MSE News: TalkTalk announces price hikes

Paul_Varjak

jrrowleyws wrote: »

How exactly can TalkTalk afford to have a cheaper line rental package if you pay up front then? Surely would be making a bigger loss than if the line rental remained at £12.60??!!

Not best impressed being 2 months into a 12 month contract...

Those who can afford to pay one year line rental in advance, benefit from a lower line rental than they pay now. Those who cannot pay one year in advance are stuck with the increase!

You can, of course, pay £114 Line rental upfront on Ist October even if you are within a 12 contract now. You contract would then end 12 months after you take out the Value Line Rental.

Paul_Varjak

Workingtonian wrote: »

I admire stickgal's determination in haggling with Talktalk but seemingly whatever you 'agree' with them today on a 12 months contract won't stop them coming along during the contract period and increasing part or all of the package you have spent time and effort negotiating.
My dictionary defines a contract as 'to enter into an agreement with a company to deliver goods or services on mutually agreed and BINDING terms' In my case it's not 'binding' Talktalk to stick with the line rental charge in my contract.
Can someone please explain why Talktalk can apparently ignore this and hike rental charges when it suits them - the fact that they may have to pay more to BT cannot surely allow them to apparently break a contract. Or am I missing something in the fine print somewhere in the T&C's stickgal talks about? And I would still like to know if it's worth taking this as a complaint to Ofcom.
Hope someone can help.

I think you will find that any Telecoms company can increase prices unless you have agreed to a FIXED PRICE DEAL. The same is true of electricity and water companies (where fixed priced deals are more common).

In the case of Value Line Rental you have, in effect, fixed the price of Line Rental for one year (as you have paid for 1 year in advance). You benefit by cheaper line rental and avoiding future line rental price rises for a whole year.

When you get 50% off your package (eg Essentials) price for 12 months you do, in effect, get a 50% protection on any increase in that package price over the next 12 months as well. You are not protected at all from any call price increases though!

TalkTalk

Hi All,

To clarify the 12 months up front payment means there will be no charge for line rental over the next 12 months. Irrespective of the cost of Line Rental during this time if you have paid the 12 months in advance you will not be charged line rental until this 12 months period is up.

In terms of currently existing contact is you take the Value line Rental offer this will be with a 12 month contract period. if you have more than 12 months in your current contract this will not affect the total term. However if this is less than 12 months the contract would be renewed for a 12 month period from the date you take the offer. Full details of this offer can be found in My Account.


Regards

Mark

connoll

Hi Mark (TalkTalk Company Representative),

I hope you can help me please.

I gave written notice to terminate my contract within the 10 day period but despite many emails and phone calls, TalkTalk refuse to refund the £13.41 (plus VAT) termination fee stating that I have "terminated within the contract period" even though I have pointed out the detriment clause. Full details are covered in the TalkTalk online incident report number 111030-001545.

Consumer Direct have advised me to raise a complaint with the Communication Ombudsman but I'm hoping that won't be necessary for such a small amount.

Many thanks, John (Connoll)

PS: Are there many other ex-TalkTalk customers that have been charged a termination fee and refused a refund please?

connoll

& incident number 111109-001834

TalkTalk

HGi Connell,

Agenst should not be applying the cessation fee in the first place if you are cancelling due to material detriment clause.

We would need to look into this in more detail to check the disconnection request dates. If you join the Members Forum we can look into this. Although you require an active TalKTalk Line to register on the forum we have historically made exceptions to this for post disconnection fnal bill issues.

As such you will need to email the contact us form on the Members Site so we can manually add the detials of your telephone and account number, to enable registration.


Once we have resolved the issue we will restrict your forum account to reflect the disconnection of your account. As we have no way to check your account details via MSE completing the above actions will mean we can investgate and resolve this issue for you in full.

Regards

Mark
TalKTalk Online Community Department

connoll

Hi Mark,

Thanks for your prompt reply.

I have now used the contact us section of the members forum to request that my telephone number and account number be added manually to enable registration to the forum.

It does sound like the original agent made a mistake in the first place by applying the cessation fee in error. Could you please look into this matter for me and arrange for the fee to be refunded?

Kind regards, John (Connoll)

Carlotta1964

I tried to sign up to Talktalk via uswitch in order to get the £60.00 Tesco's voucher, and get the £3.25/month discounted tarrif, however as my current phone number is a Virgin one it wasn't recognised and I had to complete the transaction via phone with their customer services team, which means I have missed out on the Tesco's voucher, and will be charged £6.50/month (after the £114.00 upfront payment for the line rental), and this can only be done after I have a new talk talk phone line. Although I will still save money compared to Virgin, I am somewhat disappointed not to have got the deals advertised as they could process my online application...and thoughts?????

TalkTalk

HI Connell,

If you post int he Customer Service and Billing section we can investigate into the account and issue as necessary.

@Carlotta - If you require a new line you wont be able to sign up online, New lines have to be requested via the New Lines Team.

Regards

Mark
TalkTalk Online Community Department

connoll

Hi Mark,


I have now raised my problem via the TalkTalk members forum in the "Customer Service & Billing" area under the user name "Connoll".


Any assistance you can offer in getting this resolved swiftly would be greatly appreciated.



Many thanks, John (Connoll)