I had a phone call from Leeds today.

It was Talktalk, offering me "the chance" to enter a new fixed 18-month contract.

What was in it for me was "no price rises". Well, we know that Tiscali currently offers inclusive international phone calls to France and Germany (though not Finland) so I would be surprised if Talktalk raised its prices.

What was in it for them was I would be stick with them for another 18 months. Their service can be abysmal (phone calls and internet cut off with no warning) so I’m not falling for that one!

Let this be a warning to everyone - once you are out of minimum contract, whatever you do, don’t fix again with the same people!

I got same call in September and it really annoyed me. I had been thinking about moving to Sky BB which would need a move back to BT for phone line first.
At end September tried to sign up online to BT which seemed to work but two weeks later no word and talktalk cancellation letter sent. After numerous e-mails to BT got told that moving back would be £125.
Phoned up and advised that I had received numerous "come back to BT" mailings and was put through to different section who took all details and reconnected for nothing.
BT to take over line on 6/11. Phone stops ringing from 6/11 and then no dial tone from 9/11.
So now have been a returning BT customer for nearly a week and have been provided with crap service,
told twice my phone line fault fixed when it still does not work at all,
advised twice that engineers had called but could not get access when they had not called at all,
advised by CS staff of the fees I may be subject to if the fault is not on BT network - when I interrupted and said I had already been advised of this and had established fault not in house, was told that an engineer could not be arranged unless I listened to this again and accepted that I might be subect to a £125 call out charge + around £80 per hour of engineers time after first hour.

Quite honestly it seems that no matter who your phone company is, they are all bloody useless when something goes wrong and clearly use these charges to try to scare people off raising faults.
I also think that BT Openreach know how to take people off BT network but don't know how to move them back onto it.

If anyone reading this has decided to move to BT, I have seen threads saying that you don't always need to pay the £125. There is something you can do to check whether your line is still connected, search here.

TBH I can live with occasional loss of broadband, but I find the phone going down unacceptable. Mind you, as you say, any telecoms customer must beware of "the grass being greener"(!)

TalkTalk is saving me so much money on phone calls that the service has to be totally irredeemable before I jump now. However, with no long contract, I can jump when I like when a decent cheap alternative is available.

The one provider I know I would never switch to is BT - their costs have sky-rocketed!

I would concur that moving back to BT is not a smart move but is often necessary to get the deal you want.

If you move outside of BT, make sure it is a once only move and that your equipment is in good order before you go!

I am now back to BT with calls going through Skytalk and broadband with Sky.
Transfer to BT was messy but this was down to Openreach who do repairs for all LLU suppliers anyway.

In respect of patpendings comment about checking if line still connected, if you have BT line which has been LLUd to another supplier, the line IS still active with BT therefore the fee should not apply (The line is simply allocated to another supplier and connected to their equiment until you switch back).

For me going through BT for line rental (which I could change to Sky after a year) and calls/broadband via Sky costs me less than TalkTalk (as I am Sky subscriber anyway).

Broadband speed is also improved via Sky.

I have been with Talk Talk for nearly a year and have not suffered any of the problems you mentioned.

I have had that call regarding the extension several times recently and I really don't want to enter into another 18 month contract, but I'd rather just tootle along, staying with Talk Talk but free to move if a better deal arises. I asked if I had to sign up again for 18 months as I wasn't aware there would be another contract after the first 18 months finished - their response was pretty much 'yes'.

There seems to be nothing in it for me for signing up again, I even said my modem wasn't up to much any more and I would be looking for around at other deals with a free modem and even then they didn't offer me even another cheap and cheerful replacement to stay with them. Then I've had further calls asking if I'm going to sign up to the extension, I've said I'm looking round and they just say ok then, bye.

So do we have to sign up to another 18 months or can we just keep going? I assumed the first 18 months was part of the initial deal, not ongoing. I don't know of any other service I've signed up for where I have to keep signing onto contracts and it seems very wrong.

edit: Ah, just found this on the Talk Talk Members Forum


http://www.talktalkmembers.com/forum...ad.php?t=10110

and this...
http://www.talktalkmembers.com/forum...ntract+renewal

I was given the impression I had to agree to the new 18 month contract in order to stay with them. That's not good.