Thursday 1 September 2011

Another Haitus

This one at the hands of TalkTalk, who apparently don't ListenListen. As you may know, my mother in law has been staying with us for a while as she was between houses, having moved out of her old house before her new flat was available. Anyway a couple of weeks ago she contacted TalkTalk to disconnect her old phone and set up a new line in the new flat. Obviously she called from our house and therefore from our number. Next morning I get up - no internet, half an hour later we realise no phone either, so we ring TalkTalk from a mobile.
Yes, you've guessed it, at some point they must have asked MIL what number she was calling from and she'd quoted ours so; on the authority of someone whose account wasn't registered at our address, and whose account was for a totally different phone number and area code, and who doesn't even share our surname; they disconnected our phone!

We were on the phone to them for nearly two $*&#! hours. The conversation went something like this:-
Them: How can we help?
Us: Our phone's been disconnected
Them: You asked us to disconnect it
Us: No we didn't, you've made a mistake. Can you reconnect us?
Them: You need to order a new line, it will take 7-10 days
Us: We don't want a new line, we want our line back
Them: Oh I can't do that, that number is no longer available. You will need a new number. I'll transfer you to Dept X.
several minutes of annoying music
Them: How can we help?
Us: Our phone's been disconnected
Them: You asked us to disconnect it
Us: No we didn't, you've made a mistake. Can you reconnect us?
Them: You need to order a new line, it will take 7-10 days
Us: We don't want a new line, we want our line back
Them: Oh I can't do that, that number is no longer available. You will need a new number. I'll transfer you to Dept Y.
several minutes of annoying music
Them: How can we help?
Us: Our phone's been disconnected
Them: You asked us to disconnect it
Us: No we didn't, you've made a mistake. Can you reconnect us?
Them: You need to order a new line, it will take 7-10 days
Us: We don't want a new line, we want our line back
Them: Oh I can't do that, that number is no longer available. You will need a new number. I'll transfer you to Dept Z.
several minutes of annoying music
and so on and on and on. They were adamant it was impossible to reconnect us to our existing number, it was "gone" and couldn't be retrieved. We were not very happy as you can imagine. At one point I actually threw the mobile across the room (at a pile of fluffy cushions, I'm not completely barking mad).
Anyway to cut a long story short, we are now with Orange.  They got us reconnected, got us our old number back (perfectly possible, you just have to contact BT, I suspect talkTalk employees are not permitted to say anything to you which would send you to a competitor), they did it quicly, easily and efficiently, and we even got faster broadband into the bargain. Orange are lovely. Yay Orange.

Anyway having been offline for a while I've got hopelessly behind on blog reading so please don't think I've been ignoring you.

On a stitching note, last Sunday was reveal day for the Monthly Challenge at Needlcraft Haven. We stitched this pretty little design of a bluebird with cherries from Le Chalet Des Perelles. Mine is stitched in Anchor threads on a hand dyed fabric from The Crafty Kitten, with a fairly boring sort of a finish as a little stuffed ornament. The album went up a bit late (see paragraph 1 above), but it is available here.

Back to work on Monday, here's hoping Autumn will be a bit less eventful than summer turned out to be.

9 comments:

Barb said...

Hi Christine,
Dont talk to us about Talk Talk we have had no end of problems with them. If it wasn't for the having to let everyone know new e mail and goodness knows what I think my DH would be gone like a shot.
Great to hearit is sorted WTG orange.
Love the little fob I did one very similar.
Missed you and have you got your new Mollie Makes mine came today,so a sit and browse later.

cucki said...

hi, i love the sweet fob so much..very lovely stitching..
sending you lots of hugs dear xx

Kate said...

Glad you got it all sorted - don't they usually say they need to speak with the person registered on the account to make any changes - yeah right! Having worked in the telecoms industry I've seen and heard most of the horror stories.
Love your finish for the challenge - sadly mine didn't get started!

Julie said...

You were greatly missede Christine, i can think of lots of lovely naughty words that i would have called them down the phone!

A lovely finish, you always have such nice ideas for finishes

Kathryn said...

I don't know why I'm laughing when it clearly is not funny at all that your DMIL got your phone disconnected.
Snort.
Oops.

Linda said...

It has been a while since I last checked new posts. Not funny about the telephone but I hope you are able to laugh now. What a lovely holiday you had.

Heidi said...

Yikes! Good that things are now back to you being sorted and maybe with a better company by the sounds of it.

Love your newest ornament!

Hugs from Holland ~
Heidi

Katherine said...

OMG! SO reminds me of something my mother in law did once. Very cute fob. Glad you got the phone and internet all worked out and now you're back with us.

Jan Gartlan said...

Talk, Talk is typical if the service we get here in Australia. We're trying to get broadband Internet at our house. You would think we were asking to fly to the moon. 10 months later we're nearly there! So pleased you found Orange!