help anyone else having problems with talktalk and ex-directory?

bagpipeman

I have just started a formal complaint after TalkTalk have made my very private life a matter of public access!!!

Data Protection Commisioner, surprisingly not interested - but you can register a complaint with Ofcom and after eight weeks of dispute start, you con then take the matter to Otello.

I am contacting my large circle of friends and work colleagues who I pursuaded to switch to TalkTalk to take the same action!

TalkTalk

Hi bagpipeman,

Sorry to hear you are experiencing some problems. Could you let me know what the issue is so we can take a look into the matter for you? It may be of more benefit for you if you could post at https://www.talktalkmemebers.com/forums as we will need to clear data protection with you prior to looking into your account.

For info a complaint needs to be ongoing for 12 weeks before Otelo will take on the case. If TalkTalk are making reasonalble attempts/offers to resolve the issue with you at this time then Otelo may still refuse to take on the case.

Cheers
Emma x

DS-2

bagpipeman
When following TalkTalk's complaint procedure, bear in mind that they "defer" to the Carphone Warehouse! So at 6 weeks you need to escalate your complaint to:

Customer Liaison Manager
Carphone Warehouse
PO Box 344
Unit 19
Southampton
SO30 2NP

Otherwise you'll get to 8 weeks and have to wait a further 2 weeks.

"Defer" is not quite the right word, because when you raise it to the above address all they do is send it back to TalkTalk, to the "CEO's Office" (or so they told me when I asked whether it was TalkTalk or the Carphone Warehouse that was now dealing with my complaint).

@TalkTalk Company Representative, it took me less than 60 seconds to double-check your "facts" about the timescales within which Otelo will take up a complaint. You are wrong.

Otelo will take a customer complaint if it remains unresolved after 8 weeks.

http://www.otelo.org.uk/pages/48bycustomersofpubliccommunicationsproviders.php#5

Regards.

Bagpipeman: just for clarity, your complaint should go to Otelo not Ofcom. Ofcom state:

Ofcom doesn’t resolve individual consumer complaints. However, it regulates communications providers’ complaints handling procedures. At the moment it does this by requiring that a communications provider has a Complaints Code of Practice that is approved by Ofcom and that it complies with that Complaints Code of Practice. It regulates for Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) – this is where an independent third party makes a decision about a dispute if it can’t be resolved directly with a communications provider. It does this by requiring that communications providers are a member of an ADR scheme and by approving the ADR schemes.

http://ask.ofcom.org.uk/help/services-and-billing/ofcom_role

bagpipeman

Thank you, DS-2, for the helpful information. Although Ofcom do not get involved in individual complaints they told me that if a sufficent number of complaints regarding a particular matter or company were registered with them it could then be subject to investigation.

In the BBc Watchdog programme that featured this problem, it was stated that TalkTalk's practice of publishing personal details was "illegal". I have searched, but cannot find any information - I would like to pursue this aspect. Any ideas?????


After banging my head on a brick wall for several weeks whilst listening to scratchy music waiting to be read a TalkTalk script by friendly but useless help centre operatives, you are the aspirin my aching head is screaming for......thanks again!!!!

bagpipeman

Emma - TalkTalk Company Representative, I suggest you test your link! It leads to a TalkTalk home page but there is no link to or sign of "forums". Perhaps you could advise me of a way to pursue the legality of TalkTalks publicing my personal details.

Heinz

bagpipeman wrote: »

Emma - TalkTalk Company Representative, I suggest you test your link! It leads to a TalkTalk home page but there is no link to or sign of "forums".

She was trying to direct you to www.talktalkmembers.com/forums/ but couldn't spell members (she typed www.talktalkmemebers.com/forums/) so you got sent elsewhere.

DS-2

Hi bagpipeman,

Here's an interesting story regarding Tiscali (which is now with the Carphone Warehouse and TalkTalk) - even the Information Commissioner gets a mention.

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/2009/07/30/isp-tiscali-uk-questioned-over-the-security-of-its-users-personal-data.html

It links to the following page http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/30/tiscali_directory/

It made me smile when "Tiscali" said that it wasn't typical for them not to respond to registered letters. TalkTalk didn't respond to mine either (which I also complained about).

From my experience and in my opinion, TalkTalk have done a very good job at keeping the lid on this issue, despite it appearing on Watchdog. I'm really amazed that the ICO has not followed up on this or that Otelo haven't apprised Ofcom that there is/was a problem.

When I spoke to both Otelo and Ofcom, neither were willing to admit that any other customer had been affected by this (though that is quite some time ago now).

Surely I'm not the only one who took this issue up with Otelo!

I wonder how many customers had their details published when they had asked to be ex-directory? Will we ever get any clarity on those numbers?

Maybe the TalkTalk Representative could do the decent thing and tell us how many customers were affected? And what was done about it once the problem was noted by them (through customer complaints and Watchdog), because as far as I'm aware they did absolutely NOTHING to alert their customer's to the problem after they knew what had happened.

How the Information Commissioner can turn away from that I just do not understand.

Regards.

bagpipeman

Thank you DS-2 for your information.

Today, 27/10/2009, I recieved a telephone call via my mobile phone (strange, as I DO have a TalkTalk landline account and always declare when I am "recording calls for legal purposes") from Michael Hopkins who said he was calling from the "Chief Executive's office". When he told me TalkTalk had no record of my instruction to be ex-directory and that I had always been listed in the Telephone Book I terminated the conversation and requested a written response to my formal complaint.

Michael Hopkins has apparently not read our contract or the letter I sent to TalkTalk requesting written confirmation that I was registered ex-directory and that the information I had given to TalkTalk would not be used for advertising, research purposes or promotion of their products or passed on to others for such purposes. Neither has he read letter of confirmation I received!

Of course, if he has copies of the phone book showing my personal details dated 2006 onwards and my signed contract showing that I wanted the world to have access to my address and telephone number ............ well, that would mean that this is NOT, after all, a contravention of Data Protection law, corporate incompetence or an illegal practice.

You, me, BBC Watchdog and everyone else affected by TalkTalk's disgusting failure know that the problem began when the Local Loop Unbunddling was undertaken in BT exchanges.

This has gone on too long. It is time for a group action. What would be the best focal point that would reach tens of thousands......not just half a dozen enthusiatic individuals. My own circle of TalkTalk converts exceeds two dozen!

TalkTalk ....... you have thrown down the gauntlet and you have no idea who has picked it up!

Edward James.

TalkTalk

Hi Edward,

As the CEOs Office are dealing with your issue I can not intervene. I have passed your comments to the management team and requested that they are re-affirmed to the agent handling your complaint.

Cheers
Emma x

bagpipeman

Thank you for your reply Emma.

I visited TalkTalk Members Forum but could not find one single reference to the widespread problem of TalkTalk's unauthorised removal of it's customers ex-directory status. The closest reference was one solitary thread relating to a customers anger at having his personal details REMOVED from the telephone book. I suspect the possibility of just a slight lack of impartiality.............

I terminated Michael Hopkins telephone call to me on 28/10/2009 when he stated that there was no record of me ever having been ex-directory and after requesting a written response to my FORMAL COMPLAINT.

For the public record, when I told Michael Hopkins "I intend to cause TalkTalk the same inconvenience, distress and anxiety it had caused me" he replied "I doubt it"! This arrogance typifies the dismissive contempt with which TalkTalk treats its customers.

Check TalkTalk's recording and hear for yourself. Unfortunately I was unable to follow my customary practice of recording the call for legal purposes as Michael Hopkins, for whatever reason, telephoned me on my mobile number instead of my TalkTalk land line.

I saw a tiny Jack Russel Terrier bite a massive bull on the ankle and the bull bucked and reared to shake the little chappie off. JR held on with a bite and determination that out sized his diminutive frame. In the end the bull gave in and stood perfectly still. Emma, don't you just love that ol' bull?

Edward James.