back to article TalkTalk claims wooden spoon for highest level of broadband gripes

Communications watchdog Ofcom placed TalkTalk at the the top of the list of companies it had received complaints about from UK broadband and landline customers between October 2010 and February this year. It said TalkTalk had notched up 1.78 gripes per 1,000 of its landline customers during that period. "Ofcom saw a peak in …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Don't be so negative

    If they are "at the the top of the list of companies it had received complaints about ", they get the gold medal, not the wooden spoon.

    1. TeeCee Gold badge
      Happy

      Re: Don't be so negative

      Actually in that case, more likely a pot-metal medal with a lustrous goldtone coating.....

      1. Mike Hanna

        @TeeCee

        Call it an iMedal and everyone will want one

  2. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Justly deserved IMO

    They told me I would have 45 minutes outage on a Friday to switch unbundle my exchange.

    They did it on the *Thursday*, the day before scheduled, and the 45 minute outage lasted 5 days, and I had cross-talk for 2 weeks. 16 utterly-futile and frustrating support calls made, totalling 3 hours.

    My problems are unlikely to be isolated incidents.

    Hurry up and get to our exchange Virgin! Willing customer right here!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Happy

      Still with TalkTalk?

      More fool you. Spend five minutes on ThinkBroadband and you'll be able to find a far better supplier. I switched to IDNet 18 months ago, and it's been a dream - no incompetent call centre and almost perfect uptime.

  3. My Alter Ego

    About right

    They still haven't given us the money the stole* from us, after 10 months. They're now ignoring the fact they've been told by the ombudsman to give it back plus a good will gesture.

    v. stole: v.tr. To take (the property of another) without right or permission**.

    The bastards kept removing money from our account after we cancelled it. Let that be a lesson to anyone dealing with the fuckers, cancel your direct debit immediately. If you do end up owing them anyway, let them chase you.

    I signed up with Tiscali for free international calls, the service was pretty good until TalkTalk took over.

    1. Ali 2
      FAIL

      Muppets

      Yep, same thing happened to us. Then they sent the debt collectors after us when we cancelled the DD having given them several months to stop billing us and close the account. No amount of letter writing or phone calls seemed to make any difference. Eventually, after involving the regulator they returned half the money as a "good will gesture". We couldn't take any more of the frustration so accepted it just to end almost a year of being wound up.

      Worst customer service experience of my life. I loathe them with a passion and will always deter people from using their service. They are fine until they cock things up, then they really cock things up. Left us hundreds of pounds out of pocket. Thieves.

      1. BongoJoe

        Ditto

        My now deceased Aunt was horrified to find out that Talk Talk were charging her something like £17 a month for a free service.

  4. Eponymous Cowherd

    See....

    we really do need that "No shit, Sherlock" icon.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    There's something fishy about talk talk

    Until recently, I used to be on Zen Internet for home broadband. I got about 4.5Mbit/s which is appropriate for my distance from the exchange.

    I switched to Talk Talk becauase it saved me about 30 quid a month.

    The new Talk Talk router says I'm connected at full on 8Mbit/s but I'm not supposed to be able to get 8Mbit/s.

    Broadband speed tests also report somewhere in the region of 8Mbit/s download rates.

    When I download any files from any other site such as Microsoft or Google, I never get above 550K per second, which is (guess what) roughly what Zen provided at 4.5 Mbit/s.

    Have Talk Talk rigged this somehow?

    I've not had any other problems though, it is slower during peak times but the contention ratio is much higher than Zen's, so to be expected.

    1. Rob Beard

      ADSL2+

      Could it be that they've connected you using their own LLU'd ADSL2+ kit and the line length is giving you a slightly higher speed, but their network is crap that it's not giving you that all the time?

      My Dad has a similar issue. He's connected to an exchange less than 20 metres away from where he lives (although I gather his line length is nearer to 500 metres as it goes half way down the road and then comes back). The kit supports ADSL2+ so he should be able to get about 20 Meg easily, but he syncs at about 8 Meg (slightly over I gather) and gets nearer to about 5 or 6 Mbit, often less.

      He's happy with this (god knows why), probably because he's paying peanuts for it (something like £20 a month all in, line broadband and some 'free' calls).

      Rob

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Thumb Up

        Thanks for the replies

        Yeah, i did think that as well.

        Still, it doesn't explain why broadband speed tests always download at 8Mbit/s. It makes me suspect that they must be giving those sites priority to fool consumers.

        It's nigh on impossible to test with any real credibility and I'm not really that bothered tbh, just a curiosity.

    2. annodomini2

      Sounds more like

      You've gone from ADSL to ADSL2+

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    1.78 gripes per thousand

    Surely some mistake. 1.78 gripes per customer more like

  7. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Tell us something we didn't know!

    TalkTalk is run by a bunch of muppets in Irlam who don't know anything about how to run a telephone and broadband network. It's put together with an IT form of gaffer tape!

    Yeah, used to work for them so know what they're like....

    For those who moved to them to "save a few quid", you get what you pay for!!

  8. nichomach
    FAIL

    These are the asshats

    who bought Nildram and killed off 30-day rolling contracts, so I'm not surprised...

    1. JasonW

      Actually....

      That was Pipex that bought Nildram, then Tiscali bought Pipex who were in turn bought by TalkTalk.

      I quit Nildram (who were astoundingly responsive and great after BTOpenwound^H^H^Hrld) when Pipex came to the party and things took a downward spiral.

  9. Richard Porter

    Are we surprised?

    In a word, No. But the report only covered four fixed line broadband providers so we don't know how all the others fared.

  10. Alex Walsh

    Eh?

    Don't Three UK normally come top of mobile broadband surveys? I don't work for them but thought their services were pretty reliable normally?

    1. Andrew Woodvine

      Three

      Yes they do, but the figures for mobile specifically exclude complaints from datacard/dongle customers.

      I find Three's service reliable and coverage good; I suspect most of the complaints will be due to customers' (often prejudiced) dislike of foreign call centres.

      1. John H Woods Silver badge

        Not only that ...

        ... but all you can eat data for 15/mo? I have 4GB over the last two weeks at a connection speed of never less than 2Mb/s. I could almost ditch my landline ISP!

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    a statement of the bleedin' obvious

    it can ony be a surprise to anyone who has doubts about the pope's religion that tiscali/talk talk/twat twat is the worst provider in the universe.

    perhaps el reg needs an icon for absolute truths like that: a defecating bear in a forest perhaps?

    there's a much bigger and far scarier story however. talk talk can't handle 999 calls.

    here's the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-13156917

    the article says:

    Ofcom ruled that there were "reasonable grounds" to believe that TalkTalk had failed to provide the correct information for all 999 calls. ... Ofcom has given TalkTalk three weeks to carry out an audit to ensure correct address information is held for current and future customers.

    An Ofcom spokeswoman said: "We are taking this incident very seriously. Under our rules, communications providers are required to provide the correct information about the location of callers who dial 999.

    "We have investigated whether TalkTalk is fully compliant with our rules and have found that it is not.

    so it's not just your money that's at risk if you give business to these worthless tossers.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Just me then?

    I've been with both TalkTalk *and* Three for several years now, and am very happy with both! For vfm they definitely can't be best!

    Maybe I'm just easily pleased..?

    1. howard bowen 1
      Linux

      letters and/or digits........ .happy now?

      Me too.....TT that is.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Very Easy

    Its quite simple you get what you pay for, ive being with many ISP overs the years and have now bwing using Zen the longest and found them to be about the best.

  14. jamino23

    O2/Be there/Virgin

    Virgin if you can get it, O2 or Bethere if live in your exchange is another good option, we swear by if for our small business customers who require upload for VOIP, uploading etc. Also good for gaming!!

    see our website http://www.babelisk.com

  15. Simbooth
    Joke

    Ofcom recieved notably fewer complaints from mobile users

    because they have an 0845 number!

    Joke aside- theyre the only organisation I know of to actually use 0300...

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