TalkTalk VAT

pendomer1

I am in a running battle with TalkTalk over their policy on VAT. Although my call charges have been reduced to reflect the reduction in VAT, the £15 a month I pay for Broadband has not. It seems that I had to apply before end Jan to take advantage of their "offer" to pass on the VAT reduction. But I could only find this out by going to the website and, as I had no reason to do that, I never knew. No one in TalkTalk Customer Services can explain this strange policy. Why have they not simply passed on the savings as other companies have? Why the need to sign up? Why reduce the VAT on call charges but not on Broadband? Why take so much trouble to annoy your loyal customers (up to now I've been perfectly happy with them) over so small an amount of money?

Has anyone else managed to get TallTalk to see sense over this?

1carminestocky

Why would anyone have to actually apply for a VAT reduction? Seems like a weird way of doing business to me...

MrChips

That is an odd stance. I would be arguing for the reduction too if I hadn’t just agreed a new deal.

I was on their Talk3 package (paying £8.99 a month, on top of standard line rental) but my 18 month contract expired some time ago. I’m not at home during the day so I don’t need the inclusive daytime calls that come with this. So I called Talktalk yesterday and asked to be switched to their new (shortly to expire) offer which is free for the first 12 months and £6.49 a month thereafter. Unfortunately they couldn’t offer this to existing customers, but they were able (after a bit of persuasion) to switch me to this calling package and give me a £38.94 credit on my bill which is equivalent to six months free and I also don’t need to be tied in to an 18 month contract. I can call them again in six months to see what they can offer then.

One of the main advantages to me of this package is the free calls to 36 overseas countries. However, this isn’t being promoted as one of the benefits of the “My talktalk essentials” package (here http://www.talktalk.co.uk/products/broadband ) and I have had conflicting reports from their customer services as to whether this is included or not. During an online chat, I was assured that this feature was currently available, but definitely being removed from 1 May, and during a phone call to confirm this, I was told it definitely wasn’t being removed.

Anyone out there know anything more about this??

pendomer1

After days of fruitless exchanges with TalkTalk Customer Services, within a couple of hours of posting on this forum I got a phone call from TalkTalk offering me a credit equivalent to somewhat more than the VAT they had been overcharging! I don't know if it was a coincidence or not.

One thing it has made me do is recheck my deal with them. As you (Mr Chips) say the current low cost deal is not available to existing customers (when will companies stop penalising their most loyal customers?) but I have secured an additional 40% reduction on my monthly bill! If TalkTalk hadn't made mess of handling the VAT I probably wouldn't have thought of pushing for it!

Like all phone companies TalkTalk seems to thrive on making its services complicated but unfortunately their own Customer Services can't keep track of the small print.........