Don't Leave TalkTalk Broadband Offer

I'm with Tiscali, now taken over by TalkTalk.

The only broadband equipment in my local exchange belongs to BT and is
rented by other ISPs. My line speed is 2.5Mbps.

TalkTalk recently wrote to me to say they were changing me from my unlimited
download Tiscali package to a 40GB download TalkTalk package. The package
cost quoted was high at £28.23/month due to the passing on of the BT
equipment rental charge.

I discovered I could get a Special Offer BT broadband + Anytime Calls
package cheaper at £27.53, including line rental on a 18 month contract, so
I obtained a MAC code and signed up with BT a few days ago. The BT service
goes live on 15 July.

The only downside to the BT package is the 10GB/month download limit,
although as I'm not a heavy internet user, that will probably be enough.

I thought everything was sorted, but suddenly TalkTalk have discovered they
can make me a much better offer. They are now offering 40GB download/month,
a new line, 4.6Mbps and Anytime Calls. The cost is a one-off charge of
£69.99 for the new line, plus £22.48/month (including line rental) for the
package on a 24 month contract.

Now I don't know which way to jump! I'm naturally suspicious of companies
'suddenly discovering' a special price once they realise you are leaving
them. I'm also not totally convinced on the new line and 4.6Mbps becoming a
reality.

Has anyone else experienced one of these offers from TalkTalk's 'Don't Let
Them Leave' department?

Any advice?

Thanks,
--
Razoo

On 09/07/2010 11:50, Razoo wrote:
> I'm with Tiscali, now taken over by TalkTalk.
>
> The only broadband equipment in my local exchange belongs to BT and is
> rented by other ISPs. My line speed is 2.5Mbps.
>
> TalkTalk recently wrote to me to say they were changing me from my unlimited
> download Tiscali package to a 40GB download TalkTalk package. The package
> cost quoted was high at £28.23/month due to the passing on of the BT
> equipment rental charge.
>
> I discovered I could get a Special Offer BT broadband + Anytime Calls
> package cheaper at £27.53, including line rental on a 18 month contract, so
> I obtained a MAC code and signed up with BT a few days ago. The BT service
> goes live on 15 July.
>
> The only downside to the BT package is the 10GB/month download limit,
> although as I'm not a heavy internet user, that will probably be enough.
>
> I thought everything was sorted, but suddenly TalkTalk have discovered they
> can make me a much better offer. They are now offering 40GB download/month,
> a new line, 4.6Mbps and Anytime Calls. The cost is a one-off charge of
> £69.99 for the new line, plus £22.48/month (including line rental) for the
> package on a 24 month contract.
>
> Now I don't know which way to jump! I'm naturally suspicious of companies
> 'suddenly discovering' a special price once they realise you are leaving
> them. I'm also not totally convinced on the new line and 4.6Mbps becoming a
> reality.
>
> Has anyone else experienced one of these offers from TalkTalk's 'Don't Let
> Them Leave' department?
>
> Any advice?
>
> Thanks,

Nearly, if not all ISPs have a "retentions" section, which will come up
with some very tasty offers, which aren't available to existing or new
customers, when a customer threatens to leave.
It's all down to you, really.

Ask yourself if you really want to put all your eggs in one basket.
Also, who do you trust more to give you a good service?

Personally, I prefer to leave my phone service with BT but to move ISPs
if/whenever I want/need to.

YMMV

George

George Weston <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Ask yourself if you really want to put all your eggs in one basket.
> Also, who do you trust more to give you a good service?

And furthermore, do you trust them to continue providing a good service for
the duration of the contract? 24 months is a long time.

(For example, you might wish to consider other factors like the price of
phone calls which is rarely mentioned in these line rental+broadband
offers)

Theo

"Razoo" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:i16utg$8nu$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I'm with Tiscali, now taken over by TalkTalk.
>
> The only broadband equipment in my local exchange belongs to BT and
> is rented by other ISPs. My line speed is 2.5Mbps.
>
> TalkTalk recently wrote to me to say they were changing me from my
> unlimited download Tiscali package to a 40GB download TalkTalk
> package. The package cost quoted was high at £28.23/month due to
> the passing on of the BT equipment rental charge.

What equipment? Do you mean line rental? I'm on the TT essentials
broadband which is about £18 a month and that includes line rental,
plus off peak calls, local calls 24/7 and 40GB download. I think
anytime calls is £4 extra. So don't know where the £28 comes from.

> I discovered I could get a Special Offer BT broadband + Anytime
> Calls package cheaper at £27.53, including line rental on a 18 month
> contract, so I obtained a MAC code and signed up with BT a few days
> ago. The BT service goes live on 15 July.
>
> The only downside to the BT package is the 10GB/month download
> limit, although as I'm not a heavy internet user, that will probably
> be enough.
>
> I thought everything was sorted, but suddenly TalkTalk have
> discovered they can make me a much better offer. They are now
> offering 40GB download/month, a new line, 4.6Mbps and Anytime Calls.
> The cost is a one-off charge of £69.99 for the new line, plus
> £22.48/month (including line rental) for the package on a 24 month
> contract.
>
> Now I don't know which way to jump! I'm naturally suspicious of
> companies 'suddenly discovering' a special price once they realise
> you are leaving them. I'm also not totally convinced on the new line
> and 4.6Mbps becoming a reality.

That's not a special price - it's their normal price (though don't
know about the one-off charge).

> Has anyone else experienced one of these offers from TalkTalk's
> 'Don't Let Them Leave' department?

Well when they phoned me up to renew they wanted to sign me up for
another 18 months but on just hesitating a bit, they reduced it to 12
months and gave me half price for the next 2 months.

--
Andy

uhnuhntiss wrote:
>
>> Personally, I prefer to leave my phone service with BT but to
>> move ISPs if/whenever I want/need to.

I don't have much of a choice of ISPs on my local exchange; just BT or
TalkTalk.

Up until this offer from TalkTalk, BT was the cheapest.

--
Razoo

Andy Pandy wrote:
>
> What equipment? Do you mean line rental?

No. All the prices I have been quoted include line rental.

There is an additional rental charge for exchanges where TalkTalk do not
have any of their own equipment installed. This started off at £15 per
month, and it is to cover the cost of renting the BT broadband equipment.

> I'm on the TT essentials broadband which is about £18 a month
> and that includes line rental, plus off peak calls, local calls 24/7
> and 40GB download. I think anytime calls is £4 extra.

The package I've been offered is basically TalkTalk Essentials with Anytime
Calls.

> So don't know where the £28 comes from.

The price has been increased by the additional charge for renting the BT
equipment.

>> I thought everything was sorted, but suddenly TalkTalk have discovered
>> they can make me a much better offer. They are now offering 40GB
>> download/month, a new line, 4.6Mbps and Anytime
>> Calls. The cost is a one-off charge of £69.99 for the new line, plus
>> £22.48/month (including line rental) for the package on a 24 month
>> contract.
>
> That's not a special price - it's their normal price (though don't know
> about the one-off charge).

It's special for me because the additional charge for renting the BT
equipment has been greatly reduced.

My local exchange only has something like 1,600 subscribers, so no ISP is
particularly interested in installing their own broadband equipment. I only
have a choice of BT or TalkTalk.

--
Razoo

I wrote:
>
> There is an additional rental charge for exchanges where TalkTalk
> do not have any of their own equipment installed. This started off
> at £15 per month, and it is to cover the cost of renting the BT
> broadband equipment.

TalkTalk refer to this additional charge as 'chargeable capacity'.

--
Razoo

On Fri, 9 Jul 2010 15:47:05 +0100, Razoo wrote:

>My local exchange only has something like 1,600 subscribers, so no ISP is
>particularly interested in installing their own broadband equipment. I only
>have a choice of BT or TalkTalk.

You have a choice of loads of ISPs who use the BT equipment. I think
it's only BE who only take customers on their equipment. Have a look at
other ISPs such as Plusnet http://www.plus.net/ but read the small
print because they highlight the prices where they have equipment in
the exchange and that's about œ6.50 cheaper than what they will charge
you.

Also look into the cost of getting out of the BT offer. I'm on a small
exchange with no LLU operators and am with AAISP but I know others who
are on Plusnet, Sky and Supanet. Even Virgin will do broadband for you
over the BT equipment.

--
Regards - Rodney Pont
The from address exists but is mostly dumped,
please send any emails to the address below
e-mail rpont (at) gmail (dot) com

On 09/07/2010 15:32, Razoo wrote:
> uhnuhntiss wrote:
>>
>>> Personally, I prefer to leave my phone service with BT but to
>>> move ISPs if/whenever I want/need to.
>
> I don't have much of a choice of ISPs on my local exchange; just BT or
> TalkTalk.
>
> Up until this offer from TalkTalk, BT was the cheapest.
>
Wrong!
If you can get broadband on your telephone line, you can have it from
any supplier who offers an "up to 8 Meg" ADSL Max service, using BT's
lines and exchange equipment.
Similarly, you can get your phone service from any firm that offers it -
and it doesn't have to be the same firm that supplies your broadband.
Yes, whoever you choose will use BT's equipment but there is a range of
suppliers and tariffs available that you can choose from.

George

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>,
George Weston <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>On 09/07/2010 15:32, Razoo wrote:
>> uhnuhntiss wrote:
>>>
>>>> Personally, I prefer to leave my phone service with BT but to
>>>> move ISPs if/whenever I want/need to.
>>
>> I don't have much of a choice of ISPs on my local exchange; just BT or
>> TalkTalk.
>>
>> Up until this offer from TalkTalk, BT was the cheapest.
>>
>Wrong!
>If you can get broadband on your telephone line, you can have it from
>any supplier who offers an "up to 8 Meg" ADSL Max service, using BT's
>lines and exchange equipment.
>Similarly, you can get your phone service from any firm that offers it -
>and it doesn't have to be the same firm that supplies your broadband.
>Yes, whoever you choose will use BT's equipment but there is a range of
>suppliers and tariffs available that you can choose from.

Absolutely - so don't let anyone, especially BT pull that one on
you. You have a choice of well over 100 ISPs who use the BT Wholesale
infrastructure - and BT Retail is just another one of those 100+ ISPs.

Similarly for your phone service - you have a large choice, and again,
BT Retails is just one of dozens of telephone service providers who use
the BT Wholesale network.

I used to think that going with BT for my phone line was a good idea,
but now I know they're no better than any others and when there's a
fault you'll need to pay for it, no matter who you're with.

Gordon