Warm boot recommendations please

[Cinnamon]

We have been told by BT that we are too far from the exchange to EVER get Broadband at our house.

We have tried several times with them & I have also phoned nearly every other Broadband company there is,who have all said the same.

No one will even try any more.

 

However,I spoke with TalkTalk last week & they reckon they can provide me with Broadband (Yay!), but I also have to change my phone service to them (Boo!)

I am really not sure what to do.BT say that if I want to go back with them if TT can't provide the Broadband,it will take 10 days to change the phone line back.

 

The price is good,but I have heard so many bad things about TT that I am really unsure about making this switch.

 

Is anyone else out there with TalkTalk, & if so,what are they like?

[Guest]

I have Cable (now Virgin Media) but my brother is on TalkTalk with phone and broadband and he is very happy with it.

 

I just haven't experienced the problems others have had. I like the Carphone Warehouse. It has been tremendously helpful. I guess our impressions are down to the experience - and most people don't deal with CW every week. So you either have a good experience or a bad one and form your impressions of the company based on that.

 

There must be websites talking about the merits of the service - or Which?.net

[Popcorn]

Sarah, my P'sIL have just gone over to broadband and have had their line switched to TT too. They are really happy with the service, and since the bad press can't find fault with their customer service at all.

 

We swapped from BT to Tiscali a few months ago, as BT were really over-priced and customer service was rapidly going down the swanny.

 

I guess there will always be times when CS can be poor, it goes with the territory these day, but i'd say go for it. With broadband you'll be so happy! You could even go wireless!

[Cinnamon]

Yes,I think I have to give it a shot & see what happens.

Like you say,theres good customer service & bad from nearly all companies

I found some online reviews & they were OK, so the CS can't be any worse than BT,who are just appaling

 

Wireless.....now lets not get ahead of ourselves......I will be happy just to get Broadband!!!

[Egluntyne]

Have you got Sky....you can get broadband with them.

[chickenlass]

We live in avery small village and BT couldn't give us Broadband either.

The only company that could get it from [ not full speed but faster than dial up] was Toucan and I have to say I have been very pleased with their service and had no problems with the internet at all. [it used to go off all the time with BT]

[Popcorn]

Wireless.....now lets not get ahead of ourselves......I will be happy just to get Broadband!!! [/color]

 

My wireless thing (technical term that) has arrived in the post today. My only problem is that I have no idea how to set it up so my technician at work has offered to come and set it up for the price of a cup of tea (bargain!) Can you believe he's just gone on holiday and left me not knowing what to do with my excitment. I mean, how selfish!

 

Good luck Sarah.

[Jaime]

I have talktalk and so do some of my family. This means you pay for the line rental - that you would usually pay to BT and a call package - I chose the International.

 

This means I get free broadband.

 

I dont pay for any landline calls on the mainland as long as I dont go over 69 minutes per call

 

I get free calls to a huge number of countries up to 69 minutes including Canada, America and Australia which is amazing coz my best friend has moved to Oz and I phone her at least fortnightly and Brother in law lives in San Francisco.

 

I have to pay for calls to mobiles but reduced rate and to some local rate numbers like 0845.

 

So my whole bill per month is usually about £24.00. Thats £3.00 less than I was paying JUST for Broadband with BT

 

The only downfall is customer services is poor and if you have a fault on Broadband you ar best sitting it out cos the help desk will tell you all sorts of rubbish.

 

If you phone another talktalk user you get 3 hours free without having to redail

 

You cant complain at that

[Cinnamon]

Thats the package that tempted me too Jaime

And the fact that they are certain they can provide me with Broadband of course

I don't have the international bit on it though,as I would never use it.

 

We shall see if this is in fact true or they are just saying it to get the sale - there is a 30 day cancellation period from installation,so I should be fine if I do get a problem.

 

Egluntine - I do have Sky,but they too cannot provide me with Broadband.

It would not come to me via the dish,but via the phone line & they use the same equiptment as BT at the exchange,which Talktalk dont (apparantly!)

[Jaime]

Talk Talk use LLU Local Loop Unbundling..... They take over lines from BT and then install their own equipment at the exchange.

 

You might get a service from them that is not as fast as full broadband until they do this. It will still be faster than dial up and cheaper I think.

 

Good Luck with your choice... as I say the only downside is that customer service is very frustrating

[Cinnamon]

Quick update.

 

Still no Broadband for us

Talktalk switched us over on May 30th (when we were on holiday) & despite 3 phone calls I only got the modem & welcome pack yesterday.

 

No joy getting the darn thing to work though

Apparantly its a "line Synch" problem (at least I think thats what she said - her accent made it really hard for me to understand her!)

An engineer is coming out.

 

Also when the phone rings it rings a continuous tone,then a long gap,then the same tone, which means I cannot hear it very well if I am in the garden.

 

AND they told me upon ordering that the call Minder (1571) serivce would remain the same, but they only actually provide a scaled down version.To get it with all the features BT have will cost me another £2.50 a month.

 

Not too impressed so far,although if they can get me onto Broadband all may be forgiven

[Couperwife]

my mum and dad in Tamworth had broadband from talktalk and had major problems with it , then they moved to BT, and still had major problems .

 

it turned out that there was a problem with the telephone line, that talktalk were blaming on BT and BT was blaming on talktalk . but they still have very erratic connection (she cannot use ebay - booo)

 

we have virgin media and have had no problems with it.

 

hope this helps (but probably not)

[Gallina]

There was this useful article in The Times on Saturday about internet options in rural areas.

[Popcorn]

I think whoever you go with, there will always be teething problems, or some sort of issue with customer service. It seems we are all supposed to 'get used to it' these days

 

Good luck Sarah. I hope they get you connected quite smoothly and quickly. You'll get used to the quirks/differences once you are happy with your broadband.

 

We had a similar experience when we swapped form BT to Tiscali. all good now though.

[Cinnamon]

There was this useful article in The Times on Saturday about internet options in rural areas.

 

Thanks Gallina, that is a very interesting article.

It goes to show that maybe, just maybe we CAN get broadband, as only 1% of the country cannot get any service.

BT always told us we would NEVER get Broadband, but the LLU that TalkTalk provide may just tip the scales to our favour

 

I feel a bit more optimistic now,thanks

[Egluntyne]

Have you thought about trying ...Onspeed... Cinnamon?

 

I used it a few years back before we could get broadband......and it did make a difference.

[Cinnamon]

Yes, I use Onspeed now, & it does make a difference.

 

The thing that had been bugging me (apart from the speed issue) was that it was costing me more to have Dial-up than to have a phone & Broadband deal.

 

I will admit to it annoying me that I had been told I couldn't have Broadband - you know how it is........if you are told you can't have something you want it even more