Talk, Talk Broadband. A good story

My husband and I have had a moderately late jump for the broadband bandwagon. We're now on the newst train, the one that promises 8 MB. For us, it's all a lie. A vile, horrible lie. The idea of an 8 MB connection where we live makes me laugh until I pee myself a little bit. But as much as I know that the majority of the copper wiring here has decayed so much as to virtually be useless, there is some truth to the statement that BT have been improving lines as much as possible. They've even done so here in backend Wigan and now, by god, we can get up to 1 MB.

Enter in the late 20th century.

I am a regular reader of the Consumerist and all the broaband woes they publish. Subsequently I was planning on the activation, installation and implementation to be a complicated and horrible affair. Akin to doing taxes with a gang of rabid dogs chewing on my neck with nothing but James Blunt playing in the background. Or much like my experience with my Father-in-Law's Telewest setup.

What happened surprised me and since this isn't an actual complaint I shan't include any humiliating details.

Reasons why Talk, Talk win.

1. The line was activated on the date they said it would be.
2. The modem showed up only a day late. This can be blamed on Royal Mail.
3. The staff (Simon in Preston) on the 14 days or less technical help line were friendly and helpful.
4. The installation process was only a little bit painful due to some screwy wizard. This is probably why they had lengthy call times on the free tech support line. In the end I worked it out and didn't even have to go through someone's scripts with them.
5. Installation and the modem were all free as confirmed by the invoice for 00.00 included in the box.

I still wouldn't recommend it for someone who thinks that P4 is text speak. I would recommend it for people who have a pet techie at their disposal.


Isn't it nice to be a happy customer?