Progress on the TalkTalk front

[doug]

Not having a problem - yet - but I thought I'd post an update. Thursday I received a letter from TalkTalk requesting mt MAC code so they can switch over my BB connection from BT. Ahah I thought progress at long last. Hang on though I haven't heard anything about the phone connection, that is supposed to switch first. So I rang only to be informed that there was an issue in that there was a Carelevel 3 lock on the line. When I came back off the ceiling - some of you may remember that I went round this loop 3 times being told by BT there wasn't and TalkTalk (TT) there was and that this issue had been resolved and was going again - I wen to the shop. A nice young lady read through all the correspondence and made an irate phone call saying how embarrassed she was. She then sent an e-mail to "high level" and said hat someone would ring me directly. This occurred that afternoon - a lady called Dawn from Warrington. After several calls she confirmed that there was this lock on the line and that I had to Get BT to remove it using strong and appropriate verbosity. This I did and after going through all the palaver again managed to get through to a person who asked how could she help. I asked for a manager as I wanted this lock removed she went off, putting me on hold, then came back to say there was the security lock on the line and was because I had Careline installed. I explained that this was years ago and was installed because my Father-in-Law was living with us. HE DIED 5 YEARS AGO and the Careline was cancelled. Also I had been informed 3 times of late that the lock had been removed. She then went off and came back and assured me that it had now been removed - I have her name on record.

I then went back to Dawn of TT with the update. She said she would monitor the phone switch and wouldn't move on the BB side until I returned fro holiday - we are off next Wednesday and I didn't want anything to go awry in my absence.

Now I can't fault TT for lack of effort once I had attracted their attention but I deplore the fact that as there was an issue with the phone no one had bothered to contact me about that - I have had to discover this for myself each time. I do strongly criticise BT for incompetence any downright lying about the state of my line.

There now rant over - for now. Not sure if this is in the correct board but if anyone is with BT and have had Careline on their line be warned when trying to switch providers.

[andsome]

I hope that it all works out for you now. Deal with BT, Talk Talk, in fact any big company these days, and you can be in for big trouble. I curse the day that call centres came into existence, and even more so since most of them were exported to India. Don't want to put a damper on things Doug, but don't place any reliance on having Dawns name. These people use pseudonyms, and if you ask for Dawn again, you are likely to be told that no one has heard of her, and that in fact helpline calls go through to any one of several different call centres. All the best for the holiday, we are off for a few days on Monday morning.

[Thos]

Thanks for the up-date, Doug.

I am particularly interested because I am minded to take up TT's package if all finally goes well with you. I have seen no comparable offer since TT announced theirs except for www.biscit.net and no-one seems to have heard of them.

Thos.

[doug]

Not making much headway with this transfer. The problem seems to be with BT. Had a long chat with Dawn at TalkTalk - who's on my case - and here is an extract from her list their attempts.

Dear Mr Chapman.

These are the rejection notes on your account from BT every time we have requested you line when you have advised care level 3 has been removed.

240406 17:53 991 Provisioning request will be held pending until the completion

of provisioning on account: r a BT line for which priority services is set with

out applying repair care as Level 3

050506 07:13 999 WLRResidentialSingleLineTransferCommand rejected [WSPG3481]:

You are not allowed to transfer a BT line for which priority *services is set with

out applying repair care as Level 3

280606 10:34 999 WLRResidentialSingleLineTransferCommand rejected [WSPG3481]:

You are not allowed to transfer a BT line for which priority *services is set with

out applying repair care as Level 3

150706 07:33 999 WLRResidentialSingleLineTransferCommand rejected [WSPG3481]:

You are not allowed to transfer a BT line for which priority *services is set with

out applying repair care as Level 3

After this last entry we set up a new account to see if the request would go through.

080806 08:29 999 WLRResidentialSingleLineTransferCommand rejected [WSPG3481]:

You are not allowed to transfer a BT line for which priority *services is set with

out applying repair care as Level 3

120806 07:32 999 WLRResidentialSingleLineTransferCommand rejected [WSPG3481]:

You are not allowed to transfer a BT line for which priority services is set with

out applying repair care as Level 3.

This where we are today Mr Chapman.

Have just been through all the business again with BT - I've been in touch with so many departments it's not true each time I am assured that there was this security lock on the line but it has been removed the above list gives all the results. If anyone has any suggestions I would be grateful. My last contact at BT queried why I wanted to change I said Service and was told that BT gives the best service.

[andsome]

A friend has had no bother at all with them. Three weeks after visiting the shop at Lichfield the phone line was set up, and last week I set up the BB for her. It is running beautifully. I hope you get sorted soon.

[doug]

As far as I can ascertain this security lock refers to when we had Careline installed for Anne's Dad (90 ish)when he came to live with us and we were both still at work. This was all supposedly removed when he died 5 years ago. The really annoying thing is the BT keep saying that there is nothing now on the line when obviously it still is. Have been trying very hard to keep my cool over this. I don't think it's a problem related to TalkTalk just BT's inefficiency.

[catgate]

Perhaps a dropping a line to the Managing Director of Oftel might not go amiss. You can not do better than going in at the top.

[andsome]

Perhaps a dropping a line to the Managing Director of Oftel might not go amiss. You can not do better than going in at the top.

The problem with this cause of action is that sometimes they do something, but in far too many company's they just pass it over to someone lower down the pecking order to do the old fob off trick.

I seriously wonder if a request to change the actual number would help clear things. A bit of a pain I know, but it puts the onus firmly on BT, and the new number would have no restrictions on it.

[doug]

'drather not. At my age have to remember all these numbers is a pain. It's bad enough trying to remember the car registration number - and that isn't changed that often! But what with PIN for this, passwords for that etc. what is the world coming to.

[Thos]

What a frustrating experience it must all be. I would be inclined to try catgate's suggestion of an approach to OFTEL.

Thos.

[catgate]

It is surprising what a polite, detailed letter to the top man in any organisation can achieve. I have had a lot of success with Yorkshire Water (Kelda Group), Yorkshire Electricity, Centrica, ASDA, Tesco etc. But, I always address my letter to the man himself and mark it "Private and Personal".

I know from experience that these people do not know the detail of the day to day workings of the organisations they run, but they think it is all running smoothly, because that is what they are "fed". All the downside is filtered out, for obvious reasons. When they find it is not as smooth as they have been led to believe it is, they usually get a few people running round pretty sharpish.

Give it a try Doug. It can only improve things.

[Thos]

It is surprising what a polite, detailed letter to the top man in any organisation can achieve. I have had a lot of success with Yorkshire Water (Kelda Group), Yorkshire Electricity, Centrica, ASDA, Tesco etc. But, I always address my letter to the man himself and mark it "Private and Personal".

I know from experience that these people do not know the detail of the day to day workings of the organisations they run, but they think it is all running smoothly, because that is what they are "fed". All the downside is filtered out, for obvious reasons. When they find it is not as smooth as they have been led to believe it is, they usually get a few people running round pretty sharpish.

Give it a try Doug. It can only improve things.

I recall a good example of one of your polite detailed letters, catgate, suggesting an improvement in the ferry boarding services. :lol: :lol: :lol:

Thos.

[doug]

Finaly it looks as though things are happeneing. Spent a long time on thurs, last, having intense discussions with various people at BT Retail. finally got someone in their Resolution Team to take an interest even though he said that there had been a lock on the line but it had been removed on July 14th. Remember this has been going on since April and many times BT had told me that the line was clear. I told the chap that my wife had been on the County Emergency Planning team some years ago when she was County Organiser for WRVS. Prior to that the previous occupant of our premises had been the Chief Inspector for Mines and Quarries for the North East. The latter should not have been a problem, he says, as everything would have been cleared when I signed up for the line and had the phone re-connected when we first moved into the property. Leave it with him and he would dig deeper. How often have we heard those words? Late Thurs pm he rang me back! He said he had found a reference to a priority repair going back some considerable time. It was only a text note on the file. Anyway, he had spoken to BT Wholesale and persuaded them to delete this reference completely. That was as much as he could do. Anything else would be up TalkTalk.

Then I spoke to the girl at TalkTalk, who's been holding my hand over this the last few months, and told her the story. I suggested that they didn't submit the switch request until this week to make sure there was an adequate delay for things to refresh.

This morning when I logged on I had an e-mail from Tesco - who we pay for our calls to - to say they were sorry that we were leaving them but to contact them immediately if I wanted to stay put. The changeover is due to take place on September 5th and all outstanding bills would be submitted then. Later on my wife took a call from TalkTalk to say that things looked promising from their end as the switch request had not been rejected - first time ever.

So after 6 months of - in hind sight - lies from BT things should go smoothly. rough calculation indicates that it has cost ~£60 for the lost savings I should have made if the switch had gone through properly first time.

[catgate]

You could try billing them....in red.

[doug]

Not worth it. Anyway wouldn't be able to afford the new cost of postage. The bill would be too large to fit the PO's new sizing template!

[djohn]

I hope you have not yet changed to Talk-Talk doug. Their forum in ADSL has some of the worst horror stories I've ever read. My neighbour [Warden] was with them for 12 months, could not wait to get back to BT but took just over 3 months after the contract was up to move back. She is still being billed for hundreds of pounds of calls from them that have been proved not to have been made.

The phone is supplied by the Housing association of which she is our scheme manager, when they realised she had changed to Talk-Talk without requesting their permision she almost lost her job. The housing association is now dealing with the issue for her. :(

We are lucky regarding the care-line system as it is on a separate line from the phone same as all the units in our scheme with constant contact through a separate speaker unit. I can switch it to private then use any of the pull cords in my bungalow or the pendant I carry in my pocket to activate the alarm, or if I'm on my own at any time and not feeling too good, I switch it over to 'public', this means they can hear me if I was to fall over and call out for assistance without me having to use the cord or pendant.

[doug]

Have decided to stick with it now.

[andsome]

My friend who I helped a few days ago to install the Talk Talk B is still very pleased.

[doug]

Still delayed. My phone line finally got changed over to TalkTalk. Next problem is getting the MAC from PlusNet, my current BB provider. It would appear that Tiscali do PlusNet's LLU and have been having problems. Here's the gist of my recent communications with PlusNet.

James Kirkham BOT - DSL Provisioning 12:37pm, Tuesday 5th September 2006

Unfortunatley there has been a delay due to technical difficulties with the supplier and they are unable to generate MAC keys at the moment.

We have been advised by the supplier to hold any MAC requests at the until the issue has been resolved. Once we have been given confirmation from the suppliers that the issue has been resolved we can then proceed as normal.

We apologies for this delay and any inconvenience this may cause.

I can assure we are working closely with the supplier to ensure we are kept up to date and resolution is met promptly.

Regards,

James Kirkham

To administer your account and for all your help and support requirements visit http://portal.plus.net/index_nlp.html

Your comment 8:23am, Tuesday 12th September 2006

It's now over week gone. Any news?

James Kirkham BOT - DSL Provisioning 10:59am, Thursday 14th September 2006

We apologies for the continued delay with regards to providing your MAC key.

We are in continued contact with the supplier regarding this issue.

The problem with the generation of the LLU MAC keys lies between BT and our supplier. The MAC keys that our supplier our receiving back are corrupt and unusable.

I shall continue to chase this issue for you and endeavor to get your MAC key as soon as possible.

I shall update you as soon as i have any further information regarding this.

Again i apologies for the delay and the inconvenience this must be causing.

Regards,

James Kirkham

So I'm still suffering with BT. Also have been having a lot of drop outs with PlusNet.I persevere!

[andsome]

This saga is unbelievable.

[AlanHo]

Doug

They must have found out you enjoy being taken for a long run.

Good job you are not a high jumper.

[doug]

Well I have been practicing high jumps this summer. Especially after each episode on this change. It always hurts when I fall off the ceiling. This PlusNet/BT/Tiscali issue has been going on quite a while. The posts on the PN forum have been really flaying them. I originally thought that my repeated dropped connections might have been me as they seem to fit in with other issues - hence the reason for me to bite the bullet and do a re-format & Install in another thread. Still going ahead with that but the issue with PN is unbelievable, according to the posts I've been reading through of late. I know I will be commited to the 18 month contract with TT but this will be a diminishing commitment as the first 18 months roll on. PN are invoking 30 days minimum notice for termination and this only starts after they have resolved any issues. They have a very strong censorship algorithm on their website, you should see how some of the posts are screwed!

[doug]

I've finally well and truly bitten the bullet. Having eventually received the MAC key from my present provider (Plusnet)it turns out to be unusable. There has been no end of problems with Plusnet; the frequency of dropped connections is now intolerable I wouldn't mind the frequent slow download speeds provided the connection was reliable. I recon I've had to re-start the modem about 30 times this weekend. Herself is very cross she's been trying all morning to do some on line shopping with M & S for holiday clothes and called me in to reset it 5 times in '90 mins. She has instructed me to stop faffing around and get the BB switched. As there will be a delay I've requested Plusnet to terminate the account as of 3rd Oct. As we will be away for the 3 weeks this should leave enough time for the present connection to stop and Talktalk to restart. This will result in a new USB modem being sent out and hopefully one of our daughters will check our post and collect the modem from the PO.

I think I'll set up an e-mail link through the Forum to tide me over for the while though.

[andsome]

Have a good time while you are away, and don't worry about e mails, forget it all. My friend is still very pleased with her talk talk BB and phone, everything is fine. I reckon the horror stories can apply with all providers. They all have happy customers and all have customers ready to commit murder.