TalkTalk charges me twice for one bill, can I cancel the contract?

bigx

What happened is:

1. I always pay TalkTalk with DD. But one day they told me I had one payment missed. I phoned them and found the previous DD payment failed for some reason I didn't understand. The DD was still on my bank account, but they said they had no longer an active DD on there side.

2. They asked me to pay the missed payment, I asked if I re-set up the DD if they could collect it together with the next bill. They said yes no problem.

3. I set up the DD again.

4. One day they suddenly cut off my broadband service without any notice. I phoned them they insisted I needed to pay the missed payment. I paid using credit card. The broadband service restored later that day.

5. The next day I received their notice saying that my credit record may have been affected.

6. Several days later they collected the same amount of money as the missed payment together with the next month's bill by DD, which means I paid twice for one bill!

My questions is, as I desperately want to leave them (before this they had made a lot of other mistakes/delays/out-of-services), can I cancel the contract without the £70 cancellation charge? The contract still has 10 months to go, as a result of their offering me a "free" wireless router 8 months ago.

TalkTalk

Hi Bigx,

If a direct debit payment is due within 5 working days of a card payment being made we would then collect the full amount by direct debit due to the fact the aplication for the payment would have already gone to the bank. If the payment has been made in duplicate then you can request a refund either to your card or we can post out a cheque. You would not be granted a cessation free disconnection for this reason.

If you'd like me to take a look into the account for you could you please visit https://www.talktalkmembers.com/forums and I'll be able to help out.

Cheers
EmmaL x

bigx

Thanks. I will ask the payment to be refund. But it is not simply a over charge issue. The problem is since talktalk agreed to collect the payment though DD, they should not cut off the service. Do I have a ground not to pay the disconnection fee based on this?

duggie1982

Predicted reply - NO

TalkTalk

Hi bigx,

I'm afraid Duggie is right with his prediction. As I said we can look into it further for you on the members forums if you can register and post there.

Cheers
EmmaL x