Unresolved adsl broadband fault

[Neilson75]

Today, following me noticing our broadband dropping out intermittently and using the service desk fault finder,  Talktalk identified an intermittent fault between the exchange and my house. They duly sent out an openreach engineer to fix it and at about 4pm I got a text from them to say it was fixed. However, the broadband has now permanently dropped out, with the Talktalk hub showing an orange flashing light continuously. I then spend a happy 2 1/2 hours tonight on the online chat trying to explain this, but instead being taken through the internal fault finding checklist (check master socket, reboot router, change cables etc) all of which changed nothing, whilst getting increasingly concerned as the service agent denied the existence of the original fault as "it wasn't on the system". Eventually the service agent agreed to send out another engineer to the house and agreed not to charge me for it. However, this will not happen for another 10 days and it's pretty clear the first engineer caused the issue, so the issue is outside the house. Is there a sensible way to resolve this and get Talktalk to get the Openreach engineer back out to check what was done today and save everybody wasting their time?

[Chris-TalkTalk]

OK thanks Neil 🙂

[Neilson75]

@Chris-TalkTalk Will do - Openreach is still working on it this morning. Thanks for the test router, which will be on its way back to you later today.

Neil

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Hi Neilson75,

Thanks for the update, just let us know if you continue to experience problems

Chris

[Neilson75]

@Chris-TalkTalk So, it seems that this isn't over yet. Got a message from Talktalk at the end of last week, after everything was "resolved" to say they had found another fault on the line and were sending an engineer out. Had an Openreach engineer call and then visit on Sunday as the fault could not be found and he wanted to test the line end to end again. He phoned back later that day to say there was a fault at the exchange in addition to the line fault, and the latter couldn't be sorted until the exchange fault was fixed. Had messages from Talktalk in the last few minutes to say the fault(s) have been resolved, just as the broadband connection disappeared. It's now back on again, but for how long I don't know. Sounds very much the Talktalk system has jumped the gun before the fault is actually fixed. Watch this space!

[Chris-TalkTalk]

OK Neil, please let us know how you get on

Chris

[ferguson]

@Neilson75 They won't. But ask them if you are eligible for the Digital Voice trial. 

[Neilson75]

@Chris-TalkTalk  I'll give it a go, though having now found details of the Fibre 150 option I don't think TT will bundle a (copper) landline with FTTP.

Thanks again.

Neil

[Chris-TalkTalk]

If FTTP is available to your neighbour then it probably is worth speaking to our Future Fibre support team, they should be able to tell you if it is available and you can then decide if you'd like to go ahead with the upgrade

Chris

[Neilson75]

@Chris-TalkTalk Thanks Chris. I know it's available as our neighbour's have it (FTTP from Talktalk), and they are fed from the same pole as us. TBH the last time I tried to take another Talktalk product as an existing customer it was a disaster, with everyone insisting we were transferring from another provider so I cancelled it just to preserve the service (and telephone number) we already had. With the notable exception of this community, I have no faith in Talktalk's ability not to mess it up.

None of this is directed at you, and I'm grateful for your's (and Debbie's and Michelle's) help over the last week.

Neil

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Hi Neil,

Yes you're looking in the right place so if it isn't showing it probably isn't available. You could try speaking to our Future fibre support team, they should be able to confirm this

Chris

[Neilson75]

@Chris-TalkTalk Thanks for the link to the auto-compensation info. I won't be spending it all at once!

The only thing which I can see in MyAccount (offers & upgrades) is one to renew our existing "Fast Broadband" package. Nothing about FTTP. Am I looking in the right place?

Neil

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Hi Neil,

Glad to hear that your service is up and running again. Please also see our auto compensation help article

Regarding FTTP is it showing as available in My Account?

Chris

[Neilson75]

@Chris-TalkTalk @Michelle-TalkTalk Just to update you - the Openreach engineer arrived this morning and found no incoming broadband signal at the master socket. He then went away to do some checks and phoned from the Ash Exchange to say we'd been unplugged there (presumably by the first Openreach engineer last Thursday). He has no idea why this was done. He's reconnected us, and our broadband is back on.

A couple of supplementary questions:

What's our position with compensation for loss of service given that we were without broadband for a week?

Secondly, does Talktalk offer an FTTP broadband service (we have have fibre on the pole which serves our house) together with a copper landline service? I can't tell from the various "offers" out there whether this combination is available. Any help/advice you can give on this would be appreciated.

Thanks to you (and others) for your help.

Neil

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

Great, thank you.

Thanks

[Neilson75]

@Chris-TalkTalk Thank you, I'll let you know what happens.

Neil

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Hi Neil

I've booked the engineer for tomorrow morning - November 25 2021, AM (8am-1pm) - please let us know how you get on

Chris

[Neilson75]

@Chris-TalkTalk - yes, I understand and accept the engineer's charging rules. I cannot see how this fault can be in the house now, so hopefully it won't come to that!

Neil

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Hi Neil,

Thanks for trying that, if you'd like to go ahead with the engineer visit can you confirm that you accept potential Engineers charges and we'll book the earliest appointment available

Chris

[Neilson75]

Hi @Chris-TalkTalk , I've now tried the new router and still no internet connection. It behaves slightly differently to the existing router in that I get a rapidly flashing orange light for about 30 seconds, a solid white light for about 10 seconds and then it changes to a slowly flashing orange light (the old router goes straight from a rapidly flashing orange to  a slowly flashing orange light, with no white light in between).

Assuming the next step is to send out the Openreach engineer, I can be available any of the days/times in your earlier message.

Thanks.

Neil

[Chris-TalkTalk]

OK, thanks 🙂