Talk Talk is still broadband villain to many
October 9, 2007 at 10:34 am
The broadband provider Talk Talk has been marked as a complete failure in the broadband industry. It has been voted as The Times money section villain of the year for 2006 for the anger it has caused for thousands of unhappy customers. Statistics indeed show that hundreds of thousands of Talk Talk customers have been upset with the service over the last year-and-a-half, with many finally breathing a sigh of relief as their contracts end this month and they can finally quit.
The internet and telephone service provider Talk Talk, operated by Carphone Warehouse, was once marketed as a new gem of a service, as it was the first to provide “free” broadband access and only charged users for the calls they made in Talk Talk’s combined call and surf package. Initially in April 2006, the company launched a huge publicity campaign and managed to sign up an incredible 340,000 customers in only 8 weeks.
Though the gimmick was attractive, the now-maligned service has ended up a complete headache to its unfortunate users. Even though Talk Talk made many promises, it could not cope with the initial demand and the service ran dry. It is said that at one stage “up to 200,000 people were waiting for their broadband connection” with thousands of them having to wait months before they were connected even though they were still paying for the service.
Not only that but even those who managed to get connected suffered poor and intermittent service to which there was no solution. The customer service was absolutely terrible with calls being put in huge queues and even outsourced to those who did not understand many of the complaints made. As Steve Weller at comparison firm Uswitch says, “Talk Talk’s customer services are still nowhere near as good as some of its rivals. Many frustrated customers will be looking to leave as soon as their contracts end.” Even though Talk Talk has now put £15m more into improving the customer service, there has not been a great improvement. To compound matters, no compensation has been provided for lost broadband time.
871,000 Talk Talk contracts will be ending this month, with USwitch estimating that thousands will take up the chance to switch. Their latest customer satisfaction survey has found that 270,000 customers have been unsatisfied by the service.
Now, it is up to Talk Talk to take strong measures in order to try and redeem the trust of its customers. As spokesman says for Talk Talk says: “Although I can’t say everything is perfect, I am confident that we have made huge improvements to our service.” Though Talk Talk does provide competitive deals, consumers are advised to approach the firm with caution.
