TalkTalk: Is it worse than British Gas?

I've often considered running an award for the worst customer service. British Gas would obviously be a contender but my vote goes to TalkTalk.

I moved there last year for free broadband - but boy have I regretted it as I spend endless hours on the phone dealing with a call centre in India or, more often listening to Thunderclap Newman's Something in the Air. I now know every note and word of that song. I hear it in my sleep and hum it as I walk the streets. 

My call waiting service stopped working properly when I was 'upgraded' to 8 megabit broadband toward the end of last year. I finally gave up attempting to get it put right. Life is too short and they seem to be incapable of fixing it. 

The latest battle is getting calls to mobiles blocked to prevent my teenage son running up three-figure phone bills. You might think that this is fairly straightforward, but nothing is straightforward with TalkTalk.  I originally made the request on March 16 and was told it would take three to five days.

When my massive April bill arrived last week I discovered they had not been blocked. I called immediately and, after 40 minutes on the phone, was promised they would be blocked and offered a refund.  At the weekend I received a text saying the problem was solved. It wasn't. I called again on Monday and after 30 minutes on hold and being cut off twice I eventually spoke to a man who told me I simply needed to key in an activation code (the first I'd heard of it). He also said the call waiting would be fixed and promised to call at 8.15 on Tuesday morning. 

The call never came, when I used the activation code I received a helpful message saying I wasn't subscribed to the service. And neither my call waiting nor caller display work. So I've now taken a step backward.

I wasted a further 25 minutes on the problem this morning but somebody who identified herself as 'Anthea' promised the services would be set up in 'two to four hours'. That was at 10.35 am; I am highly sceptical.   I an now keeping a diary of the number of hours I spend on the phone trying to get TalkTalk to fix what should be straightforward problems.

What is most galling is the record message saying: 'We apologise for your continued wait. We will answer your call shortly.' They're not sorry at all. If they were they would do something about waiting times.  TalkTalk has the worst customer service I've ever experienced (and I'm a former NTL customer, so I know about poor customer service).

Perhaps you've experienced worse. Let me know.

- Tony Hazell, Money Mail

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Comments

[Bernard Coleslaw]

Tony

I don't have the joy of being a father to a teenager, bit even so, this bit left me a bit bemused:

"The latest battle is getting calls to mobiles blocked to prevent my teenage son running up three-figure phone bills... When my massive April bill arrived last week I discovered they had not been blocked."

Erm. Is it possible to ask your son to perhaps not use the home phone so much, or am I being unreasonable? OK, TalkTalk didn't do what you'd asked, but it seems a bit rich to be demanding refunds for calls that were genuinely made by a member of your household.

[Seamus McCauley]

I'd still give first prize to NTL/Telewest. Customer service so bad that ever since they took over Virgin Media their rebranding as Virgin has been designed to give us every impression that it was the other way around, presumably in the hope they could draw a line under their long-standing reputation for taking customers' money and giving them no Internet access in return.

[kevin pilgrim]

Virgin Media are also the same, why always blame British Gas? I can name at least 5 other companies which has even worse customer services. Virgin have not returned my calls and e mails and I was even considering upgrading my services , 2weeks still no reply. Why not ask the questionwho does offer excellent customer service?

[Simon - This is Money]

As a customer who started off with the Telewest half , I had found NTL:Telewest quite helpful - then the Virgin rebranding came, Sky disappeared and it took more than half an hour to get through. A threat of cancelling got more channels I won't watch, but it's clear their customer service has declined.
TalkTalk sound terrible. BT and BA also seem to be competing to destroy their customer relations fastest.
British Gas on the other hand take the prize for me thanks to being the only one of the above to threaten court action, disconnection, bailiffs etc. while still failing to send a correct bill - then maintain that was perfectly reasonable as 'letters are automated and should be ignored'.

[Miz B]

btw anyone who has gone to talktalk beware of the charge for the modem, if u have ur own existing one or router u dont have to pay for their connection fee as u wont be using their equipment !

[David Paul]

BEWARE OF CHOOSING CARPHONE WAREHOUSE talktalk,with so-called free broadband. Our recent experience has shown that the only area they seem to work at is marketing and extracting money for shoddy service,rather than providing a real improvement in their (very poor) service to customers. We were signed-up over the phone by a talktalk salesman who,without our agreement, took over our phone line. When we tried to protest and get talktalk managers to sort it out they were entirely unhelpful and we spent hours of wasted phone calls often to call centres in India to try to get things put right. But it got even worse. Talktalk got lawyers to persue the money that we didnt even owe them, for a service we hadn't asked for!
All I can say is we thought we had as bad a service as possible with NTL/Virgin, yet talktalk reached new and unpleasant depths. Our advice is STEER CLEAR OF CARPHONE WAREHOUSE and its talktalk service -they cannot be trusted.

[Mike B.]

OK there have been issues with talktalk but I am saving £40 a quarter on phone bills AND have free broadband which has worked from day one. What other company can beat that?

[Dan]

At David Paul - the talktalk bundle is one where you take out a home phone line rental and call package and they throw in the broadband. Why were you surprised when they then 'took over our phone line'? It sounds to me like they gave you exactly what you asked for, or did you really think that they were giving out free broadband for nothing?

[Eva]

Tony as I read your article on the 24th April my heart sunk as I had on the 17th 'placed' an order with TalkTalk (not the 'free' broadband as I am not in the right area) but I hoped my 'order' would run smoothly. I think I may have had a lucky escape reading the additional comments as my 'order' has fallen into a black hole. My existing BT phone number, given to me on moving here in May 2004, happened to be registered to a Mr W who also by coincidence had a TalkTalk account which was dormant. Because of this my order was 'cancelled' (I didn't know until this Sunday). I did know on the 18th April about this dormant account but was assured by billing that the account would be closed, I did ask for a phone confirmation when it had (no phone call). Ideally I wanted to speak to someone in the UK who was familiar with how BT works and reassign the phone numbers. The call centre in India told that 'I have given them the wrong postcode' for the phone number, and I should go into a BT shop and tell them the correct number. Now as everyone knows BT closed their shops a few years ago......I said that I would nou pursue my order to which I was told I was being put through to cancellations...how can one cancel something they have never had. So after beating my head against my phone I have decided to stay where I am with my dial-up, slow as it may be and make my calls in the evening for one hour for 5p. What does Mr Carphone Warehouse have to say, you can't speak to him 'as he is not customer facing'. I rest my case.

[Juno888]

But i think in your country broadband have list price than the other countries.. and also int eh making call to the telephone.... i wonder it.

[richard boyes]

I live in the same area as Tony Hazzel, and I find my experiences with TT has been acceptable, although the bills are about the same as BT were, but do receive "free" broadband as well.

I have always used the shop in St Albans where the staff are friendly and efficient, a competitvely priced sat nav was also bought at the shop and arrived within the 2 day delivery period.

A satisfied Talktalk customer, although I am not so keen on the additional messages added to the emails!

[Jenny]

I switched from BT to Talk Talk last Octonber. I am still waiting for ANY Broadband service whatsoever. They did eventually switch the phone line end Feb but it then got disconnected a month later. They still billed me via direct debit. 36 phone calls later they finally reconnected the phone line but failed ot connect broadband. My partner is a doctor and the local community are reliant on being able to get hold of him on-call - we have had a lnad line for 5 weeks out of the last 9 months. Before this we had had BT for 9 years with 1 fault for a few hours. Ofitel have been brillliant and have taken up my case for compensation. I advise anyone thinking of going to Talk Talk to see a doctor - there is something worng with you. For the 1 month we did have a phone line, we had to use a dial up network connection for our emails - as there was no broadband at all. Talk Talk charged us £36 per day for the priviledge and said it was our choice to use a dial up - despite having contracted with us to provide broadband. They have been so rude and we are beyond anger. The only person who was pleasant was an Indian in their call centre who apologised he had only been trained to say it was 10 to 15 days for connection times. It has been 9 months (and counting). We are told that if we stop the direct debit they will credit blacklist us. I seriously doubt that the product even exists.

[anon]

I understand everybody's frustrations. At our call centre based in South Africa, we have been trained to go the extra mile for customers. However their are other certain processes that are beyond our control, especially with broadband. There are times that i sincerely wished that I had the power to resolve our customers issues in full but as a call centre agent, many of our privileges to customers accounts are limited. I really do feel for them and I know that you have also been mistreated by some of my colleagues, I cant apologize enough on their behalf. nobody should ever be treated in such way. I can understand your frustrations and many of you are within your right when shouting at us. I really do hope that we will be able to improve our services.

[Tony Brown]

The worst service ever. I have been waiting for Broadband since March of this year. The biggest rub is that I live in a small village and campaigned for 5 years to get BT to upgrade the exchange so that we could get Broadband. On the day the exchange was activated I signed up for their Talk3 service only to be told a couple of weeks later sorry no free broadband for you as the exchange will never be local loop unbundled its too small. So you will have to pay an extra £10.00 a month for the service. Why wasn't I told about this when I originally signed up? You will find this information in a small font down about 5 submenus on their website. Rip off! Don't try getting any information that is true from them even the 'phone number given by Ofcom for customers who really kickup is not worth a light. All they will tell however many times you talk to them is either "your broadband will be connected in 24-48hours, or in 10 to 15 days. They all tell lies. And don't think about writing to their CEO he never responds to complaints. They should be run off of the streets!

[Ron]

My advice to any one is keep away from talk talk. I ordered broadband and telephone services in November 2006. I got my telephone connection within few days and swtiching over from BT wasn't that difficult. My broad band never came through. After endless telephone calls, evantually I got my broad band connection in March 2007. Well, the problem doent stop here.

From start my broadband wasn't working Ok and I ended up spending hours on the phone trying to fix it. Now talk talk are asking me to fix a new main socket from BT. I pointed to them my main socket was working well with all my previous broadband service providers, but this does not mean anything to them. I then connected to the main socket and broadband did work for few days.

Only few days. Now i do not have telephone dial tone or broad band for almost 10 days. Talk talk are kind enough to send me a text message every other day saying they are looking into my problem.

Help me. How can I get out of this 18 months contract. I need phone connection.

[G.J.Edwards]

100% satisfied with TalkTalk Free Broadband/Phone package (shall I say that again, 100% satisfied). Everything happened when they said it would, no delays, no anything (but then I don't live halfway up a mountain, miles from anywhere). The problem I have had is trying to extricate my service from BT, have you tried phoning them lately? Give it a try and then complain about TT's customer services. TT is a brilliant value for money service.

[Dennis]

Hi Tony,
Talk Talk is talking rubbish. I have the same problems with the customer service. I used to be their onetel hand phone user. After years as a loyalty customer, I had been turned down from upgrading my handset. I rang every year and the same old story. At one point i had been treated rudely by the customer service staff. Eventually i had enough and cancelled my phone. Only this time they become friendly and REALLY LISTEN to the problems. It was too late as I told them.
Few weeks ago, I received my last invoice and stated that my account was in credit and the company would refund the money to me. However it was a big joke. The company owed me £5.50 and my last usage was 20p. After deducting it, I should receive £5.30. Not in this case though. They considered that I had cancelled the direct debit and would charged me £2.50 non direct payment fees for the sake of 20p. I rang and had been put through from one to the other. I challenged and would report the company to the watch dog. At last they promised to cancelled the £2.50 charges and asked me to ring them in 2 days time. After 2 days I rang, the same process repeated again and It took a lot of effort and arguement untill yesterday the credited my bank account. ALAS! I felt the company is hopeless and the customer services from India is not helpful enough. Most of the time they dont see the problems and I wish more customer terminate their service, so that they can feel the pain. Otherwise they are just another BULLY.

[Elisabeth Thompson]

Hi there

I switched my business electricity account from British Gas to EDF on 21/11/06. All parties had the required amount of notice and a meter reading taken at close of business on 21/11/06. After several demands, threats of court action etc I finally managed to get British Gas to send me a bill reflecting my exact useage, which I settled immediately. At the close of the financial year I sent EDF an email giving my meter reading. I have heard nothing. I have therefore effectively not paid for any electricity for 7 months. I have now realised it is up to British Gas/EDF to hand over the account properly and that any amount of letter or email writing or phoning will make no difference. I estimate I owe EDF at least £3K but they can't open an account as British Gas are withholding permission? I am actually past caring.

[Julie]

I am with Talktalk and they are dreadful. They definitely deserve the Worst Customer Service Award of 2007. Don't whatever you do sign up with them. I am so mad I even avoid Carphone Warehouse which is also owned by the 'delightful' Charles Dunstone.

[Jim]

Hi,

After a blood pressure raising first couple of months (December/January) specifically with my Broadband router settings (the router install CD just threw up error messages) I have had no trouble at all and am 100% satisfied. The line was swapped on the given date and the Broadband went live on the given date. The speed is now higher than TT estimated (getting 5.7 MB) and I am very pleased. It is still the best deal on the market, yes it's capped but at a level that most people won't ever hit. For £9.99 a month I get broadband and ALL phone calls free including numerous international destinations. Who comes close?
No I don't work for Carphone Warehouse just think a truly good deal isn't showing up enough on price comparison websites and I include this site in that criticism.

[G F Dines]

What is the reason for the Mail trying to break Northern Rock,? they are no more to blame for this money crisis any more than all the other banks.
Yet you say get your money out because the rates they pay are dire, as against who?, which bank does not have some lousy paying accounts, their over 60 account pays 6.30% which you fail to show in best accounts,or mention
Is it because other banks advertise with the mail and N/rock doesent. Now other banks are selling N/R shares to keep the share price down, now you have helped to kill it, dont be like the rest of the hyenas, unless you to are looking to share in the spoils..

[Tom]

haha yeh talk talk im with them too, when i signed up the phone didn't come online the day it was supposed to apparently a fault on the line, which was subsequently fixed....

Then just for curiousity sake i tried to get online and i got online whoop. although they hadnt given me a password or anything anyway..

Then came the house move

yes sir your new phoneline will be online in 7 working days and then your broadband 30 days later...

1 month later they managed to get it on my phoneline started working the same day as my broadband..

so now although i get 8 meg my sagem modem turns itself off everynow and again so im using a btmodem and ive gone down to 5meg just because i dont want to spend 30mins listening it hold out the instigater because theres something in the air.....

[lee morgan]

I have read all the comments about talktalk, i have to agree there customer service is not great but to be honest i have been lucky and have mostly spoke to uk call centres. the phone service to date has been great and worth the money and all my services seem to work ok.
I will say at times the broadband is a little slow, but can i really moan when its a free service.
i would give them 7/10 for my services i have with them and 5/10 for customer service. in all value for money.
and as your guys are talking about bad services, i would say my worst expirience was with tiscali and toucan.

Hi Yes I do think talk talk broadband is worse than British Gas.

[Eddie Waring]

Read all previous blogs and now add another dimension. Sister joined TT when I confirmed my satisfaction with it. She bought new PC with TT broadband to commence at same time, but latter didn't work - continual loss of contact. PC installer said phone extension in bedroom was useless. 90 days free trial with TT broadband was coming to an end and alternative isp being considered. Sister went to Carphone Warehouse, confronted them about problems, and TT technician contacted her on same day. External BT line fault suspected and TT contacted BT who responded immediately. Line fault confirmed and new overhead cable fitted. Fault free service now in use - and the 90 days broadband free trial commenced from line renewal date! That's GOOD customer service!

[Mark Jones]

I am with TalkTalk having migrated from Zen. TalkTalk is much cheaper, but the broadband service basically does not work. I regularly have to reset the router/modem after losing the internet connection, often several times an evening. I was going to complain, but after reading this and other websites about TalkTalk that seems like throwing good money after bad. If defies belief that in this day and age a company can behave like this. It seems simply to be taking custumers money and simply not providing the service while threatening custumers who object. Quite frankly it seems crooked and it is absurd that the regulatory authorities allow them to get away with it.

[Ron B]

I went with TT and had a right load of old palava. The crazy thing is that unlike others I started off with BT voice and TT adsl. All was fine. Then TT came out with their bundle of free BB voice and LR.I went for this as good value. Well to cut a long story short, they cut off my ADSL (had been working fine for over a year) and supplied a very shoddy voice service. SEVEN months later I was still waiting to get BACK onto ADSL. No refunds were ever received, or offered. happily with Tiscali now, on a bundle TV,LR +BB (free installation and free wireless modem). I'm moving house soon tho.

[gary allen]

after leaving BT broadband after many happy years with them, i took the mistake at moving to TALK TALK.
so far the broadband drops out, the telephone been offline all day, and even when it works, you cant make calls outside the UK..
THE GOOD NEWS talk talk have a 30 day get out clauses, i have now gone back to BT at the end of the month(july)
but at a cost of £124.
avoid talk talk..the service maybe cheap,but with all thing cheap. you get a poor service..that include the customer service deptment in india.