TalkTalk want to charge me to keep my own property

RudolphHucker

I signed up with TalkTalk broadband on a "Guaranteed Fixed Price 18 month" contract in Dec 2020.

In June 2021, TalkTalk breached the contract using Clause 16.2, and I consequently changed supplier penalty free. I got an email from TalkTalk from TalkTalk telling me there were no early termination charges as I am out out contract - this included a long list of possible charges (including non return of set top box) all with £0.00 cost.

• My order confirmation listed the cost for the router (£120) and delivery charge (£9.95) with both costs struckthrough and shown as FREE. So I have been charged, but the charge has been discounted to £0.00.
  
• Clause 7.2 of TalkTalk T&Cs states that the router is my property:

EQUIPMENT PROVIDED BY US

7.1 To receive a service you may need to use certain necessary equipment provided by us and this may include a router or a set top box.

7.2 All such necessary equipment will be owned by us apart from the following equipment which you will own: (a) any router, set top box and/or digital voice adapter that we send you as part of a new service with us; and (b) any equipment that you have paid for. If we choose to replace your router or set top box outside of any warranty period (which is usually 12 months) without charging you for it, we’ll own such replacement equipment, unless we agree otherwise.

• When I called to cancel my contract with TalkTalk, the agent read through a script. She stated that I would be charged £50 if I didn't return the router within a period after the contract ended. I stopped her, and told her that I owned the router, and would not be sending it to TalkTalk. I read Clause 7.2 to the agent, but having taken advise from her supervisor, she insisted that I would be charged £50 if I didn't return the router.
• I went onto TalkTalk Community and found lots of people had asked this question, and on several ocassions the OCE (moderator) had confirmed that there was no need to return a router once out of contract.
• I started my own thread and asked for confirmation of Clause 7.2. The first response was from a "Community Star" who insisted that I did indeed own the first router supplied, but any additional equipment supplied (due to repair/upgrade) remained the property of TalkTalk. I asked for a TalkTalk employee to confirm this as a "Community Star" is not a company representative and cannot be held accountable for contractual matters. The TalkTalk OCE (@Arne-TalkTalk) would not give a straight answer, and deserves to be a politician. Eventually @Arne-TalkTalk agreed that he would put a note on my account so I wouldn't be charged if I failed to return the router - whilst stating that he is not legally qualified, and couldn't comment on contractual terms.
  

Yesterday, I received a letter from TalkTalk telling me to return the router & accessories or I would be charged £50.

As I am no longer a TalkTalk customer, I don't have access to the Community help chat, so I had to set up a Twitter account to raise this matter.

I had a prolonged conversation on twitter, explaining the points above and with the agent telling me I wouldn't be charged £50 IF I sent MY router to TalkTalk.

I told the agent I wouldn't be send MY property to TalkTalk, but that I would raise a small claim for compensation if they tried to charge me for keeping MY property.

The agent took advise and came back with:

, I managed to raised this to the relevant team, you don't need to return the equipment, and rest assured that you won't be charge for it.

In my case the outcome is favourable, but how many other people are wrongly being charged for non-return of property that they own?

TalkTalk seem unable to abide by their own T&Cs, and have to infamous Clause 16.2 to legally breach them at will.

ps: Anyone want to buy a TalkTalk WiFi Hub, only 6 months old?

southsidergs

Sounds to me like you have too much time on your hands tbh, it's a relatvely minor issue & it seems all you're worried about is losing any potential sell on value!

RudolphHucker

I'm concerned about TalkTalk and their persistant failure to comply with their own Terms & Conditions.

BigDoug

RudolphHucker said:

I'm concerned about TalkTalk and their persistant failure to comply with their own Terms & Conditions.

Luckily for the consumer they are now just a other me-too supplier and will likely end up down and out within a few years. 

They are very quickly losing any trust they had spent years trying to build back after a fairly dismal past, clearly the new owner doesn't understand what the letters USP mean and how talktalk were the last remaining provider without steep rises baked into the contract.

Glad you got it resolved, personally I would have told them to come and get it, provider tied routers are largely worthless financially anyway.

RudolphHucker

I have no interest in the value of the router, the final comment was a joke.

However, I do resent being threatened with a £50 charge for not giving MY property to TalkTalk.

When my Mobile Phone contract ends, I don't expect to send my phone back to the previous supplier - it's MY property.

[Deleted User]

I wouldn't want to use a TalkTalk router even if you paid me £50.

It's a piece of junk.

Use the £50 you will save by sending it back by putting it towards buying a proper router and you will never care about free ISP routers ever again.

RudolphHucker

[Deleted User] said:

I wouldn't want to use a TalkTalk router even if you paid me £50.

It's a piece of junk.

Use the £50 you will save by sending it back by putting it towards buying a proper router and you will never care about free ISP routers ever again.

I'm not saving £50 - TalkTalk have agreed that I own the router and don't have to send it back.

I had no problems with the router technically - 70Mb download speed, with no drop out  is fast enough for me.

[Deleted User]

RudolphHucker said:

[Deleted User] said:

I wouldn't want to use a TalkTalk router even if you paid me £50.

It's a piece of junk.

Use the £50 you will save by sending it back by putting it towards buying a proper router and you will never care about free ISP routers ever again.

I'm not saving £50 - TalkTalk have agreed that I own the router and don't have to send it back.

I had no problems with the router technically - 70Mb download speed, with no drop out  is fast enough for me.

I just can't see any reason why you would waste time and effort trying to keep a router that sells for £4 on eBay regardless of what a contract says.

Because it is a bespoke TT router you will no longer get automatic firmware updates to patch security issues leaving you exposed to any vulnerabilities. You won't get any notifications of these so you will need search the internet yourself for the updates on a regular basis to keep your network secure and then faff about doing manual firmware updates.

I wouldn't trust it to keep my home network secure but I guess your priorities seem to be enforcing contract wording rather than have a secure gateway to the internet.

RudolphHucker

Forget the router, the issue is being threatened with a £50 charge if I don't send MY PROPERTY to TalkTalk.

Roland_Sausage

RudolphHucker said:

Forget the router, the issue is being threatened with a £50 charge if I don't send MY PROPERTY to TalkTalk.

You've spent far too much time on this just to prove a point. Congratulations, you've won but ultimately you're still left with a bit of useless equipment.

Why would you not want to just send it back? It's useless for anything anyway. It's not like you can use it with your new provider, so it's just going to gather dust until you take it to the tip.

JSmithy45AD

Roland_Sausage said:

RudolphHucker said:

Forget the router, the issue is being threatened with a £50 charge if I don't send MY PROPERTY to TalkTalk.

You've spent far too much time on this just to prove a point. Congratulations, you've won but ultimately you're still left with a bit of useless equipment.

Why would you not want to just send it back? It's useless for anything anyway. It's not like you can use it with your new provider, so it's just going to gather dust until you take it to the tip.

Yep, at least TT would have recycled or reused it in some fashion. It will now most probably end up in landfill so well done OP, awesome job.