Carphone warehouse/Talk Talk;Have you been a victim ?

[Muggle1977]

I finally lost it friday morning an emailed The chief exc. Ive now had 3 managers from his office now called me.

 

Ive finally got an explination to my questions about speeds. Seems that the speed i get and the speed i sync at are 2 diffrent thngs. Its the sync speed they advertise!

 

Talk talk have placed my line onto a more agressive line (what ever that means) This is now giving me a 16meg conection with the speed boost. Quite happy with that.

 

As for the speed boost ive now got that free for 5 months.

 

So Get an email off to Charles Dunstan seems to do the trick. his email is [email protected]

[locutus]

Nice result!

[carnation]

My problem isnt with tt but with the carphone warehouse. In 2008 I went to CW & bought a dongle & signed up for the 3 network. 15mb per month. I filled in the form in front of them (name address Halifax bank details etc) They then asked for £70 cash up front & processed my form. They then handed it me to sign for the £25 every month by DD. It was only 2 months later they wrote saying they couldnt collect as no money in A/c. Long & short they were taking from my Lloyds A/c that I no longer use & I had given them Halifax details, so I checked my form that I had to sign from the till that day & it did say Lloyds on it & I had told them in writing on my application it was the Halifax. The only way they could of made that mistake is because 4 years ago I had an account with 3 for a mobile & the computer has dragged it up from there. The problem is now 11 months on it turns out that when they tried the Lloyds they left me overdrawn & that has now accumulated to £1200 O/d with charges. I have been into the carphone warehouse & asked for my original copy I filled out that day & they have told me it will take a while to find it. If I do manage to get a copy of it can I now charge them for their mistake for the whole amount owing to the Lloyds?

[buzby]

Nice idea. But no!

 

What to need to establish is where did the retailer get the other (old) details from? They coudn;t have conjured them up out of thin air! If you had an A/c with 3, that had nothnig to do with CW - so there's something not quite right.

[carnation]

They must of got my details from an old A/c . In 2004 I had a mobile with 3G & the dongel & Internet taken out in 2008 was also with 3 GT. All I can think is the computer has dragged up an old A/c.

[gezwee]

Does anybody else keep getting calls from TT advising their contract is due to expire and will need enter new agreement?

 

Seem to get this every 3 to 4 weeks now, I try not to be rude to the caller but........ does get frustrating trying to find polite ways of telling them to bog off.

[buzby]

Who is 'they'? Hutchison have no connection with CW (other than as an agency, and as such CW should not be retaining your financial details). If you complete DD info, then that should be the info they use, anything else is a mistake on their part.. Previous information (even if stored erroneously) is their problem, not yours - however it doesn;t stop your requirement to pay the amounts required when they fall due under contract.

[locutus]

Does anybody else keep getting calls from TT advising their contract is due to expire and will need enter new agreement?

 

Seem to get this every 3 to 4 weeks now, I try not to be rude to the caller but........ does get frustrating trying to find polite ways of telling them to bog off.

Get rude if they don't get the point ... If you want to REALLY upset them, tell them to remove you from all marketing, and record the call if you can. If they carry on you can get them in trouble with the ICO

[Wethers82]

Sorry to come in late on this subject but I've had no end of troubles with TalkTalk, mainly relating to failure to reconnect my line and technical issues not being resolved due to language barriers and failed attempts to reach their busy technical lines.

 

Please see my latest post as this explains my problem.

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/telecoms-mobile-fixed/237755-talktalk-thorn-my-side.html#post2639256

[fellrunner]

took a phone contract out with 02 through mymobiles part of carphone group in july this year give them my bank details for direct debits wich is Halifax bank in july they took the direct debit out of an HSBC account 02 account has fallen into arreas and been disconected know they have passed this onto debt collection agency and they want £513 i have spoken to 02 aking for how arrears there they say i have to speak to agency. the agency say i need to speak to 02. 02 will not do anything because the phone has been disconected

[buzby]

Are you saying the first you were aware that you weren't paying your mobile bill was when the phone was disconnected? Do you have any paperwork (copy contract) showing Halifax as the DD Bank? Also, isn;t it odd how they managed to find details of your HSBC account that you never gave them?

 

CW have been caught before messing up DD details with older accounts, have you been a customer of theirs before? Finally, you may wish to get a copy of your credit file to see what mess has been left, as you;ll need to address these issues as part of your negotiations.

 

You may still be able to get the phone reconnected and the cancellation fees removed, but you have to act fast.

[fellrunner]

I took the contract out over the internet, what i did have back was conformation of insurance with my Halifax details 02 tell me they cannot view the account as it has been disconected and i need to pay £513 by 5 Jan to get reconected i have delt with cw and may be this is where they have had other bank details

[reddragonfist]

I am extremely fed up of hearing daily these stories of overbilling,disconnections/long waiting periods for re-connections after bill payment has been made/Costly charges being made for speaking to their overseas call centres/lack of response to reported problems/Their excuses of teething problems with the Vista programme and countless other complaints.

If you have been a victim of any of these then please give brief details here and I will contact you.

I hope to gather enough info to submit a mass complaint to both the F.O.S and Offcom.

 

 

I have bin having a night mare with talk talk ... I had two of there agents come to my house thought it was cheaper than bt . Turns out it was not also i canceled the contract before it was live ... they took over my phone and and board band then took money out of my bank after it was all canceled .

 

Now they say i owe them money for there mistake . They have sent my bill to a debt collection agency .. so today i have sent them both letters stating i am willing to take them to court if i have to , silly thing is it is only over £7.50 which they will not refund and want me to pay them more money for nothing.

[locutus]

I have bin having a night mare with talk talk ... I had two of there agents come to my house thought it was cheaper than bt . Turns out it was not also i canceled the contract before it was live ... they took over my phone and and board band then took money out of my bank after it was all canceled .

 

Now they say i owe them money for there mistake . They have sent my bill to a debt collection agency .. so today i have sent them both letters stating i am willing to take them to court if i have to , silly thing is it is only over £7.50 which they will not refund and want me to pay them more money for nothing.

 

Have you read this?

http://media.talktalk.co.uk/sites/TalkTalk/Static/Legal/Code-Of-Practice/Code_of_Practice.pdf

 

The "Code of practice" shows how to most effectivly complain to them. Read section 14. Hope this info helps!

[fellrunner]

Thanks for the info i am on the case

i have another account with 02 wich is due to finish this month i am hopping if tell them i will close the account they will make an effort to stop the DCA chasing me and sort this mess out then sometimes i feel pay the charges and walk away

[fro]

Oh my I don't even know where to start with TT, they are so bad its unbelievable. I am just waiting patiently for my contract to end in 18 days time.

 

I reported a total loss of service no Phone, no internet - I had been gaming online till the early hours of the morning so I knew it was working a few hours earlier.

 

Called and they logged the issue - 6 weeks on still not resolved - any time i rang to get an update the will tell me "our engrs are working on it" another time CS told me the engr have been trying to contact you but no luck so you are delaying your line from being fixed. I asked what number they were trying it turns out it was the same line i reported as faulty.

 

Lots of other things with direct debits over the years etc, I am going back to BT the cost is worth it.

[KarmaTrain]

Before I take my complaints to a higher authority. I thought it might be worthwhile airing my issues with TT on this forum.

 

I've been a TT broadband and calls customer for around two and a half years now and throughout that time I have had nothing but trouble. Slow, inconsistent connection, unintelligible support staff, faults at the exchange, clipping audio on the phone line and so on and so forth. My entire time with TT has been a total nightmare but its one saving grace has always been that it was relatively inexpensive, therefore by applying the 'pay peanuts - get monkeys' rule of thumb I was able to endure this torturous association.

 

However it was when their 'on commission' sales staff began actually lying to me that I thought 'enough is enough' this sharp practice needs bringing to the attention of the general public before thousands more people make the same mistake that I did, i.e. sign up with TalkTalk.

 

The first blatant lie occured when my initial 18 Months contract came up for renewal. I was telephoned by a sales person based in the UK (strange that when TT want to sell you something they use UK staff but if you have a problem, oh no, it's off to Mumbai or Durban for troublemakers like you) who asked me if I would like to renew my contract.

 

Quite honestly I told him that owing to the problems I'd been experiencing on an almost daily basis with my connection that I was far from sure that I would be renewing. The sales person said that he totally understood my reluctance to sign up again and that perhaps the best solution would be to send me out the renewal forms, which would give me a bit more time to think about it and only when I'd returned the forms signed, would my new eighteen Month contract begin. I thought that was a reasonable compromise and awaited the arrival of said forms.

 

About a week later I received an envelope from TT and upon opening it nearly had a seizure, the initial sentence of the enclosed letter began, 'Congratulations on renewing your contract with Talk Talk, you have made a very wise decision indeed, etc, etc....' Unbelievable, the sales person had flat out lied to me and I had been signed up for another eighteen Months telephonic torture, totally against my will.

 

However, as my connection wasn't too bad at that point and because life is way too short to get involved in massive arguments with people who struggle to comprehend basic English, I let it ride, more fool me.

 

The next and most serious batch of lying came when about three Months ago I again received a call from a Talk Talk sales person informing me about the new TT Pro plan. She asked me what my main problems were with my current service to which I replied, non-UK call centers, connection drop-outs, slow downstreams and sales staff who blatantly lie. Well sir, she continued, all your problems will be solved if you sign up for Talk Talk Pro. The 8mbs cap will be removed from your line so you will receive faster download speeds, connection drop-out will be a thing of the past and there will be dedicated UK call centers for all our TT Pro customers who have difficulty dealing with overseas support staff and all of this she gushed would only cost me five pounds a Month more than my 'Talk Anytime International' plan. She even went on to give me the telephone numbers of the 'dedicated UK call centres' which she told me were based in Warrington, I eagerly wrote these numbers down believing that finally I'd be free of cloth eared support staff with impenetrable accents.

 

Yes indeed, like an idiot I fell for her sales pitch, hook, line and sinker only to discover....

 

My overall download speed has decreased rather than increased, my connection is just as flakey as ever and to cap it all, the numbers I was given, which the sales person repeatedly promised would put me through to a UK call centre, still deposit me somewhere in the midst of the Third World with all the frustration which that entails.

 

What a bunch of crooks.

 

On my previous plan I was receiving dowload speeds in the region of 4.8Mbs, now, despite a whole new raft of calls to TT support (some terminated by frustrated TT staff mid-call) the best speed I've achieved thus far is 4.1Mbs. My TT bill which was previously around the £28 mark has soared to £38. I was told by the sales person that my requested 'International Calls Boost' would be free for the fist 12 Months, in fact I am at this moment looking at a letter from TT which confirms this detail and yet I have been charged an extra £2 for this on both my bills thus far and so it goes on.

 

All this aside, it's the blatant lying which sticks in my craw the most, to be told I would be sent renewal forms which required my signature before the new contract would become operative and then just being signed up regardless, to be told that I could get through to a UK support centre, to be told that my speed would increase etc, none of which proved to be true, is shocking behaviour by a supposedly reputable ISP.

 

And to add insult to injury, even if I could shake myself free of this wretched association with Talk Talk contract-wise, my line is still rented from TT and so taking my business to new provider would prove arduous and time consuming in the extreme, it would appear that they have me by the short and curlies which ever way I look at it.

 

However, even though I am a 54 year old man with serious health problems I am still prepared to tell my tale of woe to whoever is prepared to listen despite the toll it is bound to take on my rapidly diminishing quality of life because I simply do not see why TT should be able to get away will deliberately misleading members of the public in such an appalling manner.

 

Shame on you.

[Allwood]

After been without broadband for months, I went to another provider and it took me 6 weeks to leave Talktalk because they refused to give the new provider authorisation to proceed with the installation for me.

I am with a new provider now and I have got letter from Talktalk stating that I own them money for amount was £30. I replied to them stating that I wanted compensation for being without broadband for months and wait a reply from them.

I got a reply today saying that I owe them I own them now £12. They said in their letter that they are going to give this out to a DCA if they do not receive payment within the 7 days. Talktalk also said that my credit rating may already be effective through non payment of my bills.

Can they say this in their letter to me? I have asked them now to let me know what they final demand for £12 relates too.

[buzby]

Wind back a little. Did you read the T&Cs of the TT contract you entered into? ONLY if they ask you permission to disclose your financial dealings to a CRA (by completing the arrangement then using the services) can they do this. If no mention of credit reporting was made, then they cannot subsequently do this as a threat.

 

You don;t say what caused TT's gap in service. If caused by a fault, then there should be some form of rebate (not compensation), but they will not be liable if you terminated, and their delay in giving a MAC prevented the service transferring, that's incompertence (and allowed!)

[fro]

Hey Allwood, they are only going to compensate you if the engr who fixed the issue didn't find the fault within your property, in your case you changed provider before the issue could be resolved, otherwise they would have had to pay you £1 for everyday you didn't have service.

 

You have a history of the amount of times you have called trying to get the issue resolved, put all this into writing and also stress the inconvenience to you and your family, i bet it messed up your christmas shopping, no option to working from home etc.

 

Now they are threatening you with a bad credit report, over £12 send an email to this lady with your side cos those call centre guys are useless to say the least.

 

[email protected]

 

she resolved my 6wks issue within 36hrs of contacting her now I am a happy customer again atleast for now.

[locutus]

After been without broadband for months, I went to another provider and it took me 6 weeks to leave Talktalk because they refused to give the new provider authorisation to proceed with the installation for me.

I am with a new provider now and I have got letter from Talktalk stating that I own them money for amount was £30. I replied to them stating that I wanted compensation for being without broadband for months and wait a reply from them.

I got a reply today saying that I owe them I own them now £12. They said in their letter that they are going to give this out to a DCA if they do not receive payment within the 7 days. Talktalk also said that my credit rating may already be effective through non payment of my bills.

Can they say this in their letter to me? I have asked them now to let me know what they final demand for £12 relates too.

 

 

£12 to keep your credit rating clear is a no-brainer. Pay them then work out what you're gonna do.

 

Personally, I'd write a letter to their complaints address asking for a full refund, if they're not prepared to do this to send you a deadlock letter. If you receive a deadlock letter forward the complaint to Otelo.

 

 

Even if this doesn't get you cash back, at least TalkTalk have to pay Otelo to hear your complaint

[Allwood]

I have written to them again today, stating that they have completely ignored my letter of complain.

 

I think I am entitled to know what this payment is for...

 

Can they put a black mark with CRA even if they are in beach of contract under the services of goods and service act 1982.

[buzby]

Can they put a black mark with CRA even if they are in beach of contract under the services of goods and service act 1982.

 

Yes - because the things you complain about are not connected (in the strictest terms). There is no 'black mark' - they are simply reporting what the billing system states is the situation with your account. If you do owe £12, pay it. If you do not, then when they discover this they must remove the incorrect information (as it breaks the DPA rules).

 

Can you explain why you feel the G&S Act 1982 is relevant?

[Allwood]

To pay a bill you need to know what it is in relation to... all I want is to know what this payment is for... I paid my ultimate bill and I cancelled my DD for them as my new provider gave me a date in writing for the installation of my new services but due to TT not giving authorisation for them to proceed this was but back from the 16th to 30th December. The new provider said that this was exceptionally long time for them to get permission for a go ahead for new providers.

[buzby]

As I noted earlier - providing it was simply incompetence on their part (and I doubt anyone woiuld disagree with this interpretation), as a consumer line there would be no compensation issues. To be fair, what one company thinks of another company's admin processes is irrelevant. You could try a complaint to OFCOM but I doubt it would bring any real benefit.