Talktalk / Tiscali Transfer Nightmare! Mac Code related!

normanmark

I think it's a bit naive to assume that asking for your MAC is a termination of service. I would always back this up with written cancellation or phoning the company in question to ensure its being terminated.

opportunity_cost

@ deklan99. You totally took that sentence you quote out of context by butchering the paragraph Ofcom wrote . The full text of Point 11 in page 87 reads:



Ofcom is making the point that ISPs should not disconnect a customer just because they've requested a MAC. Disconnecting customers upon requesting a MAC was something that some unscrupulous ISPs were doing previous to the introduction of the new MAC regulations in February last year, hence this point 11.

Furthermore, in this context of migrations, requesting a MAC could never be interpreted as a request to terminate a service. A MAC request is a request to be provided with a code you can use to migrate to another provider without having to go through the lengthy process of cancelling your broadband service and having ADSL provision ceased on your line, only for it to have to be re-provisioned again... the much dreaded 'cease and reprovide'. As it happens, Ofcom also considers a MAC request as giving notice (as seen in the text I quoted earlier from A1.22 in page 81).


@ normanmark, there's nothing naive about it:

- Ofcom:

"When the LSP is notified that a migration has taken place, the customer's notice period (i.e. the date at which notice to discontinue service is taken for the purposes of calculating any outstanding subscription charges under the contract) will be taken to have commenced on the issue date of the MAC, or on the date of any prior notice to terminate, whichever is the earlier."

- Nildram:

"In answer to you query, when a Migration takes place we are notified of this by BT, we then take you 30 days notice from the date your MAC was requested. If you contact us to place a straight forward cease, the 30 day notice begins on the date of your correspondence."

- PlusNet:

"If you leave, you have given your 30 days notice from the point of MAC request."

- Sadoldman (thinkbroadband moderator):

"When you migrate is irrelevant, the 30 day notice starts when you request a MAC as that is regarded as giving notice."


+ about a million other people on thinkbroadband stating the same thing...


...surely, someone who's bald and his 40's is free to show his ID when buying alcohol, but that doesn't mean there's any need to.

normanmark

But assuming every ISP has the same principles is what i was claiming as naive. Still to cover my back i'd send in written confirmation/phone to ensure it's cancelled.

deklan99

normanmark wrote: »

But assuming every ISP has the same principles is what i was claiming as naive. Still to cover my back i'd send in written confirmation/phone to ensure it's cancelled.

Agreed. Certainly under the old "voluntary" code there was that mention of MAC=notice but the ammendment GC22 for the "compulsory" code removed the obligation for this and placed it firmly in the domain of the customer's terms with their ISP.

flunkymunkey

Thanks everyone!!

Good comments by all... I hate admitting defeat thou, especially to the likes of telecommunication companies.... Pff!

Thanks again, hope this helps others in the same boat! xx

opportunity_cost

flunkymunkey, just go ahead and send in your complaint. They probably try this little scam with many leaving customers. Send a strongly worded letter to:

Customer Liaison Manager
Carphone Warehouse
PO Box 344
Unit 19
Southampton
SO30 2NP

If you get no joy that way, write to this email address:

[EMAIL="clm@cpwplc.com"]clm@cpwplc.com[/EMAIL]

(That's the contact email for TalkTalk's High Level Customer Complaints Department).

If TalkTalk still won't listen, escalate your complaint to ISPA (Internet Services Providers' Association):
http://www.ispa.org.uk/cgi-bin/complaints.cgi

ISPA are very good at sorting out issues like yours.

Sample letter here.

HTH.

Che75

I stumbled upon this thread when searching for help on a very similar issue.

I actually transferred from Tiscali to Talk Talk back in November 2007. Tiscali ceased on time but then they just kept billing me. I refused to pay. They also said I needed to cancel separately and I began trying to do just that -phoning their overseas call centres regularly only to be cut off, promissed call backs that never materialised and called a liar!

Eventually (some months later) I finally got a letter confirming Tiscali was cancelled and the charges had been refunded. I thought I could put the whole sorry business behind me. Then today I received a rather threatening letter from a debt collection agency.

I'm steaming, but I just can't live with the hassle of dealing with debt collectors. So I've paid it and now I'm back where I started, complaining to Tiscali and trying to get a refund. So frustrating!

Having said that I agree with the advice above. It's important we make a fuss, otherwise standards of service will never improve. And flunkymunkey, I hope you have better luck than me!

I'm now moving from Talk Talk to Sky, and was expecting things to go much more smoothly this time but I'll be extra careful about cancelling verbally and in writing (probably by recorded delivery too!) now I know I'm not alone if having these problems.