TalkTalk - Anyone switched from FTTC to FTTP?

I'd post this in the TalkTalk subforum but it seems very dead in there with only 1 thread this year. Has anyone successfully been able to make this move? My TalkTalk connection has always been very stable and just "works", so rather than going to a different unknown quantity CityFibre reseller, I decided to stay with them.

I'm trying to switch from TalkTalk FTTC to FTTP but the process so far has been a nightmare. So far I've spent over 3 hours on phone calls & I'm still not sure the process is moving on. I can't place an upgrade request online, the only option is to call. I'm sure it's quite well known that TalkTalk customer service is not exactly the best...

I first called on Oct 25th. This call itself went fairly smoothly, other than the pricing of the new contract. The website says £28 for the first 12 months, then £45 for the next 12. The only price available to the agent on the phone was £36 for the 24 month contract. As this is effectively the same overall amount, I agreed to it. The agent said they would submit the 30 day cancellation for my FTTC & order the FTTP. They went through all the terms, I agreed to the contract after I received an email with the details & all was set (apparently).

I received an email later that day stating they were sorry I was leaving, which I was told to expect. Then I received another email on the morning of the 28th, 3 days later. also stating they were sorry I was leaving. 8 hours later, I got another email that it was great I'll be staying with TalkTalk, etc. I assumed this was related to the new FTTP order.

I expected to be contacted to book an engineer visit for the initial survey but after a week had passed I followed up on the phone. Apparently my order had been completely cancelled and wiped from the system due to a system error. I had to go through the whole process again (45 minute call) but this time the only price they could do the 24 month contract was £45... After some back & forth, they agreed to reduce this to £36 as that was the price I was originally given.

Three days later, I have now received a "welcome to full fibre" email so it looks like the process has at least made it one step further than last time. However, there's no mention of my FTTC being moved/cancelled, so I could well end up with both.

I was told I would have to manage my account on the TalkTalk Plus app, but the only option I get on there is to place an order for a new line, which I can't do because I already have one. To say this is frustrating is an understatement...

I couldn't be doing with this. The clear implication is that their processes are not geared to allowing a TT FTTC customer to migrate to FTTP. So in your shoes, I would decide which I wanted most, to remain with TT or to have FTTP and either stay on FTTC with TT or to get FTTP from elsewhere.

If you get FTTP from elsewhere, just get it up and running then cancel TT.

If they order FTTP and then don't cancel your FTTC it's not your problem - inform them of their error if/when your first bill has both services on and then use the Direct Debit guarantee scheme to get their attention if their CS tries to claim there was never a cancellation.

I also wouldn't have bothered to stay with TalkTalk as I've always felt that every happy customer is just a customer that hasn't had a CS nightmare *yet*, but you don't want to disrupt any in-flight order at this stage.

Edited by jpm (Mon 04-Nov-24 21:07:59)

In reply to a post by Kans:

Has anyone successfully been able to make this move? My TalkTalk connection has always been very stable and just "works",

Very long story short, I went from TT Res FTTC to TT business FTTP + analogue phone with a short period of TTB FTTC due to covid restrictions and them not able to fit FTTP, this went quite well.
At end of contract was intending to go back to TT Res with Digital Voice, that's when TT's messed up systems came into affect, they found it impossible to do, both TT Res and TTB kept blaming each other for it not working. In the end TTB agreed to match the TT Res price, so we never went back to TT Res, so I wouldn't hold out much hope of you getting a smooth transition.

Well, I received an email that an engineer is booked for the 18th to complete my install, so it seems the latest order has at least stayed in the system. I'll leave it as is for now & see what happens next...

In reply to a post by jpm:

I also wouldn't have bothered to stay with TalkTalk as I've always felt that every happy customer is just a customer that hasn't had a CS nightmare *yet*, but you don't want to disrupt any in-flight order at this stage.

I should have mentioned in my original post, I do also have another connection with HeyBroadband, which I plan to keep as my secondary line. I work from home in a critical function, and one of the reasons I'm able to is that I can be available 24x7. So having two separate ISPs keeps the interruptions to an absolute minimum, even if one is doing overnight maintenance. While neither the HB or TalkTalk connection have been 100% reliable, I've never had a situation that both have been down at the same time. That being the case, I'm a bit less fussy with small issues or interruptions to either one.

TalkTalk has some of the best backbone connectivity of any of the UK ISPs. Their peering is excellent and gives far better performance than any of the other ISPs I have used. While my HeyBroadband connection gives a very very stable >900/900 bandwidth on speed tests and large downloads, their peering and routing (and thus, latency) is very poor. To the point that I get noticeable lag and slowness on my work Citrix connection and on Zoom calls, among other things.

In reply to a post by Kans:

While neither the HB or TalkTalk connection have been 100% reliable, I've never had a situation that both have been down at the same time. That being the case, I'm a bit less fussy with small issues or interruptions to either one.

Funny enough I made my last reply after having the longest downtime (possibly the first for all I know) of my TTB FTTP line. We had a couple of 20mins power cuts and quite a few brief power cuts, and I had switched off the power to router etc as I was worried it might get damaged due to the power 'flicking' on several times. After the power seemed to settle down and remain on I switched everything back on but despite full set of greens on the ONT, the router refused to connect, thinking the router may have been damaged I dug out a spare which took some time as we are having work done on house and I had to find it first, was about to swap it over when gf said "the phones not working" (on a sepperate copperline) so off I went to find the old wired phone, by the time I'd found that all started working again including the router, about an hour+ after the first power cut. Turns out there was a widespread power cut which affected exchange for about 45mins, but took it out for over an hour!
This is the first time I've known us to lose phone line in a power cut, no idea why a main exchange got knocked out by such a short power cut, but I'm not impressed with the resiliance of system during this power cut, not much use me getting a UPS if the exchange goes down.

If you had green on the ONT then the Openreach bit of the exchange was fine, so either TalkTalk lost a link somewhere else, or the UPS in their rack upstream of the OLT in the exchange was dead.

Edited by jpm (Tue 05-Nov-24 23:29:08)

In reply to a post by Kans:

Well, I received an email that an engineer is booked for the 18th to complete my install, so it seems the latest order has at least stayed in the system. I'll leave it as is for now & see what happens next...

Perhaps predictably, CityFibre didn't turn up today. My appointment slot was 8am to 1pm. I had no contact of any kind. I did receive the router in the post last week, so the order is definitely still on the system.

Amusingly, I called TalkTalk & just said "sales" to the voice recognition bot to get through. It thought about it for a few seconds then said "Notice of intention to file a default?" Just, wow!

After a 40 minute call & speaking to 3 different people, it seems that CityFibre did apparently leave a note on the system that there's a line of sight issue that needs to be resolved. I can only assume it has to do with the trees just outside my garden fence but no-one came to the house or called, so I'm only guessing... I have two other lines coming from the pole to the house, one copper & one fibre. They are close to the trees but not obstructed. It seems CityFibre may be a bit more fussy. They can't give me any more of an ETA than "maybe next week or the week after", so I guess I'll be waiting.

if i was in your shoes, i'd leave TT in instant and go to

https://www.aquiss.net/cityfibre-business-fttp-packa...

I believe thats cheaper than than TT has given you and with a decent company which includes fab CS

Today's problem was nothing to do with TalkTalk, it was CityFibre. So going with Aquiss would have had the same issue anyway.

Aquiss are a bit of an unknown from a performance perspective. I can't find any in-depth info about performance testing or anything about peering. Price is less of a concern for me than performance but Aquiss are actually more expensive than TalkTalk anyway for the service I want (best latency I can find, good peering, 1Gb down, don't really care about upload).

I've been with TalkTalk FTTC for over 4 years & never had to contact CS about a problem. I can put up with poor CS if I almost never need to speak to them.

It seems no-one at TalkTalk has considered setting up a proper upgrade path from FTTC to FTTP, which is the cause of my problems in this thread. There is no way to do it other than calling but when you do, it's a big fumble trying to sort it out. I would have just ordered a new install then cancel the old one myself but you can't do that with the same mobile number as an existing account either. To be fair to them, the people I've spoken with have been fine. It's just their systems and processes for this type of request seem to not exist at all. Hence the frustration...