Talk Talk still talking my money!!!

paddyjoc

Hi there, really new to this but feel I have to do something. I have been with talk talk for about 3 years and except the initial delay at the beginning was relatively happy with the whole package which included international and broadband. I paid £25.24 p/month until I started to have problems with my phone line. I contacted Talk Talk regarding this and to say customer services was appauling is an under statement! After about 2-3 months of broken promises of going to get back to me and their assurance of going to fix the problem I was starting to get irrate. I had no phone connection for last xmas which was the final straw and after another 1.5 months of back and forward I stopped my direct debit and woe and behold the billing department were on the phone in days. After explaining my problem and them checking my account that had no calls or internet connection they agreed to having an engineer out to fix it. I was telephoned by a BT engineer to advised that there was no fault to the outside connection and the fault must be within my home and therefore BT would charge talk talk £175 for call out and fixing internal fault. I felt that I was not willing to have this rectified at the time as my husband had been paid off work and this was just not an expense I would be able to afford. I called Talk Talk to advise I had cancelled my engineer visit because of price which they stated that I would have been charged for if the fault was internal. I requested my account be cancelled which they agreed. My bank have resently restarted my paper bills by post and to my horror Talk Talk have continued to charge my line rental. After telephoning and being put through to cancellations a team manager has advised they can only refund last 6mths which I have refused what can I do legally? Can anyone help I have had no line connection, calls or broadband for almost 1.5 years but have been getting charged.
Many thanks. M :mad:

Mark_In_Hampshire

BT Openreach are responsible for the line up to the master socket in your home. You are responsible for anything after that, e.g. line extensions.

If an engineer calls and finds that the fault is with one of your extensions then yes, you'll have to pay for it to be repaired, which is fair enough, or repair it yourself.

If they have looked into it and found no fault then either:

1. BT are wrong
2. Your internal wiring is faulty

The usual recommendation is to plug the phone and / or modem into the master socket directly avoiding any extensions. If it works, you've found the fault and it has nothing to do with BT/Talk Talk.

If it doesn't then you can go ahead and get the engineer in. Unfortunately BT Openreach recently featured on BBC's Watchdog programme for charging customers for repairs for which there should be no charge so you may have a battle and further woe in that respect and have to refute the charge with Talk Talk.

Personally I'd do the above and see if the fault is yours, and check as much as you can. Then I'd write to Talk Talk and pursue the engineer option. Another option for you is to cancel the Talk Talk account altogether and start with someone new like the Post Office with a new line. That will cost £129 which is cheaper than repairing the current one though if the same physical line is used you may go back around in circles again. If it's your wiring at fault, that entire exercise will achieve little or nothing.

I'm confused as to "my bank has restarted my bills" - do you mean that Talk Talk have set up the direct debit you cancelled again and started taking funds?

I'm afraid there is nothing you can do there as any payee can simply reinstate a direct debit after you have cancelled it, other than have your Bank a) cancel the direct debit facility on your account altogether or b) visit the branch and ask them to take action, or if you have endless spare time c) watch your current account online and keep on cancelling the direct debit again and again or d) get a new bank account - of course you can have all the direct debits wrongly paid voided, but "wrongly paid" is a tough one here: if the fault lies with your equipment, you're actually the one in breach of contract.

Hopefully this is all slightly clearer than mud

paddyjoc

Hi there, Yes BT checked the ouside line and reported the fault was within my home and notified me they would fix it but it would cost £175. It was then that I called Talk Talk and told them I was not in a position to have the phone line repaired at that time and cost as my husband had just been paid off and to cancel my contract. As my banking was online and I had no access to the internet I was unaware that Talk Talk continued to take my money for the last 11 months until I have decided to ask my bank for paper bills again and noticed my DD from Talk Talk!!! When I called them they said that it was my fault and they were not responsible and would not pay back my money. Eventually they stated that they would give me 6months back but they have taken 15 months money between the time it took them to organise BT to check if there was a fault and me the cancelling my contract in February. They have acknowledged I have had no action on the line for almost a year and a half and still say they are not responsible. Bloody theives, they seem to get away with theft. The final straw came when they said I should have cancelled my contract by letter, however them in the same conversation told me the line was now cancelled without having to send a letter!!.
Can anyone tell me if I can claim my money back??
M. (Ho Ho Merry Christmas)

macman

If the line fault is on your side of the master socket then it is your responsibility to get it fixed. If you are still within your minimum term contract then TT are quite entitled to continue charging you line rental.
All you need to do is get an independent engineer out to fix the problem, you don't have to use Openreach. That way it will probably cost you no more than £40, it is probably a very simple fault that you could have fixed yourself. Have you run the tests from the BT test socket as suggested above?

mrcow

You are entitled to a full and immediate refund under the direct debit guarantee. Call Talk Talk and tell them that you want this money refunded in full today or you'll be reporting it to Ofcom and that you want Talk Talk to start a formal complaint which you want followed up in writing.

Have you cancelled the Direct Debit now?

Mark_In_Hampshire

macman wrote: »

If the line fault is on your side of the master socket then it is your responsibility to get it fixed. If you are still within your minimum term contract then TT are quite entitled to continue charging you line rental.
All you need to do is get an independent engineer out to fix the problem, you don't have to use Openreach. That way it will probably cost you no more than £40, it is probably a very simple fault that you could have fixed yourself. Have you run the tests from the BT test socket as suggested above?

Spot on. If the fault is in the home:

You asked the company to supply a telephone service for which they are responsible up to the master socket.

They have done so. They have performed to contract and are entitled to charge you.

The fact that you have no service is your responsibility and therefore you are obliged to continue to pay up until you cancel the contract once beyond minimum term, or else pay early cancellation charges.

If the fault really is in your home then you'll need to pay for all the service you haven't been able to receive, rather like a car dealer might sell you a car however if you cannot or do not put any petrol in it, it's not the car dealer's fault that you cannot use the car; they're only responsible for selling it to you.

The only way that you may be able to escape the charges is if the line is faulty outside your home, so the only way to make any progress is to ascertain that first.

Jemma-T

Claim back from your bank under the DD guarantee.

As for the bill, if you deliberately set your house on fire who should pay to rewire it when you're sitting in jail? BT's shareholders and customers? I think not. Look after your own wiring.

pb3

Mark_In_Hampshire wrote: »

I'm confused as to "my bank has restarted my bills" - do you mean that Talk Talk have set up the direct debit you cancelled again and started taking funds?

I'm afraid there is nothing you can do there as any payee can simply reinstate a direct debit after you have cancelled it....

Are you sure about this? It would seen quite worrying that a company can reinstate a direct debit if you've explicity cancelled your instruction.

Mark_In_Hampshire

Yes, this is correct. Think about it this way:

When you first set up the DD, you gave your details to the payee who forwarded them to your bank.

Your bank performed no due diligence and did not check that you authorised it. They simply assume you did.

So the payee can simply set the DD up again using the previously known information and the bank won't check that time either.

I know about this as it's happened to me. There is nothing in the DD system to prevent this.

paddyjoc

Hi, Mark I was not within the first 12mths so they didi not have a right to continue taking money out my account. I asked in Februaury that my line be cancelled as the cheapest quote I had was for £120 to rewire my really old wiring and as my husband had been paid off his job of 8years this was not a priority at that time. On going into my bank to set up a standing order and receiving a print out I noticed that for the last 10mths Talk Talk had continued to take my DD which had been cancelled the month before!! Now on talking to them and them confirming that their has been no calls or broadband on my line for over 1yr they are refusing to pay back my money.
Hope this helps. You seem to know alot about talk talk do you work for them if so could you send me a message and you can have my personal details and fix this.
M x

Mark_In_Hampshire

paddyjoc wrote: »

Hi, Mark I was not within the first 12mths so they didi not have a right to continue taking money out my account. I asked in Februaury that my line be cancelled

How did you make the request - by telephone? Did you agree/get a final date of service/cancellation with them?

paddyjoc wrote: »

On going into my bank to set up a standing order and receiving a print out I noticed that for the last 10mths Talk Talk had continued to take my DD which had been cancelled the month before!!

When you pay someone by direct debit, there's a difference between cancelling the service and cancelling the direct debit. Now you might think they are one and the same. You tell Talk Talk to cancel the service, and when they do that, the direct debit mandate vanishes from your account. Not so. It is up to you to cancel that arrangement with the Bank. Do you mean "I cancelled the service" or "I cancelled the direct debit"?

The line should have been cancelled, which means that no further payments should have been taken beyond the date of cancellation. It was not cancelled, so the payments went on as normal. You can prevent this by cancelling the mandate with your bank, but be warned, the payee can simply set it up again. The best way to prevent this is never to pay by direct debit.

paddyjoc wrote: »

Now on talking to them and them confirming that their has been no calls or broadband on my line for over 1yr they are refusing to pay back my money.

I'm a bit puzzled. Your service - if it remained active from their point of view - might have kept on being supplied; they confirmed no calls - correct - but "no broadband" - importantly: does that mean they agreed they haven't been supplying that, or, that you haven't been using it?

paddyjoc wrote: »

Hope this helps. You seem to know alot about talk talk do you work for them if so could you send me a message and you can have my personal details and fix this.
M x

No, I don't work for them!

In conclusion you asked for the service to be cancelled, and it was not. Now if you're certain you cancelled, go ahead and ring your bank. Instruct them to reverse all the direct debit payments after you cancelled, so you get your money back (overpayments only).

Make sure the direct debit mandate is cancelled. Then, optionally, inform the Bank of this in writing and ask them not to allow Talk Talk to set it up again, so if they do, you have correspondence to refer to.

Then WRITE to Talk Talk setting out the date you cancelled, tell them what you have done, and ask for a final bill based on that cancellation date.

In future, check your bank statements more regularly