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Home Phone

Get help with your TalkTalk landline and calling features.

Landline still not working, 9 days now.

global_g
Repeat Guest
Private Message TalkTalk
Message 23 of 23

Talktalk have provided the worst customer service I have ever known from any company I've ever had the misfortune to deal with and it's been impossible to get any actual help.

Landline went down last Monday/Tuesday, phone handset stated "line fault error", no dial tone but broadband working fine. Initially thought it may be my handset so bought a new one, replaced it on Wednesday. Nothing. No dial tone. Spent about half an hour on the online chat service, went through the line tests, took the faceplate off the master socket, tested direct into the test socket with no filters etc. Still nothing no dial tone. Talktalk said engineer would be sent out to investigate on the Thursday. Come Thursday engineer came to the property, didn't once look at anything, simply stood there and told me that as I'd already done the line tests he would do then the fault was outside my property and that it would be an openreach issue. Engineer simply stated that it was a "high frequency fault on the line at the exchange causing the issue". He stood there with his iPad and supposedly booked an openreach engineer for the Saturday. In the meantime when I did a status check on my online account it states everything working (err not true?). I then had an email to say that my fault had been resolved and the case closed??? Err again no. Come Saturday no engineer appeared by Monday still no working phoneline. Started the laborious task of the online chat bot again spent 45 minutes on there re doing all of the same stuff as on Wednesday. Got told to call customer services and given the number. Assumed this would be quicker... how wrong I was. 2 hours and 3 minutes on the phone to customer services getting bounced around various departments, some of which couldn't even locate my account despite me holding a bill in my hand and reading them the number. Absolutely irate at the level of incompetence. Eventually ended up with an operator who while they were helpful the phone call was agonisingly slow due to the 20 second time delay between speaking and the operator hearing and vice versa. Where is your call centre the moon? Anyway, after repeating myself for God knows how many times, I was then informed that there was no open reach engineer booked and that the case had been closed? Like seriously guys, how is that even vaguely appropriate behaviour? You haven't done anything or fixed the issue, you closed the case and didn't send the correct engineer. They then said they had booked an openreach engineer for today between 1pm-6pm. Guess what... no engineer... no working phoneline...case status on  my online account changed to resolved... seriously? No seriously? What is going on? Can I have a human being rather than a chatbot actually communicate with me and fix this. This is some next level garbage customer service. I've had to resort to posting on here as I can't actually get any help from the supposed customer service departments.

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22 REPLIES 22

Message 1 of 23

Hi global_g,


I can see that there's a follow up booked for tomorrow morning with your complaints manager, please let us know how you get on


Chris

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global_g
Repeat Guest
Private Message TalkTalk
Message 2 of 23

Still no working phone line, no contact from customer services... thinking I'm just being ignored now???

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global_g
Repeat Guest
Private Message TalkTalk
Message 3 of 23

Hi Chris, no he hasn't. It's all gone very quiet again from talk talk. Hence why I'm having to resort to chasing things up on here...again...

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Message 4 of 23

Hi,

 

I'm sorry this is taking so long to resolve, has Ken arranged to call you back?

Chris

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Message 5 of 23

I'm well aware... that's where my account was supposed to be... but if I try to speak to the business team they can't find my account...

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Message 6 of 23

@global_g, Talktalk for business is completely separate from the residential arm:

 

https://business.talktalk.co.uk/

 

Forum staff cannot phone you - support is online only. I'll re-escalate this thread for staff to follow up. 

Gliwmaeden2, a fellow customer.
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global_g
Repeat Guest
Private Message TalkTalk
Message 7 of 23

So a midweek I had "Ken" from customer services on the phone... he called me on the landline number which was diverted to one of my mobiles. Informed me that the problem was fixed... what bit of this are you not understanding that the line has no dial tone and it's a fault at the exchange!!!! "Ken" informed me that he couldn't book an engineer but he needed to escalate it to be able to get a different engineer out. To do this he was removing the call divert... despite me telling him not to...repeatedly...then pleading with him not to... repeatedly... he then went and did it anyway. That way he could call the number to "check the line"... great now the call divert which was my only link to my landline was removed, thankfully after testing the line and getting no response (because it doesnt work...) he then called me back on my mobile and reinstated the call divert. The only means of contact through my landline... A few points of clarification which I hadn't bothered to go into previously, this landline is to a shop... my business... it was put in over 14 years ago and was with Opal originally before Opal was absorbed into talk talk business. But for whatever reason the account was erroneously listed as residential during the switchover, hence why I'm in the home phone section here complaining. I wasn't aware that it was classed as residential until all of this fiasco and to highlight that the error is at your end you have me listed under a business title rather than my actual name. I wont state it on here but Chris from customer services, when you read this look at what my name is listed as on my account and then tell me that this isn't a business... that's not a real name now is it... now look at who the registered bill payer is... I was going to get round to sorting this out once I had an operational line again but quite frankly I cant be bothered as ill be moving to a more reliable supplier as soon as this is resolved. Irritatingly, had my account been correctly listed I believe you have a policy regarding reconnecting business lines within a set timeframe, shame this doesn’t appear to apply to me due to the earlier mistake by talk talk...The catalogue of errors here is getting out of hand. I literally don't know what I'm supposed to do anymore but the level of incompetence would be laughable if it wasn't causing financial harm to my business. After speaking with Ken the second time he said there would be no further engineer call outs to my property but he would arrange for an engineer to go to the exchange in the next 2-3 days to fix the copper line problem... surprise surprise that’s STILL not done. This is 3 weeks I have been without a landline. CHRIS CAN YOU CONTACT ME BY PHONE ON MONDAY AND TELL ME HOW THIS IS GOING TO BE FIXED AND RESOLVED!

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Message 8 of 23

The email is automatically sent when we receive a 'fault cleared and closed' message from Openreach, which we have. I know the fault isn't fixed, I can only apologies and book another engineer visit I afraid


Chris

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global_g
Repeat Guest
Private Message TalkTalk
Message 9 of 23

What is actually going on???

I've just had an email through to say the fault is rectified and to contact customer service if I still have problems... again... err no I won't be wasting another 2 hours being lied to just to run the same line checks and have yet another engineer incapable of fixing the issue sent out. HOW no seriously HOW do I explain to you people that the fault isn't fixed and you haven't sent anyone capable of fixing it for over 2 weeks now! Incompetence doesn't even cover this anymore.

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Message 10 of 23

I've checked again and engineer notes just basically say that tests passed, there's no mention of wrong engineer being dispatched. We can. Would you like us to book another engineer visit?

Chris

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Message 11 of 23

I'm sorry about this. I've taken a look at the fault ticket and it looks as though it's been raised correctly so I don't know why Openreach have sent the wrong engineer. The fault is still open, the engineer hasn't left any notes yet so I'll check again later


Chris

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Message 12 of 23

Unsurprisingly the shambles from talk talk continue. This is downright disgraceful now. Engineer visited. It was the very helpful openreach engineer that I spoke to over the telephone last week. He was questioning why he had been assigned the job as he had already explained the issue was at the exchange and on the copper line for which he wasn't trained. He checked everything here and tried a few workaround fixes to see if he could help (genuinely a very nice and helpful engineer from open reach) but alas no joy. He did also state that he had already sent the job notes to talk talk that it needed to be a copper line trained engineer and I was repeatedly assured when the engineer was booked by the talk talk customer service agent last week that it would be a copper line qualified engineer that came out... turns out it's just yet more lies by talk talk. Yes i did get that assurance in writing and yes I did get an email copy of the customer service chat thread to forward to the relevant ombudsman. You didn't follow through with your assurances to me as a customer and you ignored the job notes from the engineer? Is this gross incompetence or simply negligence by talk talk at this point? It's 2 weeks now that I haven't had a working phone line for. I will be switching to an alternative supplier as it appears you are utterly useless in resolving issues. All I want to know now is how I will get my compensation for this fiasco as a credit to an account that will be imminently closed doesn't amount to much as I won't be continuing to use your services

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Message 13 of 23

I can see that another engineer has already been booked, please let us know how you get on 


Chris

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Message 14 of 23

Thanks, I'll book the engineer now and get back to you with the details


Chris

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Message 15 of 23

@global_g, you continue to pay the bill as normal, but automatic compensation for loss of service  / missed engineer appointments etc should show within 30 days.

 

https://community.talktalk.co.uk/t5/Articles/About-your-auto-compensation-credit/ta-p/2326583

 

If it doesn't, chase up that issue in a new thread in the billing section. 

Gliwmaeden2, a fellow customer.
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global_g
Repeat Guest
Private Message TalkTalk
Message 16 of 23

Hi Chris, again yes I confirm agreement to the engineer charges. This is incredibly repetitive for me to try and get a resolution.  I assume though that those charges go both ways and that I will be credited £75 to my account for both no show appointments missed by the engineers that i made myself available for and that my account will be credited for the loss of service this month on top of that? I can be here 24/7 so the sooner the better for the engineer. Today would be good considering this is now 10 days without a working landline. All I want is a working landline, that seems to be too much to ask.

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Message 17 of 23

I'm sorry, I can only book the engineer with Openreach, unfortunately I have no control over whether the engineer goes out or not. Can you confirm:

 

  • That you accept potential Engineers charges
  • Provide availability, either AM (8am to 1pm) or PM (1pm to 6pm) between Monday to Friday.

Thanks
Chris

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global_g
Repeat Guest
Private Message TalkTalk
Message 18 of 23

Hi Chris, yes please do that. But what assurance do I have that an engineer will actually turn up and fix it? Not being funny Chris but I've already had two engineers supposedly arranged by Talk Talk. Neither of which have turned up. This really isn't good enough.

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Message 19 of 23

I'm sorry that the engineer didn't show up, would you like me to book another visit?

Chris

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global_g
Repeat Guest
Private Message TalkTalk
Message 20 of 23

HI Chris, I can confirm that there is no dial tone. Nor was an engineer seen at my property yesterday or at the exchange (which is directly opposite my property so I can see whenever there are engineers working there). Once again, why is this being marked as complete when no works are carried out?

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