Carphone Warehouse’s much-hyped offer of free broadband for its Talk Talk customers seems to be stumbling under the weight of its own success.
Amid reports on Monday that customers signing up for the service now would not be connected for up to three months, the company issued a statement on Monday to say that the problems had been anticipated.
"We always knew there was going to be lots of demand for TalkTalk's Free Broadband," the statement read, "and so we take great care to ensure that our customers are made fully aware up front of their delivery date and they are generally very happy with that.
"We then aim to deliver earlier than that date and in many cases this is being achieved".
A spokesperson for Carphone Warehouse confirmed to ZDNet UK that current sign-ups will have to wait at least two months to get connected, but rejected speculation that the delays would force connections back as far as September.
On his blog, Carphone Warehouse Charles Dunstone recently said such three-month delays were being prevented by "an increasing rate of daily activations".
Dunstone will have to face the City on Tuesday to give an update on the progress of service’s launch, which was announced in April.
The connection delays are thought to involve problems with local loop unbundling and IP-streaming, not to mention a rapid take-up rate of around 2,500 customers a day.
Talkback
I signed up the first day "free" broadband was offered. Still not connected.
They call it "free" broadband but I think that it is part of the contract anyway so TT has to provide. At the moment i am paying both TT and my old ISP so its quite an expensive arrangement.
I sent enquiries to their advertised customer serices e-mail address but have received no reply. What kind of customer service is that?
eric
I was an existing talk talk customer with everything but the landline. I ordered the complete package on April 26th, haven't been able to get any reply to any e-mails I've sent , get no information from the tracking system that is meaningful, can't get through to anyone on the phone, am still waiting for 8meg speed and they keep sending me letters in the post asking me to e-mail them because the out of date e-mail address they have is no good for them to send bills to, even though I have responded three times. I just bin them now. All that having been said, I'm paying less than I was before and as an existing customer, I have every faith in Charles and I am confident that once they sort themselves out, I will have a service that is even better than the one I have now.
I signed-up at the start of June, anticipating a July connection.
However, contrary to your article, they haven't given me any information at all about the Broadband connection. They have however, already got the phone package in place (I think).
I have had to contact talk talk support in order to find out about my Broadband status, as the website cannot find any details of an order for me.
It seems that they have made loads of money from us all now trying to change over to talk talk , as they all seem to be on holiday now .With no replys to emails, customer service is i on impossable to get hold of & when you do they cant under stand you !!!!!
Im still waiting for the modem to be sent to me only 1 week LATE .
NOT HAPPY !!!
welll what can I say, I like many others have signed up for the talk/talk free broadband, I was hooked up immendiately to the telephone service.
As for the bradband, well still waiting. Within a matter of days I sent in my Mac code, only to get a call asking for it, so I gave it again and again and again. Five phone calls later and the same Mac code given to be told that I would be online within the week.
Happy ending, no chance, I have started to telephone on a weekely basis only to be told that I will be connected, but spend most of my time trying to expalin my postcode to foreigners!
I even went as far as send a email to COE office of cpw but only got an automated response, I did this after looking at the website and also reading with interest Charle Dunstans mission statement, ha ha.
Well were do we go form here, most disgruntled.
I signed up to Talk3 International on 19th May, was already a TT customer on phone. Was told broadband go live date of July. Cancelled my old ISP, 24th June, given cut off date 24th July. Took 2 weeks and £34 cost to get MAC. Gave MAC to TT on 12th July, and was told I would receive Welcome pack then modem, etc before that time. Was migrated early on 21st July, cost me £12 on phone to old ISP techs to find that out. Still no Welcome letter or setup pack, no broadband. Rang many numbers @ TT, spoke to many foreign persons, didn't get anywhere, in fact one support person crashed my computer trying various fixes. Had to reinstall XP as result. Managed to find out Username & password and borrowed a setup disc then reconfigured my old ADSL modem to connect to TT server, Bingo! broadband again albeit sometimes hard to sign on, lots of "Connection Error 721" messages and have been cut off a couple of times. Eventually received Welcome letter July 27th & modem, etc 4th August. Have written to TT complaints dept and sent emails threatening to contact Oftel. Guess what, no replies as yet. At moment having problems with on-line billing, doesn't recognise my registered TT email address!??!
Advice; Never enter into anything until it has been tried & tested and the smoke has cleared!!
This is the message that I sent to TalkTalk Customer Service on 7 August and copied to C harlie Dunstone CEO. To date, these cowboys have not given me any response. I'm likely to return to BT after two years with TalkTalk.
"Still no response to my previous messages to TalkTalk Customer Services in the last two weeks (no surprise, unfortunately!) Two messages were sent using the TalkTalk online service and the other being the e-mail sent last Wednesday 2 August (see at the end of this message).
Since I sent that message, I have received further confirmation of just how appalling the customer service at TalkTalk has become in recent weeks. I finally got through on your Customer Services number last Thursday 3rd August, after 4 days of trying involving dozens of calls. I spoke to a customer services adviser based somewhere on the Indian sub-continent who took an inordinately long time to get to grips with my issues and constantly put me on hold to speak to a supervisor.
When I demanded information on when my Broadband connection would ever be upgraded to meet the minimum 2Mbps available at my local exchange, he chose to simply lie to me and told me to call 0800 049 0049, where someone would talk me through the process of upgrading my Broadband connection on my PC. As I discovered when I called, this number was simply the Carphone Warehouse general enquiries number. To say that I was furious with having been lied to in this fashion is an understatement! I want some action taken against this employee and I want it confirmed to me that action has been taken.
Later on Thursday 3rd August, I called TalkTalk Customer Services again and finally got through after about 6 attempts to an adviser called Praneeta. I made it plain that I did not want to be transferred to anybody else as I had no confidence in the ability of TalkTalk to do that professionally, given my earlier experience,. After being put on hold many times, Praneeta eventually gave me the information that I have been seeking for the last few weeks, although it remains to be seen if I have actualy been given truthful and accurate information or if I have simply been lied to again. I asked that a note be put on my account confirming what she had told me.
Praneeta guaranteed that my current Broadband connection would be upgraded at the local exchange within 5 working days. Today is Monday 7th which is the second working day since I was given that guarantee, That means that unless my Broadband is at least 2Mbps connection speedby close of business on Thursday, I will deem Talk Talk to be in breach of contract and I will take steps to find a reliable supplier of both Broadband and telephone service.
In the meantime, I would like a refund of my first £10 fee for my new Broadband service which I have not yet received despite it being paid to TalkTalk on 20th July by Direct Debit along with my £29.99 connection fee. Page 2 of my online order confirmation on 10 July says "Your Broadband service should activate now". If the latest information that I was given by Praneeta is correct, it will be 10th August when I receive what I ordered and paid for in terms of Broadband on 10 July, i.e a full month will have elapsed with no high speed Broadband service.
Finally, I am immensely disappointed in the service I have received from TalkTalk in the last few months. I have encouraged many people to sign up to TalkTalk since June 2004, but I am now appalled at how poor my experience has become recently. You have a chance to put things right and I hope you take it. I look forward to:
1) My Broadband connection finally achieving the minimum 2Mbps standard by Thursday 10 August.
2) A refund of my £10 High Speed Broadband fee for a service which I have not yet received.
I hope that I get at least the courtesy of a response this time. I can be called on *** during office hours.
MC"
Ordered on 22 June, promised delivery end Aug 2006 -- Still waiting !!!
Talk Talk changed my line and started billing in June but the elusive broadband still has not materialised. Talk Talk have less than 5 days to meet their contractual obligations, otherwise i will file a claim in the small claims court for breach of contract and damages. Suggest all customers with the same problem do the same - hit them where it hurts - their profits / money. Also report them to OFTEL.
Agreed by phone to join the TT service on May 13th, didn't receive ANYTHING at all, rang & rang &rang their lines and as many other users heard many strange accents who gave me ultimately wrong and misleading info...some were downwrite lies just to pacify me concernig connection to bb..which was first promised for Jun6th and then later changed to JULY27TH ! STILL no paperwork or welcome pact has arrived to this day..but my phone bill did of over £62 which included charges of 2 International lines! I have enough using one simple home phone & as a retired person what on eath would I be doing with those?Had enough of them to respnd by writing and registering all corresspndence to H/office at Portal Way and sent them a cheque for £20.99 the cost of 1 months phone rental...4 registered letters later still no reply or explaination.. cheque has ben cashed but has not been acknowledged by them at all...threats concerning them initiating a debt collection agency have been received ...still requesting the FULL amount..so where has my money gone?Am determined to have these people bought to book either by the media and court action or better still both! Their harrassment reached a new level yesterday when I received a letter from Robinson ,Way & Comp. ltd a debt collection agency..explained the problem to them so at the minute all is on hold for 10 days until I send them evidence of my payment to TT.... am determined that this will now go to arbitration through the correct channels as I have still not had any RECOGNITION of any letters sent or of the encashed cheque...what is this organisation about when they can treat people like this? Will keep you posted on the next events because I donot intend to give this up.Ann
Signed up with a very nice young lady and from then on all went belly up.
Phone changed over begining june but no broadband until early sept and they call this a seemless transition!
They did not reply to any correspondance and now i have my 2.2meg link it is constantly crashing.
Wow did i get this wrong. Wanadoo, all is forgiven.