The latest telecommunications provider to annoy the hell out of me is TalkTalk.
I haven't even been with them long enough to provide a full review of TalkTalk, but from my limited experience all I can say is that I'm glad to be leaving them!
When Plusnet put their prices up even further than before - and let's not forget that I was paying an extra £10 a month for the privilege of living in a rural idyll - I was given the option of leaving my lengthy 24 month contract with them free of charge.
So, I promptly moved to TalkTalk, as they were charging a fair bit less.
I'd heard stories about TalkTalk's poor customer service, but name a phone/broadband provider who is really that good...
So less than three months into my TalkTalk contract I receive an email to say that their prices are increasing (pushing my bill up to more than I was paying with Plusnet)! Due to this increase, I could cancel and move free of charge.
Last weekend I phoned Plusnet, who offered me a new customer package, but without the £10 additional charge that they specified that I would have to pay to receive their services in my rural village. I'm glad that they aren't charging me this, but it does make you wonder if they charge everyone routinely in out-of-town areas for their broadband.
If you pay more for your broadband because you have been told that you are located in a rural area, I would find out if you really shouldn't be charged this "additional fee".
All is going well with my Plusnet order, but today I received a sneaky letter from TalkTalk:
It went on to say thank you for using us and sorry that you're leaving, here are your great benefits that you'll lose if you leave (there aren't any, if you are wondering).
However, on the reverse of the letter there was printed an outstanding bill settlement of £166 that would be taken by Direct Debit!
I'm sure that many people would miss this, as the letter really didn't look like there would by anything printed on the reverse side.
Moving suppliers should be an automatic thing: I'm sure that OFCOM have made it simple enough for everyone, yet TalkTalk appear to make cancelling within your statutory rights a mockery.
I phoned TalkTalk after finding a non-0870 number and was on hold for about ten minutes before one of their "customer service" representatives picked up the call and quickly hung up on me!
TalkTalk - You have targets in your call centres, but when you are told to answer calls, you should not hang up to meet your "answer X number of calls an hour" - It pisses people off and leads to people such as myself ripping into your shoddy customer service in online rants.
I tried again and my call was answered about eight minutes later.
The woman that I spoke to could barely speak English, making the simple request of cancelling my service very difficult. She was also highly argumentative, saying that I was only going to be charged £1 extra a month (really) and that she would not cancel my service without a good reason.
After about five minutes of actually arguing with this sales-orientated moron, I said "Just cancel my service and don't you dare charge me a penny", which she seemed to understand.
I thought that Plusnet were bad. I can see now why people hate TalkTalk!
All being well, I'll not be charged for cancelling, but my faith, and more importantly trust in TalkTalk is near zero.
