back to article TalkTalk outage: Dial M for Major cockup

Hapless mobile operator TalkTalk's phone network has been hit by an outage, leaving customers without dial tones – and without service – on landlines. In a statement TalkTalk said: "We’re experiencing problems with no dial tones on some landlines. If you're affected by this, you may still be able to make or receive calls. "We …

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  1. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Warm Braw

      Unfortunately, Ms Harding made it clear that anyone in contract with TalkTalk couldn't WalkWalk...

      1. Alan Brown Silver badge

        Contract breach

        Ms Harding can make all the (legally suspect) claims she wants.

        The reality is that if the company is materially in breach of contract and try to force you to stay, a small claims filing will make them run away very quickly.

        They DO NOT want legal precedents being made. In general this means they settle "at the courtroom door" rather than face the possibility of a judge making a decision which goes against them.

        And of course, the possiblity now exists for customers to start a class action, thanks to recent UK law changes.

    2. Holleritho

      Gone but not forgotten

      I left TalkTalk in November but they keep taking money. Said 'don't cut off your DD, as we have a process', and it turns out the process is to keep taking the money. DD gets chopped this weekend.

      Now a very, very happy camper with Zen Internet.

      1. SkippyBing

        Re: Gone but not forgotten

        Oddly they're still taking my money too. I'm working up a suitably irritated tirade to email to Harding as I can't be bothered dealing with their call centre after the hour it took them to tell me the wifi on my router was broken, which was what I told them the problem was at the start...

        1. Alan Brown Silver badge

          Re: Gone but not forgotten

          "Oddly they're still taking my money too. I'm working up a suitably irritated tirade to email to Harding"

          Don't bother.

          Small claims filings are fast, cheap and TT will get to pay all the costs. (taking money after the contract ends is fraud by deception and they don't want to be slapped with that charge)

          You DO NOT have any legal compulsion to deal with their call centre or the ombudsman after leaving and all either will achieve is to waste your time and raise your blood pressure.

          You SHOULD write a strongly worded complaint to your bank if TT manage to take anything more once the DD has been rescinded.

      2. John Robson Silver badge

        Re: Gone but not forgotten

        Just talk to you rank and recall the monies.

        The DD guarantee is good at times...

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yet another cockup

    I hope it is not another "HackHack"

  3. The Alphabet

    People on TalkTalk who cant use their phones to talk are called what?

    (there's a perfectly ironic name somewhere, i just can't think of what it is!)

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Chris King

      People on TalkTalk who cant use their phones to talk are called what?"

      Mimes ?

      I'm now imagining a TalkTalk user doing a Marcel Marceau "Bip the Clown" impression down the phone for a 999 call...

  4. TonyJ

    I can only assume...

    ...that the people still with this shambolic company are there because they're locked into a contract and not by any free choice.

    And if it is the latter...kind of serves them right...should've ditched them months ago.

    1. Stuart 22

      Re: I can only assume...

      I'm beginning to feel that we should be pressing Ofcomm to mandate monthly contracts for broadband/landline/mobile. Its the only way to keep some suppliers honest and competitive.

      Bribing you for a lock-in should say it all. Sadly some people believe the advertising and I find it is unscrupulous suppliers who tend to trumpet 'caveat emptor'. Frankly none of us have the time and resources to check out the competence and arithmetic behind every contract we click on.

      Meanwhile what happened to Dido's pearl handed revolver?

  5. JimmyPage Silver badge

    Fool me once etc.

    Anyone who stayed with Talk Talk after they proved their incompetence is undeserving of sympathy and column inches.

    However, they do seem to explain how we got a Conservative government.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    FFS

    Haven't GCHQ got enough taps on that network yet?

    1. Wommit

      Re: FFS

      It was the GCHQ taps that shorted out the dial tone server.

      1. VinceH

        Re: FFS

        Are you sure? I was thinking that as a result of the recent hackhack, TalkTalk talked and talked amongst themselves and concluded the best defence against that happening again in future was to disconnect absolutely everything - including their customers - so that they can neither be hacked nor socially engineered.

  7. elaar

    Bad TalkTalk

    I've never had a dialtone with TalkTalk. From the day I joined and (presumably) BT messed up connecting the PSTN side of things (internet was fine though), I've never had the use of my phone.

    I tried many times to get TalkTalk to resolve this, but after months of being redirected to different departments, and automated text messages not working correctly, I gave up.

    It was more grief to get it sorted than living with the problem, and that's how I'd sum up TalkTalk in general.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Bad TalkTalk

      You order a service from TalkTalk, it doesn't work and you presume it's BT's fault? I guess it might be but it seems a strange initial conclusion.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Bad TalkTalk

        It depends. If you're a Talktalk customer out in the sticks you'll be on a BT wholesale phone service and BT wholesale DSL. In busier places, they have their own equipment in the exchange.

        Some ex-Tiscali customers will have a BT phone line but a Tiscali DSLAM for Internet.

        But the majority of Talktalk customers are on a Talktalk MSAN, which means that both the internet and the dial tone are provided from the same Talktalk-owned device. In that case, BT only provide the copper line, or "Metallic Path Facility" in the technical jargon (I kid you not)

        1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          Re: Bad TalkTalk

          "BT only provide the copper line, or "Metallic Path Facility" in the technical jargon (I kid you not)"

          Probably arse covering for the aluminium lines which aren't copper :-)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Bad TalkTalk

      I've never had a dialtone with TalkTalk.

      I'm surprised. I've always assumed TalkTalk had offshored dialtones to the cheapest, rubbishest part of the subcontinent, just like the rest to their flea-bitten business. When you pick up the phone what's supposed to happen is that some Indian beggar in a particularly scummy call centre is supposed to make a "bbbrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" sound with their lips until you start to dial.

      My guess is that the operational planners have messed up, and they have run out of call centre staff to do the "bbbrrrrrrrrrrr" bit. And you can't fix this quickly - did you know that the dialtone training takes six weeks before they're allowed to do live dialtones for paying customers?

      Pah, offshoring, it never delivers the goods.

      1. Voland's right hand Silver badge

        Re: Bad TalkTalk

        I'm surprised. I've always assumed TalkTalk had offshored dialtones to the cheapest,

        You sir, should be punished. I am now trying to get out of my head the mental image of a gigantic barn callcenter somewhere North East of Timbuktu full of drones whistling dialtones for a living.

        The real problem is - that image may not be far from the truth. After all, their CEO was pictured on the Beeb replying questions out of their "innovation center" with a VHS and Windows 95 behind her.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Bad TalkTalk

          You sir, should be punished.

          I think my present job in the energy industry is punishment enough. I'm sure I didn't do anything particularly evil in a past life, although I probably do owe a few people round these parts a new keyboard.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Bad TalkTalk

          > a gigantic barn callcenter somewhere North East of Timbuktu full of drones whistling dialtones for a living

          http://www.maniacworld.com/internet-is-run-by-two-old-ladies.html

      2. PNGuinn
        Joke

        Re: Bad TalkTalk @Ledswinger

        Have you considered that, as a cost conscious company, they may have discovered the wage advantages of employing deaf mutes in their call centres?

    3. Chloe Cresswell Silver badge

      Re: Bad TalkTalk

      I have a client with talktalk, was working, then one day no ppp on the adsl, but the sync was there, and the phone worked.

      When I checked it, phone came out on someone else's number, lines had been swapped by a BTo engineer (although I suspect MJQ or kellys).

      Talktalk couldn't understand why we thought having someone else's line connected to the building and no internet was an issue, as "the phone works".

  8. Commswonk
    FAIL

    TalkTalk outage...

    Is there not an "r" missing from the above?

    1. Voland's right hand Silver badge

      Re: TalkTalk outage...

      No, because the remaining captive audience has clearly proven that nothing can outrage them. Otherwise they would have moved on.

      1. Richard 12 Silver badge

        Re: TalkTalk outage...

        Or they're locked into a two year contract and have to wait for a sufficiently terrible failure before they can escape.

        This one should qualify. No emergency telephony is rather serious!

  9. simmondp

    Resign

    At what point does the CEO actually take responsibility for all this mess and resign?

    1. Bbbbit

      Re: Resign

      And in true Oxbridge Cameroonian fashion excrementally ooze to the next highly lucrative top job. Probably at Capita. Incompetence is no match for privilege.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Resign

      As soon as a suitably large pay-off is agreed and secures the next lucrative job that pays as much if not more than before.

      All senior management works like that.

  10. Tony S

    Some people did not choose TalkTalk as their ISP; instead, their original ISP was bought out and conditions enforced that made it harder to leave.

    Personally, although I hate the though of paying money to these shysters, I would actually pay up, just to get rid of them. Of course, it's easy for me to say that; but sometimes, it's the lesser evil.

    1. Velv
      Headmaster

      "their original ISP was bought out and conditions enforced that made it harder to leave"

      Any transfer of contract would automatically entitle you to leave. They cannot enforce new conditions, you need to accept the new conditions, although that can be the default position by a lack of leaving.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "their original ISP was bought out and conditions enforced that made it harder to leave"

        Some are bought out, and some sell out their customers without warning.

        I am looking at YOU Vispa; you stole my phone line and number, and cocked it up so I had no working internet for 6 weeks, then you had the GALL to charge me a termination fee AND cut my phone off early!!

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Number Not Recognised"

    This would suggest that the telephone number has been removed from (at least) the TalkTalk LLU kit (and if it's widespread, probably in all LLU Exchanges) - I would suspect a hack...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "Number Not Recognised"

      Why assume a conspiracy when straight-forward incompetence (with precedents) explains everything?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "Number Not Recognised"

      ...or a signalling network failure. The C7 message from the network trying to pass a call to talktalk is either being ignored or getting an unexpected response. Depending on which network it is callers will get number unobtainable or 'sorry, there is a fault'.

      Those messages can take multiple routes so a total failure suggests the machine giving the response rather than the links to it.

  12. chivo243 Silver badge
    Trollface

    at first glance

    I thought it said TalkTalk Outrage... sorry, seems I've been conditioned

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So the only people who can get into TalkTalk are the hackers?

    It does rather make you wonder what Dido would have to do to get fired from the company.

    1. andykb3

      Re: So the only people who can get into TalkTalk are the hackers?

      Well they've tried calling her and emailing her, but she's on TalkTalk :)

    2. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
      Coat

      Re: So the only people who can get into TalkTalk are the hackers?

      Wait for the renewals to come up and people will just walk. DH will probably walk with a pay off well before that. Alternatively...

      But I will go down with this ship

      And I won't put my hands up and surrender

      There will be no white flag above my door

      Many thanks to Dido Armstrong for the lyrics.

      No thanks to Dido Harding for the phone service

  14. Brian Miller 1

    BT is having problems too

    My BT infinity service is grossly affected since last night. Many ongoing service issues reported on their status page.

    Latency is fine, but bandwidth is grossly affected. Probably a congestion issue (at a wild guess). It does make me wonder if they have shifted traffic over from the fault reported on Mon.?

  15. Velv

    I know I'm going to get down voted, but...

    SHIT BREAKS. You get what you pay for. Have a contingency plan if something is that critical to you.

  16. present_arms

    On TalkTalk, locked in for now, however I've had no outage and no problems with bandwidth (close to 90MB/s down) so I'm not complaining yet, phones working too. Isle of Wight :D

    Alie

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I'm alright Jack...

      Just wait...

      Cheap 'service' is only good while it works, when it fails you'll find out why it was cheap.

      1. chivo243 Silver badge
        Trollface

        Re: I'm alright Jack...

        Wait until your expensive service fails.... and see how you howl! Failure is Failure no? Frequency of failure is another issue.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    failed sonus update

  18. Fatman
    Joke

    Talk Talk outage

    The reason is simple, they """upgraded""" their computers to Windows 10, and the shit hit the fan!!!

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