I had a call today (unfortunately from the India faults team), they have "done all the necessary tests" and offered to send a "Cube" engineer to check the internal wiring - if there is an internal issue it costs £50, if not, there is no charge.

However, I've searched online and found most mentions of the TalkTalk Cube (also called Bright Sparks) engineers to be alongisde a complaint that the customer has been charged £50 and been unfairly blamed for internal wiring issues.

I asked if they'd done a CIDT test, he said no and after placing me on hold, said they had but had found errors with the internal wiring.

I don't know what to do now - for sure their engineer will try to make out there's no fault (and it's unlikely he's going to experience the dropping broadband while he's here unless he stays here for a few hours).

One of their UK based colleagues asked me to unplug everything from the test socket and found a fault on the line so I don't know why they're backtracking now. What should I do?

In reply to a post by wannabemedic:

I asked if they'd done a CIDT test, he said no and after placing me on hold, said they had but had found errors with the internal wiring.

Did you ask them exactly how they had done that and what tools they used.

In reply to a post by MHC:

In reply to a post by wannabemedic:

I asked if they'd done a CIDT test, he said no and after placing me on hold, said they had but had found errors with the internal wiring.

Did you ask them exactly how they had done that and what tools they used.

It sounds like they used telepathy!


As a general rule, if you're calling asking for tests to be done, it's best to disconnect your internal wiring (assuming you have an NTE5) and connect the DSL device and a corded phone to the test socket. This way, it's possible to say "it can't be my internal wiring because it is disconnected".

It's even better if you call from a mobile or another line, so you can plug and unplug devices if required.

If the fault is still apparent in the test socket, then there is no ground to be gained by having a cube engineer.

I apologise, if your line rental is with BT, and the ADSL is via Talktalk resold to AOL, then the CIDT test may well be difficult for them to run. It is run to towards the end users modem from either the BT Wholesale 21cn DSLAM, OR from Openreach TAMS equipment. The set up described is through neither.

So, where from here ? Take the cube engineer, and when they report no issue within the house, press AOL for an SFI visit .......

Maybe ask for a MAC code and take your trade to an ISP who can prove their worth but actually getting this fixed ?

The OP could migrate to AAISP

In reference to www.aa.net.uk/broadband-trial.html:

If you are migrating your service to us, even though you know you have a problem with your broadband line, we'll take on the fault. We'll tackle the problem and get it fixed within one month. If we don't then you can migrate away and owe us nothing for your migration to us and your service charges for that month.

But why customers should have to switch isp to get a simple bb fault fixed can only mean that the ISP is failing to provide a proper service to it's customers, The outsourced overseas call center staff have no training in BB tech, infact it could be agrued that some don't even have a brain

Their systems have just gone down (so they claim) so I've been advised to call tomorrow.

I'll take the Cube engineer but when they ask me to agree to the terms of the £50 charge if they find a problem in the house, I'll ask them to agree to my terms for them to pay me a minimum £50 charge in respect of my time in dealing with the matter. During today's call I refused to agree to the £50 charge and was told they couldn't then proceed.

The router I have is a Netgear DG834G (v3) which is about 5 years old (originally provided by them) and I've changed the microfilter three times now with no real improvement so I'm quite confident that it's not an issue here. I've also swapped the router with someone else for 3 days and our router performed perfectly there whilst their router continued to experience line drops here.

I just spoke with BT who agreed to do a CIDT test which came back with no faults. I was asked to unplug the filter from the test socket and just plug in the phone. I did this and there was no hissing noise. The BT guy suggested changing the microfilter and going back to the broadband provider. Last time I tried BT they said they couldn't do a CIDT test but today's agent claims to have done it with no issue found, so what does this mean for the suspect HR fault?

If there's anything else in terms of diagnostics you could suggest I'd be grateful, before I agree to the cube engineer tomorrow. I'll be making an audio recording of whatever the cube engineer says so there's no dispute if he says one thing to me and then another version of events comes back from AOL with a £50 charge.

In reply to a post by tommy45:

The outsourced overseas call center staff have no training in BB tech, infact it could be agrued that some don't even have a brain

I'd like to second that opinion! One of the overseas guys yesterday told me I was out of my head if I wanted a broadband connection to remain stable for more than an hour or so at a time.

I'm tempted by Sky unlimited broadband (+ anytime calls + line rental). There's £80 cashback on offer and 6 months broadband (£10 per month) is free. Only a 12 month contract too...

If you have both phone & router via a filter ,plugged directly into the test socket (behind the lower half of the faceplate) then their micky mouse cube engineer will be waisting their time, short of swapping the filter there would be little they could do
As for any extension wiring this doesn't apply as it's not being used

The sending of such engineer will be one of their stalling tactics as the last thing they want to do is call out openreach as i think it costs them £160.00 (Which may only apply to LLU SMPF &FMPF) regardless of if a fault is found or not

Edited by tommy45 (Mon 21-Jan-13 18:32:55)

In reply to a post by wannabemedic:

In reply to a post by tommy45:

The outsourced overseas call center staff have no training in BB tech, infact it could be agrued that some don't even have a brain

I'd like to second that opinion! One of the overseas guys yesterday told me I was out of my head if I wanted a broadband connection to remain stable for more than an hour or so at a time.

I'm tempted by Sky unlimited broadband (+ anytime calls + line rental). There's £80 cashback on offer and 6 months broadband (£10 per month) is free. Only a 12 month contract too...

Sky mmm, could be out of frying pan & into the fire there, plus they only do Full LLU Harder to migrate away from ,should you wish to, FTTC fibre maybe a better option than their ADSL, If available to you samknows is a fairly good source for what options you have available to you http://www.samknows.com/broadband/broadband_checker

Called them just now after the broadband dropped again. They did a test, called back on mobile and said they found no fault. Was then offered the cube engineer.

I asked why they couldn't simply send the Openreach engineer. Apparently the next level department will reject the Openreach SFI request if a cuboid hasn't visited already. Sounds like you're spot on about it being one of their stalling tactics.

Anyway, the cuboid is coming out on Thursday so he can check out the non-existent internal wiring (ha!) so I'll update on Thursday. Thanks again for all your advice and support, it's a great help.