An Escape from Hell!

[richard_ex-f2s]

Well, I'm very nearly there!

I've got all of my customers away from TTB bar one - about £2.5K per annum's worth of business lost by TTB as a direct result of totally incorrect billing, poor quality of services and the removal of control panel features that would be required by any business reselling or using TTB's systems.

Now it's just me and my broadband connection. Made my MAC request call followed up by a written request on Tuesday, however still no MAC code. Another written request this morning copied to Dido Harding. If I don't get the MAC code on Monday, I'll be straight onto OFCOM as my patience with TTB is all gone.

I'll keep you posted if I don't get the MAC within the timescales laid down by OFCOM but all being well I'll be placing my order with my new ISP next week and I'll be gone a couple of weeks after that.

Wishing everyone left here all the best...

[richard_ex-f2s]

I can't believe it. TTB have got the neck to launch a twitter account to deal with customer issues. I'm very surprised that they're not a whole lot busier.

@TalkTalkBizCare if anyone is interested, I've certainly started the (public) ball rolling...

[richard_ex-f2s]

...well, perhaps they should conduct all of their customer services through Twitter?Certainly seems that airing opinions and stating your case publicly seems to elicit a rapid response. MAC code now acquired! Either that or cc'ing Dido Harding into correspondence with customer services did the trick!

[Justin]

In my experience (sitting on both sides of the fence), if you do make a fuss, especially one that lots of people could see, it does tend to make some companies sit up and take notice as they don't want people to be seen to be airing their dirty laundry in public so to speak where everyone can see it. With Twitter and Facebook etc it's much harder to bury that kind of thing so to speak, although I know of a few companies who have attempted censorship through such mediums, especially on Facebook, but to do so on twitter is much harder.

I actually tried to get h old of Dido Harding on a number of occasions because of several issues that we experienced, both through the site and myself, when I could not get through to anyone myself, and nothing was at all forthcoming. The Impression I got in relation to TalkTalk is generally they did not welcome criticism or constructive feedback and certainly didn't act on it. Certainly we had no dealings with anyone within the company on here after you left apart from when they asked me to change peoples usernames and suspended my webspace!

Surprised you stayed for long though, thought you would have known better

[richard_ex-f2s]

Originally Posted by Justin

Surprised you stayed for long though, thought you would have known better

I've been helping with a rural broadband project (to bring fast VDSL2 broadband to our village, without any help from BT!) for the last two years. We're there now and I no longer have the hassle of moving ISPs twice, so it's very much time to go. IDNet, where a couple of ex-f2s'rs now work are one of the ISPs on the shortlist, so that's where I'm off to!

In TTB's defence I will say that with a couple of exceptions my phone calls to sort out mainly billing errors have been met by polite and patient staff who I am sure have to put up with the likes of me being frustrated. It can't be much fun shuffling customers off from one department to another to another and then having to deal with the same issues the next time a random bill is produced!

If only the bean counters and management consultants that seem to operate TalkTalk could see the sense in empowering customers to manage their services and subscriptions themselves with effective, properly integrated web front ends, they'd be in a far better position. If they'd stop and actually think what a business or a reseller of their services actually needs rather than providing dumbed down, quasi business (we know that they're just the usual pile it high TalkTalk stuff) products that would also help!

Also, I did get a polite and apologetic response from Dido Harding, thanks Dido, I'm sure you're reading this!

[Justin]

Originally Posted by richard_ex-f2s

I've been helping with a rural broadband project (to bring fast VDSL2 broadband to our village, without any help from BT!) for the last two years. We're there now and I no longer have the hassle of moving ISPs twice, so it's very much time to go. IDNet, where a couple of ex-f2s'rs now work are one of the ISPs on the shortlist, so that's where I'm off to!

In TTB's defence I will say that with a couple of exceptions my phone calls to sort out mainly billing errors have been met by polite and patient staff who I am sure have to put up with the likes of me being frustrated. It can't be much fun shuffling customers off from one department to another to another and then having to deal with the same issues the next time a random bill is produced!

If only the bean counters and management consultants that seem to operate TalkTalk could see the sense in empowering customers to manage their services and subscriptions themselves with effective, properly integrated web front ends, they'd be in a far better position. If they'd stop and actually think what a business or a reseller of their services actually needs rather than providing dumbed down, quasi business (we know that they're just the usual pile it high TalkTalk stuff) products that would also help!

Also, I did get a polite and apologetic response from Dido Harding, thanks Dido, I'm sure you're reading this!

Congrats on getting the project up and running, hope everything works out well with that, it is good to seem some ex f2s'ers doing well for themselves and staying in the industry with other ISP's as most of them were an undoubtedly talented bunch. When I worked in the industry for almost three years I really enjoyed it, although it turned a little sour towards the end with management changes and people who generally were heading in a different direction to the rest of us. I didn't feel I could stick around any longer to see everything get dismantled so I left. It was always quite ironic to see some of the same things happen here as well!

I'd agree though that the people I have spoke to in TalkTalk have been generally well mannered and polite, I couldn't fault them in that respect, and I only know too well that what a front line rep can do and cannot do has very little dependency on them, more so the powers that be above who are making the decisions. Totally agree with your viewpoint on what the situation was regarding the people at the top of TalkTalk and what they were or were not implanting. Sadly the whole plight strikes a very familiar chord with me.

I'll leave the last word to my ex bean-counting boss: "Why should we give users a front end to use webmail or manage their account? It doesn't earn us any direct revenue, so iwhy even bring such idea up?"