TalkTalk card payments declined for Essentials package

Shake

Anyone else having this problem? Just tried to sign up online via the Moneysavingexpert "MSE blagged link" for the TalkTalk Essentials package to include free connection (£30's worth) ,free £50 Love2Shop voucher and the £114 advance line rental payment offer. However the Talk Talk website gives me an error when I try to pay the £114 line rental by credit or debit card. I have tried 3 different cards and just used one afterwards on eBay so I know its not blocked. I get the message - "An error occurred while processing the transaction. The payment method provided has not been accepted. Please check that the details are correct or use a different payment method to complete this order." I have telephoned Talk Talk customer services and they said they cannot give me the same offer to include the Love2Shop voucher over the phone as that is a 3rd party link offer. The sales staff were VERY pushy and tried their best to get me to buy a worse offer over the phone rather than online. Not a good first impression! Makes me wonder whether TalkTalk have scrapped/finished their Love2Shop voucher offer early (it has only 2 days left to go) and are doing their best to sign up new potential customers regardless. So much for the MSE claiming that Talk Talk having a "corking deal" with this offer. Might well stick with BT now.

Wendzh

Yes exactly the same thing has happened to me. I've tried it loads of times with 3 different cards. It's driving me crazy. About to give up now.

Shake

Have finally managed to get the order to through minus the Value Line Rental bit. After querying this problem with Talk Talk support chat online (much more helpful than the Talk Talk sales people over the phone) they said this could be resolved by putting the order through without the Value Line Rental option, and then adding it as soon as my account goes live. Estimated go live date appears to be in two weeks time, so will try to do it then. My cards were still not accepted today if I tried to pay upfront for Value Line Rental. The Talk Talk telephone support/sales people should have know the solution and saved me the grief, or at the very least referred me to the online support team. I hope things improve as on paper this currently seems to be the best deal on the market for non-fibre unlimited broadband and phone, assuming the broadband runs well.

skinflint815

the same happened to me, trying to pay for line rental in advance but the payment wouldn't go through. Rang them up and he tried very hard to push the sale but i wasn't haven't any of it,, cheekily he tried to make out that the fact their card payment system wasn't working was a love2shop problem and would i want to be doing business with them when already i've met problems...! like shake i've gone ahead and ordered online but without paying line rental in advance... one worrying thing he did say was that 40% of people who have signed up using this deal won't get a voucher (so why not just order with me now since you might not get your voucher anyway),,, will be very cross if a voucher don't come my way.....!

Shake

It's probably another telesales ploy to sign up over the phone instead of the better online deal. They appear to be so target driven that they are not worried about the complete customer experience or that they are damaging the company brand image. I was told that each sales person in the 500 strong office gets a limited number of credits to offer the 9 months half price broadband, that I was one of the lucky ones to be offered it over the phone ie a false time deadline technique. Honestly, it's like listening to some dodgy double glazing sales company on Rogue Traders! If you don't get the Love2Shop voucher then I would think that you have a case for breach of contract as it is a significant part of the deal. The voucher is clearly described in the order confirmation email "To reedeem your Voucher you must Register or login to My Account after your broadband service has gone live. Your voucher will be sent to your home address." And it's also described on the order screen page as:
Your order
Online exclusive! FREE connection worth £30 FREE
£50 Love2shop voucher FREE
etc

TalkTalk

Hi Skinflint and Shake,

Im sorry to hear of the problems you had placing orders, Ive fedback to the relevant departments regarding this for it to be investigated.

It is correct that the VLR can be added once the service si live and will be enabled once the payment is made, you can even do this yourself via My Account wihtout the need to call.

If you do want any assistance in doing this, or if there are any issues with the Love2Shop vouchers (im not aware of the figure of 40% failure rate regarding this) please feel free to either join the TalkTalk Members Forum or tweet us @TalkTalkCare. Problems with processing card paymetns would have no relevance on love2shop, as love2shop would have no reelvance on our ability to process payments.

@Skinflint - With respect to the agent you spoke to this does need to be fedback as I dont think all the information given is substatiated and this need sto be fedback. If you tweet us we can look into this contact and investigate further.

Regards

Mark
Online Community Department

Shake

To Mark, (Talk Talk Rep) Thanks for your input. I do wonder whether paying for the Value Line Rental on the day my account goes live means that I will still be charged a month's normal full price line rental in advance? When exactly does the Value Line Rental take effect?

bod1467

I suspect you are right. And next year when you renew in time they'll "forget" to apply it to your account and then apply VLR a month late. (There have been several cases of just that happening this year).

macman

Shake wrote: »

To Mark, (Talk Talk Rep) Thanks for your input. I do wonder whether paying for the Value Line Rental on the day my account goes live means that I will still be charged a month's normal full price line rental in advance? When exactly does the Value Line Rental take effect?

I have just put this through for a friend's TT account and it kicks in from the next monthly billing date. So your last bill with Line Rental added should be the normal amount, not a part month.
If you do it the day the account goes live you should already have been charged the first month LR in advance.

TalkTalk

Hi Shake,

If you sign up for VLR at the point of sale this is provisioned alongside all your services so will be active from the commencement of the account.

Regards

Mark
Online Community Department

Shake

Thanks Mark for the info. Yes, that's the way things should be given that it wasn't my fault the Talk Talk website wasn't accepting card payments at the moment of order.