I've been having an absolute nightmare with TalkTalk since moving house, today I spent 4 hours dealing with 13 different customer services agents and once again what they promised would happen hasn't happened. I am losing my mind and need some degree of reassurance, I wish I could escape this awful company.
I have been with TalkTalk for a few years, moved house in that time before and never had an issue.
I moved last weekend to a new area, in January I called up long in advance and explained that I'd like to cancel my service as I have no intention of paying a moving fee. The person on the phone convinced me to stay with TalkTalk by waiving the fee. Huge mistake on my part, I wish I'd have left like I'd planned. During the call, the salesperson asked if I needed a new router, stupidly I declined saying that I use my own router (i.e. not a TalkTalk router) and it works perfectly for my needs, so no need to waste the hardware sending it out. I was trying to do a good thing and avoid waste.
Anyway, the engineer appointment is booked for Monday 17th February, a couple of days before I need to return to work, for which I rely on broadband as I work remotely. The 17th comes around and a nice local chap in an Openreach van comes round and gets to work. He explains that the internet is coming to the master socket just fine, but my modem is having an issue with the signal and isn't converting it to an internet connection to pass on to the router. He explains that I need to contact TalkTalk and for them to send through whatever their current hardware is, and I should be able to plug that in and it will start working as intended.
MONDAY - Immediately after the engineer leaves I call TalkTalk support, after holding for 40 minutes I reach someone, I spend a further 30 mins being transferred between teams. Eventually I reach someone who tells me that I cannot request a new router as today is my activation date and my service isn't due to be activate until 6pm-midnight. Call back tomorrow if it still isn't working.
TUESDAY - Still no internet, so I call back. Again, hours wasted jumping through hoops and being transferred between departments. Eventually I reach someone to whom I explain I need access to the internet the next day as I'm due to return to work. He tells me he's been able to approve my hardware request and they have routers in stock so one can be sent out via Royal Mail 24-48 hours, and to look out for a tracking code that will come from Royal Mail via email.
WEDNESDAY - No tracking code has arrived. At this point I'm back at work and needing to use a mobile hotspot to access the internet, I'm paying £1 per GB to my phone network and currently averaging 10-15 GB per day. I contact TalkTalk support via the web chat to figure out what's going on, hoping to avoid the massive queues and transfers again. Big mistake, the web chat makes the calls look like silver service. Anyway, after wrestling with the experience for an hour or so somebody eventually confirms that my order has not yet been dispatched and I should now expect it in 2-3 working days, keep an eye out for a Royal Mail tracking code.
THURSDAY (today) - Still no tracking code. At 12.45 today I attempt to contact web chat to get an update on the order status, I spend almost 2 hours being cycled through 10 different support agents, each one giving me a different answer and then passing me to the next, however one detail remains consistent: My router hasn't been dispatched yet. It has already been 48 hours since it was originally supposed to be dispatched. Giving up on web chat, I brave calling support directly again. I spend 40 minutes in a queue, then reach someone, who spends a further 25 minutes making me explain the situation again and walking through the security questions, only to tell me that they work in the Fibre Technical Team and they don't have any details for my account (despite my plan apparently being Fibre 65?) and then transfer me to the Copper Line Technical Team. At this point I reach someone called Crystal (Kristal?), who is able to view my account details, and contacts the back office directly to confirm what is happening with my router. She confirms that the back office team have confirmed they will dispatch the router today via priority 24-48hr Ryal Mail postage and I should receive a tracking code via email by 7pm when their offices close. At this stage I'm sceptical so I ask Crystal to give me her word that this will happen, she gives me her word that it absolutely will happen. It does not happen. 7pm came and went, no email, no spam folder emails, nothing. 4 hours of my workday wasted on this crap, not to mention all the money I'm paying for a hotspot. This truly is the worst customer service experience I've ever had, I would not recommend TalkTalk to anyone.
I now brace for the possibility of calling back tomorrow, to be told yet more lies and conflicting answers, all while getting transferred between 10 different departments, cut off, and more.
If anyone is able to share any advice on how to handle my current situation I would really appreciate it. As it currently stands, it's already looking likely that I won't receive the router until next week if it isn't dispatched today.
I can't handle this any more, I'm losing my mind! As I write this, I'm working at 11pm catching up on the work I needed to get done today instead of dealing with TalkTalk's inept outsourced customer services. Please help!
