Talk Talk – Waffle Waffle!

“Hello is that Mr. X, this is Talk Talk, we’re offering Free Broadband if you move your BT line over to a Talk Talk line.”

It’s a phone call that I had for most of 2009 and having heard much of the buzz about bad customer services for some years I declined their kind offer until in October 2009 in a desperate attempt to win me over ,they offered to wave the £29.99 connection charge.

I’ve been a domestic Talk Talk call customer for about 6 years on a rate that gave me a monthly cost of around £7.50 a month no matter how many UK and local calls I seemed to make!!! But I had left my line rental with BT, for whatever reason!!! Perhaps I should have continued to leave it there!

Anyway after doing the math and realising that I could save over £6.20 a month by combining the calls and line costs to Talk Talk over what I was previously paying and getting free Broadband as well and ensuring that my 1571 and Caller ID would be included for no extra cost, I bit the bullet and finally said Deal.

Are your guessing where this is going yet? The events to date:

• 30th October – order given to Talk Talk

• 3rd November – confirmation of order received, with change over date of 22nd November, with Broadband to be working as of 7th December

• 5th November – I tell BT to cancel my line – no charge as out of contract, arranged for 22nd November – no going back now!

• 22nd November – Talk Talk line taken over, no Caller ID  or 1571!

• 30th November after some 5 phone calls, 1571 finally working

• 4th December – after a further 6 phone calls, Caller ID is finally working

• 7th December – No Broadband modem/router, so no Broadband!

• 9th December – Broadband modem/router arrives, plug it in and run set-up, no Broadband service!

• 10th December – After 5 phone calls, told that, error with Broadband set up, new date will be 15th December!

• 15th December – Plug Broadband modem/router in, run set-up, no Broadband service!

• 17th December –  after 7/8 more calls, told that Broadband will be working on 22nd December!

So the saga continues, with still no clear understanding as to when I will get my Free Broadband.

• From a sales point of view, Talk Talk seemed to be a very slick organisation

• From a delivery point of view, one of the worst I have ever experienced

• From a service point of view, the worst I have ever had, with support agents lying, very unclear on what was wrong and with no clear understanding of what my issue was and in at least three case simply hanging up the phone in the middle of my call!!

What’s the lesson here? It seems that Talk Talk is as bad at delivery and service as I had heard. More fool me for falling for the offer and to cap it all , it now seems that the Free connection charge offer has also disappeared!

However, thanks goodness I have always had as second line at home with BT that I have only used for my business calls & broadband. Perhaps there is something that Talk Talk could learn from BT about better customer service and delivery!

The saga sadly continues!!!