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

[silverfox1961]

Heard about this today

 

http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/2011/08/talktalk-and-tiscali-uk-fined-3-million-for-breaching-rules/

[Ilikecake]

I have posted this in, what I hope was the relevant thread...

Ok, Talk Talk took money from my partner's account as per the bill due on the 5th March. All ok so far. Then on the 29th March, they attempt to take out another payment that we had no prior knowledge of. We had no notification of this, so it was unexpected, and my partner had transferred money to my a/c to pay the rent, and hadn't received his wages yet, so there wasn't sufficient funds in the a/c. For this, he was charged an unpaid item fee by his bank ( Co op) for £15.

 

When he called Talk Talk, they said there was no manager to speak to, and that this payment was taken out early due to the bank holiday, but the bank holiday isn't until the 9th March! So that's rubbish. Really, anyone any idea where we stand legally with this?? The bank suggest that we get Talk Talk to pay the £15! I can't believe that Talk Talk can legally just dip into your account whenever they want - twice in one month! I will write to them explaining the issue, but where do we actually stand with this, does anyone know?

[fro]

Hi Ilikecake,

 

Similar thing happen to me before with TT, their DD always comes out all over the place one month its just after my payday the next its 10days before payday and I always get charges from the bank becos of lack of funds (may i add this account was strictly for paying bills only so I would usually transfer funds after payday)

 

Behind your direct debit mandate they normally state that the bank will make the refund if there was any errors - Although Barclays told me TT should refund me - I always argue they should and i got them to refund me 3 times atleast before i got fed up and just moved that DD to my main account.

 

And also get TT to compensate me for their rubbish system and waste of my time - I think I paid half price line rental for 3 months.

 

So to summarise - TT should only take payment once a month, and normally should get an email 10 days before to alert you to this - no email their fault

 

The Direct Debit Guarantee • This Guarantee is offered by all banks and building societies that accept instructions to pay Direct Debits • If there are any changes to the amount, date or frequency of your Direct Debit, Congestion Charging London will notify you 10 working days in advance of your account being debited or as otherwise agreed. If you request Congestion Charging London to collect a payment, confirmation of the amount and date will be given to you at the time of the request. • If an error is made in the payment of your Direct Debit, by Congestion Charging London or your bank or building society, you are entitled to a full and immediate refund of the amount paid from your bank or building society. - If you receive a refund you are not entitled to, you must pay it back when Congestion Charging London asks you to. • You can cancel a Direct Debit at any time by simply contacting your bank or building society. Written confirmation may be required. Please also notify us.

Transport for London

 

 The Direct Debit Guarantee

x This Guarantee is offered by all banks and building societies that accept instructions to pay Direct Debits.

x If there are any changes to the amount, date or frequency of your Direct Debit TalkTalk Telecom will notify you

three working days in advance of your account being debited or as otherwise agreed. If you request TalkTalk

Telecom to collect a payment, confirmation of the amount and date will be given to you at the time of the

request.

x If an error is made in the payment of your Direct Debit by TalkTalk Telecom or your bank or building society

you are entitled to a full and immediate refund of the amount paid from your bank or building society

-If you receive a refund you are not entitled to, you must pay it back when TalkTalk Telecom asks you to.

x You can cancel a Direct Debit at any time by simply contacting your bank or building society. Written

confirmation may be required. Please also notify us.

 

Most companies are 10 days - the one i have is 10days notice from TT they must have changed it of recent.

 

Hope this helps

[Ilikecake]

Thank you so much, yes that does help..

[KANGO]

if you are on an LLU (Local Loop Unbundled) Exchange - you DO NOT NEED a MAC code you only need a mac code IF your TELECOMS supplier is NOT a "cable" suppplier - like TalkTalk / SKY etc

 

So i was told from a BTOR (BT OpenReach) engineer

[locutus]

LLU meens your phone line goes into a non-BT server in the exchange and the MAC process is for BT suppliers only.

[melowen]

Hello, I am currently having a problem with TalkTalk (the last in a long line.....)> I had been a Talktalk customer for 5 years, then moved home, stupidly taking talktalk with me. I didn't really realise at the time (so many things going on), but had actually signed up for a 18 month contract. So after 6 months, we unofrtunately had to move again. When I informed them, TalkTalk said that at the new address I would have to pay an ADDITIONAL £15 / month for my contract - clearly something I was not going to do, as there were many cheaper options out there. I told them I would not be continuing with my contract, and they said I couldn't. I told them it was them who were breaking the contract by charging so much and that wasn't what I signed up for and left it that. I expected to hear from them, or have some contact, but just thought, great, they've not followed it up, obviously I was right.....however around 5 / 6 months later, I recieved a letter from a debt collection agency for the dissconnection fee (£80) - no other correspondance from them, just the debt collection agency. I phoned them immediately to sort it out and the guy from talktalk that I spoke to said he would waive the fee and would sort it out with the debt collection agency. I thought it was sorted. I then recieved a letter whilst I was on holiday from the debt collection agency, that if I didn't pay within 48h, there would be additional fees. By the time I was back from holiday the 48h had passed and now there are additional fees to pay. I spoke to the agency, told them the situation and that I was going to sort it out with talktalk. I then spoke to TalkTalk, who told me the previous decision to waive the fee had been 'rejected' and when I asked why I wasn't informed, they said that as I wasn't a customer any more and that they had no obligation to inform me of anything! Which has left in the situation of now owing the debt collection agency £80, plus £150 additional charges. Surely this whole thing is not legal or correct and I would appreciate any advice on what I can do about this. What a disgusting company!

[locutus]

OK this is as much a debt collection issue as a TalkTalk issue.

 

1st you have no contract with the debt collection agency, so how come they feel they can add fees? They are trying it on, and as such they have made it so even if they were to take you to court, they will lose.

2nd for breach of contract TalkTalk are entitled to their losses (without the profit element) which I would say is a negligible amount, and if they have already said they will wipe the bill I would personally ignore this or tell the DCA that as you dispute the bill they can take you to court and you will accept a judges decision.

 

For what it's worth, all telecoms companies would do exactly the same... take any excuse to put you into a new minimum term, and they farm the alleged debt to an unscrupulous DCA.

[Guest TalkTalk Offical Company Rep]

Hi All,

 

In regards to direct debit dates these may be subject to fluctuation depending on operational days (i.e bank holidays, sundays etc)

 

However the DD extraction date is always printed on your invoice and the invoice date is the same every month.

 

If any custoemrs do wish to raise an issue in regards indivudal DD extractions please feel free to tweet us @TalkTalkCare where we can provide full account support or join the TalkTalk Members Forum.

 

Regards

 

M:)

[MARTIN3030]

Thank you M.

[silverfox1961]

Hi All,

 

In regards to direct debit dates these may be subject to fluctuation depending on operational days (i.e bank holidays, sundays etc)

 

However the DD extraction date is always printed on your invoice and the invoice date is the same every month.

If any custoemrs do wish to raise an issue in regards indivudal DD extractions please feel free to tweet us @TalkTalkCare where we can provide full account support or join the TalkTalk Members Forum.

 

Regards

 

M:)

 

This happened with my daughter. The DD date was 18th June yet the money was taken on the 15th. No notice at all. If she hadn't logged on to her bank, she wouldn't have known about this and as the DD took her overdrawn, she wouldn't have transferred the money from her savings account on time to avoid bank charges. As it is, no harm was done but if she had incurred charges for TalkTalks poor actions I would have encourages her to chase them for the charges

[Pherlopolus]

I'm having issues with an engineer charge I shouldnt have.

 

I was having serious issues with my broadband, and had done all the diagnostics that had been asked of me.

 

The technical person said that an engineer would call, and provided the engineer didnt find anything wrong I wouldn't be charged.

 

The engineer cam out, confirmed everything within the house was ok, I mentioned it was a lot better and he said that he had actually changed my line profile the night before as it didnt look correct.

 

The engineer confirmed that I shouldn't be charged for the visit as the issue was outside of my control.

 

Low and Behold I am now being billed £50 for an engineer visit, and talktalk is refusing to refund it as the technical person on the phone had put in my file that I had refused to do any diagnostics (which is a downright lie, I had done them thrice, once for an Indian lady and once for a UK Lady, and once before I had called both of them)

 

OCE_Emma is currently looking at this on the TalkTalk Forums but i dont hold out much hope in all honestly.

 

What really bugs me is the engineer fixed the issue remotely, which customer services could have done if they had tried!

[locutus]

See what Emma comes back with, if it's not good, come back here and we'll give you other options. I'd google the TalkTalk complaints code aswell, familiarize yourself with this

[Pherlopolus]

I'm upto speed with the code, and have the CEO's email at hand, along with a FOI request letter ready to post..

[Pherlopolus]

Emma Couldn't help, I've had no luck on the phone either (previous to trying the TT forum) I'm guessing I should send a letter to the Head of Complaints- CEO’s Office next?

[MARTIN3030]

I'm upto speed with the code, and have the CEO's email at hand, along with a FOI request letter ready to post..

 

FOI ?

To who

[Pherlopolus]

FOI ?

To who

 

Talktalk, request a copy of there logs/audio recordings to make sure i'm right

[MARTIN3030]

You can't do a FOI to a private company,and can only do a DSAR for personal data held on you,or else another person with their authority.

[Pherlopolus]

You can't do a FOI to a private company,and can only do a DSAR for personal data held on you,or else another person with their authority.

 

ah, i had the wrong terminology.

[locutus]

[email protected] is the CEO... try that department. Also ask for a DEADLOCK letter if they don't resolve this.

[Pherlopolus]

I actually just sent an email to her, let's hope

[locutus]

From my point of view, as former customer service in telecoms (not TalkTalk) If a customer makes a complaint, and even if the complaint is unreasonable (not saying your's is, obviously, as your complaint seems perfectly straight forward to me) It's worth waiving a £50 charge as the complaint will cost the company more than that if it does go to an ADR. Stand your ground, be polite and assertive. Befriend anyone who is trying to help as it's harder for them to say "no" to a friend

[Pherlopolus]

From my point of view, as former customer service in telecoms (not TalkTalk) If a customer makes a complaint, and even if the complaint is unreasonable (not saying your's is, obviously, as your complaint seems perfectly straight forward to me) It's worth waiving a £50 charge as the complaint will cost the company more than that if it does go to an ADR. Stand your ground, be polite and assertive. Befriend anyone who is trying to help as it's harder for them to say "no" to a friend

 

Indeed, to be honest the UK team have been ok, the offshore team are not worth bothering with - helpdesks started going downhill when a script started replacing common sense and courtesy to customers

[Guest TalkTalk Offical Company Rep]

Hi Pherlopolus,

 

 

Has your issue been picked up via the CEO's Office? If this has not please feel free to bump your post on the TalkTalk Members Forum and we can follow this up for you.

 

 

@SilverFox

 

If the Account holder contacts us via either the TalkTalk Members Forum or via Twitter @TalkTalkCare we can look into this. No payments shoud be taken prior to the invoice date, and any changes to the invoice dates would require 30 days written notice to the customer, so this would require further investigation

 

Regards

 

Mark

TalkTalk Online Community Department

[MARTIN3030]

I saw TT has yet again come top in the Telecoms providers complaints table

 

 

 

TalkTalk is Britain's most complained about landline phone and broadband service - again.

 

The company, which has been awarded Money Mail's annual Wooden Spoon Award for the past two years, has once again generated the most gripes from consumers in a review of telecoms providers put together by industry regulator Ofcom, which gets an average 300 complaints a day.

 

 

 

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2165499/TalkTalk-tops-official-complaints-league-table-broadband-landline--again.html