RESOLVED: Utility Warehouse take over my TalkTalk broadband contract and raise the price

DominicH

I was on a TalkTalk Broadband 24-month fixed-price contract (well, the price goes up by £3 every April, but otherwise fixed.) TalkTalk recently transferred this to Utility Warehouse, who are charging me £5 more per month. Can they do this? I signed up for a certain price. I can see nothing in the TalkTalk smallprint about "if we sell your contract to another provider they can change the price."

[edit] Just checked the email I got from TalkTalk before the switch, it says "the monthly rental charge for your broadband [...] will not increase"

[Edit March 2026: seemed this affected a lot of ex-TalkTalk customers. Bills now correct.]

la531983

Contact them, tell them they have broken the contract and you will be exercising your right to leave penalty-free as a result.

MouldyOldDough

DominicH said:

I was on a TalkTalk Broadband 24-month fixed-price contract (well, the price goes up by £3 every April, but otherwise fixed.) TalkTalk recently transferred this to Utility Warehouse, who are charging me £5 more per month. Can they do this? I signed up for a certain price. I can see nothing in the TalkTalk smallprint about "if we sell your contract to another provider they can change the price."

[edit] Just checked the email I got from TalkTalk before the switch, it says "the monthly rental charge for your broadband [...] will not increase"

Are you an ex-shell customer or GFast ?

DominicH

MouldyOldDough said:

DominicH said:

I was on a TalkTalk Broadband 24-month fixed-price contract (well, the price goes up by £3 every April, but otherwise fixed.) TalkTalk recently transferred this to Utility Warehouse, who are charging me £5 more per month. Can they do this? I signed up for a certain price. I can see nothing in the TalkTalk smallprint about "if we sell your contract to another provider they can change the price."

[edit] Just checked the email I got from TalkTalk before the switch, it says "the monthly rental charge for your broadband [...] will not increase"

Are you an ex-shell customer or GFast ?

Yes, my broadband contract was originally with Shell Energy. Then it got taken over by TalkTalk (without any action on my part, but no problems with TalkTalk.) I think all these providers are on the TalkTalk infrastructure, it's just pass-the-parcel between various resellers.

MouldyOldDough

DominicH said:

MouldyOldDough said:

DominicH said:

I was on a TalkTalk Broadband 24-month fixed-price contract (well, the price goes up by £3 every April, but otherwise fixed.) TalkTalk recently transferred this to Utility Warehouse, who are charging me £5 more per month. Can they do this? I signed up for a certain price. I can see nothing in the TalkTalk smallprint about "if we sell your contract to another provider they can change the price."

[edit] Just checked the email I got from TalkTalk before the switch, it says "the monthly rental charge for your broadband [...] will not increase"

Are you an ex-shell customer or GFast ?

Yes, my broadband contract was originally with Shell Energy. Then it got taken over by TalkTalk (without any action on my part, but no problems with TalkTalk.) I think all these providers are on the TalkTalk infrastructure, it's just pass-the-parcel between various resellers.

It appears that only ex shell customers and Gfast are being moved across to Utility warehouse at the moment.

As as 22 year (Fibre to the Box) TT customer - I have not been told a thing about any moving at all !

but I want to avoid any transfer to UW. I have read bad things of the company.

IW74

DominicH said:

I was on a TalkTalk Broadband 24-month fixed-price contract (well, the price goes up by £3 every April, but otherwise fixed.) TalkTalk recently transferred this to Utility Warehouse, who are charging me £5 more per month. Can they do this? I signed up for a certain price. I can see nothing in the TalkTalk smallprint about "if we sell your contract to another provider they can change the price."

[edit] Just checked the email I got from TalkTalk before the switch, it says "the monthly rental charge for your broadband [...] will not increase"

Are you still in contract?
I'm out of contract, and due to be moved on 1st Feb. The email is quite disingenuous  as is says the monthly rental charge won't increase, but the link to UW's t's and c's for pricing makes absolutely no mention of this anywhere, and just quotes their maximum in contract / out of contract charges.
I would think if you're in contract, you'd have cause to challenge it. Out of contract, I doubt there's much you can do, and I think they're hoping people won't read the small print. I made a similar mistake in the past with Now Broadband where they'd hidden the out of contract charges in small print under a far larger section offering a discounted price for taking out a new contract.
I'm not risking my monthly bill going from £25 to £41 on 1st Feb, so I'll move it to someone else now I think.

diveunderthebonnet

My broadband with TT switched this month too UW ,told the price will stay the same ,first bill UP £6.50 , called UW  said they had forgotten to remove discounts from bill ( been with TT for a lot of years ) said it will be correct next month with both discounts removed and the ongoing price will be less than TT,s.
Asked about the tv box ,not their problem will still be billed by TT, tried to call them to confirm ,waste of time, non human phone message ,please input your phone number to speed up our call ,tried about 5 times to input phone number but machine kept asking me to input it again ,gave up ,will wait and see what happens.
Best of luck to all who are now on UW. 

MouldyOldDough

diveunderthebonnet said:

My broadband with TT switched this month too UW ,told the price will stay the same ,first bill UP £6.50 , called UW  said they had forgotten to remove discounts from bill ( been with TT for a lot of years ) said it will be correct next month with both discounts removed and the ongoing price will be less than TT,s.
Asked about the tv box ,not their problem will still be billed by TT, tried to call them to confirm ,waste of time, non human phone message ,please input your phone number to speed up our call ,tried about 5 times to input phone number but machine kept asking me to input it again ,gave up ,will wait and see what happens.
Best of luck to all who are now on UW. 

Are you an ex-Shell customer ?

I am trying to find out exactly who is being switched .....

paultomlinson

I'm an ex shell customer who got changed to talktalk then to Utility Warehouse, I was paying £19.10 a month with talktalk now it's gone up to £24 a month with UW, I rang them and they are refusing to do anything about it, My contract ends in July and if I leave they'll charge me £150, somethings not right

diveunderthebonnet

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81851964#Comment_81851964

No ,have always been with TalkTalk ,good company TILL it goes wrong and then you have to speak to one of their overseas call centre people , some are ok some not.

hareng

"No ,have always been with TalkTalk ,good company TILL it goes wrong"

One of the worst companies around, they stole my phone line in ADSL days and gladly paid to get away from the thieves at 2 months in and still owe me money. Expensive as well for FTTP/H

Went through similar 20 years ago, they will transfer you to another ISP giving you notice. Had to get BT involved took about 2 weeks with no connection, nightmare.