Talktalk support chaotic
I was hacked in August 2015 and Talktalk's response has been truly chaotic. The press seem to have been taking the line that Talktalk have been "doing the right thing" in trying to support hacked customers. My experience is that Talktalk have failed to offer me any support at all, to a startling degree. Here is my story:
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Regarding the hack into Talktalk in August ... Talktalk emailed me to warn me, and also included some unreasonable advice, which concerned me. On 11 Aug I phoned Talktalk to clarify. Their landline department assured me that my personal data remains secure, and then passed me to the mobile department, which absolutely assured me of the same. I was talking with them for 45 minutes.
Some weeks later, I received a letter in the post from Talktalk, backdated to 12 Aug, which CONTRADICTED the verbal advice from 11 Aug. The letter warns that my data possibly HAS possibly been hacked, and repeats the unreasonable advice to (a) take out a trial subscription to Experian or Equifax or (b) to change my password, despite everyone insisting that passwords have not been hacked at all (c) to alert my banks.
This advice to take out a trial subscription is neither reasonable nor professional. On the one hand, Talktalk should not be exploiting an Experian sales promotion in this way, and on the other hand my personal data would need to be monitored for many years into the future - at least 10 years - not just for the three months of the trial. Furthermore, it will be a big administrative hassle to set up a trial Experian account and deal with their promotional emails. And I fully expect that they will request my credit card details before signing me up to a trial.
I do not want to alert my two banks unnecessarily, since, frankly, all hell will break loose on the part of the banks.
On 19 October I IM'ed Talktalk (to have a record of our "conversation"). The agent was frankly incompetent. He insisted that Talktalk have not written to me. He reassured me everything is "good". He refused to have someone from the fraud department telephone me. Statements from the agent included:
"If I am going to based [sic] it about the letter that you have received I would suggest to disregard this kind of letter or any Email immediately."
"The letter itself will determine that you need to disregard it. The cyber attack would be directly through your online account."
"As if there would be anything suspicious happened the Action Fraud Team will further help you. I have clarified that we do not send letter to customer that there details had been attacked. Everything would be through Email."
The agent even tried to get me to phone Action Fraud (the government quango) to sort out my Talktalk problem.
In short, Talktalk's response has been completely chaotic, and I am unable to discuss the matter with anyone sensible.