Adrian,

Years ago I had associations, of a sort, with new and second hand car dealers who started retailing mobile phones in the early days. Some of those traders have now become rich and famous, however their success was entirely based on persuasive sales techniques and their priority certainly didn't appear to be that of after sales service: it was essentially the successful formula for selling cars that evolved into the mass marketing of mobile phones.

TalkTalk's prices are very attractive, but one could say that their after sales service also lacks priority, so I will probably continue to avoid them unless there is no reasonable alternative.

You said: "...I am looking closely at the new wireless service that is being talked about around here." Please elaborate if you get time

An ironic situation that I've just remembered: one of those mobile phone entrepreneurs thought he would have a go with a JCB at digging out an area for a swimming pool in the grounds of his mansion and managed to accidentally sever the underground BT landline. He didn't have dialup internet and a landline phone for several days. He had to rely on BT after sales service to repair that and I reckon it cost him a fair bit!

Edited by 4M2 (Sat 22-Oct-11 01:28:02)

TalkTalk is ok while it works.

My Father joined them, when the exchange was unbundled, they informed him it would be changing soon, but he would have to pay the £5 excess in the mean time, the mean time last 9 months.

When they came to unbundle the exchange he lost his phone line, after 6 weeks of excuses, he is now with Virginmedia on their 10Mbit package.

I am not recommending this as a solution as in some area's ping can be quite high & be unsuitable for gaming.

I am also with Vm on 30Mbit and regulaly get 3 Mbytes per second download (32.6).

In reply to a post by 4M2:

Adrian,

Years ago I had associations, of a sort, with new and second hand car dealers who started retailing mobile phones in the early days. Some of those traders have now become rich and famous, however their success was entirely based on persuasive sales techniques and their priority certainly didn't appear to be that of after sales service: it was essentially the successful formula for selling cars that evolved into the mass marketing of mobile phones.

That's the way to do it,

TalkTalk's prices are very attractive, but one could say that their after sales service also lacks priority, so I will probably continue to avoid them unless there is no reasonable alternative.

That is how they grab people, because the prices are good, a lot of people will look at the price and got for it. Saying that it can also work the other way, low prices, some people will think they are not going to get much for such low prices.

I know of one person who was talking to someone from Talk Talk and he was interested until TT said the price and this person said it was too cheap and decided not to bother.

You said: "...I am looking closely at the new wireless service that is being talked about around here." Please elaborate if you get time

There is a company around here that is putting a wireless system on churches, the idea is that people who can't get broadband or can't get very good broadband can at last have a decent speed. At the moment it is more out in the sticks, a friend of mine is waiting for it to come to her and is going to have a look at it because her broadband is not so good.

I read in our local paper that this system is going to put onto a church in the city and our Cathedral, both which I can see from my bedroom window.

What it consists of is a aerial stuck on customers house, it is a bit more than a normal aerial, but it does the same thing, then a router type box in the house.

Prices are not what you call really cheap 10Megabits is about £29 a month, but seeing that there is no need for a phone line I could get rid of the home phone.

It is just a thought, I will see what it is like at my friends house when it is provided.
The FUP seems okish and if you don't want 10Megabits you can have less for less cost.

it is a good thing, certainly int he sticks as most of these people will never get a decent broadband service any other way and here in the city, I can't see fibre coming here for a few years and even if it did, there will still be a lot of the city that will not be covered.

I am not bothered about very high speeds,, 40megabits, sure I would like another couple of megabits, put me up to about 5, but I don't need any more than that.

An ironic situation that I've just remembered: one of those mobile phone entrepreneurs thought he would have a go with a JCB at digging out an area for a swimming pool in the grounds of his mansion and managed to accidentally sever the underground BT landline. He didn't have dialup internet and a landline phone for several days. He had to rely on BT after sales service to repair that and I reckon it cost him a fair bit!

i wonder how long it took him to get though to BT?

bigluap,

Your father was "luckier" than my cousin who had to pay £15 excess per month (surcharge) and wasn't informed of that when he entered into a new contract nor that he would not be unbundled. He thought he would be unbundled and pay the advertised lower price.

It was not until he got his first monthly bill for the new contract that he discovered the discrepancy and then it was too late to back out of the contract.

Thanks for the info Adrian - best of luck with that.

"i wonder how long it took him to get though to BT?" Not long, he probably had a direct link to BT's top brass via his mobile

In reply to a post by 4M2:

Thanks for the info Adrian - best of luck with that.

"i wonder how long it took him to get though to BT?" Not long, he probably had a direct link to BT's top brass via his mobile

Here is the website, I know you will not be able to get it, but it will give you better info than I can

Your father was "luckier" than my cousin who had to pay £15 excess per month (surcharge) and wasn't informed of that when he entered into a new contract nor that he would not be unbundled. He thought he would be unbundled and pay the advertised lower price.

It was not until he got his first monthly bill for the new contract that he discovered the discrepancy and then it was too late to back out of the contract.

I have seen this discussed in the TT website and i am sure they got a reduction in price to match what they would have been paying once the exchange was unbundled.
My wife was told by a TT rep outside our local Tesco 3 years ago that we were to be unbundled in 3 months, she didn't sign up and it was 12 months later when we did get unbundled, i assumed this would have stopped years ago as so many exchanges have now been unbundled, obviously it hasn't.

.

Edited by Jack_Hackett (Sat 22-Oct-11 20:15:35)

Jack,

To cut a long story short, my cousin was on an IP Stream product with TalkTalk paying them for the phone/broadband package and line rental. Then a few years back he got a sales call from TT saying that his exchange was unbundled and he could get a much cheaper deal. So naturally he took up the deal and entered into a new contract. Speeds and the exchange equipment was of little interest to him because he was previously getting adequate speeds for his needs but obviously the cheaper price was of great interest to him

Because he was previously with TT, and had just renewed his contract, the only communication he got from TT was a new wireless router without any enclosed letter confirming the status of his new contract. Anyway after a month he gets a bill for broadband/phone and line rental plus a £15 surcharge for remaining on IP Stream. The exchange was indeed unbundled but had limited capacity - then the nightmare began!

Eventually all this was sorted out satisfactorily with the final loose end being the answer phone service that eventually started working just a few months ago. Now he is very happy with the service, peak time speeds are fine, latency is fine and most importantly the price is fine.

Because the problem began for my cousin a while back your assumption that this and similar issues stopped years ago is most probably correct.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

There is a company around here that is putting a wireless system on churches, the idea is that people who can't get broadband or can't get very good broadband can at last have a decent speed.

I wonder if the term Godspeed will come back into fashion

In reply to a post by Myth:

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

There is a company around here that is putting a wireless system on churches, the idea is that people who can't get broadband or can't get very good broadband can at last have a decent speed.

I wonder if the term Godspeed will come back into fashion

Grooooooooan

Hope they dont have problems with Laytency.


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