Re: Anyone a satisfied TalkTalk Broadband customer in Perth & Kinross?

On Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:05:21 +0100, Mike Halmarack <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>Hi, I've been reading the TalkTalk forum to get some idea of the
>quality of their broadband service. As might be expected, some find
>the service more than satisfactory, others find it appalling. There
>does seem to be a dedicated and very active support team working on
>user's problems, often with a satisfactory outcome.

They are crap with a BIG C. Yes fine if you have forgotten how to turn
your PC on etc but if they have a network issue, billing issue,phone
issue it can take them days to fix the problem at their end and you
cant get hold of anyone while you are pulling your hair out.

Of course when everything is going fine they are fine, so is anyone!

Pay the extra and go with one of the smaller independents if you value
your sanity.




Stan

On Sun, 17 Aug 2008 16:59:26 +0100, Stan passed an empty day by writing:

> On Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:05:21 +0100, Mike Halmarack <(E-Mail Removed)>
> wrote:
>
>>Hi, I've been reading the TalkTalk forum to get some idea of the quality
>>of their broadband service. As might be expected, some find the service
>>more than satisfactory, others find it appalling. There does seem to be
>>a dedicated and very active support team working on user's problems,
>>often with a satisfactory outcome.
>
> They are crap with a BIG C. Yes fine if you have forgotten how to turn
> your PC on etc but if they have a network issue, billing issue,phone
> issue it can take them days to fix the problem at their end and you cant
> get hold of anyone while you are pulling your hair out.
>
> Of course when everything is going fine they are fine, so is anyone!
>
> Pay the extra and go with one of the smaller independents if you value
> your sanity.

Look, it would be easy to slate TalkTalk for their support on the basis
that if the fault is anything other than power on - update you anti-
virus, your stuffed.

Working a tech support environment I can honestly say that the majority
of calls I take come from people that are either too lazy to read the
documentation, too stupid to grasp basic concepts and thick enough to
think someone else is going to hold their hand and do it all for them.

As far as ISP support goes I don't recall the last time that I had a
network issue that was the responsibility of my ISP to fix. In fact, the
common old moans such as 'it's not as fast as I thought it would be', 'my
wireless won't work', 'I can't get it to sync' are usually all down to
end user issues that can be solved quickly if they take some effort and
stop expecting other people to do it for them.

TalkTalk provide an excellent product that is abused by a great many
stupid people who base their lives on cost. When it was launched to the
market the vast majority of the problems people had were because BT
Openreach were not prepared for how popular it would be. The construction
of their exchanges meant a great deal of physical jumpering and
rejumpering to provide lines and they could not keep up. It was not a
problem that could be resolved by adding more staff either. BT had to
adopt a fuckwitted way of wiring broadband up in exchanges because stupid
engineers strugle to read numbering schemes. The result is all ADSL ports
are physically in the same place running vertically. Adding more staff
fails because they all need to get to the same place at the same time -
thus they are tripping over each other.

The rush resulted in a big mess and the legacy of this is most large
telephone exchanges are now such a mess they are barely workable. The
blame for all of this is at the feet of BT who seemed to think nobody
would want a 'free' broadband service and it would go by unnoticed.
Classic 'head in the sand' 70's BT thinking. This means that TalkTalk
were at the mercy of BT. 7 days became 3 months. The TalkTalk call centre
went into melt down (funny when none of the people complaining had a
phone - yet they were able to find one to moan)

The crux of it is this. Technical support is not a hand holding service
for the feeble minded. It is not 'care in the community for inexperienced
computer users'. It is for fault support relating to the specific service
a company provides. If people stopped wasting the time of support when it
was not relevant it would leave more availability for those with a real
need. If people are struggling with the 'plug it in, run this disc' bit
of things then they should really go on a course to learn the basics
first.

How bad is it with TalkTalk users? Well, run a nmap port scan on a block
of IP addresses owned by TalkTalk and see just how many users have port
80 open, the router remote admin enabled and the default admin/admin
password. It is quite astounding.

You can't blame stupidity, lack of user knowledge and inability to read
on support services be they TalkTalk, DontTalkTalk, or any provider.
Modern answer - google it, old answer RTFM.

--
powered by Linux - bastardized by Window$ -
(E-Mail Removed)

My daughter has the TT broadband and phone they are happy with it.
My brother signed up yesterday for the same. It is going to take a full 3
weeks to start working. Why on earth are they taking so long?
This puts me off.
The low prices of these package deals will be attracting lots of new
customers to TT will this make thier service worse for all excisting
customers?

I'm tempted to change but the 18 month contract is a long time to suffer if
it does not live up to expectation.
Last question do TT have NG servers to allow posts here?
--
Regards,
David

Please reply to News Group

Klunk wrote:
> On Sun, 17 Aug 2008 16:59:26 +0100, Stan passed an empty day by writing:
>
>> On Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:05:21 +0100, Mike Halmarack <(E-Mail Removed)>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi, I've been reading the TalkTalk forum to get some idea of the quality
>>> of their broadband service. As might be expected, some find the service
>>> more than satisfactory, others find it appalling. There does seem to be
>>> a dedicated and very active support team working on user's problems,
>>> often with a satisfactory outcome.
>> They are crap with a BIG C. Yes fine if you have forgotten how to turn
>> your PC on etc but if they have a network issue, billing issue,phone
>> issue it can take them days to fix the problem at their end and you cant
>> get hold of anyone while you are pulling your hair out.
>>
>> Of course when everything is going fine they are fine, so is anyone!
>>
>> Pay the extra and go with one of the smaller independents if you value
>> your sanity.
>
> Look, it would be easy to slate TalkTalk for their support on the basis
> that if the fault is anything other than power on - update you anti-
> virus, your stuffed.
>
> Working a tech support environment I can honestly say that the majority
> of calls I take come from people that are either too lazy to read the
> documentation, too stupid to grasp basic concepts and thick enough to
> think someone else is going to hold their hand and do it all for them.
>
> As far as ISP support goes I don't recall the last time that I had a
> network issue that was the responsibility of my ISP to fix. In fact, the
> common old moans such as 'it's not as fast as I thought it would be', 'my
> wireless won't work', 'I can't get it to sync' are usually all down to
> end user issues that can be solved quickly if they take some effort and
> stop expecting other people to do it for them.
>
> TalkTalk provide an excellent product that is abused by a great many
> stupid people who base their lives on cost. When it was launched to the
> market the vast majority of the problems people had were because BT
> Openreach were not prepared for how popular it would be. The construction
> of their exchanges meant a great deal of physical jumpering and
> rejumpering to provide lines and they could not keep up. It was not a
> problem that could be resolved by adding more staff either. BT had to
> adopt a fuckwitted way of wiring broadband up in exchanges because stupid
> engineers strugle to read numbering schemes. The result is all ADSL ports
> are physically in the same place running vertically. Adding more staff
> fails because they all need to get to the same place at the same time -
> thus they are tripping over each other.
>
> The rush resulted in a big mess and the legacy of this is most large
> telephone exchanges are now such a mess they are barely workable. The
> blame for all of this is at the feet of BT who seemed to think nobody
> would want a 'free' broadband service and it would go by unnoticed.
> Classic 'head in the sand' 70's BT thinking. This means that TalkTalk
> were at the mercy of BT. 7 days became 3 months. The TalkTalk call centre
> went into melt down (funny when none of the people complaining had a
> phone - yet they were able to find one to moan)
>
> The crux of it is this. Technical support is not a hand holding service
> for the feeble minded. It is not 'care in the community for inexperienced
> computer users'. It is for fault support relating to the specific service
> a company provides. If people stopped wasting the time of support when it
> was not relevant it would leave more availability for those with a real
> need. If people are struggling with the 'plug it in, run this disc' bit
> of things then they should really go on a course to learn the basics
> first.
>
> How bad is it with TalkTalk users? Well, run a nmap port scan on a block
> of IP addresses owned by TalkTalk and see just how many users have port
> 80 open, the router remote admin enabled and the default admin/admin
> password. It is quite astounding.
>
> You can't blame stupidity, lack of user knowledge and inability to read
> on support services be they TalkTalk, DontTalkTalk, or any provider.
> Modern answer - google it, old answer RTFM.
>
TalkTalk are a complete nightmare. When things run OK for a while they
are fine. When their systems fall over they become a nightmare.
I have been harassed by them and their debt collectors with all sorts of
threats of calls by collectors with marked vehicles etc. I owe them
nothing but they ignore all incoming mail and just threaten again and
again and again. Letters for the personal attention of Charles Dunstone
are not even acknowledged.
CPW were a really good group but one that went seriously bad a few years
ago. Avoid at all cost.

On 17 Aug 2008 18:20:03 GMT, Klunk
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>On Sun, 17 Aug 2008 16:59:26 +0100, Stan passed an empty day by writing:
>
>> On Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:05:21 +0100, Mike Halmarack <(E-Mail Removed)>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>Hi, I've been reading the TalkTalk forum to get some idea of the quality
>>>of their broadband service. As might be expected, some find the service
>>>more than satisfactory, others find it appalling. There does seem to be
>>>a dedicated and very active support team working on user's problems,
>>>often with a satisfactory outcome.
>>
>> They are crap with a BIG C. Yes fine if you have forgotten how to turn
>> your PC on etc but if they have a network issue, billing issue,phone
>> issue it can take them days to fix the problem at their end and you cant
>> get hold of anyone while you are pulling your hair out.
>>
>> Of course when everything is going fine they are fine, so is anyone!
>>
>> Pay the extra and go with one of the smaller independents if you value
>> your sanity.
>
>Look, it would be easy to slate TalkTalk for their support on the basis
>that if the fault is anything other than power on - update you anti-
>virus, your stuffed.

That pretty much sums up just how useless they are yes.

>Working a tech support environment I can honestly say that the majority
>of calls I take come from people that are either too lazy to read the
>documentation, too stupid to grasp basic concepts and thick enough to
>think someone else is going to hold their hand and do it all for them.

The gripe is about the support team that are too stupid to distinguish
the two.

>As far as ISP support goes I don't recall the last time that I had a
>network issue that was the responsibility of my ISP to fix.

In Talk Talk case it has often proved impossible to report a network
fault without getting through to some zombie insisting you need tech
support. Even when they do eventually realise there is a network fault
they are amongst the slowest to get the issue resolved.

>TalkTalk provide an excellent product that is abused by a great many
>stupid people

Most of which are in their employ. Yes I quite agree.

>You can't blame stupidity, lack of user knowledge and inability to read
>on support services

You can if it's the provider who is clueless.

On Mon, 18 Aug 2008 00:15:23 +0100, Invisible Man
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Klunk wrote:
>> On Sun, 17 Aug 2008 16:59:26 +0100, Stan passed an empty day by writing:
>>
>>> On Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:05:21 +0100, Mike Halmarack <(E-Mail Removed)>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi, I've been reading the TalkTalk forum to get some idea of the quality
>>>> of their broadband service. As might be expected, some find the service
>>>> more than satisfactory, others find it appalling. There does seem to be
>>>> a dedicated and very active support team working on user's problems,
>>>> often with a satisfactory outcome.
>>> They are crap with a BIG C. Yes fine if you have forgotten how to turn
>>> your PC on etc but if they have a network issue, billing issue,phone
>>> issue it can take them days to fix the problem at their end and you cant
>>> get hold of anyone while you are pulling your hair out.
>>>
>>> Of course when everything is going fine they are fine, so is anyone!
>>>
>>> Pay the extra and go with one of the smaller independents if you value
>>> your sanity.
>>
>> Look, it would be easy to slate TalkTalk for their support on the basis
>> that if the fault is anything other than power on - update you anti-
>> virus, your stuffed.
>>
>> Working a tech support environment I can honestly say that the majority
>> of calls I take come from people that are either too lazy to read the
>> documentation, too stupid to grasp basic concepts and thick enough to
>> think someone else is going to hold their hand and do it all for them.
>>
>> As far as ISP support goes I don't recall the last time that I had a
>> network issue that was the responsibility of my ISP to fix. In fact, the
>> common old moans such as 'it's not as fast as I thought it would be', 'my
>> wireless won't work', 'I can't get it to sync' are usually all down to
>> end user issues that can be solved quickly if they take some effort and
>> stop expecting other people to do it for them.
>>
>> TalkTalk provide an excellent product that is abused by a great many
>> stupid people who base their lives on cost. When it was launched to the
>> market the vast majority of the problems people had were because BT
>> Openreach were not prepared for how popular it would be. The construction
>> of their exchanges meant a great deal of physical jumpering and
>> rejumpering to provide lines and they could not keep up. It was not a
>> problem that could be resolved by adding more staff either. BT had to
>> adopt a fuckwitted way of wiring broadband up in exchanges because stupid
>> engineers strugle to read numbering schemes. The result is all ADSL ports
>> are physically in the same place running vertically. Adding more staff
>> fails because they all need to get to the same place at the same time -
>> thus they are tripping over each other.
>>
>> The rush resulted in a big mess and the legacy of this is most large
>> telephone exchanges are now such a mess they are barely workable. The
>> blame for all of this is at the feet of BT who seemed to think nobody
>> would want a 'free' broadband service and it would go by unnoticed.
>> Classic 'head in the sand' 70's BT thinking. This means that TalkTalk
>> were at the mercy of BT. 7 days became 3 months. The TalkTalk call centre
>> went into melt down (funny when none of the people complaining had a
>> phone - yet they were able to find one to moan)
>>
>> The crux of it is this. Technical support is not a hand holding service
>> for the feeble minded. It is not 'care in the community for inexperienced
>> computer users'. It is for fault support relating to the specific service
>> a company provides. If people stopped wasting the time of support when it
>> was not relevant it would leave more availability for those with a real
>> need. If people are struggling with the 'plug it in, run this disc' bit
>> of things then they should really go on a course to learn the basics
>> first.
>>
>> How bad is it with TalkTalk users? Well, run a nmap port scan on a block
>> of IP addresses owned by TalkTalk and see just how many users have port
>> 80 open, the router remote admin enabled and the default admin/admin
>> password. It is quite astounding.
>>
>> You can't blame stupidity, lack of user knowledge and inability to read
>> on support services be they TalkTalk, DontTalkTalk, or any provider.
>> Modern answer - google it, old answer RTFM.
>>
>TalkTalk are a complete nightmare. When things run OK for a while they
>are fine. When their systems fall over they become a nightmare.
>I have been harassed by them and their debt collectors with all sorts of
>threats of calls by collectors with marked vehicles etc. I owe them
>nothing but they ignore all incoming mail and just threaten again and
>again and again. Letters for the personal attention of Charles Dunstone
>are not even acknowledged.
>CPW were a really good group but one that went seriously bad a few years
>ago. Avoid at all cost.

I am in the fortunate position I can tell TT to shove it and "up
yours" whilst being only 3 months in to my contract with them. They
cannot stop BT taking me back even though I apparently owe them money.
I can then go to another ISP at my leisure.

I shall of course be sending TT a bill for consequential damages as a
result of them failing to meet their contract. I shall of course be
happy to discuss this in court with them.

The joys of not having to worry about a credit rating and the
willingness to kick incompetence up the arse are a joy indeed.

So they cant even blackmail me like they do other victims.