[sharpinf]

Would be very grateful if anyone had any tips about this

Simple backstory was during the bad weather part of the wire casing of the telephone line that runs above the road into our house fell away leaving the bare wire (about 3cm exposed). This has made our phone line crackly and our usually 8mb speed broadband run at around 500kb/s. We have everything including line rental done through Talktalk so rung them about it to ask them to book Openreach to come and fix it, having checked (after very long webpage loading times) from Openreach that they only speak to the provider not the customer direct. So far on three calling attempts all Talktalk have managed to do is tell us the general Openreach number and told us to call it, who when we do then say that they will only speak to Talktalk.

Last night was the last time we tried this and the person from Openreach took most of our details which seemed promising, and 30min later a van showed up. However when we met the engineer he said that because we had used the word "damaged" it had been flagged as an emergency (ie Phone line sparking etc) and he was annoyed at having been summoned to our problem. He also said that the line will need replacing most likely but as a) the pole is too old and b) the wire is too high they are going to need a cherry picker to do the job.

My basic question is how to I convince the talktalk customer services that it's their job to arrange for Openreach to do something about it rather than the CS staff just thinking I'm using them as the worlds slowest directory enquires service? Anyone who has dealt with Talktalk knows getting them off their script is often quite tough and I don't want a boy crying wolf situation where Openreach are sent on emergency call out millions of times for no purpose (as no cherry picker) because someone used the term "damaged"!

[LION8TIGER]

This has made our phone line crackly

Forget telephone support and sign up to the forum. Post in phone support and explain the problem. You may wait a day or two for an answer, don't bump your post as it will put you to the back of the queue.

[pavier]

TalkTalk should never have asked you to call Openreach, it is entirely TalkTalk's responsibility to sort this out with Openreach. You're not paying Openreach, your contract is with TalkTalk. The fault is beyond your BT socket and so is not your responsibility.
If you're getting nowhere you can try filling out an ISPA complaints form

http://www.ispa.org.uk/consumers/complaints-form/

They'll get in touch with a higher level contact at TalkTalk and things should start to move along quickly.

[SkipTracer]

Follow the advice of LION8TIGER and go through the member’s forum.

I had the weather cover come off my telegraph pole back in the winter, I went through the members forum where within an hour they ask if I could e-mail them a picture of the cover (which I did) as not to incur any false call out charges and hay-presto Open Reach were there first thing next morning.

[sharpinf]

Originally Posted by LION8TIGER

Forget telephone support and sign up to the forum. Post in phone support and explain the problem. You may wait a day or two for an answer, don't bump your post as it will put you to the back of the queue.

Thanks for the advice have now done this with photo, hopefully this will resolve the problem.

Thanks also for the complaints form, if TT don't pick up after a few days on the forum that'll be my next call.

[TalkTalkSupport]

hi sharpinf,

I understand this has already been picked up via the Members Forum.

In terms of you being advised to contact open Reach I think this would be in relation to raising a damage report (something whcih can be done either via your ISP or via Open Reach). This is the relevant process where damage is not service affecting (i.e causing a fault).

We can however manaeg this issue for you via the TalkTalk Members Forum.


Regards

Mark
TalkTalk Online Community Department