hi for the first time in days I now have complete files thank god, looks like the downloads are starting again,but I now will be off line for a week or so ,so hope you all keep telling everyone never to join talktalk :mad: :mad:
I have got my local trading standards interested with the following letter: “ In my opinion, TalkTalk Telecom Ltd are imposing unfair terms and may be in breach of a 12 month contract that I entered into on the 29th April 2005. As you will see from the enclosed copy of their bill dated 21 May 2005, they say ‘Welcome to TalkTalk Broadband “We hope you are enjoying all the great benefits of TalkTalk Broadband - Unlimited downloads on music, games and more - all without the catches of the other providers because when we say unlimited, we mean it.’
They have since changed their terms and conditions by restricting certain download rates without formally advising me that they have done so other than by publishing the changes on their website. No written notice has been sent although in the original terms and conditions supplied to me, they say that the terms may be changed by writing to me and/or publishing them on their website. You may think that it is unfair, not reasonable and inadequate for a consumer to be expected to visit a website on a daily or regular basis to check for changes to a multiple page document.”
There is a possibility that there could be a case for calling this an unfair contract that all sufferers could use to get away from talktalk. In another forum I read that they had already had at least one letter from the Ealing TS. Perhaps a concerted effort by all of us complaining to our local TS might have an effect. I downloaded some Linux PDFs and they were throttled.
I came across talktalks offer of 2mb unlimited broadband + phoneline with free weekend calls all in for just less than £28pm compared to what I currently pay bt approx £36 for the same service.
To good an offer to miss I thought so promptly phoned up and signed up.
To day though I discovered this site and the adslguide site and read up on talktalk and thought not one good word said about them so decided to cancel my contract with them before connection took place.
Suprise surprise they wanted over £52 to cancel my contract even though I as of yet have not been connected to there service.
The person I spoke to basically said tough either subscribe or pay the money to unsubscribe
A quick call to trading standards revealed the consumer protection (distance selling) regulations 2000 which basically says if you purchase a service via the phone or internet you have seven days after the day of purchase to cancel (unless you are connected (and told at the time of ordering you will be connected)to a service with in the seven day period.
So I phoned talktalk back told them about the law and after some humming and hawing and being passed around they agreed to cancel my contract without incurring a cancellation fee.
I phoned BT to check if my broadband service would be staying active with them or had it been cancelled upon signing with talktalk and was told if I signed a new contract with them I was eligable to £5 a month cash back off my broadband bill for the term of the contract.
So if any one has just signed up with talktalk and has since found this site and decided talktalk aint for them and they wont let you cancel with out paying the fee quote the above act to them.
Has anyone had actual experience of trying to leave talktalk by just stopping their bank debits and not paying for the remaining months of their contract? . Do talktalk actually take anyone to court for failing to pay up or do they just rely on us ‘suckers’ being afraid of the perceived threat from their lawyers. Of course, I suppose they could refuse to release the BT line or give out a MAC that would allow transfer to another ISP
Just spoke to watchdog, and they seemed pretty intrested in the case - Phone them up tonight - the more that complain - the more people that compain the more luck we might have!
Who is this cdunstone, and what can we get from them?
I want to be rid of talktalk after nearly a whole year of their incompetence and slow speeds, but I've been trying to get a solution to a speed problem I have with them sorted by their tech staff by email for the last 5 days with no response. Should I email this guy instead? And what is the correct email addy btw?
Just wanted to chime in with a follow-up to Bextechs response regarding Charles Dunstone and my experiences with TalkTalk, seeing as a new thread was just posted showing their revised pricing policies.
The following is part of an email I sent to Charles Dunstone at TalkTalk last week. I wanted to wait until they had responded so as not to prejudice their decision if someone there actually pays attention to things like this forum;
"I download a lot of files. I was aware that I did when I moved to TalkTalk from BT, because they were beginning to bring in plans to 'cap' user downloads, and TalkTalk advertised, and still advertise, 'No Download Caps' and 'Unlimited Downloads'. I do not use P2P or filesharing software, as I am aware of the throttling of their use on networks and the impact their constant use has on network performance, but instead use a premium newsgroup provider, which means I neither fileshare nor download from peers. I simply download, quite a lot, directly from a central server. I have now been advised that because I download a lot, my user status has been reclassified to 'Medium', and that whenever I want to download now, it will very likely be at no more than half my expected speed.
This sounds like, in fact is, a download cap, in all but name. Because I download a lot, you are restricting my use, not to a particular time when the network is less busy, but 24/7. For a service to state that it allows unlimited downloads, but then state that it will restrict your account if you download more than a certain amount each month seems suspiciously like sharp practice, and I am unwilling to continue to fund a service that conducts itself in such an unscrupulous and contradictory way"
I preceded this by advising of the rest of the poor service I have received from them and requesting disconnection and the waiving of my disconnection fee.
I was contacted yesterday by a member of their high-level complaints team and advised, very quickly, that they would agree to each of my requests with no argument. The most important part of my mail, and the one I wanted to point out to all current and future customers of TalkTalk, is the classification of customers. The guy I spoke to was perfectly nice (he even recommended Zen as a more suitable ISP!), but he also advised that, and I'm paraphrasing here, "as a 'medium' user, you can expect to see your download speeds reduced by about half, but the thing you really don't want to be is a 'heavy' classed user - they get virtually no download speed at all".
Now, I'm obviously away from them now, but I wondered whether any existing customers would be happy about their account and file transfer speeds being adjusted without their knowledge and to their permanent detriment? As the guy himself advised, the only way I would be able to start downloading properly again would be to lay off the downloads completely for a substantial period, or change ISP's.
I just wanted to raise this in case people werent aware. I'm now off to move to either zen or Telewest
Yeah, you'll probably be okay for a while, but either they will start to block or shape your traffic or if you start downloading a lot, they will 'reclassify' you and then the fun stops.
well i ahvent had a problem yet and my contract is up in march they did upgrade me to 2mb for about 3 months then realised they had buggerd up i complained about it and managed to get a month free bb off them (im only ment to be on 1mb) hahaha
Is it just TT broadband that is the problem? The reason I am asking is that I have just signed up to their landline package for cheaper calls and my broadband connection (tesco isp) is constantly dropping.
(after searching t`internet for info on talktalk I will be going back to BT because I won't be saving anything )
The phone service should have no affect on your broadband.
If you have signed up for their phone service have you taken their line rental?
If so, I'd cancel it pretty quickly, before they get a chance to take over the phone line, as you may find you are tied to them for either 3 or 12 months.
As you have found out, it has been posted all over the internet to now avoid TalkTalk.
BT Line rental with free caller display via (www.bt.com/btprivacy) and 1571 is £11 per month, the same service with TalkTalk is £12.49 per month.
With BT you can use cheap call providers like 1899 to make calls for only 3 pence per call.
I would stick with BT for line rental, get free caller display, then CPS your calls to Primus 2, so you can get for no monthly fee free evening and weekend calls, then use 1899 for daytime calls at 3p each. Use 18185 for calls to mobiles.
Details of the free evening and weekend calls can be found here on DS.
TalkTalk used to be pretty good, but now the rot has set in.
Comments
Your only option is really to select a decent ISP, rather than the budget penny pinching ISP.
No it's not, TalkTalk own their own infrastructure after buying Opal Telecom in Nov 2002 before offering broadband.
Oops - one of these landline companies from 'Outta Mongolia' with BB style packages have Tiscali running their service - maybe its One Tel?
I knew it had a 't' in there somewhere.
Alex -
They have since changed their terms and conditions by restricting certain download rates without formally advising me that they have done so other than by publishing the changes on their website. No written notice has been sent although in the original terms and conditions supplied to me, they say that the terms may be changed by writing to me and/or publishing them on their website. You may think that it is unfair, not reasonable and inadequate for a consumer to be expected to visit a website on a daily or regular basis to check for changes to a multiple page document.”
There is a possibility that there could be a case for calling this an unfair contract that all sufferers could use to get away from talktalk. In another forum I read that they had already had at least one letter from the Ealing TS. Perhaps a concerted effort by all of us complaining to our local TS might have an effect. I downloaded some Linux PDFs and they were throttled.
To good an offer to miss I thought so promptly phoned up and signed up.
To day though I discovered this site and the adslguide site and read up on talktalk and thought not one good word said about them so decided to cancel my contract with them before connection took place.
Suprise surprise they wanted over £52 to cancel my contract even though I as of yet have not been connected to there service.
The person I spoke to basically said tough either subscribe or pay the money to unsubscribe
A quick call to trading standards revealed the consumer protection (distance selling) regulations 2000 which basically says if you purchase a service via the phone or internet you have seven days after the day of purchase to cancel (unless you are connected (and told at the time of ordering you will be connected)to a service with in the seven day period.
So I phoned talktalk back told them about the law and after some humming and hawing and being passed around they agreed to cancel my contract without incurring a cancellation fee.
I phoned BT to check if my broadband service would be staying active with them or had it been cancelled upon signing with talktalk and was told if I signed a new contract with them I was eligable to £5 a month cash back off my broadband bill for the term of the contract.
So if any one has just signed up with talktalk and has since found this site and decided talktalk aint for them and they wont let you cancel with out paying the fee quote the above act to them.
Cheers Jim
cdunstone@cpw.co.uk
pity good services like skyviabroadband have to suffer. and dont get me started on updating WoW.
maybe handy too
http://www.talktalk.co.uk/talktalk/servlet/gben-voice-PageServer?ARTICLE=MAIN.UK.TALKTALK.BBDISC
I want to be rid of talktalk after nearly a whole year of their incompetence and slow speeds, but I've been trying to get a solution to a speed problem I have with them sorted by their tech staff by email for the last 5 days with no response. Should I email this guy instead? And what is the correct email addy btw?
http://www.cpwplc.com/cpw/boardimages/dunstone?t=popup_board
The following is part of an email I sent to Charles Dunstone at TalkTalk last week. I wanted to wait until they had responded so as not to prejudice their decision if someone there actually pays attention to things like this forum;
"I download a lot of files. I was aware that I did when I moved to TalkTalk from BT, because they were beginning to bring in plans to 'cap' user downloads, and TalkTalk advertised, and still advertise, 'No Download Caps' and 'Unlimited Downloads'. I do not use P2P or filesharing software, as I am aware of the throttling of their use on networks and the impact their constant use has on network performance, but instead use a premium newsgroup provider, which means I neither fileshare nor download from peers. I simply download, quite a lot, directly from a central server. I have now been advised that because I download a lot, my user status has been reclassified to 'Medium', and that whenever I want to download now, it will very likely be at no more than half my expected speed.
This sounds like, in fact is, a download cap, in all but name. Because I download a lot, you are restricting my use, not to a particular time when the network is less busy, but 24/7. For a service to state that it allows unlimited downloads, but then state that it will restrict your account if you download more than a certain amount each month seems suspiciously like sharp practice, and I am unwilling to continue to fund a service that conducts itself in such an unscrupulous and contradictory way"
I preceded this by advising of the rest of the poor service I have received from them and requesting disconnection and the waiving of my disconnection fee.
I was contacted yesterday by a member of their high-level complaints team and advised, very quickly, that they would agree to each of my requests with no argument. The most important part of my mail, and the one I wanted to point out to all current and future customers of TalkTalk, is the classification of customers. The guy I spoke to was perfectly nice (he even recommended Zen as a more suitable ISP!), but he also advised that, and I'm paraphrasing here, "as a 'medium' user, you can expect to see your download speeds reduced by about half, but the thing you really don't want to be is a 'heavy' classed user - they get virtually no download speed at all".
Now, I'm obviously away from them now, but I wondered whether any existing customers would be happy about their account and file transfer speeds being adjusted without their knowledge and to their permanent detriment? As the guy himself advised, the only way I would be able to start downloading properly again would be to lay off the downloads completely for a substantial period, or change ISP's.
I just wanted to raise this in case people werent aware. I'm now off to move to either zen or Telewest
Don't worry, your time will come.
(after searching t`internet for info on talktalk I will be going back to BT because I won't be saving anything
If you have signed up for their phone service have you taken their line rental?
If so, I'd cancel it pretty quickly, before they get a chance to take over the phone line, as you may find you are tied to them for either 3 or 12 months.
As you have found out, it has been posted all over the internet to now avoid TalkTalk.
BT Line rental with free caller display via (www.bt.com/btprivacy) and 1571 is £11 per month, the same service with TalkTalk is £12.49 per month.
With BT you can use cheap call providers like 1899 to make calls for only 3 pence per call.
I would stick with BT for line rental, get free caller display, then CPS your calls to Primus 2, so you can get for no monthly fee free evening and weekend calls, then use 1899 for daytime calls at 3p each. Use 18185 for calls to mobiles.
Details of the free evening and weekend calls can be found here on DS.
TalkTalk used to be pretty good, but now the rot has set in.