AOL. Right to cancel?

[Shelleysman]

Hi there, I signed with AOL on 20/10.08. I signed for 2 years to there AOL Talk which was supposed to give me broadband and free phone calls to most numbers, all for £24.99 a month. I paid £200 extra for one of there laptops and thought I had a great deal. However I have just noticed that BT have been charging me for calls too. I contacted Bt and they told me that AOL had never applied to manage my phone calls. When I contacted AOL they told me that I must have cancelled AOL Talk, which I never did. It wouldn't make sense for me to keep paying AOL and pay BT too. They tell me they can set up AOL Talk for me now which would have been fine if they were going to refund my call charges from 10th Oct 08, but they wont. Thanks to your site, I now know that they cant withhold my MAC, and when I told them this they agreed but said I would be charged for the remaining contract period. Can anyone tell me if I have to pay this , weren't they in breach of contract? Didn't they break the contract by not providing me with the service I am continuing to pay for? Thanks in advance.

[joemay]

So as I understand it you have been paying talktalk for talk service and now BT have sent you a bill for call charges.

 

Have you not been receiving bills from Talktalk? Have you been paying by DD, if so there is your evidence that you've been paying for the service.

 

I had a same situation with talktalk & BT. Talktalk must have the details of when you were to start the contract with them, get the details from them and write to BT informing them when your contract started with talktalk. It may take some time, it did with me, but I finally got confirmation from BT that the account was credited and closed.

[Shelleysman]

Hi, thanks for helping out. I was paying £24.99 a month for broadband and free 01 and 02 numbers and free weekend and evening calls up to 1 hour,(I used my contract mobile for all other numbers) so I wasn't expecting any bills from AOL for any other calls. Now it seems AOL never applied to take over my calls. BT have no record of it. It looks like AOL Carphone Warehouse or Talk Talk or whoever is running the show now, have screwed up, and as usual the little man pays. They threaten and bully and I was just hoping that they were in breach of contract and fairness would prevail! (for once)

[joemay]

You need to inform TalkTalk the dates when you were told the contract should have been set up and the amount & dates when payments were made to talktalk

 

You need to be pushy with Talktalk, ask them why they have been taking your money but have not followed up with the contract set up, as you have now rec'd a bill from BT. This is their error and they need to resolve it and quickly. Inform BT (in writing) when you transferred to your new service provider and inform them that you are not liable for the calls.

 

Be warned they will all try to wash their hands of their mistakes, they did this with me, but I was like a dog with a bone and wouldn't let it go. You have to be persistant with them, it's their error and you should not be paying 2 companies for the 1 service.

 

If you do talk to them over the phone, then I would always recommend that you follow up with a letter, so that you have a paper trail.

 

Unfortunately, things are not simple and it will take some work on your side.

 

Good luck & keep us posted.

[Shelleysman]

Hi Joemay, thanks for the advice. I will fight it and do it all via mail as you suggest. Using their Email service is useless anyway, as every time I prove my point, or ask a question they cant answer I never hear from them again and I have to start all over with a different representative. I am going to move to a different supplier anyway and take what comes, but they wont get another penny from me. I'll post any progress as I get it.