TalkTalk charged customers for cancelled services

[hyperD]

Regarding my TalkTalk case, this suddenly appeared in the Telegraph:

TalkTalk charged customers for cancelled services

A TalkTalk group spokesman said: “We identified an issue with the cancellation process for ex-Tiscali customers caused by an error on a legacy billing system. We are resolving this by migrating all ex-Tiscali customers onto one network and billing system which will allow us to process cancellations much more effectively"

Er, no. It's the fact that when you talk to Bob or Bobette Showaddywaddy and ask for your account to be cancelled, they say yes, it's done and when you ask for written confirmation they say they have sent it. Repeatedly, whether it be a recorded delivery letter, an email or an hour long phone call.

They don't understand what you are saying. They don't understand what they are supposed to do.

...stopping debt collection action, and withdrawing from any legal proceedings (if started), against consumers and paying their reasonable legal costs; and taking any necessary steps to repair credit ratings of affected consumers, such as notifying credit reference agencies where relevant.

Yes, this is the serious aspect of my case in particular.

[gingerjedi]

My wife signed us up to talk talk as they promised to be slightly cheaper than BT, within 3 days of signing they put their prices up.

Took a few weeks to get it sorted but we managed to wriggle out of their handcuff clause.

I similar thing happened with Npower.

These days I pick and choose which utilities to use, I don't talk to cold callers or door to door salesmen.

[hyperD]

Yes, good idea gj, I've gone through stripping out unecessary services where I can, more for the hassle factor than cost reduction.

An annoying thing about the official statement from TalkTalk is that once again a company blames a computer system when quite clearly it is TalkTalk's processes that are at fault i.e. outsourcing, lack of QA, focus on customer churn around their call centres than delivering quality etc

[Sysman]

Regarding my TalkTalk case, this suddenly appeared in the Telegraph:

TalkTalk charged customers for cancelled services

A TalkTalk group spokesman said: “We identified an issue with the cancellation process for ex-Tiscali customers caused by an error on a legacy billing system. We are resolving this by migrating all ex-Tiscali customers onto one network and billing system which will allow us to process cancellations much more effectively"

I have cause to suspect that this "feature" was deliberately designed into Tiscali's systems and business processes.

...stopping debt collection action, and withdrawing from any legal proceedings (if started), against consumers and paying their reasonable legal costs; and taking any necessary steps to repair credit ratings of affected consumers, such as notifying credit reference agencies where relevant.

Yes, this is the serious aspect of my case in particular.

Same debt collection crap here, but mine happened 5 years ago and it stopped me getting an apartment I wanted. Shudder... just thinking about it after all this time is getting me angry.

[Sysman]

Yes, good idea gj, I've gone through stripping out unecessary services where I can, more for the hassle factor than cost reduction.

Same here. I know too many people who have had problems when cancelling anything to do with ISPs and telcos.

An annoying thing about the official statement from TalkTalk is that once again a company blames a computer system when quite clearly it is TalkTalk's processes that are at fault i.e. outsourcing, lack of QA, focus on customer churn around their call centres than delivering quality etc

As I said earlier, I suspect it's by design. Certainly for anything inherited from Tiscali. Your earlier quote about them accepting legal costs confirms my suspicions.

[hyperD]

Same debt collection crap here, but mine happened 5 years ago and it stopped me getting an apartment I wanted. Shudder... just thinking about it after all this time is getting me angry.

Sorry to hear about that Sysman...

Yes, this credit rating issue is a recent addition to my case and as you've pointed out from bitter experience a ***king serious one. OTELO say I cannot take TalkTalk to small claims once I deal through them (need to check the smallprint) but as this takes it into a whole new league and I shall be taking out legal advice as this goes beyond the compensation claim I was originally making against them.

I agree with your intuition that they simply worked on the basis that nobody would complain and they could make more money from this arrangement even if a few people complained, especially as I reckon the majority of people would simply roll over and pay without creating a fuss.

What would set a precedent would be a massive fine, retrospective compensation for those that are not aware of the malpractice and a huge number of personal claims where they would be forced to pay costs, including a major public brand damaging exercise in the MSM.

[vetran]

Just having a similar issue with a Water company. I had a water meter fitted in July and they set it as imperial on the billing system(clearly states that on bill) so they multiply my m3 usage by 4.56 so my water is going to cost £1700 a year. Numerous calls and complaints mainly to the offshored and unintelligible call centres.

They have sent me a new bill with the 'This is an imperial meter' removed I think they think they have fixed it but the bill is still 4.56 times too high. I look forward to a long battle.

[vetran]

They need a simple way of fining them for defamation if they falsely accuse you. Its too easy for them to pass over to debt collectors incorrectly.

[hyperD]

They need a simple way of fining them for defamation if they falsely accuse you. Its too easy for them to pass over to debt collectors incorrectly.

Certainly do.

I think when you encounter problems like this, it is the pain of despair you feel deep in your heart and the horror of the sensation of falling down an unending, dark hole knowing full well that the outsourced call centre's main role is to keep you jumping through endless hoops in the hope that you will top yourself before getting anywhere close for someone in their corporate ivory tower to admit their liability.

In some circumstances life is too short and blood pressure too dangerously high to go through the circus performance of trying to resolve their errors and their failure of basic customer service.

However, I've never had a case where my credit rating has potentially been affected through no fault of my own and despite my own time and expense to solve this, they have simply ignored my letters and in a symbolic gesture of indifference, went ahead and got the debt collection agency in.

As much as I hate the litigious culture of some countries, in cases such as this, I’ll make an exception. These large corporations that deliberately flaunt the rules should be held accountable to the pain, cost and suffering of their very own customers via extreme penalties and public reprimand.