It’s been another bad week for TalkTalk, who despite promises of investing heavily into customer services, have seen their name very publicly dragged through the mud after one former customer successfully sued the ISP for £630 in the small claims court.
Ann Gordon, a retired languages teacher, had seen her phoneline pack up after switching from BT to TalkTalk, and be left without any kind of service for almost six weeks, despite repeated promises that a temporary mobile service would be supplied for which she would be reimbursed. In a post that Mrs Gordon made at thisismoney.co.uk, she wrote:
“We had 39 days, no phone, so no internet; no apology, no explanation. They offered £20 (already paid by us) which never appeared. We asked for a refund of 2 months direct debit, plus mobile phone charges (promised us on the phone!), but never saw a penny.”
After 39 days without a phone or the internet, Mrs Gordon asked to be switched back to BT who, sorted out her problem in under 20 minutes.
Appearing on BBC Breakfast News this morning, Mrs Gordon described TalkTalk’s customer service as “Kafkaesque,” and in a report in last Saturday’s Guardian she is quoted saying “All my letters to TalkTalk - including to the managing director - got no response… I did everything I could to resolve this matter. Even after the successful judgment in court, they still refused to pay up, and I was forced to spend another £55 to instruct the bailiffs.”
It was later revealed that TalkTalk were apparently ‘unaware’ of the situation until bailiffs turned up at their London offices. A statement issued last week reads: “We will obviously abide by the court’s decision and will be paying her immediately. We are very sorry that it came to this and would like to unreservedly apologise.”
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Darth Littlejohn said on 13 Jul 2007 at 8:54 am #
Hats off to Ann Gordon. It’s about time people took action against shifty ISPs and stopped taking it up the chuff. If only more people had the courage to stand up and not be fobbed off.
I think this says everything about the offer of ‘free’ Broadband - you get what you pay for.
Paul Nixon said on 01 Aug 2007 at 12:13 pm #
If you’re with TalkTalk you should WalkWalk! I sent quite a lengthy letter to TalkTalk (as advised by OFCOM), describing my dissatisfaction with the complaint. My reply was what I would call a ’standard’ letter which answered none of my questions I posed in my original letter. This company is a joke - it may be less expensive than other providers, but this sadly shows in their nonexistent service!
Martin said on 16 Oct 2007 at 3:26 pm #
Talktalk is the very worst company I have ever had the misfortune to deal with. Everything that has ever been said. Every accusation of nil service, technical support, incompetence and sheer stupidity has been greatly underplayed. And as for (guffaw) customer service….
I have no idea how this organisation survives. Hopefully it won’t for much longer.
And I say this as a Talktalk customer. Oh lucky me. If you ever need the best advice you’ll ever receive. It’s this: Do not, under any circumstances sign up with talktalk. The only satisfaction you will ever get from them, is when you stop bashing your head on the brick wall with frustration after you leave them.
KSM Bhatta said on 17 Nov 2007 at 7:35 pm #
I am 68 years old, have twice survived a heart attack and the silliest thing I ever did was to migrate from BT to TalkTalk, the nightmarish telephone bucket shop. Instead of rewarding me for the privilege of poaching me from BT they took a whopping £29.99 as ‘connection’ charges - money for ropes! It is probably the worst telephone bucket company in the country. They couldn’t give me BB even after supplying MAC number from their own company AOL, not once but twice! So I asked them to revert me to BT as originally agreed, but they failed to do so and I called BT they wanted to take revenge (!) and demanded extortionate reconnection charges. So I joined VirginMedia with a new telephone number after nearly 30-35 years; think of the hassle and stress and distress! TalkTalk continued to bill (they have a fast billing computer!) and have placed me under an open-ended threat by their debt collectors. So I am now in the process of suing them through the courts. When the Halloween children come and knock on my door, I jump whether it’s the TalkTalk debt collectors! I find it hard to imagine how any company like Carphone Warehouse / TalkTalk can even exist in 21st century Britain. It’s simply because we in Britain are mostly docile consumers always meekly suffering myriad little affronts and slick, pilfering companies. That’s the reason that confusion marketing is so rife.
Matt_Holmes said on 23 Nov 2007 at 10:53 am #
It sounds like there is a lot of dissatisfaction with Talk Talk at the moment. They still need to improve on their customer service and billing by the sounds of things.
I hope all of your issues are taken up by Talk Talk and sorted out ASAP!
Does anyone have any positive experiences with being a Talk Talk customer?