talktalk fibre optic broadband

Below is a copy of a post I have put on the talktalk members forum regarding my experience with talktalk fibre optic broadband.It a very abbreviated version as there were many more issues I could have mentioned.

Here is an abbreviated account of my first five days of fibre optic broadband.
Monday morning 9.30am open reach engineer arrives,twenty minutes later all finished ,tests line ,all good, should get full 40mbps download.Unfortunately he cannot connect my computer and test actual speed as he tells me that talktalk have not activated my account.Engineer phones talktalk on his mobile hands me the phone usual security questions ,lady advisor informs me that the engineers are currently working elsewhere and that my account will be activated before midnight.Not happy ,ask to speak to her manager,told ,"what for ,he will only tell you the same as me".End of conversation.Engineer leaves ,sits in van outside house reading paper for about an hour.
Tuesday 8.00am,no internet,phone customer services technical and faults,speak to Sanjay,after explaining the situation he personally assures me he will get my service activated before the end of the day.
12.30 pm called by talktalk engineer.Go through all the usual procedures,all to no avail.He then informs me that he will have to escalate this issue and that somebody will call me in 48 to 72 hours.Happy days.
Wednesday ,no internet.2.30pm called by jeopardy department,unfortunately its on my mobile ,and I am in the checkout in Sainburys.Advisor asks me to phone back when I get home.Ask for telephone number,told to ring normal customer services number as now that the jeopardy department are dealing with my issue I will automatically be routed to their department when the system recognises my phone number.
Get home ,phone customer services,get customer services.Despite numerous attempts could not get in touch with jeopardy department.
Thursday 8.00am ,no internet.Call customer services, eventually arrange a call back from the jeopardy department between 10am and 12pm. Thursday 2.00pm, no call back,contact customer services.This time try new contract,and upgrades department instead of technical.Advisor informs me that there is indeed a note for a call back on my account and to please be patient.
Friday 8.00am,no internet ,no call back.Call customer services,request to speak to a manager,advisor arranged for her manager to call me within an hour.11.00am no call back,call customer services, lodge a complaint.
Friday 3.30pm on my way out,notice internet light on router no longer red but green.Check computer and glory be internet is connected.Check speed of my finally connected fibre optic broadband.Wow 14mbps wireless and 16 mbps ethernet.That is about exactly the same speed I was getting on my adsl+2 connection.
Obviously there are still issues with my connection but for the sake of my sanity I cannot bring myself to phone customer services again ,hence my posting here.
It would have been nice to have had a phone call to say that my account had finally been activated but that really was expecting too much.

Yuo're on Talk Talk. why are you suprised?

To be fair I have been with talktalk for nearly five years and had no problems ,apart from a router going up in smoke,and that was no great loss.So it was probably my turn to suffer.

In reply to a post by fanmail51:

To be fair I have been with talktalk for nearly five years and had no problems ,apart from a router going up in smoke,and that was no great loss.So it was probably my turn to suffer.

That's alll well and good, of course their products can and do work well, on talktalk, no one is disputing this,the brown stuff only hits the fan when the service goes wrong , that is when a large percentage of their customer base see the downside of your cheap isp , Their tech & customer support via the telephone are useless, script readers, this is well known about, Their members forums are supposed to be better, maybe you could try asking their support that way,
If still no joy then you have a choice to keep complaining to them their ADR or leave them as there presumably will be a cooling off period ?

Edited by tommy45 (Sat 26-May-12 18:42:37)

Do you know where your green cabinet is, and the rough distance from the home?

Hello ,my cabinet is approximately 150 metres away,and my exchange is about 500 metres ,as the crow flies.
My speed test on here this morning gave me a speed of 11.4 mbps,this is about 2 to 3mbps slower that my normal speed before my fibre optic upgrade.
There is a cabinet a lot closer to my house that was fitted last month,probably 50 metres away,but the openreach engineer that did the upgrade indicated that I was connected to the further cabinet.

If you unplug the faceplate the engineer fitted do all other phones in the house stop working?

Yes everything stops working.

In which case Talktalk need to look at the speeds you are connecting at (rather than speedtest results) and see if there is a mismatch

I have opened a ticket on the members site,that was last Friday,probably be tomorrow or Wednesday before I get a response.Just cannot face going through the call centre again.