Hello everyone,
This is a bit of a long message but please bear with me.
I signed on to Talk Talk broadband and telephone service on the 4th Jan and on the 19th Jan my broadband service went live.
I could not access the internet so I contacted customer services on the 19th. I couldn't get them to understand what the problem was (I am not technically minded), so my son, who is a systems manager and is used to dealing with faults and service engineers, called them the next day on my behalf. They agreed with my son that there was a fault and advised him that an engineer would be visiting to correct the fault on Friday 22nd or Saturday 23rd.
No-one came on Friday and on Saturday I called at approximately 1600 to find out what was happening. I was advised that my son was not told that an engineer would be coming (!), only that the fault had been passed up the line for further investigation. I was then told that there were no further notes on the progress on the investigation of the fault after 20th Jan. I was asked if I wanted to book an engineer to come on Monday afternoon (25th Jan).This concerned me because I knew that my cooling off period was due to end and if I waited till Monday and no engineer came (and I really didn't think one would), I would not be able to cancel my contract without a penalty. I repeatedly asked when was the last day I could cancel my contract without paying a cancelation fee and I was repeatedly told Sunday 24th Jan. I asked if this period could be extended since I would have to wait until Monday for the engineer. I was told this could be but they would not be willing to put this is writing. I booked the engineer but told the customer service rep I would be speaking to my son for his advice.
This morning I woke to find that Talk Talk had alreadty billed me for a period up to the 22nd Feb despite the fact I have no internet access. I spoke to my son who advised me to cancel the contract. I rang Talk Talk approx 1400 today and spoke to a gentleman called Prince (whom I believe was from the loyalty department) and told him I wanted to cancel my contract. He kept on asking me if I wanted to cancel the service engineer. I kept on reminding him that I wanted to cancel my contract and the cancellation of my contract would end the need for an engineer. He did not seem to be able to grasp what I wanted so I asked to speak to a Manager only to be told none were available and he could call back with a Manager which I agreed to.
Needless to say I had to call Talk Talk at about 1900 to speak to someone. The person I spoke to passed me on to a Manager, a lady called Rimita. Rimita told me that there were no notes on my record that I wanted to cancel my contract only that I wanted to cancel the cancellation(!!).She then advised that she could not cancelmy contract because she was not in the loyalty department and they deal with contracts. Finally to add insult to injury she stated that it was now too late for me to cancel my contract without penalty (last day was the 23rd) and that if I cancelled now, I would have to pay over £480.00!
To say that I am shocked at this turn of events is an understatement. I pointed out to Rimita that I had been repeatedly told on the 23rd that I could cancel my contract without penalty on the 24th. She said they would have to review the tapes of the conversations that I had and would contact me with their decision withing 72 hours.
I am a 76 year old pensioner who was trying to get a good deal signing on with Talk Talk. I have no option now but to wait the 72 hours but, if they tell me that I cannot cancel my contract without paying a penalty, I will complain to everyone and anyone telling them how Talk Talk are unfair and unjust and are trying to force pensioners to pay unnecessay cancellation fees. If I had been told on Saturday 23rd Jan that it was my last day to cancel my contract without penalty, I woud have cancelled it there and then, but I was repeated assurred that the last day was 24th January. A more suspicious person than myself would not consider this to be incompetence but downright lies to get additional revenue from someone who was thinking of leaving. Well I am not going to pay and I will fight if they tell me I must.