TalkTalk talks itself into trouble with budget broadband package fibs TalkTalk has been admonished for misleading customers with claims that it offered "Britain's lowest priced totally unlimited broadband". BT and another complainant challenged three separate issues with a series of adverts in the press and online that wrongly suggested that the budget telco had cheaper deals than its …
In meta(ish) code:
while getting_lots_of_money
..do
....If complaint received:
......sleep for a few weeks
......output "Warn the company that the ads mustn't appear again in their current form."
....endofcomplaint
..repeat-forever-whilst-the-public-taxes-pay-for-it
Consumer tip for other talk talk users.....use the 'live chat' support facility to politely enquire when your minimum contract term ends. Then, expect a call from the retention team within 48 hours, offering you money off if you roll the contract for another 12 months. I had no intention of leaving, so am paying less for the same service. Also, if you pay them with a debit card on the day of reciving your bill email, you get to pay less than waiting a few days for the direct debit.
When is the ASA going to get real powers to fine these companies?..... every month or so another one gets "advised" to change their adverts for blatant misleading advertising, if the ASA were able to heavily fine them then they would all soon start checking their details before spouting out total rubbish.
A better solution might be that the infringing company is forced to provide whatever they have offered in the headline print of the advert.
For example - UNLIMITED Broadband for 99p a month.
Should mean the ISP has to provide exactly that, not 99p for the first month and then £25 p/m afterwards plus you must take your telephone line @ £14.99 a month and we charge a one off £75 for "installation" and a £2.50 router. Not of course forgetting that we charge £5 a month to allow you to pay with a credit card and £7.50 a month to send you an email invoice. ....and you must take out a 60 month contract.I wont even comment on the unlimited bit.
Alternatively OFTEL could start investigating their competitors.
They offer the cheapest unlimited broadband, BT ring up ASA and complain that their own broadband is also unlimited (expect for an axcessive usage clause that limits you and some throttling that slows you down your unlimited link to unusable)
Then whenever a competitor is cheaper than BT they just run a special deal offering 1quid internet to anyone in the Orkneys who name is Singh on alternate tuesdays - and claim the competitor's ad is misleading
For those slagging Talk Talk off, and lets be honest, most UK ISP telephone and broadband providers are crap, I can attest to the fact that my parents are actually getting a broadband/telephone package deal cheaper than elsewhere with what limited providers are available in South Wales - outside of Newport or Cardiff.
I can inform you all that my folks presently pay £7.00 per month for a reasonable service package and that the Broadband speed is approx. 6mb, twice the speed and significantly cheaper than where I'm living in Hong Kong.
Our contract is cheap because my parents are long time users of Talk Talk services by dint of the fact that Talk Talk purchased most of the ISP competition in South Wales, and that when I threatened not to re-new contracts in January, they actually dropped the telephone line charge - thus giving the folks a considerable yearly saving - which is good news given how expensive their ISP service was, never mind other utilities.
Indeed, the folks have never had an issue with Talk Talk, be it technical, or the deals I've negotiated with on their behalf's - obviously, all they actually do is use the phone as neither of my folks are good with technology, that said, once I'm back home for a few months work at the years end, i'll be able to DL about 400G of content at a decent speed, and conduct my actual work at a decent cost.
In a nutshell, if you think the UK is shite, try living in the wilds here in Hong Kong, we have zero competition and are lucky to achieve 3mb, and its been like this for 10 years, as many will attest too and my costs for phone and broadband are 3.5 times more expensive than the UK. It may be unlimited, and the number of free minutes you get is high, but it takes a long time to DL a 10G movie - so, rather the UK, than here to be honest.
I used to be a Talk-Talk customer.
I came to doubt their competence. In the last year or so of my time with them, while there was no throttling, is was clear that their total provision was inadequate. When everybody was home, data-rates delivered were derisory.
I switched to another ISP. The physical line suddenly delivered twice the capacity, and maintains that with real data delivered (There are small variations with time of day, but they are small). With the Rural Broadband rollout looming, I'm now not sure I will need it, but I am much more confident that the speed increase possible, on the local loop, will be matched by the ISP's network.
The Stock Market seems to like Tiscali. They don't seem to care whether an ISP actually delivers. They're just hunting short-term profit, and that has become the business Tiscali is in.
Quite pleased with TT. Threatened to leave as now cheaper tariffs elsewhere due to fibre being available in my area. Dont need it, happy with ~14Mb d/l on ADSL.
With a bit of negotiation they then offered free line rental and broadband for the next two months without being tied to a contract and then just under £19 p/m (new 12month contract) if I decide to stay with them.
Quids in really. Ta
They clearly haven't got a clue, my SO is getting really peed off with their spamming. Every few days, around the same time in the morning, she is disturbed by a phone call trying to sell her a service she already gets from them. And every time she tells them not to call again. Last time, the phone rang (she could tell from the caller ID it wasn't anyone she knew) she answered the phone with "WHAT DO YOU WANT, are you from TalkTalk because if you are I've told you time and time again I don't want to be called" - and got a quiet voice that sheepishly said "yes" and apoligised.
I've told her that next time they call she should ask for her MAC which is likely to change their attitude somewhat :)
On my list of things to do is go through stuff like this and see when contract periods expire so I can move it to another provider.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
