Talk Talk Rip Off Termination

DavidP24

Well thank you Ian for at least explaining more clearly what TalkTalkMark should have explained for other visitors as I already was aware,

I am not an idiot. I have had contracts with other providers since dial up broadband first came on the market, so I am well aware of how they bill.

I have spent hours on the phone dealing with the TalkTalk Call centre, this is an exercise in futility as although they know the English vocab they do not understand usage, so they just read kwap statements out over and over again.

I have established that they DID change the date on my contract to make it earlier, in fact they changed both line rental and broadband dates so neither is now the original date and they are out of sync with each other by a few days.

With respect you are missing the point here.

If a customer has CANCELLED THEIR SERVICE 30 DAYS BEFORE there is no need to issue a new bill for advanced rental to cover a period where THEY KNOW THEY WILL NOT BE PROVIDING SERVICE for.

When you change ISP you do not need to give 30 days notice, only when you terminate, the whole idea of the 30 days is to give them time to get their sheet together.

So if they knew in early september (actually they were informed in August in the first place but their staff put you off and say you should ring back, you should ring back, you should ring back), then they should not raise the bill on the 1st for an advance period they know the service will be disconnected.

Also making customers wait in anxiety for an extra month their system should issue the final bill within 7 days of termination. That would do away with the bill sent on the 1st Oct and the 1st Nov, it is also normal business practice. You do not bill people when you have been made aware by their cancellation policy that they will no longer be having a service, you just issue a final bill soon after the end of service.

For them as a business this makes no sense either, they are sending out bills to tens of thousands of people every month, it creates problems for their support people, damages their reputation, not just on here but when people mention to friends "oh yes TalkTalk tried to pull a fast one by billing me for a period beyond when I cancelled despite the fact that I told them ages ago".

It is a simple check to do an invoice run ONLY to those in service, i.e. those that do not have a cancellation booked.

I have never had this problem with other ISP's and it is clear from TalkTalk's other shoddy practices that they bill people and hope they will not notice, for example when people cancel because of the price increase you they automatically bill you and will not credit you unless you contact them TWICE.

TalkTalkMark admitted that in other thread.

Out of interest I am curious whether every talk talk customer is billed in the first of the month, any other TT customers able to confirm this?

Ian011

They bill for the whole month in advance on the final month. This is because you might not leave on the day that was originally planned, or you might phone up just before the leaving date and decide to stay after all.

It is not unusual for a new supplier to suddenly say that they cannot provide you with service for some reason, or it may be that your new supplier might announce just before your leaving date that there is an impending price rise such that you decide to stay with the existing provider.

Once you have left, the final bill with adjustments is produced. In the example above I said that "On 1 November 2015..." but it may very well be that a different process does the job a few days after it is fully confirmed that you have left.

DavidP24

Ian, I do not know why you keep making excuses form them, perhaps you work for an ISP or TalkTalk themselves.

As I previously explained, this is not about moving to another company, if that were case there would not be the 30 days notice required.

I was also told that once I order a termination it cannot be undone and I would need to start with a new order, it was one of the scare tactics used when TalkTalk practically refused to accept my termination, telling me to call back, even after I had been through retentions dept several times.

I would not have left TalkTalk if they had simply offered to maintain the deal we agreed when I moved, I was happy to sign a new contract on the same terms but they tried to force me into a new 18 contract at hundreds more than I was paying. So again a shoddy practice, they advertise that moving is free, but it is not free if they force you into a new contract costing hundreds more.

It is just another of the shoddy practices; another one is not automatically crediting people when they cancel after a price rise, despite OFCOM rules they make you jump through hoops to stop them ripping you off.

Then we have the shoddy way they deliberately try to make your line rental and broadband out of sync, one is for 12 months the other for 18 months. Time and time again you see it on here, people think they are signing for a 12 month contract only to find they are on 18, or they take up a renewal deal only to find the same and yes they also do that when you try to move. Why? so that when you leave you end up with a contract break fee. The only saviour is that they put their prices up and OFCOM gives you a way to avoid the fee , but even then, they hit you for an automatic contract break fee despite you telling them you are leaving because they put the price up. Goodness knows they will not just let you leave, you have to explain yourself, so they know and have no excuse to put you through another hassle.

I had to spent hours on the phone talking to company representatives who do not understand what customers say and TalkTalk know that this wears people down so they do not bother to dispute. Yet if we ignore bills (even fake, badly generated bills that may or may not get credited in the future) it can affect our credit record.

Are we supposed to just trust Talktalk when in another thread they say if you don't ring up and query an automatic charge they will expect you to pay it.

My account was paid up to the end of my contract (I prepaid to get the deal), so I quite reasonably cancelled my direct debit when I terminated (seen too many posts on here warning you to do so) I saw someone else got charged for this and so went online to my account and sure enough there is an extra charge for a direct debit for a service I will not have.

If I had not cancelled that Direct Debit TalkTalk would have taken my money for the fake bill they generated.

Now speaking as a businessman I would say that TalkTalk get three things really wrong,

1. They are lousy as communication
2. They damage their rep by creating expectation they do not deliver on
3. Their deals, processes and systems are designed to rip people off if they do not scrutinise every word of hidden terms.

These just create problems and then they wonder why they have to operate call centres with thousands of reps who sadly exacerbate problems through no fault of their own.

It is a very short sighted company, had they kept me as a customer by just giving me the same deal when I planned to move I would have taken out 4 mobile contacts with them for my family. Never mind the countless referrals I have given but now revisit and say "time to get out of TT".

A lot of these problems are "by design" in their processes and what we see one company get away with soon gets emulated by other companies and then becomes the norm.

This is what has distorted the market so we have huge line rental fees even if you do not want to use the line, you just want broadband and why do you just want broadband? Well because they put up land line rates to mobile rates with "connection charges" and all other nonsense fees. Evening and weekend soon becomes weekend only and the price of Anytime calls got doubled.

So it builds up with more and more hidden clauses, unfair contracts that Consumers have to complain to OFCOM about shoddy industry practices because it has become a minefield for consumers.

As I said if it was just one thing, but it has become a collections of shoddy practices.

WarrenG_2

DavidP24 wrote: »

Now speaking as a businessman I would say that TalkTalk get three things really wrong,

1. They are lousy as communication
2. They damage their rep by creating expectation they do not deliver on
3. Their deals, processes and systems are designed to rip people off if they do not scrutinise every word of hidden terms.

Couldn't agree with you more!

TalkTalk are a shambles and should be avoided.

As a fellow businessman, I too spent quite a considerable amount on communications and TalkTalk have failed every time.

What I find amusing is they simply don't get the 80/20% rule of business and shaft good honest paying customers.

Personally, I always share my experiences with fellow businesses and colleagues and well, lets just say when TalkTalk is mentioned the subject raises quite a few eyebrows of avoidance.

We all know word of mouth has always been the best marketing tool and if TalkTalk want to treat good paying customers the way they do then they will ultimately lose out.

Their loss!