Talk Talk Restriction of Services

paul2706

Hi I want to make fellow Talk Talk Customers aware of a very disturbing part of the Talk Talk Service which I have just found out to my own cost.

My wife had overlooked a part payment to Talk Talk having an outstanding balance of £43.23 outstanding and cosequently restricted my services.

My wife fell down the stairs yesterday and needed an ambulance to take her to hospital I dialled 999 and my call was diverted to Talk Talks Finance Dept who informed me i needed to clear the balance and my phone would be re-connected after 24 hours.

Fortunately I managed to get a neighbour to call the emergency services but when I spoke to Customer Services they stated thius was normal trading practice I have used other providers in the past and they have always ensured that emergency numbers are not restricted - I hope no one else ever has to experience this scenario and am thankful it was not a fire.:mad:

brokebuthappy

That is truly shocking!

MillicentBystander

Surely the regulator should be informed of this 'trading practice'? I find it truly shocking. Jeez.

paul2706

I may make that my next poort of call someone from the Talk Talk management team were supposed to ring me today regarding this matter and accelerate my complaint but guess what had no contact from them at all.:mad:

Sheepstar

I found the only way to get TalkTalk to listen to my complaint was to give up with customer services and their team managers and write to their CEO's Complaints Dept.

help.talktalk.co.uk/app/answers/detail/a_id/2022/~/how-do-i-make-a-complaint%3F
(Sorry, you'll have to copy and paste the web address, I'm too new to post a clickable hyperlink!)

Scroll two-thirds of the way down the page to the "How do I take the matter further?" part.

Good luck

john1

For what is worth
Whichever way you look at it the action of the TT and its finance department is indefensible.


Unless Talk Talk deemed that the line was out of service, I am sure OFCOM would be very interested as there may have has been a serious breach of THE COMMUNICATIONS ACT 2003. General Conditions and Universal Service Conditions 4 – Which relates to Emergency Calls


4. EMERGENCY CALL NUMBERS
4.1 The Communications Provider shall ensure that any End-User can access Emergency Organisations by using the emergency call numbers “112” and “999” at no charge and, in the case of a Pay Telephone, or other public voice telephony access points” without having to use coins or cards.


Contact Ofcom on 0300 123 3333 or 020 7981 3040. Monday to Friday from 9.00am to 5.00pm.

Buzby

However, and I'm certainly no fan of TT, the fact remained that the bill was unpaid and the line restricted. Previously, in unpaid scenarios, the dial tone was removed, so nothing could be dialled at all. This required an engineer to physically place a wedge at the customer's exchange point until told the block could be removed.

For modern systems, this evolved into connecting all calls to the billing department so that payment can be arranged nothing more. Expecting firms to maintain a grey list of phones that are in default but still allowed to make emergency calls is a non starter, despite how 'nice' the idea might be. (Just think, everyone gets a free phone line to the 112/999 operator whilst other customers pay).

The moral argument is different, however to expect a change is unrealistic.

TalkTalk

Hi Paul2706,

Im sorry to hear of the problems you have experienced. This does require further and more in depth investigation. If you can contact us either Via Twitter, or the TalkTalk Members Forum we can look into this in more depth. Please reference this thread with a link in your initial contact.

Regards

Mark
TalkTalk Online Community Department.

paul2706

have referenced this forum on your twitter page have been promised 2 months free services as compensation and a phone call to see if my services were re-instated this did not materialise also confirmation was to be sent to my email address re compensatrion offer this has not happened either.:(

Phones4Chris

Buzby wrote: »

Expecting firms to maintain a grey list of phones that are in default but still allowed to make emergency calls is a non starter,

Why on earth do you think that should be the case. It's a pretty trivial software issue. There are all sorts of reasons why a bill may accidentally go unpaid and there is a total difference between restricting service for a reasonable period of time and cutting off the service altogether.
TalkTalk's actions are more than immoral, totally unethical.

paul2706

Update now received email from TT to say as I am not the account holder they cannot discuss this matter despite my wife giving her permission and putting a password on the account not forgetting also she i8s in hospital