It's now been fixed. Well, at least, it's been working for a whole day so far.
It took a month, and having to report the fault nine times after continually being told it's mended. I'll leave the diary log up though. It might be instructive to Talktalk as how NOT to run a customer services dept.
Sorry, I'm not being sarcastic, and I'm not a complainer as a hobby. I was previously a satisfied customer of Talktalk, but after having to spend so much time attempting simply to get my phone line repaired, I'm not quite so happy.
But being positive, I'll make some suggestions:
1) If the same fault has been reported 4 or 5 times, it might be worth getting a Supervisor to look to see why.
2) If when logging a fault for the seventh time, a customer asks to make a complaint, it doesn't mean they are being awkward and shouldn't invite a sulky response.
3) If you tell a customer you'll ring them back, do so.
4) If a customer has spend 35 mins waiting on the phone trying to get an answer don't ask them to ring back again in 5 mins after you've done a line test.
5) Why, when the same fault is being reported multiple times, do you have to do a line test every time anyway? Why not simply re-log the fault?
6) When a customer is reporting the same fault for about the sixth time, why do they have to give your agent: Name, Phone number, First line of address, Postcode, DATE OF BIRTH?? I'm just trying to report an ongoing fault, not open a bank account!
7) If you text a customer saying that the fault is fixed and to reply 'Ongoing' if it isn't, perhaps you should actually do something when they do reply? Maybe give a response too?