Full Fibre upgrade, a tale of woe.

[ACCOBRA]

City Fibre were in the area laying full fibre cables and when they partnered with TT we took the plunge. We naively thought the service would be better. It wasn’t. WiFi coverage through the house was poor with only 7mbs upstairs. It was much better with the old copper cables. Our contract expired on 31st August so we were advised to upgrade to FF150 which would increase the speed generally throughout the house. It hasn’t. To add insult to injury the underground City Fibre cables for which I had my lawn dug up for some reason could not be used (explanation mods please) and I had to wait 3 weeks for an Open Reach appointment to replace the overhead cable. Now comes the really galling bit. Our broadband was disconnected on 1st September at the end of our old contract and we were left without WiFi for 3 weeks. Unfortunately this coincided with O2 our 4G provider replacing a local mast so had no alternative during that period. Why were we disconnected? Constant calls which take an average of one to two hours have not resolved our poor coverage. I escalated to a complaint and requested a phone call back to discuss. Guess what? I’m still waiting. I feel as though we were mis-sold. I regret that I’ve been forced to air these grievances on this forum but I’ve given up literally hours of my life being transferred an average of 3 times. I’m not getting any younger and my time is precious! 

[ACCOBRA]

When you offered to send a replacement Eero you failed to mention I would be charged £89! This morning I received an email stating I had changed my FF package and an Eero replacement was on its way with a one off charge of £89! Please cancel it forthwith. The Tale of Woe is going from bad to worse! 

[Chris-TalkTalk]

OK, I've ordered the eero, it should be with you within a couple of working days

Chris

[ACCOBRA]

Thanks. A replacement Eero would be useful to eliminate a faulty Eero. 

[Chris-TalkTalk]

OK thanks. We can send a replacement router to test with, would you like us to arrange this?

Chris

[ACCOBRA]

No, only the Grandstream phone box that plugs into the Eero. 

[Chris-TalkTalk]

OK thanks. Is the eero situated close to any other wireless or electrical devices that could be causing interference?

Chris

[ACCOBRA]

Today I ran the Fast speed test in the same room (hall) as the Eero and the speed was 150 mps so that’s good but we don’t sit and use devices in the hall. In an adjacent room the speed drops to 55 mps and upstairs drops to 28 mps. 
A couple of nights ago the tv connected to the Youview box was buffering. When I measured the speed at the tv it was 33 mps. This is a distance of about 6 meters through an open doorway to the Eero

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Hi ACCOBRA,

If you run a speed test on  device in the same room as the eero, what speeds do you get?

Chris

[ACCOBRA]

Thanks Michelle but the connection has already been tested and found to be ok. I don’t know if you keep any records on my account but if you do it should show from one of my previous telephone conversations with staff that I’ve been through the testing process within my house-resetting etc. Some changes were going to be made by TalkTalk which would take up to 48 hours to be effective. It had no effect. To summarise with the copper wire we had a broadband speed of 65-70 mps evenly throughout the whole of the house. Changing to FF65 resulted in the same speed but only at the router. In the upstairs office it dropped to less than 10 mbs which is the same now. In the kitchen today it was 3mps! I can’t run wired speed tests and yes I am using the Eero router. 

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Good afternoon,

I'm really sorry that this hasn't been picked up sooner and we'll take a look at your connection now. I've run a test on the line which is clear. Can I just confirm, are your speeds also varying if you run a few speed tests wired? Are you using the eero or the wifi hub please?

Thanks

Michelle

[Gliwmaeden2]

I'll try mentioning it to staff again, @ACCOBRA.

[ACCOBRA]

So it’s now a week since I first posted and no response. Also no one from TT has phoned me as promised for about 10 days. What do you suggest now @Gliwmaeden2? Being patient obviously isn’t working. 

[ACCOBRA]

Thanks Gliwmaeden2 but since renewing my contract I’ve literally spent hours and hours “hanging on in there” on the phone and now on this forum. Efficiency is not their strongpoint it seems. 

[ferguson]

@ACCOBRA It seems that posts here are not being picked up by the support team automatically, but I see that @Gliwmaeden2  has escalated this for you now.

[Gliwmaeden2]

Probably because you keep posting, @ACCOBRA.

The quickest way to get a reply from staff is to wait for their response. 

The workflow is automated, and each post is treated by that system as a reply. So hang on in there.

[ACCOBRA]

No response today by TT either by phone or on this forum. 

[ACCOBRA]

Doesn’t really explain why the City Fibre underground cables couldn’t be used though and that was the reason for the 3 week delay for Open Reach to replace the overhead cables. I’ve now got redundant cables and boxes in my lounge after having my lawn dug up. Why couldn’t these cables remained active until the overhead ones were replaced 3 weeks later instead of cutting us off? I’ll await an answer after the weekend. The same as I was awaiting a return phone call last weekend. Upgrades suggest improvement not a worse service. No good guaranteeing 150 mbs but not specifying this is only at the router in the hall and when moving a few yards away the speed drops dramatically. Hence my comment about being mid-sold. 

[Gliwmaeden2]

So it was first of all an in contract upgrade to Full Fibre65 back in February, @ACCOBRA. The end of contract meant that you could then upgrade to hopefully a better connection and wi-fi etc.

These upgrades are not as straightforward as the old increase with FTTC, say from Fibre35 to Fibre65.

FTTP seems to require days of downtime. Very cumbersome for a so-called "improvement".

Staff may take a closer look at this after the weekend, but they are constrained by the fact that you have already logged this as a complaint. 

Your post is in the queue for attention.