Well I am pleased to say that I have finally left TalkTalk Broadband and I definitely won’t be going back to them anytime soon. I could have got my broadband for free with them but I’d rather pay for something and get a good service that I can rely on.

Talking to TalkTalk support has been a waste of time and money and the people I have got to speak to either don’t know what they are doing, don’t understand their own systems or simply don’t care. Even yesterday when I called them to say my broadband wasn’t working they couldn’t tell me whether or not I was still connected to them  and suggested I report it as a fault.

It turns out I had been disconnected and BT hadn’t emailed PlusNet to tell them my migration had gone through. Entering my new login details to my router got me connected straight away.

The first thing I noticed is the speed. Although I have still to get an increase of my connection from 1Mb to 8Mb the whole internet just seems to have come back to life. Surfing the internet is so much faster with PlusNet even at these low speeds and I can’t wait to see the further improvements when I’m on 8Mb.

I chose PlusNet over others as I noticed they had topped the customer satisfaction charts at uSwitch with 92% and they didn’t tie you into any long term contracts. Who wants to be stuck into 18 month contract with anyone?

Any company who is also prepared to do a no cost 30 day trial have to be confident of their own services too and that was the point that finally clinched the deal. I had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

If you’re fed up with your broadband provider then check out PlusNet for yourself. They do up to 8Mb connections from only £9.99 a month. Although there are free deals around, the saying “You get what you pay for” springs to mind.

Okay this is my second attempt at switching broadband provider. I’ll be leaving TalkTalk broadband hopefully and good riddance to them!

I’ve signed up with Plus.net who for the same price as I was paying before will give me an up to 8MB connection albeit with some download restrictions. They limit you to 4GB during peak hours and 50GB during off peak hours. There is no way I’d go over any of those so its no problem for me.

What I particularly liked about Plus.net is that not only do they offer a no charge 30 day trial where you can cancel your service and pay nothing if you’re not happy, they don’t tie you into long term contracts too. That’s ideal for me as hopefully Sky Broadband will have their 16MB service running in my area in November/December this year so it is going to be pretty easy to move provider if I want to.

Anyway, I’ve got an email confirmation that Plus.net will be able to supply my broadband and I should be live with them within 5-10 days. I’ll just be glad to see the back of TalkTalk to be honest. Anyone thinking of joining up with TalkTalk broadband or any of their other services check out TalkTalk Hell first before committing yourself to something you’ll be stuck with for a long time.

Well I eventually got through to TalkTalk today and got to explain my problem and that I still hadn’t got my MAC code.

To my surprise the guy on the phone confirmed I had ordered it more than 28 days ago and said “I’ll get you a MAC code within the hour and call you back”.

Well, you can’t argue with a statement like that but I did wonder whether I would ever get the call back. I’m pleased to say a couple of hours later he did ring and I’m now in possession of the elusive MAC code. Whether it works remains to be seen but I will be positive and take them at their word and use it later today.

It just goes to show that they can generate MAC codes easily enough if they want to.

I’ve been trying to leave TalkTalk broadband since the 11th May 2006. The first MAC code I was given I was told was invalid and after chasing them again and again and again I still don’t have a new MAC code. They tell me it takes them 28 days to generate a code (Why so long?) but the last recorded request I made for this is 25th July 2006. It’s now the 29th August 2006 and I still don’t have it.

So I thought today I would ring them again and find out what is happening. I called them 5 times this morning and each time I got cut off before I could get an answer. Bearing in mind this is a telecommunications company, you’d think their systems would be good enough for this not to happen. Getting cut off once maybe, but 5 times in a row?

I’m still no further forward!

When TalkTalk first started offering their “Free Broadband Offer” we thought this might be a good idea. I was already paying £14.99 to TalkTalk for my broadband connection and we already used TalkTalk for our calls so the savings could be considerable over the course of time.

Now for the small print: You need to transfer your line rental from BT to TalkTalk and take up their Talk 3 package. You are also committed to an 18 month contract. Again no big deal if things are all okay but looking into their landline services I found that they didn’t offer the call sign service where you can get another number with a different ringtone. We use this for our fax machine at home so in order for us to keep a separate number for our fax machine we would need another line.

We decided against transferring to the Free Broadband Offer and boy am I glad I did.

Shortly afterwards I started experiencing problems with my broadband connection. The speed was running at a crawls pace, I couldn’t download my emails on certain accounts and I couldn’t even get access to quite a few websites. Calling TalkTalk support was a complete waste of both time and money. For Broadband support you have to call a premium rate number and I would be held in a queue for sometimes up to an hour only for them to tell me there was nothing wrong and because I was using a router they couldn’t support me.

Now I had been using the service for 11 months with no problems and suggested that the problem was at their end which they refused to accept so it left me with no alternative but to ask to leave.

I have been trying to leave since the 11th May 2006 and was told I would have to wait up to 28 days for the all important MAC code. This eventually arrived by email on 7th June 2006 but when I tired to use it I was told it was invalid. Despite emailing requesting another one I got no replies. Eventually I called them again on 25th July 2006 insisting that they send me a MAC code straight away. I’m still waiting!

Funnily enough my broadband connection issues resolved themselves after about a week. I hadn’t changed anything at all at my end so I can only presume the problem was at their end as I had suggested before. I still want to leave as I can get a better deal and faster connection elsewhere and I have ZERO confidence in their support.

I have found TalkTalk’s customer service to be some of the worst I have ever experienced. I have been hung up before when the Indian lady in the call centre couldn’t understand my request and promised action on several occasions to get no further.

Anyone thinking about taking up their offer should think wisely as you will be tied in for 18 months. That’s okay if things work well for you but if you run into any problems my experience of their customer service has been less than favourable and you could feel like your hitting your head against a brick wall.