Talk Talk cancellation fees

Rgp2000

Hi all,

I recently lost my job and have no other option but to move back in with my parents. I contacted Talk Talk to cancel my broadband and phone and they want to charge me £27 for each month outstanding on my contract, so £270! I expected to pay some form of cancellation fee, but I simply cannot afford this.

I do not nessessarily want to cancel, but I can't transfer my contract over as my parents also took out a Talk Talk contract at roughly the same time I did. I asked if they could suspend the account until I have another address, but they say they are not able to.

Is there anything I can do about this? I am in a very desperate situation and this seems like a very unfair policy. What happens if I just don't pay it, will I be taken to court?

JJ_Egan

Its the norm you took out a contract for x months and you are breaking it .
Dont pay and its passed to debt recovery .

Rgp2000

I can understand that, but I'm not refusing to pay anything. I'm happy just to leave it active until I have another address, but they say I can't. I don't see how I could have forseen that I would not have an address to transfer my account to for a few months, and it seems a bit unreasonable that they do not have any way to put things on hold

teddysmum

Other providers are the same. People who have delays between leaving one home and moving into another have been unable to have their payments suspended.

[Deleted User]

Rgp2000 wrote: »

I don't see how I could have forseen that I would not have an address to transfer my account to for a few months

It really doesn't matter whether you couldn't have foreseen the circumstance you find yourself in, the fact remains that if you leave a contract early you have to pay the fee.
Very few people can foresee becoming unemployed, but that doesn't make them exempt from early termination of contract (ETC) fees.

Even if your account could be somehow put "on hold" you'd still have to pay your monthly subscription, so you'd save nothing...

Rgp2000

I can completely see their reasoning if I wanted to cancel, but they are the ones forcing me to do that. I'm not trying to make myself "exempt" from paying and I do not wish to break the contract, so surely I would be within my rights to just keep paying as I do now until I have a new address.

Speaking strictly from a business point of view, it seems completely illogical refuse that. They wouldn't be losing anything and I would save having to pay £270 in one go, which I cannot do.

[Deleted User]

Rgp2000 wrote: »

I can completely see their reasoning if I wanted to cancel, but they are the ones forcing me to do that.

You agreed a contract for them to supply you at the address you resided at. You are the one who subsequently moved out of that address, they didn't "force" you to do that-your changed circumstance did.

There really is no point trying to argue this further.

If you really cannot afford the ETC, contact them to arrange a manageable payment plan so that you don't fall into unpaid debt.

Rgp2000

It seems like that is the only option. It's just completely baffling to me that there is nothing in place for this sort of situation, I can't be the first person that this has happened to.

[Deleted User]

Rgp2000 wrote: »

I can't be the first person that this has happened to.

Of course you aren't, there are numerous threads like this one bemoaning having to pay an ETC. The answer is always the same; you have to pay it.

Sorry.

Rgp2000

I have no problem with there being a fee at all and I can completely see why it is there, but I haven't just changed my mind and to charge such an extortionate amount when I wish to remain a customer is hard to get my head round.


I'm sure you can understand that it is difficult not to feel swindled when they are being so inflexible - I can't even take my business elsewhere, so they have me over a barrel.

duchy

Rgp2000 wrote: »

It seems like that is the only option. It's just completely baffling to me that there is nothing in place for this sort of situation, I can't be the first person that this has happened to.

There is , income protection insurance.