial tone at the mo & as of yet no live broadband (though he said it may take 1hr to come through)
So maybe you can enlighten me as to what exactly is going on & why was he informed NOT to give me a dialing tone etc??? you say in last email about hopefully me regaining trust in TalkTalk, I'm not feeling it Thus far!!.....
JS
He never replied to my last email but 2 days later my phone line & broadband came back on, but I did NOT get my old number & was given a less memorable one (typical) I thought that was the end of the HELL, TalkTalk put me through ..... but no oh no it gets much worse, much worse, as you will see, suffice to say every time I hear the TalkTalk "Neon Rainbow" song, I want to punch the TV screen.
July 28th the Horror of TalkTalk continued when I went to my ATM to take out cash, to pay for travel to London to Party with my 90's Pop sensation friend Anthony Kavanah & My friend Linda on the 29th & my Gay Pals Housewarming on the 30th, only to find instead of being a few £100 in credit I was in fact £150+ overdrawn (I have never been overdrawn in my life!!)
It turns out despite TalkTalk promising that I would not be charged the £69.99 reconnection fee (as I never requested them to disconnect me in the 1st place!!) They took £80 from my account instead on June 10th for reconnection etc, meaning when a few small direct debits came out, unbeknown to me I went overdrawn & was charged, for an unauthorised overdraft plus £5 a day, by my bank for each day, for weeks that I was unknowingly overdrawn until July 28th (I was keeping check of my bank finances on a pad as my bank had changed from Alliance & Leicester to Santander & so at present as things were changing over I could no longer check online my statement, as old online codes no longer work, so I was going by what should of been in my account, going by known direct debits & my own deposits or direct debits & online purchases for shopping from Asda, without the £80 being wrongly removed!!)
I was fuming & Called TalkTalk Customer Services (being cut off several times part way through my conversation "as usual" & having to re go over it again & again to different nations) I was told they could not transfer the money WRONGLY taken from my account, back into my account!! (why couldn't they transfer it back?? they had no problem removing it, when it wasn't theirs to remove!!) but they would credit my account the amount!! HOW F*#KING KIND OF THEM !!!....NOT!!!
That did sod all to help clear my overdraft they bloody caused!!! Which caused me £100's in bank charges!!! So that meant I had to miss two party's in London, (my friends would offer me the cash for travel but they couldn't get to me to give me it & I now had minus ££ in my bank) so until my next lot of £££ cleared in my bank I had bugger all £££ for food, let alone travel fares.
SO TO SUM UP!!.........I ABSOLUTELY HATE TALKTALK, I RECOMMEND THAT IF ANY OF YOU READING THIS BLOG ARE THINKING OF CHANGING TO TALKTALK, FOR GOD'S SAKE DON'T!! THEY ARE A BUNCH OF UNPROFESSIONAL COWBOY!!!
I am stuck with them now, for at least a year as I can't go through all the hassle of looking to go elsewhere & the cock ups & wrong charges I'd get from TalkTalk if I did!!
BTW if anyone is wondering, TalkTalk NEVER did sort out my PC problem & in the end I got my PC upgraded myself to Windows Excel thanks to help from my friend Richard (if TalkTalk ever promise to call you back or fix a problem, don't hold your breath waiting, as you will be a long time 6ft under before that phone rings & then it will be a cold caller selling something, NOT TalkTalk customer services..... Though it might be their sales team trying to flog you an extra package!!)
On Tues 28th Sept I was acting in an advert and a woman who was an extra was cussing TalkTalk & telling everyone the Hell they have been putting her through for months, due to their mistakes not hers, also costing her £100's in bank charges through no fault of her own, also again taking money they were NOT due!! so its not just me!!
Then in October I was watching Watchdog on BBC1 & they had been inundated with complaints about TalkTalk (which doesn't surprise me) I have NEVER come across such an incompetent company with such appalling customer service in my life!!
UPDATE: July 12th 2012....I have left TalkTalk now that my years package is well & truly up (THANK GOD!!!) & I'm now with Orange! I can now breathe a sigh of relief & pick up my home phone when it rings, without worrying if it is a TalkTalk sales team member trying to flog me something (They use to hound me 3-12 times a week with sales calls!!) If I didn't respond to the deal you offered via email, or by flyers in my monthly bill, by post, I'M NOT GOING TO RESPOND TO IT, BY YOU SALES TEAM, AS I OBVIOUSLY DON'T F**KING WANT IT!!!!!!!....... Goodbye TalkTalk & good riddance!
