Talk Talk Rip Off Termination

EdwardB

I have been a customer of TalkTalk for 4 years and previously they seemed to want my business, but it seems that they no longer do so I terminated my account when it was due to expire.

So here is the rip off, if I leave TalkTalk and go to another ISP it is immediate, I just tell the new provider and they do not even need a MAC code, it just gets done, HOWEVER, if you CEASE the line it seems that TalkTalk require 30 days notice AND try to bill you for an extra month on top of that.

This seems to be a dodgy industry practice, I remember Sky trying it years ago when I dumped their TV service in July 2012, giving the 30 days notice, they continued billing me till September, I remember them involving debt collectors but eventually crediting it when I involved a consumer organisation and their press office.

Back to TalkTalk, I called them twice in August to see if I could get the same deal for the next year, each time I was transferred to the retention dept who offered me awful deals. So I decided to cease the service, I am moving in January so I will start with a new provider then.

I asked TalkTalk when did I need to terminate my service by, they said by the 9th of September, as the contract ended and was paid up to the 9th of October. I called them on that date and asked they send me an email to confirm it as there was nothing in MY ACCOUNT that showed the termination order.

The email did not come so I raised a ticket online and got an email confirming the termination order had been received on the 9th September and all was in place. It said there would be no contract break charge as I would be out of contract by the time the account got disconnected.

All was well, or so I thought!

On October 1st I got a bill for a new undiscounted month of service.

I got on the phone to TalkTalk, the first person was based in India and I could not understand a word he said so I got the call transferred.

The next guy was in the Phillipines, the guy could have been on a Monty Python sketch, it did not matter how many times I tried to explain that if a service is terminated you can't continue issuing invoices, he just kept repeating some halfarrrssed reasoning that made no sense.

I explained I signed and prepaid a year upfront for the last four years, that my contract started on the 9th and ends on the 9th.

All I wanted was the assurance that they would credit the invoice but he refused to say they would. This went on for some time (think dead parrot sketch)

So why do TalkTalk do this?

When I called I got a message saying they were really busy, well how many of those calls are from customers calling because they have been overcharged for an extra month?

Do TalkTalk do this because they know a lot of people are too busy to complain so they get the money anyway?

When I terminated the lady told me NOT to cancel the direct debit, well after Sky I knew I SHOULD cancel the direct debit and I was right, if I had not TalkTalk would be trying to steal my money for a service they will not be providing.

The hassle and stress of this means one thing, I will NEVER deal with TalkTalk again.

I am going to write to OFCOM regarding this shoddy practice and I urge fellow members of this forum to do the same, whether it be TalkTalk or other companies doing this.

I prepaid my service a year upfront and I terminated it on the date they said. He would not even confirm it was a computer error.

All they have to do is to have their invoice generation system have a check that says if cease order in place do not issue invoice.

The bad will that they have created is massive, I used to refer TalkTalk to friends and family (who bougth more expensive TT packages) now I will make a point of telling them to get out of TalkTalk and switch provider.

I will NOT be paying them one cent.

joe134

EdwardB wrote: »

I have been a customer of TalkTalk for 4 years and previously they seemed to want my business, but it seems that they no longer do so I terminated my account when it was due to expire.

So here is the rip off, if I leave TalkTalk and go to another ISP it is immediate, I just tell the new provider and they do not even need a MAC code, it just gets done, HOWEVER, if you CEASE the line it seems that TalkTalk require 30 days notice AND try to bill you for an extra month on top of that.

This seems to be a dodgy industry practice, I remember Sky trying it years ago when I dumped their TV service in July 2012, giving the 30 days notice, they continued billing me till September, I remember them involving debt collectors but eventually crediting it when I involved a consumer organisation and their press office.

Back to TalkTalk, I called them twice in August to see if I could get the same deal for the next year, each time I was transferred to the retention dept who offered me awful deals. So I decided to cease the service, I am moving in January so I will start with a new provider then.

I asked TalkTalk when did I need to terminate my service by, they said by the 9th of September, as the contract ended and was paid up to the 9th of October. I called them on that date and asked they send me an email to confirm it as there was nothing in MY ACCOUNT that showed the termination order.

The email did not come so I raised a ticket online and got an email confirming the termination order had been received on the 9th September and all was in place. It said there would be no contract break charge as I would be out of contract by the time the account got disconnected.

All was well, or so I thought!

On October 1st I got a bill for a new undiscounted month of service.

I got on the phone to TalkTalk, the first person was based in India and I could not understand a word he said so I got the call transferred.

The next guy was in the Phillipines, the guy could have been on a Monty Python sketch, it did not matter how many times I tried to explain that if a service is terminated you can't continue issuing invoices, he just kept repeating some halfarrrssed reasoning that made no sense.

I explained I signed and prepaid a year upfront for the last four years, that my contract started on the 9th and ends on the 9th.

All I wanted was the assurance that they would credit the invoice but he refused to say they would. This went on for some time (think dead parrot sketch)

So why do TalkTalk do this?

When I called I got a message saying they were really busy, well how many of those calls are from customers calling because they have been overcharged for an extra month?

Do TalkTalk do this because they know a lot of people are too busy to complain so they get the money anyway?

When I terminated the lady told me NOT to cancel the direct debit, well after Sky I knew I SHOULD cancel the direct debit and I was right, if I had not TalkTalk would be trying to steal my money for a service they will not be providing.

The hassle and stress of this means one thing, I will NEVER deal with TalkTalk again.

I am going to write to OFCOM regarding this shoddy practice and I urge fellow members of this forum to do the same, whether it be TalkTalk or other companies doing this.

I prepaid my service a year upfront and I terminated it on the date they said. He would not even confirm it was a computer error.

All they have to do is to have their invoice generation system have a check that says if cease order in place do not issue invoice.

The bad will that they have created is massive, I used to refer TalkTalk to friends and family (who bougth more expensive TT packages) now I will make a point of telling them to get out of TalkTalk and switch provider.

I will NOT be paying them one cent.

I, as a long standing AOL.CPW. now TT customer, awaiting to see if they increase my charges, which for years I have been very pleased with, cannot see your gripe.
Why are you leaving,? what's the new charges.? the price increases are not only TT related, all other companies have, or are doing the same.
Without more info, I cannot see where you are coming from, except , TT are making moving difficult.
Isn't that the norm.?
I may be following you, but, not because of your post.
Everyones situation is based on experience, until TT hit me with a deal I don't like, I will stay put.
Better the devil you know.
It's taken you 4 years to decide TT are unfit for purpose.
I can treble that time of good experience.
Doesn't mean I won't encounter agro should I decide to terminate.
I'm out of contract, by 12 months.

TalkTalk

Hi EdwardB,

In regards to your billing, if your disconnection date is the 9th OCtober and your bill date is the 1st, its normal that you wuld b sent a bill on the 1st October. This will contain advance charges for the next billing period.

As your are due to disconnect on the 9th, when the line is ceased a new invoice will be produced on the 1st November. This will show a pro rata refund for the period you have not had an active service (i.e. 10th October - 31st October). THis will be in addition to the final call charges or any other charges applicable to your account. If this leaves you in a credit balance, we can process a refund for you.

For more information on this you can look at our Final Bill Explained help article.

Cheers

Mark
Social Customer Care Team
TalkTalk

WarrenG_2

TalkTalk_Company_Representative wrote: »

Hi EdwardB,

If this leaves you in a credit balance, we can process a refund for you.

Cheers

Mark
Social Customer Care Team
TalkTalk

LOL.....and good luck with that! Talk Talk overcharged me back in July and they still haven't refunded! Won;t even accept my bank details.

Edward your post is spot on. As a long term AOL customer Talk Talk have stopped all that. AOL wasn't perfect but was better than some.

I would NEVER EVER recommend Talk Talk to anyone. They are incompetent in working in their own industry. Unprofessional, unreliable, poor customer service and as you say a Rip off.

DavidP24

TalkTalk_Company_Representative wrote: »

Hi EdwardB,

In regards to your billing, if your disconnection date is the 9th OCtober and your bill date is the 1st, its normal that you wuld b sent a bill on the 1st October. This will contain advance charges for the next billing period.

As your are due to disconnect on the 9th, when the line is ceased a new invoice will be produced on the 1st November. This will show a pro rata refund for the period you have not had an active service (i.e. 10th October - 31st October). THis will be in addition to the final call charges or any other charges applicable to your account. If this leaves you in a credit balance, we can process a refund for you.

For more information on this you can look at our Final Bill Explained help article.

Cheers

Mark
Social Customer Care Team
TalkTalk

Mark

I had very similar problem

My contract started a few days earlier.

My contract was 3 years, it started around 5th or 7th, it ran for a year, got renewed each year

You seem to have done the SAME thing, you issued a bill on 1st October when my contract with you DOES NOT START ON THAT DAY.

What madness is it to issue a bill early then make customers hang around for a month (if you are to be believed) and then trust you to credit them.

You LOSE goodwill

You tie up your support lines

You cause anxiety and stress

You had better hope that you credit 100% because we can go to Court and I will issue Counter Claim against you.

I am also putting complaints into OFCOM and ASA about the lies on your site and the covert info the OP mentioned.

PS. I think your Filipino customer support managers are dragging the calls out, they keep repeating stuff, do not listen to what you say and then start over and over trying to wear you down, then they say "so are you happy with how I have handled your complaint" I said NO I am not, so they started all over again. Eventually, I said I am going now and they would not let me go, I said I am sorry but you are not responding to my complaint, just repeating drivel.

I do not know if they are incentivised to stay on a long time or whether you train them to P off customers but now I understand why your competitiom advertise that they use UK call centres.

TalkTalk

DavidP24 wrote: »

Mark

I had very similar problem

My contract started a few days earlier.

My contract was 3 years, it started around 5th or 7th, it ran for a year, got renewed each year

You seem to have done the SAME thing, you issued a bill on 1st October when my contract with you DOES NOT START ON THAT DAY.

What madness is it to issue a bill early then make customers hang around for a month (if you are to be believed) and then trust you to credit them.

You LOSE goodwill

You tie up your support lines

You cause anxiety and stress

You had better hope that you credit 100% because we can go to Court and I will issue Counter Claim against you.

I am also putting complaints into OFCOM and ASA about the lies on your site and the covert info the OP mentioned.

PS. I think your Filipino customer support managers are dragging the calls out, they keep repeating stuff, do not listen to what you say and then start over and over trying to wear you down, then they say "so are you happy with how I have handled your complaint" I said NO I am not, so they started all over again. Eventually, I said I am going now and they would not let me go, I said I am sorry but you are not responding to my complaint, just repeating drivel.

I do not know if they are incentivised to stay on a long time or whether you train them to P off customers but now I understand why your competitiom advertise that they use UK call centres.

Hi David,

You bill date will always be the same each months, regardless of whether you are in the process of leaving.

If your bill date is the 1st, this will always be the day your bill is produced. If you are in the process of leaving you're still liable for payment up to and including the last day of connection. As you pay your bills in advance for line rental and your tariff, there is a pro rata refund following the disconnection. On the 1st October there is still a 6 day period you can stop the disconnection request, so we would still bill during this time until the services are disconnected.

Your final bill is not raised until the bill date after the account has disconnected. This bill contains any pro-rata refund for advanced charges, in addition to the final charges for items paid in arrears, such as call charges.

Cheers

Mark
Social Customer Care Team
TalkTalk

DavidP24

TalkTalkMark

You seem to have a problem reading plain English

I said my contract started on the 5th or 7th and was renewed each year

and I said that you issued a bill on 1st October when my contract with you DOES NOT START ON THAT DAY.

Now which part do you not understand,

Contact start date: 5th October
New (disputed) bill dated 1st October

Now you want me to wait a further month for you to deduct and charge for these 4 days

There are enough people on here with the SAME problem to show that it is a deliberate practice, probably done to generate bills because people are too busy to wait on your foreign call centre only to be met with an hour of "let me explain" diatribe that goes on for an hour.

TalkTalk_Company_Representative wrote: »

Hi David,

You bill date will always be the same each months, regardless of whether you are in the process of leaving.

If your bill date is the 1st, this will always be the day your bill is produced. If you are in the process of leaving you're still liable for payment up to and including the last day of connection. As you pay your bills in advance for line rental and your tariff, there is a pro rata refund following the disconnection. On the 1st October there is still a 6 day period you can stop the disconnection request, so we would still bill during this time until the services are disconnected.

Your final bill is not raised until the bill date after the account has disconnected. This bill contains any pro-rata refund for advanced charges, in addition to the final charges for items paid in arrears, such as call charges.

Cheers

Mark
Social Customer Care Team
TalkTalk

TalkTalk

Hi David,

Your bill date is not the date your contract started. The bill date is set based on when you sign up. It stays the same each month.

During the term of your service with us your bill will have always been raised on/around the 1st of the month. As you pay in advance you will have received a bill on the 1st October, prior to the disconnection.

When the line disconnects you are refunded for any advance charges you are paid. This is an automatic credit to your account. Your final invoice is raised on the bill date after you leave, in your case 1st November. This contains the pro rata refund of any advance charges you paid the month before, in addition to call charges upto and including your final date with us.

If you want us to look into this in more depth we need to confirm some information with you, which we cannot do here on MSE. Please either tweet us @TalkTalkCare or post on the TalkTalk Community and this can be looked into.

Cheers

Mark
Social Customer Care Team
TalkTalk

DavidP24

@TalkTalkMark

I do not know why you persist in arguing with me?

Do you think I am a complete idiot?

In any transaction you are not entitled to charge until you actually provide a service, that entitlement started on the 5th day of the month, from the 5th of one month to the 4th of the next month.

The FACT is that you have changed this date to the 1st of the month, that is a unilateral change that I did not agree to or authorise.

Once a customer cancels a service as I did a month before in September you have no right to issue an invoice for a service that you will not be providing, you know you will not be providing the service and by issuing the invoice you just cause stress and anxiety to customers.

It is all very well saying you will credit charges when you issue a final invoice in ANOTHER MONTH but it is already the final month, you have had 30 days of notice to do what you needed to do, so why should TalkTalk customers have to put up with this grief.

You are in the wrong and you need to accept that you are in the wrong.

During the term of your service with us your bill will have always been raised on/around the 1st of the month. As you pay in advance you will have received a bill on the 1st October, prior to the disconnection.

TalkTalk

Hi David,

In no way am I arguing with you, as advised earlier we need you to contact us directly to give you any assurances about your specific account. I am only working off the information you have given here and giving you general advice on how the billing works.

You stated your contract started on the 5th or 7th. This may be correct but that is not the date of your bills. Your bill date is always the same every month, its not the first date of your contract. ON your very first bill you ahve a part month charge, to cover the date of connection to the bill date, then advance month charges, from the bill date to the next bill date.

Each month a bill is raised containing advance charges upto the next bill date.

When you disconnect, there will inevitably be advance charges that you paid on the bill date before the line disconnects, covering a period after the line disconnects. These are credited back automatically to the account when you disconnect and can be refunded to you. The only exception would be if you disconnect exactly on your bill date.

If you do want us to look into your account specifically you need to contact us directly using one of the methods above.

Cheers

Mark
Social Customer Services Team
TalkTalk

Ian011

DavidP24 wrote: »

Do you think I am a complete idiot?

It's beginning to look like it.


When you originally signed up, your service started on, let's say 7 October 2011. Even though line rental is paid in advance, TalkTalk would not have sent a bill before the service started. Instead, your first bill would have been dated 1 November 2011 and contained
- line rental pro-rata in arrears for the three weeks the service has been running
- calls package pro-rata in arrears for the three weeks the service has been running
- broadband charges pro-rata in arrears for the three weeks the service has been running
- call charges in arrears for non-inclusive calls made in the three weeks the service has been running
- line rental in advance for the whole of November 2011
- calls package in advance for the whole of November 2011
- broadband in advance for the whole of November 2011.

On 1 December 2011, a new bill would have been produced for
- call charges in arrears for non-inclusive calls made in the whole of November 2011
- line rental in advance for the whole of December 2011
- calls package in advance for the whole of December 2011
- broadband in advance for the whole of December 2011.

You will have been billed monthly in the same way for some stuff in advance and some stuff in arrears every month until now.

It is therefore quite correct that on 1 October 2015 you are billed for a whole month in advance. If you leave sometime during October 2015, the billing system picks up on 1 November 2015 that you need to pay
- non-inclusive call charges from 1 October 2015 until the day you left
and you need to be refunded
- line rental from the day you left until the last day of October 2015
- calls package from the day you left until the last day of October 2015
- broadband from the day you left until the last day of October 2015.

This is how it has always been and is much the same with every provider.

This then caters for your actual leaving date changing for some reason, or you phoning up just before the leaving date and deciding to stay.