How to complain to your broadband provider

BAD EXPERIENCE ???  YOU BET !!! TalkTalk are the absolute bottom of the pile in every aspect !!! My ISP for the past 5 years was Tiscali and although their Helpdesk was useless. Luckily perhaps, I never needed to use it more than once right at the beginning. However TalkTalk took over Tiscali. Soon after the takeover, after a more than 30 hours of having no internet service, and buying myself a new wireless router thinking that my old Netgear router had failed (which it hadn't). I called the Tiscali Helpdesk. It took 4 attempts to get through, the first 3 being abandoned after over 30 minutes of waiting on hold (at my expense), before I got to talk to a human being who then denied that there was any problem !!! However, I had already called BT who confirmed no problem with the line. Finally the "No-Helpdesk" useless person admitted that actually "Tiscali engineers were working on the line". I was so hacked off that I then asked for a MAC code to be sent. The "No-Helpdesk" useless person failed to record my request. When the service finally returned, I emailed TalkTalk (at least 4 times) and eventually got the MAC code and switched ISP supplier. But things didn't end there !!! At the end of the month after switching, TalkTalk then debited my account for a full month rather than only the 11 days of service provided !!! It's taken me well over twenty emails and around 2 months to get the over-debited money credited back to my account !!! As all above have warned... BEWARE ANYONE THINKING OF JOINING TALKTALK !!!

I'm still having "fun" with the ISP I left two years ago. While I was with them they occasionally sent me invoices and VoIP statements for one of their other clients (a small company) which I would mail them about and would go away. Some time after I left I got some others such invoices and a small amount of money was actually taken from the old direct debit which I had neglected to cancel - only about £6 but that is £6 of irritation. Of course polite but beligerant messages were sent to their accounts department, which initially bounce because the addresses states on the invoices were wrong, but next month I still recieved someone else's VoIP statement and invoice (though no money was taken as I cancelled the DD by that point, claiming the errant charge back via my bank (under the DD garantee) who were very helpful once I provided them with the relavnt details). The only way I got any response from them was to start CCing the company whos VoIP statements I was getting into all correspondance and making a bit of noise on a public forum that their representatives were previously active on. I have in the last to month once again received errant statements and invoices. I'm keeping an eye on my accounts to make sure they don't take anything out (they shouldn't be able to, but I'm checking just-in-case), and will be sending them, by registered post, a letter explaining the situation and its history, along with an invoice for my admin time. If they keep sending me their errant invoices I'll keep totting up the cost of my time, if it gets above a certain threshold then there will be a visit to the small claims court - I don't know wether I'm in a position to "win" but it should attract enough attention to make them get themselves organised. The ISP is Entanet BTW. They don't sell direct to the public but do via a number of resellers (which at the time I was with them included Vivaciti, ADSL24, UKFSN, Titan, and others the names of which escape me at the moment).

All pretty obvious stuff I think. What would be helpful when you have a problem (with TalkTalk in this case), is how you get to talk to someone who SPEAKS CLEAR ENGLISH AND IS INTERESTED IN RESOLVING THE PROBLEM!!! I have been trying to resolve a problem for over two weeks with their Helpdesk (there's a misnomer if ever there was one). Always speak to a different person whose name you do not understand (expected in call centres), having explained the problem they do not understand it, you cannot understand what they say, they then keep you on hold for 10 - 15 minutes, line goes dead, you ring back, speak to someone else, explain the problem over again, hold the line etc etc. Asked to spaek to their supervisor, just get more of the same. Have even sent an email asking someone to ring me on a specified day between times when I will be there - no call! Have tried emails, just get an ineffective reply asking me to visit the Helpdesk or call the Helpline. THAT IS WHAT I HAVE BEEN DOING!!!! BEWARE ANYONE THINKING OF JOINING TALKTALK!!!!