A question to stephenf - talktalk's community manager

[DorsetRover]

On 5th June I posted an article headed ‘Where is Gondola?’ in which I mentioned that the last posting from Gondola seemed to have been made on  31st May.

In my article, I suggested that following certain postings from Gondola, which I included in my posting, he might have gone to ‘pastures new’.

There has been NO comment made by Stephenf or any of the OCEs to my reference to Gondola ‘moving on’.

Since Gondola’s apparent departure, it is patently obvious that the Stephenf and the OCEs are struggling to respond to questions posed, particularly over the weekends.

It would appear from recent postings that TalkTalk customers submitting questions in which they seek assistance/help (that Gondola was so efficient at answering and solving) would appear to be getting more and more frustrated with the lack of help, viz ‘Andrea 651’, ‘Blodwynblod’ to name but two.

Other methods of obtaining help – telephoning customer support – would appear to be met with a certain amount scepticism in view of responses that are promised within 48 hours or 72 hours.

TalkTalk NEEDS the services of Gondola, so my question is this.

Will Gondola be returning to the Forum?

Thank you.

DorsetRover

[I8this]

With apologies to Will S. Romeo and Juliet

@Gondola  Gondola, Gondola were for are thou Gondola?

[DorsetRover]

No, No, No 18this!

How many more times?

'...wherefore art thou...'

See me after school.

DorsetRover

[stevesurrey]

Last time I looked at Gondola's profile it said he hadnt been online for almost 2 weeks. But looking just now his profile says "Last online: 2 days ago". So it would seem he is still about altho his input is sadly lacking in this forum.

And please dont go misusing my byline!

[TheHornedOne]

Comunity Star Gondola @DorsetRover, was watching you, quite recently .............................

~R.

[I8this]

I would not trust that, I have many times seen it state that a CS was last on line x numbers of hours ago but when you look at that CS,s activity it stated that the CS posted a reply x numbers of minutes ago.

[TheHornedOne]

You are not wrong @I8this, I have noticed that also; the time references cannot be relied upon.  My post was intended to be a little 'Tongue in Cheek'!

~R.

[I8this]

Today       Last online: 3 hours ago

https://community.talktalk.co.uk/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/245193

[I8this]

Now changed to            Last online: 2 days ago

[StephenF]

Hey everyone, 

I'll be honest I'm not not too clear if this is a sincere or sarcastic topic however i'll take the questions on face value and answer as best i can. In terms of why no reply from Stephen, rest assured, im not ignoring you and sorry for my delayed reply but with things as busy as they have been and me also working on other things its not always easy to catch everything quickly.

@Gondola  is a valued member of the community who gives countless hours of their time, like others on the community helping members get answers to their questions for which, TalkTalk and I is grateful as it's this support that makes our peer to peer community work. 

Things are getting back to normal but the last few months have been anything but that and our priority was, to support our most vulnerable customers and anyone with a total loss of service and as we've got on top of the increased demand we've worked and are working to ensure everyone gets the support they need but lets not forget the community is not a real-time support channel into TalkTalk, this is and always has been a peer 2 peer support community which is supported by the OCE's to do any "fixing" that's needed. 

So to answer your question, YES we do need members like Gondola and more like them I say, who give up so much of their own time in the pursuit to help others as for where they are.... Who knows, none of our business i guess, everyone needs a break and we all have lives outside of this community and different commitments and after having seen the growth of this community since 2007 it's absolutely normal for some members to move on to other things for a few months then come back, some sadly never return but i do hope that not the case with Gondola as their advice and wisdom has been missed. 

[DorsetRover]

Hello Stephenf

Thank you for your response.

It arrived 12 days after my original post of 5th June 2020.

DorsetRover

ps I do wish you would not start with 'Hey'.

[StephenF]

I've locked this topic, clearly not meant in the spirit of our community.