No Phone Or Fibre - Appauling Customer Service From TalkTalk

[johncs2008]

I wasn't sure whether to post this under Home Phone or Fibre Broadband since this applies to both, but I will post this here for now and start a separate thread under Home Phone if necessary.

Anyway to cut to the chase, a few nights ago, we were impacted by Storm Ali but both my phone line and broadband were working fine until then and that was even with a 3rd party router (in my case, an Asus RT-AC68U with the Merlin Firmware) connected to my phone line via an old BT Openreach Huawei EchoLife HG612 modem.

All of a sudden though, my internet stopped working. I tried various troubleshooting steps but none of them worked. For a while, the DSL light on the modem was still working. During the following day though, the DSL light stopped coming on as well and has never been on since then. I then tried using a different router, but got the same result.

I then had an idea that perhaps, I needed to have an TalkTalk router, but I didn't have one at hand after getting tid of the last one which I had. I therefore ordered a WiFi Hub from TalkTalk which cost me £60 (normally, that would be £120). Whilst I was waiting for this WiFi Hub to arrive, I checked my phone, and discovered that there was no dial tone on my phone either, and that everything was completely dead at that end.

At that point, I then set up an on-line chat via the My Accounts page. They suggested that it was my router which was at fault and that my phone line wouldn't work if my fibre wasn't working. That of course, is absolutely rubbish because I have seen many cases on this forum where someone's fibre broadband wasn't working but where, their phone line was still working fine. That in turn tells me, that there HAS to be a fault in the line somewhere (or possibily a faulty master socket) which has also brought my broadband down as well, yet the chat team just didn't want to even know anything about that, let alone do anything about itt.

Anyway, I went with their advice to wait until the new WiFi Hub to arrive, which it did today. I then tested everything with the new WiFi hub, but this changed nothing which means that I still have no internet and no working phone line. I then got back in touch with the chat team in the same way as before and yet, all I got was the same answer as before despite the fact that this was a different person who spoke to me this time.

Once again, I was told that it was the router which was at fault despite this being a brand new router, an actual TalkTalk router (which in this case, doubles up as a modem, thereby removing the need for that old BT modem which BT are no longer officially supporting anyway) and the latest model for that. I told the chat person that I wasn't prepared to accept that as an answer yet she still pressed ahead with ordering yet another new router for me which I now know, is not going to make a blind bit of difference.

I was also promised that the matter would be escalated to the Faults manager who would call me back on my mobile number. However, I have seen so many stories about people being promised that certain people would get back in touch only for that to never happen, and I'm not prepared to actually expect this person to phone me back.

That is why I have written this post to let the community our there, aware of what is actually going on here. That to me is shocking customer service and it seems as though the chat line people don't have a clue about what is going on, and are not prepared to listen to the actual paying customer who does after all, have the right to take their business elsewhere if they are not satisfied with the service (or lack of any service in my case) which they are receiving.

I'm trying not to do this because I have been with TalkTalk for a lot of years and their services have been very good over these years when they have actually been working without any problems. Furthermore, I would have insist that my friends and family use a different email address to get in touch me as I would lose my current TalkTalk email address if I went elsewhere, and I would rather avoid that hassle if at all possible.

However, those bad old days of requiring a MAC code from a provider which you are leaving are now long gone these days, so the only thing that I would need to do now in order to leave TalkTalk would be to just order an alternative package from elsewhere. On that note, I have heard a lot of good words about PlusNet and have heard that their customer service is actually really good (it certainly couldn't be worse than what I'm experiencing just now from TalkTalk). Hopefully, I won't have to go down that road and yet, I will not hesitate to do so if I absolutely have to. I am at my complete wits end with this matter, and am very close now to saying enough is enough and then just going elsewhere.

[Arne-TalkTalk]

@Grarob

Can you start your own topic please and also update your community profile so we can check your line. 

Regards

[Grarob]

A scammer offered a new router but he insisted on £4 by credit card.  Tod him I would check and[hone him back . My. house phone has been disabled presumably by him.  Do I need to buy anew phone. Any ideas?

[paulshent]

Nine out of 10 your phone line got cut

Hope by now BT have sorted out the connection issue

[johncs2008]

Oh!! I forgot to add as well, that there people with certain conditions such as Asperger Syndrome who find it very difficult to do anything by phone. For that reason, I think it is important that alternative ways of getting in touch with TalkTalk for matters such as to report a fault other than by phone, need to be in place and much better than what they are just now. It would therefore help if those who are manning the chat lines were better qualified for that, and able to actually listen to and help the customer in the most appropriate manner. That is why I was so critical of the way in which I have been treated on the chat line.

[johncs2008]

I looked at the TalkTalk website and by using my mobile phone (because of my landline being out of action), I phoned up the one and only phone number which I could find from there. The person on the other did a lot more detailed tests than what anyone on the chat line was willing to help me with. The result of this is that I now have an Openreach engineer to my house on Wednesday morning so hopefully, everything should be sorted then.

In the meantime, a call divert has been set up to divert all incoming calls which are going to my landline number onto my mobile number, so I will at least still have access to some sort of phone in the meantime without missing any incoming calls. As for my internet access, I am for the time being, relying on a more expensive 4G connection at the moment which I have set up by using my mobile phone as a tethering hotspot which then sends that connection throughout my house as a separate Wifi Connection. The irony of that though comes the fact that I once used to be a TalkTalk mobile customer before then sent me onto my current provider, O2 as this was my only means of being able to get 4G.

[stuart_smiles1 · Accepted solution]

you need to plug a phone in to the master socket, and see if you get dial tone, dial 17070 and see if it tells you the phone number you are connected to. 

if you have neither broadband nor phone, ring talktalk to ask them to get openreach to come out. 

if you have phone, no broadband, ring talktalk and ask them to send openreach out.

you need a talktalk call reference and openreach call reference ask for both to be given to you, and if can't do it now, tell them you'll ring back in an hour and do that too. ask them to note it on the ticket so the next call handler is aware.