When I acquired my first internet/landline service from Tiscali several years ago, I hadn't the faintest clue of how to set up either properly. Luckily back then, the help from Tiscali was just fine and everything was sorted, no problems with anything except little hiccups that are expected. Enter TalkTalk. I received an alarming letter stating that Tiscali's UK systems had been purchased by TT and that my subsequent service will be the same price and avoid a number or email change. I was sent a TT branded modem which was incredibly poor and caused me to call up the TT customer service for help after sending several emails (the address initially was difficult to find as you had yo go through all kinds of irrelevant trouble shooting topics). This all got me nowhere so in the end I scoured more reliable sources, bought a new router/modem and set up the connections myself. The 'new' modem they supplied short-circuited during a split second power-cut - I could smell that it had cooked.

Service
For me, there has been no problems with the telephone side of TT. Free calls to other TT customers and a fair bill as well. However, since I rarely use the home landline, its sufficient to say that I may have avoided several problems or possible glitches and errors in the system. The online service is where they fall apart. First of its the mind-numbingly obtuse use of the words 'UNLIMITED BROADBAND' - its a 40GB limit - hardly unlimited is it. I found this out the hard way as there are 3 computer/internet users in my household who actively go online for social networking, watching youtube and emailing etc (no gaming). One month after some standard surfing of the web, a letter comes through as a 'friendly warning' that we have been using up over the 40GB limit that is proposed in the super minuscule fine print. Another month goes by and another warning, this time stating that my account has been forcibly 'upgraded' to a more expensive version of 'UNLIMITED' (80GB is still not good enough). I can admit that the fine print and smaller details should have been covered by myself in greater detail but when the word unlimited is thrown around with no mention of a.. whats the word.. LIMIT.. and the change of your service is done in such a conniving, knee jerk way, you gotta feel robbed. To avoid future problems (more expensive billing and unauthorised changes to my account) I went in search of TT website for a program that shows how you are doing when it comes to downloads.

This is when being an old Tiscali customer proves to be a major stumbling block. No 'my account' section available to me, therefore no help displaying a (probably inaccurate) download reading. Cue contact with customer service via emails. As with almost any technical support, I got the typical have you done this and that - the basics that you have tried even though you know it wouldn't help anyway. Next I'm asked to send login details, phone number, last digits of the card number used to pay, D.O.B, password.. you name it (these exchanges of emails usually take 2 days by the way) Then I'm either ignored or receive a reply where they are completely dumbfounded or ask for more details or even worse - claim the details aren't on their system. So its time to talk to a human being to get this sorted out. Oh yes, I managed to find a number and surprise surprise I wait several minutes listening to machines, hold music and all to talk to someone who speaks the slightest bit of english with a mighty bombay accent and zero knowledge of TalkTalks service, let alone computing in general. Minutes of fumbling around asking for the same details, even questions about the modem for no reason, are spaced out for a few minutes as you can hear shuffling papers, frantic conversations in Indian and what I'd bet my house on - numerous flipping through scripts. This as you'd expect, got me nowhere and eventually I gave up trying.

Which reminds me, the email system that TT use is rather unstable too - many times its unavailable, refusing login details, encountering 'mail server errors' and struggles to open emails. The internet speed is also rather horrendous at a measly maximum that barely qualifies as a 'broadband connection' - below 3Mps. The only strong positive they have is that for the most part, my internet connection remains stable and I can smoothly play on Xbox Live, stream videos and connect several items to the network.. other than that you're in the dark so I'd recommend against using TT unless you are desperate and have some clue of how to maintain your own internet setup.