How is this legal?

[averagejoe1989]

So I've been trying to escape the trap of TalkTalk's awful speeds and constant disconnects for about 4 years now. Unfortunately I've had to move house three times in that period, and apparently every time I do I have a choice of an early termination charge or restarting my contract from day 1 again. So essentially even though I've been a customer of theirs for half a decade, I'm stuck with a barely functional internet connection for another year because I've only lived *here* for six months.

Honestly it's disgusting. I don't want to pay the early termination fee on principle more than anything else, but I'm at the point now where I'm about ready to do it - despite the underhanded contract shenanigans and the fact they they *clearly* aren't upholding their half of the contract anyway.

Christ this makes me mad. If you're seeing this and aren't already a TalkTalk customer - run. Run while you still can.

[AllyM]

@averagejoe1989 ,

What do you mean that the line tests resulted in nothing? Do you mean that their tests didn't show up any faults?

Have you tried a different router to rule that out and/or connecting via the "test" socket (if your master socket has one) to rule out any internal wiring etc?

I would urge you again to consider letting the staff on here look into your issues.

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

Would you like us to look into your connection/speed for you?

Thanks

Michelle

[ferguson]

@averagejoe1989 

Hey, why not complete your community profile as previously mentioned and the support team here will be happy to look into any broadband performance issues you may have now. 

[averagejoe1989]

Haha, didn't realise I was talking to the TalkTalk fanclub when I came here to vent.

I've reported my issues to them. Multiple times in fact. In previous houses I was essentially told that my poor speeds were irrelevant and I was stuck with them. Where I live now, the speeds are a little better, but the service cuts out 2-3 times a day for like 20 minutes at a time which makes working from home exceptionally difficult. When I complained about this, I spent most of a day waiting for line tests which resulted in nothing but an offer for a useless wi-fi booster which wouldn't have fixed the issue.

If I was aware that accepting that £60 fee waive would lock me into another 18 month contract I never would have done so. That's on me I guess, but it wasn't made especially clear. And now I'm stuck with an ISP that isn't fit for service and I can't afford to leave. Defend that all you like but I call it pretty damn underhandeded.

[AllyM]

@averagejoe1989 ,

I'm not sure what you think is "underhanded" (I'm assuming you mean "underhand") about the contract. It's unfortunate you have had to move home so frequently but unless TalkTalk are the ones forcing you to move house, you are the one breaking the contract each time. Also, as @Gliwmaeden2 says, you should have been offered the option of paying a small fee to move as an alternative to taking out a new contract. Don't forget that TalkTalk will have to pay Openreach each time to provision your line at a new address, so they will obviously want to mitigate their losses to some extent.

As for your broadband issues, you have been very unlucky to be suffering problems on several different lines. The staff on here are usually very helpful so I would suggest you give them a chance to look into your issues before jumping ship. Remember that if the problem is with the Openreach line, going to another ISP who uses the same Openreach infrastructure may not necessarily immediately fix your problems.

As @Gliwmaeden2 says, as well as updating your details so that they can look into your account, it would be helpful if you could provide a bit more detail on exactly what problems you are having. For example:

Is your speed below your guaranteed minimum?

Is it slow on both WiFi and wired connections?

have you tried a different router to rule that out?

have you previously reported the fault to TalkTalk and if so what happened?

etc.

[Gliwmaeden2]

With each new contract you accept their Ts&Cs so it is legal. 

They do have a house move option which is charged at £60.00, if you don't take out a new contract, @averagejoe1989, so that might have been cheaper than a new contract with the danger of early termination fees. 

You have to have shown that you have reported faults and given Talktalk several weeks of fault tracking and effort to resolve problems for Talktalk to consider waiving the fees.

You have not previously posted about this on here, so it might be a good idea to complete your community forum profile details (via your avatar/name; settings; PERSONAL INFORMATION; SAVE CHANGES). Staff will be able to identify your account when they reach your thread (after the weekend).

You'll need to elaborate further on the precise nature of the faults etc.