talktalk mobile mis sold?

radnor

First post here and looking a bit of advice.

My elderly father got "caught on the phone" a few months back apparently with someone from talktalk. His story seems incredible to me as it's so out of character for him to sign up to anything, but he accepts he agreed to talktalk sending him a £5 a month mobile.

He still works and calls when he needs someone to pick him up from work, he was having trouble "topping up" his payg we gave him a few years ago and thought this would be better.

He tells me he rethought the matter and tried to cancel with them but to be honest he is pretty confused and ended up being told there was an even cheaper sim card. He now has a talktalk phone and simcard and a separate simcard.

He is being billed for both and his £5 a month deal which he tried to get out of is now costing him over £20, he has not used the sim at all. His entire use of the phone would amount to 5 mins per week and he can't text but he has a bells and whistles package from what I can see - even internet.

He is finally trying to retire but very stressed they've "caught him on the hook" and knows the whole package looks at about £500 over the next couple of years.

I've just looked at his landline bill from talk talk and I think he has a few things on there he doesn't need as well.

Any experience of mis selling from talk talk to elderly people? I think he was targeted for his age.

jenniewb

I don't know where he stands in terms of getting his contract cancelled, I can see that from an ethics point of view, it's wrong but from a legal point of view which is what I'm guessing they'll use to decide on, they have no reason to cancel.

I'd then think the only way around this (and again, I could be wrong, there could be a way out so research first!) would be to contact someone higher up the chain at Talktalk and appeal to them about this, explain your fathers vugnrability and your disappointment at Talktalk not realising this, how it makes you feel about the brand is going to be the biggest arguement when it comes to appealing to them because what you are doing is explaining to them you now think badly about them and as far as advertisement goes, you become a liability to them. I would then try to explain how it has affected your father- to further bring the point home to them, someone is suffering and it is due to what they are doing by not cancelling the contract.

It's a bit of a long shot and probably your last resort so do check first with places like Consumer Rights, CAB and anyone else who mentions suggestions on here. Make sure you ask for all the calls he made with them to be transcribed so that if you need to pull them up on anything -say for example you felt he was mistakened or lied to by something, you have something to back yourself up with.

radnor

Thanks jenniewb,

I've emailed them about it to keep the correspondence. I will see how it goes although I'm not hopeful the globalists will care.

Thanks again.

jenniewb

Just make sure you complain to the right people. If you don't get the response you feel is right, you can appeal or take things higher up, ask for supervisor/manager/CEO...and there is always the Ombudsman, may take some proper leg work though.