I happened to be looking at several competitor websites today and noticed something rather amusing on the TalkTalk website. Have you spotted it it yet? Now they do say that imitation is the highest form of flattery, so I guess we should be delighted that Mr Dunstone has finally recognised PlusNet as the broadband market leader 🙂 In June last year we launched PlusNet in Polish, including Polish speaking customer support agents, a Polish forum and our website translated into Polish. Today I've noticed that he's blatantly copied our idea and plonked a Polish flag on his homepage. I'm not sure when they did this so I may be a little out of date, but I didn't spot it last time I looked at their site. I notice that his blog has disappeared too. However, he hasn't really done a proper job. Try phoning and asking for support in Polish. Send them an email in Polish. You don't get a very satisfactory answer from the times we've tried.
I called the sales number: 0800 049 7802 and spoke in a very broken English so that they don't try to sign me up in English. Conversation #1: First guy I spoke to had no idea what I was talking about, in fact he asked if I was asking for Police support or Polish support. He told me that they don't have a Polish website and as far as he knows there are no Polish support people in the company. He gave me the customer service number - 0870 049 0498. Conversation #2: Called the customer service number. Waited for 10 minutes, then hung up. In the end if I was a customer wanting to sign up I wouldn't wait on hold for 10 minutes to do it. Conversation #3: I called the sales number again, spoke to a different sales guy. This guy put me on hold to inquire if they have a Polish support agent, department or anything that resembles anything to do with Poland. He came back and told me there was no one in the call centre who spoke Polish. He told me that he doesn't think they have a Polish site, to which I replied that they did. Hence he put me on hold again and went to ask a manager. Supposedly manager told him there is no Polish support in the UK.
Also while TalkTalk has translated their front page and their product page into Polish, as soon as you click on 'signup' it launches the English language signup. Doh! My advice to Mr Dunstone is this; If you are going to copy us, try and improve on the original implementation, don't just do a half-arsed version of it. Oh, and while you're at it, make sure you get our pricing right on your comparison tool - PlusNet Home Phone is now just £9.99 per month.
