TalkTalk's communication is absolutely horrible during the process of moving house. I've never encountered a worse support system.
Firstly, I wanted to put in a request to move house as early as possible, as last time I moved house, processing a home move with Talktalk took incredibly long, causing us to not have internet for almost a month - which is essential as my household works from home. So, I requested this home move almost 3 weeks in advance.
As per usual and like most systems in the UK, website doesn't work. I spoke to a customer service agent who helped me process a home move, but was completely useless in doing so. He couldn't answer any of my questions regarding what would happen during the engineer visits, how many engineer visits there would be, all he was able to do was read off the T's and C's which by the way, is completely useless. Just send them to me.
Anyway, we set the engineer visit date to be the 22nd of November (my move in date).
On the 8th of November, Openreach text me to say they are going to visit the property in the next few days, and that they may need to drill holes into the building... so obviously when I see this, I panic because how the hell are you going to go to the property before I am even legally entitled to it, to drill? Why are you even considering going there before the scheduled date?
There is no obvious way to 'reschedule' the visit from Openreach, so I chose the 'ACCESS' option that states that someone needs to be present to let the engineer in, and it says 'the engineer will visit on your scheduled date'. Fine.
I also call TalkTalk to double check that no drilling will be done until the 22nd, to which I was told that they could confirm work would only be done on the 22nd. I also asked TalkTalk whether there were multiple visits where an engineer would do external work on one date, and the setup on the other... to which I was told there would be only one visit. I was already skeptical at this, because it makes no sense given the way fibre is installed.
Fast forward to the 21st, I spoke to TalkTalk to confirm what the engineer would be doing on the 22nd, because I was fully convinced that there shouldn't be just one visit. And sure enough, I was told that the external work (drilling) would be completed on the 22nd, and the internal visit (internet go-live) would take place on the 25th. So this is already different to what I was told before.
You may ask why it is so important for me to know the dates, it's because I work in the office a few days so I need to plan when to be home to allow visits.
Come the 22nd, no comms on text from Openreach or TalkTalk. No visit from the engineer, extremely confused. So I call Talktalk and now I'm told that there is ONLY ONE VISIT AGAIN, and that it would all happen on the 25th, between 1 and 6pm. I'm told that I will receive a text on the day to confirm this.
Today is the 25th, and wow, no *@#][!![]'#[@#]!* comms from TalkTalk. Already demoralised so I call TalkTalk, and ask whether anyone is coming today. This is what I was told:
- I was told that the engineer actually visited on the 16th of November (Uhh.. ok? Good thing he wasn't able to drill anything because I definitely would've got in trouble for performing work before my tenancy start date)
- The Openreach engineer identified difficulties with the external installation, so the earliest that TalkTalk would receive update from Openreach would be the 27th.
- There will be two visits, one for the external, one for the internal installation.. again.
So now I'm just thinking.. when am I even going to have broadband? By the time Openreach 'confirms' results with Talktalk, which I'm already skeptical about given the track record, the installation appointment dates are going to be booked out for the month or two.. no?
Not to mention that no external work has even been done yet, another delay yet again.
Throughout this entire process, I have received ZERO communication about what is happening. ZERO clarity on the process, I had to reach out myself, just for everyone to tell me information that wasn't even *@#][!![]'#[@#]!* accurate..
