back to article TalkTalk is yet again the most griped about telco in Blighty

TalkTalk, for the fifth consecutive quarter, is the most whinged about telco in the UK, Ofcom confirmed today. The communications watchdog said that TalkTalk's landline and fixed broadband services received more gripes from punters than any other of the big ISP operators in Blighty. It found that between October and December …

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  1. dogged

    Surprising

    I'd expect it to be BT, unless everyone has just accepted how pisspoor they are and now expects it rather than complaining about it.

    1. Loyal Commenter Silver badge

      Re: Surprising

      I think it may be a case of sample bias - those most likely to put up with any old shit will stay with the 'default' provider which has historically provided their telecoms. Those already pissed off by BT will have jumped ship, and be the sort of person more likely to dislike their new provider.

      Personally, I've been with Talk-Talk since fairly early on and not had any problems with them. The whole Phorm thing (not to mention the higher prices) means I will NEVER go back to BT. Others, I may consider in future...

      1. alanturingslefteyebrow
        Thumb Down

        Re: Surprising

        Agree about Phorm. I like the look of BT's current offerings but will NEVER move to BT, simply because of the whole Phorm thing which, in my mind, never got properly investigated or resolved.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Surprising

        Exactly I agree with you Loyal Commenter 100%. I left BT for TT right from when they started. Still with them. If you accept that they area 'pile it high sell it cheap' operation they are fine.

        Sample bias.

  2. Caltharian

    Tbh as a talk talk customer myself i have found that once you get past the drones in the call center the support is very good. They do seem to still have alot of technical issues but i do sometimes wonder how much of this is down to the fact of how the exchanges are run.

    I do agree with the billing issues that people have the time between being able to access your bill and them taking it out of your bank account is ridiculously small sometimes being a matter of 3 working days notice. ontop of their actual billing service falling over on occasion and not triggering the DD and dropping charges onto your account because of said service falling over.

    But again once you get past the foreign call center and get to speak to someone who lives and works in the uk the service is excellent

    1. Dave Perry
      Thumb Up

      Having had to setup a router when the company that owns it moved the line this router was plugged in to (I forgot to ask why they moved to them), I can vouch for their BUSINESS technical people. Admittedly I had a very simple 'give me some details based on an account number' call requirement, with the correct password handy, but on top of that the tech watched the connection status at his end to confirm the box was 'online'. Shame they didn't send this stuff out when the account was first created though, or if they did it wasn't very clear to the accountant who had the limited details I used to get through to them.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      once

      They outsource it all to India it will run smoothly.

      1. LarsG

        Re: once

        Sarcasm intended

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: once

          Yes

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    not only customers...

    Non-customers suffer just as bad due to they're very dodgy door to door selling techniques. Had two very attractive girls door knock the other day, didnt introduce themselves or the company they were from (the talktalk lanyards said enough though) and proceeded to tell me they needed access to my house to do a line check so they could check they could upgrade my (BT) broadband for me.

    Obviously I told them where to go, but I suspect many people throughout the town were sucked in by them.

    1. Gordon 10

      Re: not only customers...

      Seriously? That actually happened?

      Sounds immoral if not borderline illegal. Wonder if they were actual TT or some dodgy reseller?

      1. Eradicate all BB entrants

        Re: not only customers...

        It does happen. The group of 12 year olds that disturbed me claimed (again, 4th time in two years) that there had been upgrades to the speed of broadband in the area and they needed to check mine had been completed.

        They had hidden their ID cards but noticing the a Talk Talk lanyard sticking out of his collar I refuted his claims as complete and utter bullshit. The laughing and joking that had been quite audible before knocking on the door soon ceased. I really should have followed them down the street telling my neighbours they were lying but had company that night. Some things are more compelling than ruining cold callers nights ;)

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Call the police on them immediately...

          It's the classic scam: one keeps you talking while the other asks to use the toilet and rifles through the bedrooms looking for cash to steal. The lanyards and ids are stolen/fake.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Call the police on them immediately...

            a quick google seems to show lots of people ranting at door knockers using the same line. Including some threads on talktalk forums which talktalk helpfully confirm that talktalk sales people carry id badges and lanyards. I've not seen any posts that suggest the lanyards are stolen and badges fake. This really is talktalk sales tactics.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: not only customers...

          thats the exact line they used with me. Seems they really are being trained to use that line.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    why talktalk

    My not-so-ground-breaking guess:

    1. you get what you pay for (real-world meaning of "value for money"), and why should it be surprising?

    2. people who sign up with talktalk are, in general, mainstream folk, who haven't got much of a clue about IT and take advertising bull at face value. Then things don't go as they promised in the luvely ad, so the punter wants the problem, excuse me, rectified. And then they hit the practical aspect of "value for money", i.e. you get what you pay for, in this case, talktalk customer service. And then the problem doesn't get solved, and they realized, they were fooled into (lack of) value. And, good for them, they don't take it thinking of England, but get into a complaint mode.

  5. Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse
    Thumb Down

    The reason that hardly anyone complained about O2 is...

    That no one could get through. And if no-one can get through to lodge a complaint then that number of complaints received is always going to look rosy.

    1. Z80

      Re: The reason that hardly anyone complained about O2 is...

      The figures are for complaints lodged with Ofcom.

      Maybe people rarely need to resort to contacting Ofcom because 02 are good at resolving complaints they receive themselves?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Talk Talk DD

    I havnt been invoiced by them since July 2011....

  7. b166er

    Just got to laugh at the pikeys that keep moving from one shite ISP to another based on price. (once they escape their ridiculous 24 month contracts of course)

    Got to cry at the fact it's acceptable for these jokers to be in business in the first place.

  8. peter 45
    WTF?

    Daytime Throttling

    Never really had much of a problem with download speeds in the evenings, but from the rare times I am at home during the day, it seems that the download speed slows to virtually zero.

    Bandwidth Hogs slowing the download during the evenings i can understand, but during the day? Are Talktalk throttling severly during the day to sell high value daytime bandwith to business customers?

  9. toadwarrior

    Not sure why all the BT hate. I had them for 4 years and consistently had excellent speeds and only ever had a couple hours of lost service. I opted for virgin when I moved because they were cheaper but I can't see myself going with talktalk.

    Between the people coming up to my door pestering me and all the complaints from co-workers which imply to me there is serious throttling going on in the evenings I just think I'd be wasting my time. Even if they are cheaper, if I'm throttled to hell then I am wasting more time to do the same things and yes my time is worth more than money especially when we're talking about a small difference in cost.

  10. StampedChipmunk
    Meh

    You get what you pay for

    Talk Talk provide a connection between your house and their ISP. That's it. When everything works they are fine - not stellar, but fine.

    However if anything goes wrong (which it seems to do quite regularly) their first line support are nothing but dreadful. Second line, however seem to get the job done quite efficiently, but it is such a battle to get through to them.

    They have most of middle England sewn up and those puppies complain if they are getting poor service. If TT invest in their 1st line support and get them up to the level of the 2nd Line, I suspect they'd see a lot of their complaints drop. But involves spending money, and I doubt TT can really be bothered in investment...

    I've just moved from O2 to BT. I had no quibbles with O2, though I did get annoyed that they didn't support their Wireless Box as a router, only as a modem. When my Wireless Box II stopped routing, O2 didn't want to know.

    I've now had BT infinity for a month and the install was painless, the speeds are excellent and once you've spent a day or so figuring out how to turn a lot of the HomeHub's BT bollocks off (FON, for example), it all seems good ATM.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

  11. Securitymoose
    Thumb Down

    TT did not do it for me

    I started with Tiscali and was moved to TT when they took over. They have been gradually getting worse over the last two years - slow speeds, frequent disconnections and a 'help' desk who treat you like a moron - yes, and they are in India already!

    I gave up on them after several weeks of abysmal service and moved to PlusNet. As TT's parting shot, they disconnected me 24 hours before they should have.

    PlusNet moved in and they immediately put right a problem with the exchange, and since then, my connection has been superb. The benefits of a 'local' call centre cannot be over-stressed. Whilst our chums overseas may be competent and helpful, at the end of the day, it is a UK service and is best supported from the UK.

    I would never go back to TT now, even if they came round every day in person to clean out the cat litter tray.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    By the sounds of things...

    ... they're all TalkTalk and no ActionAction

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