Moving broadband providers from Tiscali to Talktalk becomes a nightmare

I had a broadband and phone package with Tiscali for years. When I was called by Talktalk at the beginning of April asking if I wanted to move to its services, I agreed and was told that there would be no installation fee as Tiscali was a ‘sister company'.

However, a month later when the welcome pack had not arrived I called Talktalk and was told the transfer had not gone through.

My Tiscali service was cut off but for the rest of May each time I called Talk Talk I had to reapply for its broadband and phone service.

Then at the start of June I was told that I had to pay installation costs of £39.99 because the Tiscali service had ceased which now meant I could not just transfer the service.

Ronald Plyer

We have had a number of complaints from ex-Tiscali customers since Talktalk bought this internet service provider (ISP) last year.

Part of the problem could be because Talktalk is moving Tiscali customers over to its fully unbundled local loop network.

A fully unbundled local loop is when a communications provider such as Talktalk installs its own equipment in (or close to) BT exchanges in order to connect end-user lines to their own network.

This allows these companies to offer a complete range of broadband and voice services without having to use BT's main network.

It is one of the main reasons the price of broadband has fallen over the past few years and more services can be offered to consumers.

But this is no excuse for the problems Mr Plyer has experience. We don't believe Talktalk should be charging Mr Plyer the installation costs because it has had problems migrating his service.

We have asked the company to investigate so it can get Mr Plyer, who has been without a broadband internet connection for more than a month, back online quickly.