No connection for weeks

[Hoping123]

Lost phone line around 12th Dec, lost Internet 18th Dec. My whole road has no connection (6 houses). Talktalk keep promising Openreach will fix the fault "in 3 days". They said this on 14th Dec, 19th Dec, 28th Dec. Engineer due today - still nothing. Tried to register formal complaint and was given a ref no. which turns out to be the fault reference, so I think they did not register the complaint! Was promised updates by text - nothing at all forthcoming  Talktalk have not contacted me ONCE to keep me informed.  Flabbergasted by the appalling service. Have had to buy a dongle and Vodafone sim so my family could be online over Christmas- Talktalk won't commit to refunding this.

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Hi Hoping123,

I'm sorry for any inconvenience caused by this issue. The latest update on the Openreach fault ticket says that work is due to be carried out today. Have you heard from Openreach or seen any activity? Is your service still not working?

Chris

[ferguson]

OK, I understand your exasperation and of course any issues should be reported via your ISP. But at the end of the day TalkTalk and others are completely in thrall to Openreach. If you somehow persuaded the latter to move then good for you. 

[Hoping123]

Just to clarify - Openreach were expected to visit the street, not my individual house, so we were not able to know whether they had or hadn't turned up.

[Hoping123]

Hello Ferguson,

The whole street being down is, of course, not Talktalk's fault. You will find my issue with them in the first post:

"Tried to register formal complaint and was given a ref no. which turns out to be the fault reference, so I think they did not register the complaint! Was promised updates by text - nothing at all forthcoming  Talktalk have not contacted me ONCE to keep me informed."

I have spent hours on the phone, chat, and twitter to Talktalk and the process is like pullling teeth. They have made promises which they did not keep, and these are regarding updating me and registering a complaint.

The fault was due to Openreach, but the system is set up so  that you must contact your ISP, and are not supposed to contact Openreach directly (although ultimately this is what I did).

I can see no reason for any company to not o keep in touch, whether they know anything useful or not. If they have told me Openreach are expected on the 24th Dec (which they were) and that they would keep me updated, then I would expect to know by the 27th at the very latest (given the holidays) that Openreach failed to turn up and would expect to know what will happen next - not to simply be left in lurch.

[AllyM]

TalkTalk won't, as you say, supply or refund you for any alternative internet access during an outage, but you will likely qualify for some compensation due to the length of time you had no service.

If you're not already aware of the scheme, see here: About your auto compensation credit - TalkTalk Help & Support

Once an issue has been passed over to Openreach, I'm not sure that there is usually much ISPs are able to do to speed up the process, and will obviously only be able to pass on any updates that Openreach give to them. Presumably the other affected parties reported the fault to their respective ISPs? or are they all with TalkTalk?

I think most of the blame should be directed at Openreach. It would be very interesting to find out the exact cause of the fault as it does seem odd that they were unable to fix the problem in almost 3 weeks but suddenly got it resolved within 24 hours of you making contact with them.

[ferguson]

Glad to see it's sorted. Any idea what the issue was, or how a whole street being disconnected is down to TalkTalk? 

[Hoping123]

We have now been reconnected. In order for this to happen, I had to resort to contacting Openreach's Board of Directors over social media. They sprang into action and the whole street was back online in less than 24 hours. Talktalk did not help in any way, and I remain thoroughly unimpressed.

[KeithFrench]

Hi @Hoping123 

I have asked one of TalkTalk's support to pick your thread up and investigate it for you.

They aim to respond within 48 hours (Monday - Friday) excluding Bank Holidays, but if more urgent you can always try the Service Centre on 0345 172 0088. The posts are responded to in time/date order, oldest first. Please try to avoid posting on here until TalkTalk has responded to you, otherwise, this will just put you further down the queue.

To save yourself time, please make sure that your community profile includes your first & last names, broadband phone number & if possible an alternative contact number. This can be done by clicking on your Avatar picture then click on "My Settings" followed by:-

Personal Profile > Personal Information

Otherwise, TalkTalk will not be able to tie up your forum username to your broadband account. Only you & TalkTalk have visibility of your details.