Escher - "Relativity"I am typing this at our local public library because of an organisation called TalkTalk - an arm of a profit hungry business called Carphone Warehouse. Perhaps naively, I had imagined that switching our home phone and broadband provider from Orange to TalkTalk would be a smooth and simple process. No way! When the moment for switchover occurred on Tuesday evening our phoneline went stone dead.
The next day and today I have made various calls to TalkTalk on Shirley's mobile phone but it's a bit like entering a maze by Escher or an Alice in Wonderland parallel universe in which you are essentially talking to brick walls with Asian accents who claim no knowledge of previous calls and seem to be following very different scripts. Every time you call this corporate monster you have to painstakingly provide various personal details and each time it is like going back to the beginning.
The upshot is we have no dial tone at home just now and no internet access. When this will be fixed I have no idea because TalkTalk don't seem to care. This morning one of the Asian people spoke of a rather vague "five days" which is a damned sight more than the twenty minutes disruption they referred to in the original documentation. As you will guess I am not a happy bunny just now. That sense of annoyance has been compounded by the fact that TalkTalk have been redirecting our home phonecalls to another address in Sheffield - a nice young man who is also having difficulties with the company. TalkTalk claim no knowledge of this redirection error.
Internet access is such a vital part of modern people's lives - not least for email connection, maintaining blogs, banking, research and in Shirley's case working on her masters degree in nursing. Try as I might, I get no proper answers from TalkTalk who will no doubt claim the £30 connection fee in spite of all the hassle and expensive mobile phone calls we have had to make. They have you by the proverbial goolies having previously extracted banking details etc. from naive new customers like me who stupidly think that the idea of honouring promises remains a guiding business principle. Aaaaargh!
What annoys me more than anything about these so-called services is the complete lack of concern or even the hint of an apologetic tone. In short, they couldn't care less. s you say, we are a captive market and no-one gives a damn. Hope you get some joy soon.
ReplyDeleteSuch a familiar tale...we've been there and I do sympathise...hope you get a quick resolution
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean, proverbial? Speak for yourself, man!
ReplyDeleteMost of the offshore "service" people I've had to deal with from here in California are in India. They are extremely polite, but often powerless. My phone company, which used to be local, was sold and the headquarters is in New York. Now THOSE people are nasty and surly and not much easier to understand. I don't personally enjoy this global economy stuff, I liked it when I could drive to the phone company and pay my bill, or tell them I wasn't going to pay it until they came out and fixed a problem. Good luck with your dilemma!
ReplyDelete(Feeling sad that Robert may not have any Proverbials)
ReplyDeleteLast week we were off-line for three days because a young technician at my provider asked me to 'stick something sharp in the little hole in the back of my [wireless] modem' which promptly erased its memory. After a telling-off from my son: "ALWAYS phone me first Mum", I went into town and bought a cable ($40) and plugged in the computer directly to the modem, and them Tom talked me through the reconfiguring process, which is still not complete, but at least I have t'internet again...
Hope all's sorted soon YP.
No, mine are real. YP's are proverbial.
ReplyDeleteOh, of COURSE, Robert. Silly me.
ReplyDeleteTalkTalk? That's a bit of a misnomer isn't it?
ReplyDeleteThis is a global problem that makes climate change pale into insignifigance. I'll stop right there before I fill this comment box up with a tirade of abuse levelled at any and all telephone companies in the world.
Aaahhh. I feel better already
Ms Soup
HI EVERYONE Thanks for your concern and support.I am still surviving in the internetless desert by visiting the local library. If only I were a nerd or a geek or simply rich - the problems would have been sorted out ages ago. Now regarding goolies, proverbial or real, I am not prepared to discuss them on the web. Georgia may be the new Sodom but here in Sheffield we are decent people with a sense of propriety - well most of the time!
ReplyDeleteGood name " Talk talk " Hah !
ReplyDeleteInterested to see this problem is Everywhere - we experienced similar problems here in Catalonia and now would never dream of switching companies again - even if our present one is screwing us for twice the cost of another, who dares change?!
ReplyDelete