talktalk lost my contract

Katgrit

Hi everyone, i'm pretty new on here so hope this is the best place for this post.

On 29th March i went into my local Carphone Warehouse to sign up for their offer of £10.50 phone line rental, with eve + wkend calls and broadband for an extra £6.49. It was an 18 month contract with the £6.49 bit being free for the first 12 months. Brilliant offer, which ended on 31st March. I signed a contract with the store rep (which i still have my copy of) and was given an estimated "go-live" start date and tracking number so i could check the progress of my connection online. All good so far.

I checked on-line after about 5 days and it said the welcome pack gubbins had been posted out to me and my start date would be 23rd April (same as stated on contract). After a couple of weeks no pack in post so checked tracking number again and the system does not have record of that tracking number!! Phoned talktalk, they've no record of it either. Mmm. Golive date has come and gone. Went back to store last week to speak to same bloke who put all my info in system when i signed up and to be fair they have been BRILLIANT. Chased it up and error seems to be due to blip in IT when order was transfering from CPW in-house "pie" system to talktalk system (listened in him on phone to talktalk IT bloke at half 8 in evening - impressed they work that late!). I dont think they're fobbing me off, initially everyone the poor bloke spoke to kept telling him i couldn't have placed the order when he was stood there with the printed copy in his hand! My order has just completely disappeared off the talktalk system even though CPW can still see it on theirs.

Now the store are being great, saying they're chasing it up with highest level account people at talktalk to see what they can do, as obviously that corker of an offer isn't available anymore. Talktalk have also since increased their basic line rental prices. So my question is (finally!) if the store cant manage to give me a new contract at the OLD prices i signed up for what are my rights to force them to? Or even to compensate me by way of credit to make the overall 18 month payment the same?? I have a signed contract clearly stating the price i am to pay for months 1-12 and 13-18. If it was ME trying to get out a contract so soon i'm sure they wouldn't let me!! In the T&C it says they may become UNABLE to supply service through no fault of their own, but they are physically ABLE to. As i have a contract can i force them to supply a service i haven't got yet?

I'm still thinking that the blokes at my local CPW will get something sorted as they've phoned me twice in the past week to tell me they haven't forgotten about me and are waiting for talktalk head office to get back to them and the person isn't in til tomorrow. But i'm just wondering worst case scenario what my rights are.

Sorry this has been such a long post but i wanted to be as full and informative as possible! Get it all out in one go. :-)

(also worth pointing out that I'm out of minimum contract with BT and tiscali (current suppliers), have no arrears on either of those accounts and i have excellent credit rating so i know its not due to that, it genuinely appears to be a one off IT blip)

fwor

You could hardly be in a stronger position. As long as you keep things friendly with CPW and give them regular gentle reminders, you should just be able to let them (eventually) sort it out for you.


A couple of perhaps rather obvious things: make sure you keep hold of the original copy of the contract, as it would be very convenient for TT to "lose" it if you send it in, and avoid referring to compensation. It has legal implications for them so they will avoid giving it at all costs. If you ask for something as a gesture of goodwill for the inconvenience (such as a free month added to the contract) you are more likely to get something from them.