I thought I did a fairly good job (maybe not so good in this thread). TBH I don't really care. I would like them to stop sending me texts saying 'to get your 64k of free data, just top up by £299 before the end of the month' but they are only occasionally annoying.

What was REALLY annoying was that they were SO intent on spouting the sales pitch for the different packages that my actual problem didn't seem to figure in our conversation - if you can call it that. The supervisor actually made less sense than the call-centre person. He got angry with me for interrupting his run-down of the package features.

It has been about as odd a query as I can remember, apart from talking to out and out scammers on the phone. I think I've accepted that there really is no service to be had unless you are fitting in with what the phone company wants to sell.

Just had the runaround from TalkTalk trying to get compensation for the two weeks they failed to provide a service for. The indian guy didn't seem to understand the difference between compensation and not being charged for what I didn't have !

'Hello I'm calling about compensation'
 Let's see you had no internet for two weeks so I'll refund the two weeks charges.

'That's not compensation'
Yes, yes, two weeks so you get back (whatever the amount was)

'But that's just a refund of charges for the time I was without service, not compensation'
Yes I compensate you for two weeks.

'No, compensation is something extra as an apology for poor service'
That's what I give you.

Much explaining later and getting nowhere I was passed to a manager who eventually (after much arguing again) gave me the two weeks refund, plus £30 and a months free internet.

I'm surprised you got anything apart from the 2 weeks!

How did you argue the fact that having no connection caused you some sort of issue? Loss of business etc?

Well, there was the £30 phone call to support...

I'd already learnt prior to phoning that you had to be persistent and lay it on a bit thick otherwise you get fobbed off with little more than an apology. Some were reporting six months free net, free netflix for a month etc. on top of the refund for lost service.

The key fact was the english support guy on the support forum saying to phone customer services once the issue was resolved and apply for COMPENSATION, not a REFUND (the refund for loss of service should be done automatically, not after you phone to claim it !)

So yeah, went on about being a long term customer, missing important e-mails, unable to pay bills online and losing out on half a months gaming subscriptions....On top of that the lack of decent customer service was prompting me to cancel and switch provider unless they offered an incentive to stay.

Don't know if it's just talktalk but fibre seems a bit sketchy compared to ADSL, since having a service it has gone down about 10 times in the last month, usually only for a few minutes but this morning was off for an hour (the whole of Lancs. was affected though not just me). On ADSL I'd only lose service once or twice a year, and never to the point of needing to phone tech support.