Changing to Talktalk but old provider want's to charge me, any help

hyperst · 22 Oct 2011 at 15:14

Well where I live we have just got Talktalk LLU at our exchange and with me being in a BT wholesale area this was a welcome change, thing is my current provider (Xilo) are trying to charge me £40 to leave them, they say I need to ask Talktalk to rebook the order correctly

What should I do?

bremen1874 · 22 Oct 2011 at 17:34

If Xilo what to charge you they must have given a reason. What was it?

Personally I wouldn't touch TalkTalk with a bargepole.

hyperst · 22 Oct 2011 at 19:06

bremen1874 said:
If Xilo what to charge you they must have given a reason. What was it?

Personally I wouldn't touch TalkTalk with a bargepole.

When i contacted them to tell them i am switching supliers this is the reason they gave me.

''Hi ****,

I've checked the migration and cease type that we received on the order from them.

There are two types of orders where a migration without a MAC is not charged, unfortunately, this is not one of those orders.

Due to the order that Talk Talk have requested, this is classed as a simultaneous narrowband cease, which is chargeable. As we are unable to override, cancel or change an order belonging to another provider, you will need to take the matter up with them, or cancel the order and ask them to rebook it correctly.

Sophie

--
Billing
uno Broadband''

So I sent this as a reply.

''Hi, what do they need to book it as then? I need to know what to ask for you see as I don't know if they will understand if i say can you rebook it because it's wrong, do you see what I mean?
thanks''

Unfortunately Talktalk are the only provider offering an LLU service in my area, it's got to be better than BT wholesale?

Kona* · 22 Oct 2011 at 19:33

hyperst said:
Unfortunately Talktalk are the only provider offering an LLU service in my area, it's got to be better than BT wholesale?

There are a lot of TalkTalk haters on these forums. The bottom line is, if you are on their LLU service (which you will be) and don't mind using forums for tech support (usually a reply within 24hrs, ish) then they are miles better than BT Wholesale. You can have your line profile tweaked to whatever you like rather than relying on BT's rubbish profiling system and you will most likely always get the maximum download speeds your line is capable of.

I was with TalkTalk for 2 years and they were fantastic. I moved to Sky LLU last month and I wish I was back with TalkTalk, even know they were slightly more expensive. Sky are a huge pain in the backside.

hyperst · 22 Oct 2011 at 19:47

Kona* said:
There are a lot of TalkTalk haters on these forums. The bottom line is, if you are on their LLU service (which you will be) and don't mind using forums for tech support (usually a reply within 24hrs, ish) then they are miles better than BT Wholesale. You can have your line profile tweaked to whatever you like rather than relying on BT's rubbish profiling system and you will most likely always get the maximum download speeds your line is capable of.

I was with TalkTalk for 2 years and they were fantastic. I moved to Sky LLU last month and I wish I was back with TalkTalk, even know they were slightly more expensive. Sky are a huge pain in the backside.

Thanks, I had BT for 3 months and that was a major headache, I am glad to get rid of them and LLU from talktalk sounds great for me as there really is no options for anything else, but I am glad there is some positive people about

bremen1874 · 22 Oct 2011 at 21:08

A quick TalkTalk story…

My sister tried to change her phone & broadband to TalkTalk.

Everything seemed to going smoothly until the day of the switchover. BT disconnected her line as they were supposed to, and then nothing, just a dead phone line.

She calls TalkTalk and they’ve just found out that they haven’t got anywhere to connect her line to, and won’t have in the foreseeable future.

She then tries to get her line reconnected to BT and find out they’ve already reallocated her connection and they haven’t got any spare capacity either.

It was over a month before she managed to get reconnected.

hyperst · 22 Oct 2011 at 23:50

bremen1874 said:
A quick TalkTalk story…

My sister tried to change her phone & broadband to TalkTalk.

Everything seemed to going smoothly until the day of the switchover. BT disconnected her line as they were supposed to, and then nothing, just a dead phone line.

She calls TalkTalk and they’ve just found out that they haven’t got anywhere to connect her line to, and won’t have in the foreseeable future.

She then tries to get her line reconnected to BT and find out they’ve already reallocated her connection and they haven’t got any spare capacity either.

It was over a month before she managed to get reconnected.

ermm, thanks for that, not.

bremen1874 · 23 Oct 2011 at 00:49

hyperst said:
ermm, thanks for that, not.

Okay, TalkTalk have managed to inflict an unnecessary £40 charge even before they have full control over your line. Not a good start!

There was an earlier post that stated there were "a lot of TalkTalk haters on these forums". 'Haters' tends to suggest an unjustified dislike. In most cases people dislike TalkTalk for perfectly good reasons, such as the one I posted about.

n3vrmind · 23 Oct 2011 at 09:12

This is not talktalk inflicting a charge

Requesting a MAC code from your current ISP, is no different that requesting a PAC (port authority code) from your mobile phone provider and it is the universal method for switching between ISPs with no downtime

If your current ISP is wanting to apply a fee, its possibly because you have outstanding time on the contract and you are required to pay out the remaining service that you would have paid them under the contract to close the agreement early

However aside from that, they are NOT allowed to charge you for the MAC code itself under ofcom rules

A1.10 The Communications Provider shall issue a MAC to the End-User free of charge.

Link: http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/paren...sation-code-mac-broadband-migrations-process/

Yamahahahahaha · 23 Oct 2011 at 09:39

I thought Xilo's offerings were provided from TalkTalk LLU?

The only possible reason to move from Xilo to TalkTalk would be to save money, but expect everything else to be worse.

hyperst · 23 Oct 2011 at 12:35

n3vrmind said:
This is not talktalk inflicting a charge

Requesting a MAC code from your current ISP, is no different that requesting a PAC (port authority code) from your mobile phone provider and it is the universal method for switching between ISPs with no downtime

If your current ISP is wanting to apply a fee, its possibly because you have outstanding time on the contract and you are required to pay out the remaining service that you would have paid them under the contract to close the agreement early

However aside from that, they are NOT allowed to charge you for the MAC code itself under ofcom rules

Link: http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/paren...sation-code-mac-broadband-migrations-process/

Well I am under no contract as such as Xilo say that it is a monthly thing with them, if moving supplier there is no charge apparently, which I am doing but according to Xilo Talktalk have done it wrong :confused:

At no point have I requested a MAC from Xilo, it seems talktlak can sort it, but obviously the way they are doing it cause's me fee's.

Yamahahahahaha said:
I thought Xilo's offerings were provided from TalkTalk LLU?

The only possible reason to move from Xilo to TalkTalk would be to save money, but expect everything else to be worse.

Well Xilo are on BT wholesale in my area, they provide a better service than BT granted, but they do not provide an LLU service, only TalkTalk are offering it.

3dcandy · 23 Oct 2011 at 12:56

TalkTalk haters is very strong, in my experience the number of people who actually like and recommend their talktalk service is very low for a myriad of reasons. The fact of the matter is that talktalk get 10 times as many complaints to ofcom about their service than any other isp. Billing (and their complete ability to screw it up) is the number one complaint, so being charged £40 because of them kinda sums it up really. If talktalk have installed llu, then the others will follow suit shortly, so if you're willing to wait a better supplier may come along. However, to make myself absolutely clear, I have no end of stories about talktalk's inability to bill correctly and give a good service, and about 3 stories of when they've been good, so bear this in mind. I also have a bucketful of stories of talktalk taking an order and being unable to fulfill, cutting people's service and then making it very expensive and time consuming to move elsewhere to get it reconnected, poor service, extremely poor customer service (except the forums) and generally being inept. You pays your money and takes your choice, but I wouldn't recommend talktalk to anyone....but, in the end it's your choice. I'm guessing it will still end up costing you £40 though

AtaRo · 23 Oct 2011 at 12:58

You need to call Xilo first to request a MAC code and then call talktalk telling them you want to transfer and give them your mac code but you did not request a mac code from Xilo first and you just called talktalk straight away, and talktalk must be doing something wrong here if Xilo is charging you for transfering isp what I suggest is call talktalk again and cancel your order once thats done call xilo and get a mac code, once you get the mac code, call talktalk and tell them you want to transfer and give them your mac code if this is too much for your, then just pay them what they are asking.

uno · 23 Oct 2011 at 20:03

I'll try and clarify this.

We do not charge for issuing a MAC (but as the OP has confirmed, they have not requested this).

What has happened is that Talk Talk have put an order to cease the PSTN line, which the broadband is tied against. As they have actioned this as a cease and re-provide, we are charged for the cessation of the broadband in line with standard Openreach fees.

Talk Talk need to book this as a Cease (M) which is a migration (and cease), which they've not done. This type of cease (even without a MAC) is not chargeable.

Billing are likely to confirm this to you on Monday but they're not in on the weekend.

Talk Talk are the only ones that can change the order to ensure that you're not charged such a fee. We have no control over the order type they place to take over the service., nor can we modify or even cancel it - only they can.

You need to call Xilo first to request a MAC code

Until the existing order is cancelled (from Talk Talk's end), we cannot issue a MAC. You either cease outright or have MAC - you can't do both. Even if one was issued, Talk Talk won't use it as they're an MPF operator (who don't use MACs)

Well Xilo are on BT wholesale in my area, they provide a better service than BT granted, but they do not provide an LLU service, only TalkTalk are offering it.

No, we can use Talk Talk's equipment too! Contact us and we can give you details about those products, move you over to it for free and stop you getting billed a cessation charge (as we'll do the order correctly!

)

Matt

Uther · 23 Oct 2011 at 22:00

Everyone seems to hate on talktalk but I'm trying to set up an order for sky LLU (which everyone says is great) and so far dealing with sky has been the biggest pain in the **** I have ever had the misfortune to suffer"

3dcandy · 23 Oct 2011 at 22:46

Ohh Sky can be awful...once up and running it's pretty good though!

3dcandy · 23 Oct 2011 at 22:47

For the OP, I'd be inclined to stick with your current ISP and get them to swap you over to TalkTalk's equipment...

hyperst · 24 Oct 2011 at 01:41

uno said:
I'll try and clarify this.

We do not charge for issuing a MAC (but as the OP has confirmed, they have not requested this).

What has happened is that Talk Talk have put an order to cease the PSTN line, which the broadband is tied against. As they have actioned this as a cease and re-provide, we are charged for the cessation of the broadband in line with standard Openreach fees.

Talk Talk need to book this as a Cease (M) which is a migration (and cease), which they've not done. This type of cease (even without a MAC) is not chargeable.

Billing are likely to confirm this to you on Monday but they're not in on the weekend.

Talk Talk are the only ones that can change the order to ensure that you're not charged such a fee. We have no control over the order type they place to take over the service., nor can we modify or even cancel it - only they can.

Until the existing order is cancelled (from Talk Talk's end), we cannot issue a MAC. You either cease outright or have MAC - you can't do both. Even if one was issued, Talk Talk won't use it as they're an MPF operator (who don't use MACs)

No, we can use Talk Talk's equipment too! Contact us and we can give you details about those products, move you over to it for free and stop you getting billed a cessation charge (as we'll do the order correctly! )

Matt

Thank you for clearing that up, I know now what I should ask for when I speak to them tomorrow and go from there.

TranceCommunity · 24 Oct 2011 at 10:41

Lets not forget that TalkTalk steal over £10 million a year from people by overcharging which there well aware of. There billing system is f"""ed up and they cant fix it. they aim to avoid fines rather than actually fix problems.

most complained about company in the UK with 3 times as many complaints as the second.

oh yeah great company.

stoofa · 26 Oct 2011 at 00:25

Yer yer - Talk Talk are rubbish!!
They are a waste of space.
Don't touch them.

OK, that should keep the haters happy.

OP - I've been on Talk Talk Business LLU for almost 2yrs now.
I get 15mb/1mb connection which always feels quick even at peak times.
I'm on the business service so I also get a static IP address, but that is certainly not a necessity.

In the 23 months I've been with them I've experienced approx. 3hrs of total downtime, the longest being about half an hour, the others being five minute outages.
Billing has been exceptional - no errors ever.
Support I cannot comment on because, over 23 months I've never had the need to contact them, everthing just works.
I've had the need to email customer services twice (to check on first when my contract expires and secondly if they will be offering fiber services).
On both occasions these emails were answered within 48hrs.

Take this information as you see fit - just my experience.

Quick, the haters have started reading again.
So in conclusion, Talk Talk are the devil!