Can Talk Talk extend my contract if my partner approves it?

charlotte_720_2

About a year ago I came home from work and my partner, who had just moved in, said Talk Talk, my provider at the time, rang to offer a deal on my contract extension. He gave them the green light so i was tied into another 18 months. We have had a mulititude of problems since. They cut us off, spent a month telling us this was due to a 'bug in the system' and we would be up and running again in 48 hours.Turns out we hasnt paid our bill in 50 days so they cut us off. we had no reminders (DD hadnt gone through properly but we didnt know this as no reminder letter was sent) and my contract stated that we had 90 days before they could do this. Apparently they changed the rules recently, I said well you didnt let anyone know, they said it was published on their website! We now have a bill for a £70 cut off fee, and I refuse to pay they are threatening to take this to court. No one will speak to me about it, meanwhile we have a debt company chasing us, and are getting nowhere. But surely the contract is invalid if I myself (the only account holder named on the account) didnt approve the renewal? Is it my word against theirs? Surely they cant just say that it was OK for my partner to approve it, I assume they keep recordings if it was a 'verbal contract'....HELP ME PLEASE!!

macman

A year after the event, I think you'd have a job seeking early termination on those grounds. If you'd objected at the time you might well have got them to cancel the extension. But it sounds like you were quite happy to extend it at that point.

charlotte_720_2

Yes but I need to know my rights by law, wether or not it was a year ago it shouldnt have happened and I shouldn't have to pay fees on a contract I never took out

macman

But you've continued to pay (well most of the year anyway), so by doing so you have accepted the contract-and (apart from the misssing month for which they should refund you), you have received the service.
The payment side is really your responsibility, if your bank screwed up the direct debit then that is not T'T's error.

charlotte_720_2

No but they should have warned us that we were being disconnected at the very least, we didnt even get a reminder letter through.
I was OK about the contract being extended as (up until then anyway) the service was fine with TT - although I was mad at my partner for doing it without my consent! I just need to know, as I dont think I should pay £70 disconnection fee, if I have a leg to stand on. We easily spent £70 between us on mobile credit spending 3 weeks calling Talk Talk for them to keep telling us we were disconnected because of a 'bug in the system'. Is it not wrong to be lied to? they should have said the first time we phoned its cos we hadnt paid our bill. I think its highly unfair after such an awful service to expect us to pay a disconnection fee!

macman

I don't think you were lied to at all. It was just TT's normal chaotic CS.
I suspect their take on the disconnection fee would be that you have terminated the contract early by failure to pay, and they are seeking to recover some of the amount owing on the remaining contract. Unfortunately since they have already passed it to a DCA, it's too late to try and negotiate with them, is is worth trashing your credit score for this?

charlotte_720_2

Its not too late until it gets to court. Its like talking to a brick wall with TT, you get nowhere, they dont care unless they are getting a sale out of it.

And I was lied to, for some reason TT said there was a virus that hit the line, when they should have bothered to look at my records properly instead of wasting so much of my time.

I see what you mean about the disconnection fee from their POV but it is still unfair to expect me to pay after the invalid contract and appalling service. I will take it to court and fight the case if necessary, they dont have a recording of me agreeing to the contract extension so i dont see how it is valid.

If anyone else has been in a smilar situation please let me know!

mrtom21

Talk Talk would have sent a letter confirming the extention and this would have been the time you would have called to dispute your partner's right to change the account. You are disputing it at a later date therefore disputing on those grounds does not really make much sense to Talk Talk. I feel you will not get anywhere with TT pursuing this issue on those grounds.

macman

If you wanted not to extend the contract then you would have queried it at the time, not a year later. It seems to me that you are now trying to use this issue to challenge the disconnection fee issue. The two are not connected. It's your responsibility to pay the DD, not theirs to chase it. They're entitled to disconnect you if payment is not received, and you said you were 50 days late-why did you not notice the payment had not gone out? They would not have sold the debt on to a DCA without some correspondence on the matter.
By all means take it to Small Claims but you will just be wasting your money and time.

DS-2

You can't escape the fact that TalkTalk breached the data protection act in talking to the third party about the OP's contract. The OP was under no obligation to point out the fact that TalkTalk had erred, they know the law and are obliged to look after their own rights.

The OP was fully entitled to expect that after the 18 month contract ended that the service would continue on a rolling monthly basis.

It was perfectly reasonable that TalkTalk should have first informed the customer of the problem with the direct debit payment before terminating the service. It was also perfectly reasonable to expect that TalkTalk would be able to accurately answer the direct question about the lack of telephone service when the OP called TalkTalk.

The poor customer service provided by TalkTalk has exposed the OP to the termination fee and undoutedly a reconnection fee. The OP needs to raise a written complaint to TalkTalk.

When following TalkTalk's complaint procedure, bear in mind that they "defer" to the Carphone Warehouse! So at 6 weeks you need to escalate your complaint to:

Customer Liaison Manager
Carphone Warehouse
PO Box 344
Unit 19
Southampton
SO30 2NP

Otherwise you'll get to 8 weeks and have to wait a further 2 weeks before you can raise your complaint to Otelo.

In the meantime, you are faced with the prospect of having no telephone service if they won't reconnect you until what's owing is paid. In the meantime, I would suggest it is reasonable to pay TalkTalk the money outstanding on the unpaid bill. You need to be able to demonstrate that you have acted reasonably.

The disconnection fee and the disconnection are in dispute. Put it to TalkTalk that there is no reason why they should not reconnect the servcie pending the outcome of your complaint and ask them to reconnect you.

macman

As I understand it, the debt has already been sold on to the DCA, so there is little point in paying TT.