What on earth is going on with order processing?! (Order Management)

[DofLeicester]

I went active on a new GFast F150 contract on 2nd Aug but the OpenReach engineer said I could easily get F250 cos I'm close to the cab. So after an hour of it being setup I rang TT Sales to ask to upgrade the now completed (i.e. not in-flight) 'F150' up to F250 instead. I did this through the Better Value team because I wanted a comparable price to one VM had just given me. "Yes we can do that straight away" said the team, "and you will get the new speed today" (2 Aug). I have not been given the new speed at all however. This is what followed: I contacted them so many times by phone and IM with each department saying (in effect) "Not out fault - we'll pass you to the right team" But each of those teams say the very same thing and NO ONE actually did anything to understand, and CORRECT, the problem for little ol' me the customer. I am strongly thinking / doing the change to another provider after 10 years with TT. They never used to be like this - they were invested in solving things for you in the old days. Is everyone in Customer Support burnt out and are just giving up bothering to try? What is going on? I was told this: "Because you changed contract to F250 when your new one (F150) had just really started, the system can't upgrade you properly". So I think "Hmmm... so override it someone(!), and provide the service now contracted on 2 Aug" - but nope! The other thing is my account says "your GoLive date for F250 is 2 Aug". If it had said your GoLive date for F250 is e.g. 10 Aug, then I wouldn't have WASTED MY TIME ringing and chatbotting so much to find out what was wrong. What a charade! This is not customer service in the slightest - it's constant "nowt to do with us" messages being given and it is STILL unsolved. VM offered me a set contract at £36.50 inc Talk Anytime at 264Mb - not as an introductory offer but as a no-fuss always-the-same price (except inflation). It sure does make me (for the first time EVER) want to leave TT long behind I am sad to say. I will be changing my TrustPilot rating (orig 5) because of the frustrations caused by poor management of a situation. I notice you can't use the label "Customer Service" for this post - I wonder why....

[Arne-TalkTalk]

Thanks for the update. 

[DofLeicester]

Yes Arne - I rang through direct to Order Management last night because again nothing had moved forwards. The support lady studied the account issue carefully and this time (after 14 days, and lots of other people from the same team trying and failing to fix the problem) she instead boldly and cleverly sussed the double pending order , cancelled them both, and rekindled a new order - all in a few simple seconds. What a difference! She was utterly brilliant and just got the 10 star rating on my feedback questionnaire. Would I recommend TT it also asked. With all the hassle I've had and the distinct lack of support over such a long wait period, the answer given was sadly 5 out of 10 for that question. In ten years, it had always been 10/10 until recently. Hey, we're all happy now though, so thanks for taking an interest.

[Arne-TalkTalk]

Hi DofLeicester

Can you confirm the speed increase, the package has changed to 250.

Thanks

[DofLeicester · Accepted solution]

Well, nothing again today so I rang end of day today. And it looks like my phone tonight may have finally got somewhere I am pleased to say. I rang through directly to Order Management and she sussed out the double pending error, then gave me an explanation for what had been causing the issue, while she fixed it there and then. She updated the order in MyAccount with a replacement GoLive for tomorrow and we are moving forwards seemingly! I hope the two weeks of loss of service since paying for the contract will not be charged.

So one member of Order Management in two weeks of people trying to sort this, actually understood what was the cause of the order being stuck, and rectified it in seconds....

Next day 8am....

And now the advert to those who wonder if copper wire can give good speeds or not? Well we are at last, very very happy with F250 working fine

[Arne-TalkTalk]

The last update yesterday, was the regrade order needs to be cleared and placed again, it has been passed to the order management team, Usually it would be 24 hours for an recontract to go through.

[DofLeicester]

Arne, did you get anywhere with your kind request on my behalf? Personally, this is being prepped up ready for Ofcom - never thought this route would have to be pursued but this is costing us money because of starting the new, higher priced contract half a month ago.

Won't cancel at any point however, because it's now rather intriguing to see just how long this delay will continue for. It was escalated on the 5th but no-one has yet contacted me, and there are no changes to service provision. BTW, what is the normal SLA for new contract enactment please?

Regards

D

[Arne-TalkTalk]

I have requested an update on this 

[DofLeicester]

I hope so thanks. Here's my full diary if anyone is a tiny bit interested:

July (most of July) I'd just had a month of services getting slower and slower needing remedial work by OpenReach (or whatever they're now called) to bring back what I was contracted to at the time - F65 (this was running at 39Mbits for weeks hence out of your contracted minimum speed for F65), and you even sent me a free replacement router. Your tech teams were *brilliant* (thanks Phumlani) with their help and saw the whole lot through to resolution with lots of feedback and aftercare. Impressive!!

July 25: I signed up to F150 because OpenReach said my line was very capable. After a short period that day, I phoned TT to ask if I could change the order from F150 to F250. No you can't sorry - the order is now 'in-flight' - but what we will do is ring you on the day that you get F150 (2 Aug), and upgrade your contract to F250 after they have fitted the equipment.

Wed 2 Aug: No call from TT came (see above), so later in the day I rang TT and signed a new contract for F250 with the Better Value Team (because I was in my contract end period) and was told GoLive will be 2 Aug. Exciting stuff!! 🙂 

Thu 3 Aug: No change. Confused. So rang in to report no change. TT apologises and tells me the order from the 2nd was best cancelled followed immediately by a fresh new order being put in place for F250 to unstick the order. I was told an eye would be kept on this to tell me ongoing progress.

Fri 4 Aug: Manchester office did indeed ring me back and apologises with a reassurance that Saturday 5 Aug would be the new GoLive in the very worst case. I was satisfied with that.

Sat 5 Aug: No changes occurred, so I rang in around 3pm fearing end of workday. This was eventually escalated for action. I got a little upset as well because I was passed between various teams in a format such as A to B to C then back to B then A again, without any team owning the issue. I wanted to leave you at that point. Why? Because I had tried so hard to get somebody to help and I was worn down so to speak! I then join Community to have my say to what had been (for me) a drawn out, laborious effort to get from A to B...

Tue 8 Aug: Today nothing has yet been cancelled, nor renewed. In My Account, the order still shows as GoLive being the 2nd August. I have however, achieved a personal stoicism in life which is to accept this is not going well haha!!!

All the best to everyone. I'm sure you're trying to resolve this!! 🙂

[Arne-TalkTalk]

I will keep an eye on this, hopefully it will be resolved this week.

[DofLeicester]

(I thought I'd replied already with below but lets copy the content of that reply again)

Thanks. Since something is now being progressed, I will wait for an outcome a while longer. As said, the issue was about being told I would be live with F250 on the 2nd Aug. This is where the letdown is felt. I appreciate you are now chasing this for me thank you.

[Arne-TalkTalk]

Hi DofLeicester

The upgrade order is stuck and needs to be progressed which is what the agent has done on the 5th. 

Just to clarify have you requested to cancel? 

[ferguson]

OK, I am a wee bit confused. So you are leaving, presumably because you are still within your cooling-off period and have notified TalkTalk accordingly? 

[DofLeicester]

Its now been expedited after today's one hour set of Chatbot back and forths between depts and back again to the same ones. BV Team have finally asked for escalation for me and said it can take (can't remember how long - up to 2 weeks I think) to sort out the switch up to F250. I will have left TT by then because of the sheer lack of focused help until today. Have I been pushing? Well yes but with grace - until today when I said how ridiculous the pillar-to-post passing has been for me. I will fill my profile but in 10 years I have never (never!) experienced such inept messaging and lack of support. You have always been so good normally.

[ferguson]

OK, thanks for clarifying. Complete your profile as I suggested so that the support team can help. 

[DofLeicester]

I made the decision for F250 one week before golive for F150 (2 Aug). It was already planned with TT that I would be switched on the day because TT sales said they would ring me back on the 2 Aug to upgrade me straight away to F250 but for now F150 was 'in-flight' so couldn't be changed until the golive day. No phonecall from them at all so I rang Sales myself and got it organized. TT Sales offered a poor price and I am in the last 90 days of contract so I asked for a better price. They transferred me to BV Team and got a great deal. So I signed up and their Team said I would upgrade to F250 same day. I went onto my account and there it was F250 due for 2 Aug, It still hasn't happened though. This is all about management of customer expectation nothing more nothing less. That's where the letdown lies.

[ferguson]

Disappointing though this may be, I am not surprised that you have run into issues trying to change your service just after a new one has started, whatever may have been suggested it is rarely as simple as flicking a switch somewhere. Why did you not order the Fibre250 product in the first place? 

The support team here will of course look into this for you when they are back online next week. Make sure that your personal details including TalkTalk phone number and/or account number are complete on your community profile (click here) so that they can link your forum identity with your account and then wait for them to respond.