When BroadBand goes wrong.
A year or so ago I swapped over our phone line and broadband into one package with talktalk. Aside from some initial setup issues and very very long call on hold waiting times the service was good, well it was good for a number of reasons. It cut our phone bill + broadband bill down by more than half. For this I was more than happy to tolerate a few phone calls and dropped internet.

About 14 months into our contract we started having sales calls asking us to renew our contract. Repeatedly they would call, but due to all the new competition I didn't wasn't to sign away another 12 months, especially when they admitted we were currently on a 30 day rolling contract.

This happened a few times more. Me becoming more and more blunt with the sales monkeys each time but sure enough every few weeks there would be the familiar patter of a sales agent trying their best.

Then silence, figuring they had got the message one morning in the post arrived a box marked talktalk. Odd this, what can this mean?

Opening the box reveals a shiny new router, set up discs etc etc. With a welcome letter thanking us for signing up for 12 months service. Arrrrggggggggggggggggg... lying cheating barstewards!

Brilliant, how am I going to explain this to customer bumders in Bangalore. First call, no success, ask politly to be passed on to some one higher up, no help, so next level, finally call routed back to the UK - Start to get somewhere... but not far so I request a call back. Big mistake my amateurish complaining mode is fully on, as we all know no one will ever call you back, girls, your mum or even my mum.

Days of going through the same routine pass, right.. new tactic, as each time there was no log of the issue and no one could grasp the fact we had been fraudulently signed to a contract. So I call the cancellations department, its amazing how good these guys are, and what they can suddenly do. So long and short of it is get the original rolling 30 days back, get all sorts thrown in for free with a reduction in there too. Get to keep the shiny new modem, and all is sweet.

Except it wasn't, I don't often check the online billing system, as besides a few calls to mobiles all the calls are free, so it sticks to the 25 to 30 quid a month direct debit. Only three months later there was a debit of 90 odd pounds, odd thinks I. Joy, back on the phone I find out why, they have changed our package, and although better doesn't include the international section nor daytime calls, the old package wasn't available as SIR you changed it 3 months ago!

Twunting heck, so I go through the whole rigmarole again to get refunds, add ons for free to include the anytime free calls etc etc...

Apology, I wish, it was like they were doing me a favour, I wish I had thought about writing to them regarding the legal nature of signing binding contracts and changing service status without the owners/users consent.

Still, it's generally quite cheap.
(feedingtimeatthezoo day 1 of his bikini diet started, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 17:40, 4 replies)

talktalk = wankwank
Funnily enough, I've had similar experience, except that I've managed to keep my rolling contract status. We started to enquire about wireless last Nov or so (we're very slow in the sub-Arctic wilds of Fife) and were told that we'd get a free router if we signed up. Except that the router was out of stock - however, if we went and bought one, we'd be refunded the cost (seventy quid or so). Even told us which one to buy and who had it in stock.

You guessed it - bought the router, never got a penny. Didn't even come off the bill. I have checked from time to time to remind them to send us the cash and have found we're still on a 30-day contract - in fact, going to do that again tonight, just to make sure.

Their customer services are, as you say, rubbish. The only reason we're still here is because, as you say, it's cheap, works reasonably well and because we're too lazy to find a decent alternative. I try very hard to be nice to people who work in call centres for fuck all but I have found their staff to be incredibly rude in the past, with no real form of redress.
(zebideedoodah likes florence but prefers venice, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 18:38, closed)

I found...
that the offshore call centers the people you initially spoke to were polite, but generally couldn't do very much, so would put you onto 2nd line support etc etc. But it was the jumped up English call center staff that were the worst especially when you went up the command line (read promoted phone monkey now with a power complex). On one occasion I was accused of lying! Actually accused of lying when I was asking for help!

We are still on the 30 day rolling though... I made sure of that!
(feedingtimeatthezoo day 1 of his bikini diet started, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 19:54, closed)

Totally agree...
...but it's inevitably frustrating when the person you're talking to doesn't have the same frame of reference as you. I was once dragged through the call system several times and got very shirty with some twat (I use the word deliberately) who treated me like a textbook case ("Did you use foul language at me sir?", "I have to warn you that if you speak to me like that again I am compelled to hang up on you" etc etc) I just wished him good luck in his life and career of undoubted mediocrity and hung up.
(zebideedoodah likes florence but prefers venice, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 21:44, closed)

and by that I meant the English staff...

(zebideedoodah likes florence but prefers venice, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 21:47, closed)