Issue with new fault on Talk Talk ADSL connection

Good morning all, I hope someone can help.

For the last couple of weeks my girlfriend has been having some serious issues with the speed on her TalkTalk ADSL connection. Speed has dropped from about 17/1 to 2/0.2 and it keeps on dropping out completely.

We raised a call with TalkTalk on the phone and were initially fobbed off with the usual reset the router and we'll try changing a few settings on the line etc. This made no change. The next guy we spoke to was much more helpful and seemed to actually know what he was talking about and did some line tests and said he found a fault on the line and said he was escalating it to openreach and that an engineer visit may be required. This was about a week ago.

Since then my girlfriend has had a couple of texts from TalkTalk saying that they think it should be resolved, but there has been no difference in the connection. So I don't know what is actually being done, if anything. And no-one has been in touch to try and arrange an engineer appointment. We've rung back multiple times and each time TalkTalk just keep saying that Openreach are looking at it. But they can't provide any updates or tell us what they are actually doing. TalkTalk promise that they have escalated the ticket and someone will ring us back, but this so far hasn't happened.

So basically what I want to know; is there a way to speak to BT openreach directly and cut out the seemingly useless middle-man Talk Talk, or is there a way to speak to someone more helpful in TalkTalk?

I'd greatly appreciate any help anyone can offer.

Thanks

Tim

is there a way to speak to BT openreach directly

No. (Not much help, but it's the correct answer) Keep badgering Talk talk.

In the meantime, can you describe the set up, how it's all connected, are there extensions connected, what else is connected and how ? This may be an internal wiring issue that you can resolve yourself.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

is there a way to speak to BT openreach directly

No. (Not much help, but it's the correct answer) Keep badgering Talk talk.

Damn, not the answer I was hoping for!

I've tried various things such as changing micro filters and disconnecting other equipment and so on, all to no avail. So I'm pretty certain that the fault lies beyond my girlfriend's wiring. Unless it is literally the master socket itself in which case there's not much we can do.

Will keep on badgering TalkTalk.

Thanks

Tim

In reply to a post by heisenberg912:

is there a way to speak to someone more helpful in TalkTalk?

Ask for an update via the TalkTalk forums and/or their Twitter feed, both are very good channels for resolving TT issues.

https://community.talktalk.co.uk/
https://twitter.com/talktalk

Also have a look here:
https://help2.talktalk.co.uk/delays-repairs

Edited by deleted (Wed 01-Mar-17 11:26:47)

Thanks for the suggestion, will give those a try.

I have seen the page about damage caused by Storm Doris but my area wasn't really hit that badly and the issue pre-dates Doris by a good week or so.

Thanks

Tim

If there is any extension wiring and it is possible, remove the faceplate from the master socket and connect the router to the test socket inside using a micro filter. That way you can be sure it is not your girlfriend's wiring that is at fault and which Openreach would want to charge for any repairs.

In reply to a post by Michael_Chare:

If there is any extension wiring and it is possible, remove the faceplate from the master socket and connect the router to the test socket inside using a micro filter. That way you can be sure it is not your girlfriend's wiring that is at fault and which Openreach would want to charge for any repairs.

There's no extension wiring but I guess I could give the test socket a go anyway.

Thanks.

Tim

hello Tim

here is a link which will show you haw to test the line and rule out any problems with internal wiring.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IG8rcadbj0&list=PLC...

Once you have carried out the test as shown in the video and have ruled out any problems with the internal wiring, contact Talktalk fault reporting when they answer ask to be connected to the fault management team. hopefully they will be able to resolve the issue for you.

Please let me know how you get on.

Edited by rego (Wed 01-Mar-17 17:13:30)

The good news is that openreach are looking at it.

Can you speed it up, not massively as that's just the speed that openreach are dealing with it at.

Talktalk as you mention do typically provide SMS updates throughout the process. Did they have an old ISP and if so was this faster?

In reply to a post by rego:

Once you have carried out the test as shown in the video and have ruled out any problems with the internal wiring, contact Talktalk fault reporting when they answer ask to be connected to the fault management team. hopefully they will be able to resolve the issue for you.

Thanks for the link. I've tested the connection directly to the test socket and there's no difference. Same speed and same random dropouts.

I think we might have been speaking to the wrong dept before, I didn't realise they had a specific fault department we were just ringing a generic 0345 number. But a little googling tells me that there is a number specifically for fault reports so we'll give that a try tomorrow when we're back at her house, assuming they've not got in touch before that.

My main gripe is they're just not keeping promises. They've been saying since early last week someone would get in touch within 24-48 hours and still now no-one has done so. Every time we ring in they just say they've escalated it to their management and that someone from management will get in touch. But again they don't. I appreciate BT might be busy but to be honest I just get the feeling TalkTalk are giving us the runaround and given the complete lack of concrete info I have no confidence that they've done anything to actually push the issue along.

I did try raising the issue with the team on their twitter feed but again they were of little help. Said they'd raised the issue and we could expect a text update "soon". When I pushed for a timescale again I was told up to 48 hours.

Anyway will keep on plugging away and thanks for the ideas folks.

Tim

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

Talktalk as you mention do typically provide SMS updates throughout the process. Did they have an old ISP and if so was this faster?

I don't know about an old ISP but as I said in the first post we had the connection running reliably (for probably at least 2 months) at about 17down 1up. Only in the last few weeks has it degraded to a maximum of about 2down 0.3up and it is often slower and drops out regularly throughout the day.

Cheers

Tim

Hi Tim

I found the Talktalk brightsparks engineers really helpful and were able to pinpoint exactly where the faults were on my line and then made sure openreach fixed them.

here is a link

https://help2.talktalk.co.uk/about-brightsparks-engi...


worth a try, I had 8 openreach visits before my line was fixed, and this was thanks to the bright sparks proving that the fault was definitely with my telephone line and definitely not on my premises or with Talktalks equipment. Openreach tend to take notice of these engineers.

Rego,

Thanks that sounds like it might be quite helpful. Will have a go at this tonight and see what they can do.

Cheers

Tim

Unfortunately the Brightsparks link no longer works. When you click on the contact us bit on that page you just get an error message which isn�t great.

Anyway I rang up again on Friday evening and spoke to a guy who once again said he�d raise the issue with his superior and promised us an update within 3 days. Someone from talktalk rang my gf yesterday (Sunday afternoon) and told her that openreach had closed the fault as fixed, I have no idea on what basis this was done but it�s pretty annoying. So apparently talktalk have to reopen it. We are still due an update within 72 (working hours). How can openreach just close a fault without checking that it�s resolved? And why has it taken a week and a half of badgering from us just to find that out? In this time they could have been working on it to actually fix it but instead we�ve had multiple pointless calls.

Anyway maybe things will now start going somewhere. But in the event they don�t what routes do we have to complain to 3rd parties? Given how slow things have been I don�t want this to just roll on and on.

Cheers

Tim

Hello Tim

In light of all the problems you have had I would right an email to the CEO listing the problems and asking them to sort it out.

[email protected]

When sending the email give the subscriber's name, Talktalk account number, and a mobile number where you can be contacted.

although Dido Haring is leaving in May there will be someone there to deal with it.

Also once the problem is resolved I would request some compensation for the time spent getting the problem resolved and the inconvenience caused by the loss of service.

Rego - thanks for the advice.

Tim

I decided to have one last go at the usual helpline and thanks to some serious persistence and a 42 minute phone call I finally got somewhere. I think the key is getting past their atrocious first line support. The first lady I spoke to was useless, just the same old line of all she could do was update the ticket and ask for someone to get back to me. But I made it clear that wasn't good enough and said if she couldn't do any more than that I needed to speak to someone else who could.

Eventually got through to the fault manager (after a detour via customer services) and he seemed to know a lot more. He agreed we could book an engineer appt and a day later (had to wait to speak to my gf to check when she's free) it is now sorted. Glad we're finally going somewhere but I am truly staggered how long this took to get sorted and how useless everyone on first line has been. Clearly not one person in the intervening period has actually done anything to move the issue on and if it hadn't have been for my persistence yesterday we'd still be going nowhere waiting for someone to (never) get back to us.

Anyway things are going in the right direction finally. Hopefully the engineer will sort it and then fingers crossed nothing goes wrong again!

Tim