Avoiding Talk Talk's last bill

crimson_D

Any advice on how to do this?

I've been with talk talk 4 years, always paid bills on time even despite a string of charges and problems from the start (charged for installation, box etc when told it was free, even when I rung up after the initial welcome letter I was told to ignore it untill first bill and waited nearly 6 months to get that money back and never any form of compensation)

But the last 6 months my internet connection kept dropping and my phone line static got worse, in Dec a new router was sent (seemed to solve some of the problem but connection still dropped till it eventually gave out around the 2nd), I had all the over the phone diagnostics done over a 3 day period, I drew the line at d/c the phone, unscrewing the box and only connecting the router the the master socket as I'm heavily pregnant with no mobile reception. I was told there was no problem their end after the diagnotics and eventually told I could be sent an engineer at a cost of £50.
I told them I wasn't happy and would rather cancel my contract all together, eventually a 'manager' told me that that fee would be waved as long as there was no damage to the internal lines and sheduled a BT engineer to arrive a week later (14th). BT engineer seemed to fix line from the post outside and said there was water corrosion on the line. Seems okay now..
Meanwhile, I decided to switch to Sky (I'm limited as there's no FO), so I rung them same day I had this talk with the talk talk manager, I'm due to switch on the 23rd and was told to cancel my DD with talk talk which I did day after.

Mostly as I want to avoid being 'accidently' charged for an engineer as I can't afford that extra money disappearing out of my account before I notice.

Now, I've no problem paying Talk Talk for any calls I've made during the periods of the 2nd - 23rd providing they provide an itemised bill and given I've cancelled the DD hopefully I will get that opportunity (the bills don't usually come out untill the 2nd of each month anyways). I just wondered if there's some 'official' sounding phrases I can use to avoid huge charges and back me up?

Many thanks for any help.

WTFH

If you have already cancelled your direct debit, the talk talk will not be happy. You should not cancel it until after the final bill has been paid. Sky will not have told you to cancel the DD immediately, rather they will have said that you need to cancel it after you have switched to them. Your credit score may be affected.

macman

You'll now be charged a £4.50 non-DD fee on your final bill if the DD fails. Idiotic advice from Sky.
Why can't you just view your bill online before they take the payment? That gives you time to dispute it if needed. Your final bill may be a credit anyway, as remember that you pay the line rental and broadband a month in advance-only the call charges are billed at the end of the billing cycle.
But I'm curious as to how you are managing to do an LLU to LLU transfer (TT to Sky), which isn't normally possible uness you get a new line provisioned? Don't count on that until it happens.

crimson_D

Ahh Thanks Macman, perhaps I got the wrong end of the stick. I mentioned I've had a really bad phone line of late didn't I? Perhaps I misheard.
Anyways, DD is reinstated, perhaps I can ring the bank and get them to call me before any further payments are taken out by either talktalk or sky... Looking at the call list, it totals £4.18 to date. Nothing else is mentioned but I can't see anywhere else to look for additional charges.

Think I have any chance of looking for or claiming any form of compensation? I'm just trying to recoup some mobile phone usage while the net/telephone was down and during the times it was acting up.

No idea about the LLU transfer, guess I'll see what happens on the 22nd-23rd. Shame I dont get a nice mobile phone connection in my place, I'd cut my losses and get rid of a landline all together.

WTFH lol thanks, but I think talk talk's happiness is the last thing on my mind.