TalkTalk will not provide written documentation of agreement

bru88

I've just signed up (well re-signed actually) to a new home broadband contract with TalkTalk. This was carried out over the phone, and the deal agreed was £20pm for 18months, free wifi-extender (worth £85) and an amazon voucher of £130 to be sent in 42days.

The next day I received an email to confirm the new contract details: all the above details were mentioned but no mention of the voucher.

I have since phoned TalkTalk on 2 occasions, requesting any kind of written documentation to be sent to me showing that a voucher was part of the agreement, and both service agents said "no, it's fine, it's on OUR system". I insisted that, whilst fine for them, it's not fine for me, and I want something in writing (in case I have problems down the line if the voucher doesn't turn up). Their line then is that "sorry we can't send you any email because of privacy reasons".

Escalating to a "supervisor" gets exactly the same line.

So I have raised a complaint and await a call back...  booked for 3 days time!

Anyway, legally speaking, surely I am entitled to a written confirmation of the contract terms (ALL the salient terms, of which £130 voucher is a big deciding factor for agreeing the contract) agreed over a phonecall?

How would you handle this?

user1977

bru88 said:

Anyway, legally speaking, surely I am entitled to a written confirmation of the contract terms (ALL the salient terms, of which £130 voucher is a big deciding factor for agreeing the contract) agreed over a phonecall?

No, I can't see that you are. It's perfectly competent for the contract to be agreed over the phone. I would suggest you only worry about it if and when they fail to perform.

powerful_Rogue

Submit a Subject Access Request?

https://community.talktalk.co.uk/t5/Understanding-your-data-rights/bd-p/GDPR

bru88

user1977 said:

bru88 said:

Anyway, legally speaking, surely I am entitled to a written confirmation of the contract terms (ALL the salient terms, of which £130 voucher is a big deciding factor for agreeing the contract) agreed over a phonecall?

No, I can't see that you are. It's perfectly competent for the contract to be agreed over the phone. I would suggest you only worry about it if and when they fail to perform.

I agree that it's quite normal for a contract to be agreed over the phone, but it seems to me that if the consumer then requests something put in writing from the service provider to confirm what has been spoken then he/she should be entitled to that, or at the least that it would be quite normal for a (bonafide) retailer/service provider to issue it without any quibbles.

Like asking for a receipt. They have in effect already sent me a receipt via email, but the receipt is inaccurate as it fails to mention everything they promised to provide me for the money I am paying them. I just want an accurate receipt of the transaction.

If and when they fail to perform (sending the voucher) then I would have nothing at all to show that a voucher ever was part of the contract. And then what?

bru88

powerful_Rogue said:

Submit a Subject Access Request?

https://community.talktalk.co.uk/t5/Understanding-your-data-rights/bd-p/GDPR

Ha that's an interesting tack.

[Deleted User]

Then you can do your SAR.

user1977

bru88 said:

user1977 said:

bru88 said:

Anyway, legally speaking, surely I am entitled to a written confirmation of the contract terms (ALL the salient terms, of which £130 voucher is a big deciding factor for agreeing the contract) agreed over a phonecall?

No, I can't see that you are. It's perfectly competent for the contract to be agreed over the phone. I would suggest you only worry about it if and when they fail to perform.

I agree that it's quite normal for a contract to be agreed over the phone, but it seems to me that if the consumer then requests something put in writing from the service provider to confirm what has been spoken then he/she should be entitled to that, or at the least that it would be quite normal for a (bonafide) retailer/service provider to issue it without any quibbles.

Like asking for a receipt. They have in effect already sent me a receipt via email, but the receipt is inaccurate as it fails to mention everything they promised to provide me for the money I am paying them. I just want an accurate receipt of the transaction.

There is no general legal requirement to provide receipts either. You are free to keep you own records, record your own calls, follow up your understanding of the contract in writing to them, etc, if you want to have some potential ammunition for a future dispute.

JJ_Egan

Screen shots of this offer >>

Jenni_D

Simply reply (by email) to TT, using their contract confirmation email, to confirm that the agreed contract also included the voucher. That way you both have written confirmation of the totality of the contract - if they fail to reply to your contract confirmation update to deny your correction then they've effectively agreed to it - especially when a SAR will result in them sending you copies of the phone calls (or transcripts thereof) showing this as part of the offer.  

What does your TT online account show?

Alderbank

I'm surprised they offered you an Amazon voucher at renewal. I suppose their systems change with time. When I last renewed I  asked for the same voucher they were offering to new starters. They said they were unable to do that but would give me an equivalent discount instead, which they did (slightly more in fact).
Online you can see all your historic payments, changes, refunds, etc. I can see the discounts when I renewed but on checking it doesn't show the Amazon voucher when I first signed up. As far as I can remember I had no confirmation about that until the initial cooling off period was over then I had an email from a third party excitedly telling me to watch out for my voucher within the next whatever days. The voucher duly arrived just within the time frame.

This thread on TalkTalk's own discussion site might interest you: https://community.talktalk.co.uk/t5/Billing/Free-Amazon-Gift-Card/td-p/2564818
Apparently last year there was a glitch in the process for sending out Amazon gift cards but TT staff responded by sending them out manually.

Ergates

bru88 said:

Their line then is that "sorry we can't send you any email because of privacy reasons".

I'd be interesting to learn their reasoning behind this.   What possible privacy reasons could they be thinking of?  Whose privacy?