TalkTalk direct debit charges don't ring true.

tweeter

High peeps, in today's Guardian there is a letter about how TalkTalk "moved its direct debit payment date to the end of the month – while still taking the full payments for the beginning of the same month. This had the effect of all of their customers paying for up to 10 days' service they didn't get." They should reimburse us all, no questions asked, but I can see us getting the run around over this if we try.


"I wonder if I've unearthed something that may affect other TalkTalk customers. At the end of March, the phone company moved its direct debit payment date to the end of the month – while still taking the full payments for the beginning of the same month. This had the effect of all of their customers paying for up to 10 days' service they didn't get.

When I phoned customer services this stroppy person told me I was wrong, so I immediately asked to speak to a supervisor. She said no more and transferred me through to the cancellation team where the person listened to my complaint, mumbled something about me paying in arrears then said he would go offline for a moment while he worked out what I was owed. I was immediately given a £7.26 refund for the period.

How many other people out there, paying by direct debit, do TalkTalk owe money to? JC, Longfield, Kent "

"Given the phone companies' record in this sector recently we were interested in your email. We have featured several cases of customers being charged for services they didn't get. We asked TalkTalk to investigate and it said:

"We recently changed our payment due dates for some of our customers from 14 to seven days after the bill date, which customers were notified of in advance. This change has no impact on the bills themselves and customers have been billed correctly."

That said, we would urge any other TalkTalk customers who check their bills closely to take a look to see whether their charges stack up. It seems odd JC was given a refund if it wasn't due. Anyone who spots that they, too, have been overcharged please get in contact at the usual email address, and we'll get on the case."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/may/28/talktalk-direct-debit-charges

System

My direct debit date has shifted backwards into the previous month, so in September I paid two direct debits, one near the beginning of the month as expected (2nd, I think) and one towards the end (29th). My October payment was taken on the 28th. I had asked them why they have moved the date and was eventually told 'you cannot move the date your direct debit is taken' - doh - and asked for the dates the money would be taken from my bank account for the rest of my current contract and was informed that 'you will be debited about a week to two weeks after your accounting date, the 23rd, and payment will therefore be taken in the first week of the month'. Hm, wrong again. Having contacted them directly using their website, receiving a hotmail message back from them asking me for personal details, such as last four digits of my bank account number, my full name and full address (which are clearly written on the website form), then, not having received a reply to that reply (are you still with me? I know, it's tedious to say the least) when I contacted them again to ask where their response was they denied having had my message. They've done this twice, by the way. I'm beginning to lose the will to live (as, I'm sure, you are too). The response I mentioned above, by the way, was the one at the end of this sad and sorry saga. Of course I contacted them again, but as it was sent by hotmail will probably get no response and they will no doubt claim it wasn't received....:(. What recourse do I have, if any? Should I just give up now?

bod1467

TT will not be sending emails FROM a Hotmail account. Anything you receive by that means should be considered suspect.

TT changed their payment collection terms, to 7 days after billing date. (Was 14 days for many customers). This was supposedly to harmonise all customers across their various companies (TT, AOL, Pipex, etc.). This meant that some people received (and paid) 2 invoices in March. However the billing period should not have changed (TT work in billing cycles based on the day of the month that you were activated) so everything should tie up.

One problem with this change was that some people's billing notification emails weren't being issued in sufficient time for them to query the bills, and so fell foul of Direct Debit rules.

I don't know why this double-invoicing happened again in October though.

PS - I'm not with TT, but I do read their forums.

Mark_In_Hampshire

The actual payment date isn't really relevant.

The company can take the money out of your account once the bill is produced. The company - whoever it is - will normally have a policy of "we will debit the account X days after your bill date" (note: that's not the date you're notified, it's the date the bill is produced, though for online billing they are closer together than paper billing) and that company can change the number of days X at will again as long as you're notified of what "X" is.

It used to be the case that you had to be given a notice period stiuplated by the direct debit scheme itself which was originally 10 working days, then it went to 10 days, then "10 days or as otherwise agreed". Thing is if the customer doesn't agree, there isn't really anything the customer can do. Except not pay by direct debit. Which if I recall rightly, isn't possible with Talk Talk.

Of course, it does rather tempt the payee to move the bill date and the debit date closer together, doesn't it. That way if you dispute an item on your bill it becomes quite hard for that to be rectified on that bill before the amount is debited. And intentionally so.

System

Morning all,
Thank-you for your responses. Firstly the messages to me via the hotmail system were from the talktalk cust.help centre. Secondly, after checking my tt account online yesterday I noted that the billing dates for my account have been brought forward over the past couple of months by talktalk, so presumably this means the date money could be taken from my current account have also been moved - in August '11 the billing date was 23rd, as expected, but in September the date was 21/9 and in October 20/10. A move around the original date of 24hrs I can understand, but to push them around by 3 days seems excessive, particularly when mid-week. Can they do this without notification?

Mark_In_Hampshire

It sounds to me like the billing dates have been changed from "monthly" to "every 30 days". Which means that at some stage you end up with two debits in the same month.

If, say, something is "£10 monthly", starts being billed monthly, and then starts being billed every 30 days then no, they can't do that. As the amount would have to change as well. £10 monthly is not £10 every 30 days - they're not the same. I think it's a change of Terms which would require the consent of both parties.

TalkTalk

Hi All,


If any customers have billing queries we will need to access the account to investigate further.


As we have no private medium of exchange via the MSE site I would request any customers with queries join the TalkTalk Members Forum where we can complete relevant security checks and provide full account and billing support.

As correctly stated below the change of Direct Debit extraction dates did not affect the bill date. As such the periods bills remained the same during this time and no overpayments should have occured (as the bill amount date and frequency remianed the same, only the date we process payments for the bill changed)


If customers have account specific queries we will be more than happy to help via the Members forum.

Regards

Mark
TalkTalk Online Community Department