Help... Virgin & Talk Talk broadband

JamesCo

Hi there,

Needing some help if possible... It's all going to sound a little daft on my part but really after some sound advice.

I recently checked my bank account and saw fraudulent payments being taken out by Talk Talk. This was on the back of the lost customer information scandal. It was roughly £300 which the bank debited back into my account.

Today, my broadband stopped working. I phone Virgin who my contact is with and ask why... They advised me that my details and contract have been sold to TalkTalk. Not happy as I detest the company but I call and they say "your contract was sold to us and with the bank debuting the money back into your account you now owe us £300 for services"

I was furious for a number of reasons:
- I wasn't informed my contract had been sold
- I didn't want to be with TalkTalk
- Had I have been made aware I would have cancelled and found cheaper elsewhere
- My input in the matter wasn't considered
- It's my personal details they're selling

Annoyed that another company now has my account details and threatening me with debt collectors... Surely there's some consumer law here!!

- I didn't sign with TalkTalk
- I didn't give them permission to charge my account
- I didn't want them to have my details as they haven proven recently they are susceptible to losing info
- I wasn't made aware
- I wasn't given a say

Any advice in terms of where to go now as I'm without Internet and threatened with debt collection. No-win / no-fee??

JJ_Egan

Is this the old VM ADSL broadband service that was sold to TT roughly a year ago ??
Or is it VM cable broadband .

What router are you using to connect ?

JamesCo

Old telephone line style but allegedly it was about 6 months or so back...

wealdroam

JamesCo wrote: »

I recently checked my bank account and saw fraudulent payments being taken out by Talk Talk. This was on the back of the lost customer information scandal.

Whilst checking your bank account, did you not notice that for some strange reason you had stopped paying Virgin?

JamesCo wrote: »

It was roughly £300 which the bank debited back into my account.

How often do you check your bank account?

JamesCo

Helpful input please

wealdroam

OK, here's some more... from January 2015:

www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/phones/2015/01/virgin-media-begins-notifying-non-cable-customers-of-transfer-to-talktalk-

And here is the forum discussion on it:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/67401077#Comment_67401077
.

marliepanda

You can certainly cancel, but if you've used the service for 6 months, with no complaints or even noticing, you've got to pay for your use.

bris

JamesCo wrote: »

Helpful input please

It was all helpful input that you received, it turns out your wrong and you do owe the money, you just don't keep track of things very well.

agrinnall

So not fraudulent payments at all, just the money that you owed. Hardly surprising that your broadband service has been stopped.

pmduk

JamesCo wrote: »

- I didn't sign with TalkTalk
- I didn't give them permission to charge my account
- I didn't want them to have my details as they haven proven recently they are susceptible to losing info
- I wasn't made aware
- I wasn't given a say

Any advice in terms of where to go now as I'm without Internet and threatened with debt collection. No-win / no-fee??

Most consumers contracts give a company the right to assign a contract to a different company, as such they don't need your permission, neither are you entitled to a say in the matter. No lawyer would touch this case on a no-win no-fee basis as there is no basis for a case.

Unfortunately you've used the service, now you need to pay for it, before Talktalk exercise their right to assign the contract - to a debt collector

unholyangel

pmduk wrote: »

Most consumers contracts give a company the right to assign a contract to a different company, as such they don't need your permission, neither are you entitled to a say in the matter. No lawyer would touch this case on a no-win no-fee basis as there is no basis for a case.

Unfortunately you've used the service, now you need to pay for it, before Talktalk exercise their right to assign the contract - to a debt collector

Not quite true.

They can't assign without consent, a clause in the contract making the consumer aware that assignment may happen is not the same as the consumer actually giving their consent for the contract to be assigned to xyz under xyz terms.


However its going to serve little benefit to the OP. There was obviously no issues with service as the customer would've found out earlier that their contract had been assigned. Theres also the chance that virgin did send notice and OP just overlooked it (this is what virgin usually do - giving you the option to terminate the contract if you do not want it to be assigned).

Therefore the money would have still been due even if the assignment had never happened and OP is liable for it.

OP can't force virgin to be their provider so not entirely sure what exactly OP is expecting in the circumstances. Even if they leave talktalk now, they'll still have to find another provider as I doubt virgin would have assigned their contract had they been willing to provide it themselves.