TalkTalk Support

For the first time in almost six years I had to call TT support, with, I have to admit some trepidation. I was not getting an ADSL signal on my router and had gone through the usual diagnostics to no avail. I did not have a spare router having given my old backup one to a friend

I got straight through to an agent and when I described my problem he ran some tests and could 'see' that my router was not connecting. He then went through his various scripts and talked me through various diagnostic tests. No problem that I was using an iMac and did not have the original TT supplied router.

After some 20 minutes on the phone we agreed that there was a problem that would require an engineer visit. He said he would arrange for an engineer to call me. As this was a Friday afternoon I was now resigned for a weekend without internet, except on my mobile or iPad. Despite living only 14 miles from a major city in west Central Scotland, I cannot get a 3G connection.

Much to my surprise an engineer phoned ten minutes later to schedule a visit. Even more surprising he offered me several slots next morning!

Engineer turned up promptly at 9 a.m. and replaced the router with a new one he had brought. 5 minutes later everything was up and running. I have eight computers, various tablets and a Sky box connected.

By way of thanks I offered him a cup of tea and a bacon butty which he gratefully accepted.

Performance with the new router, a TT labelled D-Link rebadge (DSL-3780) is much improved.

Download throughput has gone from 1.8 MB/s to 2.1 MB/s.

Router stats below...

Line Speed
Up 1020 kbps
Down 19182 kbps
Attenuation
Up 2.5dB
Down 8.6dB
SN
up 11.1 dB
down 6.2 dB

Having seen various horror stories regarding TT support over the years I can only say I was impressed and am a satisfied customer.

My recent experience of TalkTalk residential support was that they would refuse to investigate a fault unless you had the official TalkTalk router connected.

TalkTalk's telephone agent was not bothered I did not have the original router which I had replaced years ago with a Dlink model. He just wanted to know the make and model I was currently using so he could find the appropriate 'script' to work from.

My last discussion with an Engineer leads me to believe that in certain situations TalkTalk will send their own engineers out with their equipment.

Unless its an actual line fault/exchange side issue, then an OR engi would be ordered out.

Sky are trialing a similar service too I believe.

The support is great, always fixed the few problems I've had quickly during the 5+ years I've been with them.

In my case it was a TalkTalk engineer that turned out. The TT telephone agent seemed fairly convinced the fault was not a line fault/exchange issue.

As I walk my dog past the exchange several times a day I often talk to the OR engineers and they say this is the norm for TT support in this area. The problem very rarely lies in the exchange. Perhaps I am lucky as I live within 300 yards of the exchange and all the lines on this street were re-cabled about two years ago. A short underground run and then from a pole over to my house.

In a village with just over 4000 houses there are only two LLU providers, Sky and TT. The majority of subscribers are with TT as the Sky service is allegedly abysmal

I guess having their own engineers for this situation saves them a fortune in OR charges.

And if they are all as nice as they seem to be, it can only help TTs reputation.

In reply to a post by Kaoshan:

In my case it was a TalkTalk engineer that turned out. The TT telephone agent seemed fairly convinced the fault was not a line fault/exchange issue.

So your router was broken and they sent someone out free of charge to replace it?

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

So your router was broken and they sent someone out free of charge to replace it?

Yep... As TT seem to have a reputation for poor customer support I was impressed at the speed and efficiency of their response. No call out charge and a free of charge replacement router. The engineer even had to travel some distance to get here and I'm only paying for their basic broadband/telephone package.

(Edited to add telephone}

Edited by Kaoshan (Sat 02-May-15 02:12:34)

I can only echo the praise for TT support, whilst my initial experience when first I migrated to TT over three years ago, was perhaps not the best due to a botched migration by openreach. The TT engineer soon got this sorted and kept me informed at every stage. I have now had three trouble free years of first class internet and telephone service. Apart from the really stable and reliable internet connection, The telephone service is excellent. I use a speaker phone which announces the number of the incoming call, and the free caller id and reject is another bonus.