TalkTalk - are they talking advantage of people?

S

Speeds

Guest
Hi all,

I'm a newbie poster to this discussion baord, so apologies if I am repeating concerns that have gone before.

I chnaged my rather elderly parents telco to Euphony in August '05, and they have enjoyed the service to date. Unfortunately they recieve a large number of calles from telemarketers, Talk Talk in particular, a fact I was unaware of. If I had been aware, I would have registered them with the NDD, I know, I should have done it by default! My bad.

Anyway, when I called to visit them today, I was shown a letter from Talk Talk, telling them that they had not paid their bill of E74, and theat they would be disconnected. True enough, they cannot make outgoing calls. But the FACT is that they not customers of TalkTalk.

My mother has just admitted that she may have inadvertantly said something to one of the many callers which could have been interpreted as consent to change provider. But they never signed anything, and never recieved a bill, until a Reminder arrived.

At the moment I am on my mobile to them, on hold for the past 25 minutes, and I am getting irked to say the least.

My father is seriously ill - he has Alzheimers/Epilepsy/Mulitple Strokes/Kidney/Heart/Prostate & Liver problems. They seriously need an active telephone line. Which is why their phone bills are always paid by direct debit.

I am furious with TalkTalk.

Speeds
 
Eircom took my Mother off pay as you go and stuck her on Minimum usage when she never asked for it -she had to ring them and get it sorted -I told her to ask for some compensation -the guy says -ah i'll stick a fiver credit on your a/c -the Regulator is one big joke -these companies are ruthless -no morals whatsoever. You have to constantly check your bills. Dont go with Direct Debit for anything would be my strong advice. Terrible that you have to check everything but you have. The Regulator wont check it for you.
 
I had a similar experience,when I started complaining I was extremely agressive with them,and told them I was going to the small claims court for compensation(which I was)....if your elderly mother has been ripped off by some companies sharp practice I would go this route as well...I'm sure they would love the publicity/headlines associated with this type of sales practice....
 
The company would not just rely on some one saying that a customer agreed to change over. There should be a recording of this.

The process is Or at least was when I last had experience of it
1.You talk to a sales person and agree to change over
2.You are transferred to an independent operator which takes the details and asks if you want to change over and if you are authorised to change over

You should be able to request the recording of this. It will take some time to get it . To be fair to the company if your mother agreed to change over and then ignored the bills they were within their rights to remove their service.

To get outside calls try calling eircom. The line sounds like its still with them but there used to be a 4 digit code you could use that routes the call through their line rather than your CPS route but I cant remeber what it is. Tell them that you cant make calls out and ask if they can give you the number to dial before making a call to test the line.
 
Hi, I have had some resolution on the TalkTalk issue, they have reactivated the account. And informed me that they have had a problem with their billing software, so it was possible that no bill was issued.

I was also informed that my parents were being billed too much, as they were being charged line rental, and as they are in the 70/80 age bracket they do not pay line rental.

The tape has been requested of my mother signing up, it should take about a month to arrive, and I look forward to hearing it!

Thanks to all for listening to my little rant, I'm not going to take it any further until I can hear the tape.

Speeds
 
The same happened to my Dad with talk talk. My dad gets calls from these telemarketers and despite being told numerous times not to entertain them, sure enough there was a welcome letter to talk talk, after some phone conversation he had with them. I phoned them and told them before they switched him over that he did not want the service and wanted to remain with Eircom, but they switched him over anyway. So I phoned one day, got a really nice girl, who switched him back.
 
you cant switch account providers without providing your account no off ur provider it is illegal for them to do this! and let me tell you comreg gives them more than a slap on the wrist for doing it so your relations would of had to pick out a bill and give them an acc no! and with the recording i wouldnt get ur hopes up only random phone calls are recorded and their only for training!
 
My wife politely took a call from Talk Talk earlier this year, told them she wanted to think over their proposal and gave no committment, yet a few weeks later the bills started to arrive from Talk Talk.

People can make up their own minds about Talk Talk (I certainly have) but they could do worse than to remember that Talk Talk is owned and run by the Carphone Warehouse. If people like the treatment they are getting from Talk Talk, then they should use the Carphone Warehouse when buying phones etc. Otherwise, they should consider avoiding them.
 
I recently had to contact Comreg about TalkTalk as the deal was when I signed up that I had free calls to other TalkTalk customers. This didn't happen and they refused to refund me my money and the staff were very unhelpful. Two weeks after getting on to Comreg I got a lovely letter from TalkTalk and a nice refund plus 1 months free line rental.

Being honest I would advise people to beware of them and do not accept any calls from them.
 
addob said:
with the recording i wouldnt get ur hopes up only random phone calls are recorded and their only for training!
Click to expand...

The calls arent recorded only for training purposes-
The customers assent to changing over should be recorded-The whole call would not be recorded but the part where a customer is asked whether they wish to change over their account should be in all cases.
 
Speeds said:
they have had a problem with their billing software
Click to expand...

I am with Talktalk for a year now with no problems until last June when the bills stopped comming. Failed to contact them till yesterday because assumed they had gone to two monthly billing or that bill would surely arrive tomorrow or they would be pro-active about it themselves. The girl on the line, eventually, said she would have to get someone to sort it out manually. I just said thanks and hung up. She neither seemed surprised or sorry that my bills didnt arrive. At one point she said it was because the call charges amounted to a very small sum, 75 calls since last bill comming to about €22. She didnt know what to say when I reminded her that I owed for line rental too. I still have normal service by the way. If I get a bill in the next two weeks I will owe for 5 months line rental and a small number of calls. Not good service, but got 9 good months out of them. So who will I change to next?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register