Talk Talk Switchover 'cease' order to existing supplier

cdunne

Appologies if this has already been discussed but I didnt find it with a quick search.

I've recently switched over from Madasafish to Talk Talk. The changeover went smoothly, on the day specified, I had one issue with the password they supplied not working but after a quick free call to a free number they changed the password and it has worked fine since.

The problem I have had is that I found out I was still getting billed by my old supplier Madasafish (the first time it happened I assumed it was a notice period) when it happened again I spoke to them and they told me my account was still active and I would need to now pay for anouther month notice period.

The talk talk website states: "When switching providers over to TalkTalk, you will continue to get service from your current broadband provider right up to the day you go live with TalkTalk's broadband. Almost everybody can switch to one of TalkTalk's broadband packages without needing to contact their current broadband provider or obtain a MAC code".

Now talk talk claim they issued a cease order to Madasafish and that this would be sufficent to cancel my account and I should contact Offcom.

Madasafish claim they have had no corespondance from talktalk and they only cancel accounts on customers requests and they say talk talk are misleading many customers on this issue.

I will have ended up paying for 2 months at a high rate and am wondering who would be liable for claiming this back.

Before I go back to talk talk / get offcom involved I wondered if anyone had any experience of this?

Many thanks

normanmark

All they do is a migration between providers, not a cease (otherwise you'd pay a new installation fee for broadband). This affects the Wholesale systems & doesn't notify the billing systems of the providers. So Talk Talk are talking rubbish (again) when they say they raise a 'cease' order.

Ultimately it appears you haven't cancelled the account with MAAF. Merely asking for your MAC doesn't constitute a cancelled account either. So in future if you're cancelling accounts raise it with the ISP over the phone & then back that up with a letter to the ISP as well.

benny5

Having the very same experience with TT. The sales guy assured me everything would be covered by them. Now three weeks later when I am about to go live (tomorrow) , spoke to my current ISP, they know nothing about it and declared "this happens every time with Talktalk".

Just spoken to their so called 'customer services' and there response, "we can only apologise",

cdunne

Thanks for the responses.

Talk talk seem to want to wash their hands of the issue and keep refering me back to my old ISP (who I think were in the right). I still think the issue should be brought up with Talk talk since it is their wording that claims you do not need to contact your old supplier, can anyone else advise?

I asked how to raise a formal complaint to their customer services and was told they could register it on the system but it would be rejected so there would be no point (but I insisted they registered it).

Benny, have you registered a complaint? I think most users would give up at this point.

Acording to offcom after raising an official complaint (I assume that my verbal complaint counts) the next stage is the Alternaltive Dispute Resolution Scheme, has anyone any experience of this with Talk Talk?

Thanks

benny5

cdunne wrote: »

Thanks for the responses.

Talk talk seem to want to wash their hands of the issue and keep refering me back to my old ISP (who I think were in the right). I still think the issue should be brought up with Talk talk since it is their wording that claims you do not need to contact your old supplier, can anyone else advise?

I asked how to raise a formal complaint to their customer services and was told they could register it on the system but it would be rejected so there would be no point (but I insisted they registered it).

Benny, have you registered a complaint? I think most users would give up at this point.

Acording to offcom after raising an official complaint (I assume that my verbal complaint counts) the next stage is the Alternaltive Dispute Resolution Scheme, has anyone any experience of this with Talk Talk?

Thanks

Head against a brick wall comes to mind when dealing with TT.

I have tried to escalate to supervision but get the standard reply, “they are in meetings and will call back” needless to say they never do. Perhaps they are devising new ways of conning the public, there's certainly little evidence of their working on improving customer service. I have now written requesting, a time bound reply before cancelling.

MrsTinks

Personally I'd go with neither Madasafish or TalkTalk from personal experience so any communication between the two? Not a nellys chance...
However... Talktalk shouldn't have been able to activate BB on your CLI (line) unless there was a cease on the line... The order should have failed in the provisioning stage and you shouldn't have been able to change over. More than likely what has happened is that they didn't notify billing that the line is being ceased. Not all companies will do that automatically when recieving a cease order especially from another ISP... Why should they? If no-one contacts them to cancel the subscription then get can get several months worth of line rental payments which although the profit on each line is tiny then if you realise that this is potentialy a couple of thousand lines each month... well it adds up!

sfiendley

Having nearly the exact same experience, but was with Tiscali before switching. Needless to say they're being less than cooperative. They're saying it'll be at least 28 days before they can authorise a refund.

An email has been sent to Mary Turner, and I'll be forwarding a copy in the post. They'll also be getting my phone bill with the appropriate items highlighted, because I really don't see why I should be paying for helping them sort out their mistakes.