Talk Talk - Real Customer/Real Results

stoofa

stoofa

stoofa

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Talk Talk seem to get a general "bad rap" so I thought it only fair to report back on my recent switch to them. I've always said people are ready to complain, but tend not to post if all is well. Here is my experience when moving from BT Infinity 2 to Talk Talk Fibre Large a couple of weeks ago.

Ordering & the deal:
All very simple online ordering. Asked me all sensible questions, checker told me the speed range that would be classed as acceptable (46mb - 71mb). Asked if I wanted call features switching on - 1471, CallerID etc.
The deal was for 80/20 fibre, line rental, the two call features listed above. 18 months at £27.70/month. I've also been able to add in a call bundle for free - this apparently was a free gift for people who were subscribed during their hacking earlier this year. I wasn't, but was still able to add it.
So I've got free calls to UK landline and mobiles anytime for the next 12 months too.
Also got £100 of Love2shop vouchers

Switch-over date:
My going live date was 8th December 2015, about two weeks after I ordered. BT switched my Infinity 2 off at 1:00am that morning, so I was without any internet.
My phone was moved over at around 3:00pm. I was finally able to connect my Talk Talk router at around 7:00pm.
Sure I'd have liked internet back sooner, but all they could do was promise me a day and they did deliver. Long day without the net however!

Speed post switch-over:
I had some issues getting the speedtest.net to give me any sensible results, so instead I tested using the BT Wholesale checker and also the one at http://www.broadband.co.uk/broadband-speed-test/
I've listed my speed test results. On each of the days listed I took a speed test from each of the above sites and averaged.

12hrs - 74.9 / 18.1
1 day - 75.5 / 17.17
5 days - 75.5 / 16.7
7 days - 74.9 / 16.8
10 days - 75.3 / 17.1
14 days - 75.5 / 18.1

Customer service so far:
My Love2shop vouchers arrived 9 days after I went live. I was told to allow up to 28 days. So cannot fault service there.
First bill arrived and it was a little confusing - was about £10 more than I'd expected. Called up and the agent explained that there were a couple of days of charges outside of my usual billing period and there was the initial router delivery charge included too. She agreed that the bill was confusing - refunded me the £6.75 router delivery charge even though I didn't ask her to.
So only one customer service contact - but cannot fault that.

Speed tests and router now:
So, after 14 days (so my training period should now be complete I have the following:

router1.jpg


4937377539.png


bb2.jpg


Finally here is my "line quality" test from the thinkbroadband website (added 27-12-15). Large spikes indicate massive file transfers.

quality1.jpg


So - two weeks in and I'm happy enough. Talk Talk router has been fine and has offered slightly better Wi-Fi range than the old BT HomeHub 5. It can offer a stronger signal around the house. However throughput has been no better than the BT unit.
 
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Jez said:
Mine is fine, too. Never see any congestion touch wood.

Swcny2g.png
Click to expand...

Have you tried running the Thinkbroadband BQM monitor - http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping

This is what my TalkTalk graph looked like -

PUfEZ7z.png


This is what my BT graph looks like -

4MfRU9C.png


So the BT graph is as flat as a pancake except for small spikes where there is significant data transfer activity, the TalkTalk shows the same time related noise whether the line has activity on it or not. I remember a thread from pro-gamers on the TalkTalk forums, with a similar BQM graph to mine, complaining about latency.
 
No not tried that, i dont think it would be relevant to my households usage (obviously i speak for myself only). The peak latency on that talktalk graph is of magnitude which is imperceptible day to day (30ms?). Bandwidth congestion never shows either if we do download things or i work from home via vpn and transfer files (regular usage for me). Note the last computer game i played was probably on a nintendo in the 90's...

Re the graphs, if anything those graphs actually show a lower minimum and average latency over the two, with the peaks only just surpassing the average on the BT connection. While the connection is not as consistent, the talktalk one is better performing there out of the two assuming consistent bandwidth :)
 
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I'd be happy to run a similar test on my own line - see if it's a general Talk Talk issue etc.
Anyone happen to know what I'd need to set in the supplied Talk Talk router to allow the above test to run?
I've got a feeling by default the router will not allow a ping test from the internet and I'll just get a graph full of red blocks.
 
stoofa said:
I'd be happy to run a similar test on my own line - see if it's a general Talk Talk issue etc.
Click to expand...

People had normal graphs on TalkTalk Business when I was getting my results, and I seem to recall a change when I was within a week or two of ending my contract - so I'm not sure whether it's the norm across the country.

At the time the TalkTalk HG635 router was not suitable for ping monitoring because it handled pings in a funny manner producing graphs like this as standard -

m9cj67t.png


Ping Graph for the HG635

The layer of yellow (maximum latency) on the graph is something like 20ms deep.

This is unusual, my other routers show only a thin yellow line when the connection is quiet.

I haven't see a problem with latency while using this router so doubt this is anything to be concerned about.

http://npr.me.uk/hg635.html
Click to expand...

That site also shows how to enable WAN pings on the HG635, don't know if it's the same on more recent TalkTalk routers.
 
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So, here are my results:

quality1.jpg


At the moment I'm doing some significant file transfers (moving my music collection from Amazon music to Google) hence the spikes, but you can see my resting results.
 
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so, its nice to see some positive commntary about a company for achange.

not least of which because i just signeded up to them and im all fingers crossed nothing goes wrong
 
I was tempted to switch, then I saw the £50 fibre connection fee and thought no thank you! I'm already on Sky fibre so I feel the £50 isn't justified...
 
Sparx said:
I was tempted to switch, then I saw the £50 fibre connection fee and thought no thank you! I'm already on Sky fibre so I feel the £50 isn't justified...
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Yer - £50 if you're switching from Sky, free from anywhere else. Dunno what Sky did to annoy them.

*Edit*
Well that was the price when I switched - cost me nothing to switch over from BT.
 
Yet to see anything bad about them regarding fibre connections.

Going 4+ years back, I moved quite a few family and friends from them to Plusnet/BT and saw great speed/stability increases on ADSL.

I guess recently they've sorted out their issues.
 
I had their ADSL2+ until my FTTC went live last Jan, so my ADSL would have been from approx Jun 13 - Jan 15.

Never had an issue with it, the same story as my FTTC since then. It just "works" with no frills.
 
bledd. said:
Yet to see anything bad about them regarding fibre connections.

Going 4+ years back, I moved quite a few family and friends from them to Plusnet/BT and saw great speed/stability increases on ADSL.

I guess recently they've sorted out their issues.
Click to expand...

Yes and no, complaint rates have steadily fallen which is great, but the hack fiasco last year is estimated to have had massive implications, predictions range from about 200,000 subscribers leaving to almost 300,000 from what i've seen - that's going to hurt.
 
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