TalkTalk house move - "pay us off or pay us more"

Jesthar

Hi,

Just signed up after a good while lurking!

A friend of mine is moving house next weekend. She's been with TalkTalk for broadband and phone about 10 months, I think, on an 18 month contract. However, when she called them to tell them she was moving, they told her that rather than transfer the service, she'd have to either take out brand new contract for another full 18 months at 50p more per month than she is currently paying, or pay £70 to cancel the current contract.

My friend and her husband are happy with the service they have been getting, and can't really afford the £70 to buy out anyway, but can TalkTalk really insist on making them sign up for another 18 months on the new, more expensive contract - in essence, to start all over again? Unfortunately I don't have a copy of the T&Cs to hand...

PW07

Hi

Sorry I cant help you directly , but we are having problems with talk talk after moving into a house that the previous owner didnt cancel their talk talk account just stopped the direct debits.

I would find out what broadband package the new house has / had

DatabaseError

your friend is, as you say, contracted for another 8 months at her current address, TT seem well within their rights to insist upon either a new contract or a buy out of the present one, unfortunately

Jesthar

tonyhague wrote: »

your friend is, as you say, contracted for another 8 months at her current address, TT seem well within their rights to insist upon either a new contract or a buy out of the present one, unfortunately

Wow, that means I finally found a company I rate lower than Almost On Line for customer 'service' - even THEY don't do anything like this!

Went over to see my friend yesterday, and got a whole new batch of info on the saga. They've been living in a friend's place for several months whilst he's been off round the world, and they 'took over' his existing TalkTalk service. Apparantly when they moved in TT stuffed up the transfer so much it not only took them ages to get it sorted and several bills went walkies, but they never got a whole lot of the documentation, and the copy of the T&C is one of the documents which went AWOL. So we can't even read that to see what really is what, and if they can really force a new contract. :mad: What the blazes would be so hard about transferring the remainder of the current contract to the new address?

DatabaseError

Jesthar wrote: »

What the blazes would be so hard about transferring the remainder of the current contract to the new address?

talktalk are, primarily, an LLU (local loop unbundled) operator, which means, in essence, that they install their own kit, at their expense, in the local BT exchange. moving a line from BT Wholeshale to TT does incur a cost as the line has to be physically moved, TT, and others, recoup this cost over the length of the long contract. Much as I dislike TT/CPW/AOL, I do understand their reasoning for insisting on a long contract, and terms which make it quite expensive to leave, though the £70 quoted is under 4 months of my, admittedly excellent, ISPs charges, though I am on a 1 month contract.

deklan99

It costs £2 + VAT to take over an active BT line (hence why TT get other providers to activate) and £34 + VAT to convert to MPF. Currently it's a £29.99 setup fee for TT so they're down about a tenner.