How can a company like TalkTalk get away with this?

[Racer]

How can a company get away with charging you for something after you have told them you don't want their service, and then threaten you with a debt collector because you won't pay?

Strange? No it is true!

I have tried and tried to cancel my service with TalkTalk (the company I was with was taken over by them, which I had been with for years prior to this with no problem at all).
They have totally ignored my questions and statements in several letters to them and respond with replies to questions or comments I never made, such as they checked to confirm that the query I made about the calls being made from my line not having been made from it! I never ever questioned those charges and in fact stated in my letters that I had paid for all calls made and had no problem with that!!
What they have done is ignore my request to cancel the service, and then charge me for not paying by direct debit, they then send me yet another and another and another bill etc etc for not paying the charge that they charged for not paying for the direct debit that they charged for not paying the charge by direct debit.. well you get what I mean!

So how can they get away with then ignoring my letters and now insisting I pay for this by sending the "debt" to a debt collection agency!!

Oh the bill £13.18.. all made up entirely of their charges for not paying by direct debit, charged for not paying the charges.... for not paying the charges .....even though I had told them I didn't want their service any more.

It would be hilarious if I could actually get someone to listen to me at the company but I feel that I am going to be forced to pay this non debt because of the failure of Talk Talk to respond to my correspondence.

How can companies get away with this! And any ideas what I can do? I have contacted OTELO but they said they couldn't get involved just yet (that was prior to the debt collection letter) but I shall have to contact them again now. But I would like some comments on how to deal with the debt collection agency in the meantime.

Do I pay it and have to get legal advice/go to court to get it back? Or do I let a company get away with this!

 

[Trader333]

You need to send a letter from your solicitor stating the issues you have and that you want compensation from them for having to use a solicitor to start with. In this letter you need to state that you expect a reply within say 7 days or you will be taking further legal action.

I have always found this sort of action will get a quick response because anything legal is handled by a different area and companies dont dare ignore it.


Paul

 

[oatman]

Report them for harassment and send them a Recorded delivery notifying that you will take legal action for compensation in X no. of days if you do not get the desired result. :cheesy:
http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/

 

[chump]

First , let's keep a sense of perspective here re the sum involved and what efforts you wish to employ to dispute it. £13.18 is the amount is it not ? I can imagine what is sending your blood pressure up is the 'principle' rather than the money ..beware "principles" in legal disputes , hazardous to your wealth

Reply immediately to the agency copying the earlier correspondence to them. If you are confdent that you have done everything you should have done with regards to paying Talk Talk what they were entitled to and this is reflected in the correspondence then simply STAT until the debt agency make their move if indeed they make any move at all. I'd be surprised to see a court action over £13.18. You could also sic the watchdog onto Talk Talk for good measure. Understand a lot of companies threaten passing a debt for legal action ,but never carry through. They use the tactic to scare people into payment.

If you end up in court it's likely to be small claims given the amount. You don't need any representation in that court. Just rollup with your correspondence and remember to be polite and give te Mag a warm smile. It's pretty informal so don't sweat it . It's just the hassle and time you have to give up. Even if you lost and you've been even half reasonable in trying to resolve this it will only cost you the debt plus the court fee on the action...used to be about £40 ,but might have changed a little ...you can check that by calling the courts at the time.

You've nothing to worry about except your blood pressure

Personally knowing the hassle factor involved I'd send them their £13.18 and invite them to search for their parents. Although ,at times when I 've had no conflicts to stimulate me I've actually enjoyed these litlle contretemps over and above doing the crossword puzzle.

 

[reynard]

talk talk shambles

if you think yours is complicated, how about this ...

1. some time ago, my sister-in-law moved to the talk-talk land line service.
2. shortly after, they asked her who her most-called numbers were. we were one.
3. carphone warehouse used this information pester my wife to move to talk-talk.
4. she did accept, but I told her to cancel as we were with first telecom, who do a price comparison on your bill against other providers [including talk-talk], and charge you the cheapest rate.
5. she rang to cancel, but we then started receiving bills from talk-talk to our address, but for a name we did not know, and also for a telephone number that was not even for our std code !
6. we had many of these, wrote many times, and eventually had to bang on the desk at a carphone warehouse shop.
7. the shop was helpful and the letters stopped, but we are still on our sister-in-law's phone account as a talk-talk customer and she is getting free calls to us as a result !

talk-talk are currently running a door-to-door sign-up campaign, and I get the impression they are pulljng in customers left, right and center, but that the billing department is unable to cope with changes.

 

[oatman]

Don't pay them a penny!

 

[chump]

"Don't pay them a penny! " Nice sentiment , but being pragmatic it doesn't make any kind of sense and as a trader I would think this would be clear. (ie. cut your losses and don't take it personally)

Let's assume for one moment the debt agency sent a pre litigation letter making it clear they would apply to court in say 7 days unless payment was received and they did this after you had attempted to make all of the facts clear to them.
The consequences in this case could (probably) would be;

You have to travel to the court closest to wherever the agency is. Might be other end of the country. Not attending which you could do is always a negative , Mags like to see the parties on the day. You'll have to sit and wait for your appt although the time allocated for something like this is probably only 15 mins after you do get in..
If you win you'll probably get exactly zero as mags only give you time and costs in exceptional circumstances. If you lose you'll pay the debt plus in this case a court fee approx 4 times the value of the debt itself plus some nominal interest and whatever your time was worth plus your transportation costs.

Now if you don't mind spending a few extra quid for payback you could do the following.
Assuming you have free banking, send them a cheque for a pound , wait a few weeks and send another cheque for a pound , wait a few more weeks send them a cheque unsigned making them have to process and return the transaction...repeat this process a few times until you have paid the £13. Cost to you a few quid in postage ...cost to them in bank charges and admin costs ...well you both lost ,but they lost more.

If you're making part payments legal action is a very slim possibility hence you spend a few extra quid to get your payback. Not financially sensible ,but in a Ruskinesque way it's a winner.

 

[donaldduke]

Send them a cheque, but state you do not accept liabilty for any of the charges, you are
only paying to stop additional charges being incured.

Also add that you will be sueing them in you local small claims court to get your money back.

 

[Directional]

They wouldnt have a leg to stand on in court,so long as you have a copy of all your correspondence.

And IF in the unlikely event it did go to court, you can request that the case be transferred to a local court so you dont have to travel.

My advice would be for now, do NOT pay - even if its a p!ssy £13.10 its the principle of this - they cant charge you for something you never received! its corporate robbery from nothing less than gross incompetence.

You can win this, you just need to bump this past the crappy canned response level by trying to get them to escalate it beyond the monkeys who churn these canned letters out. Threatening legal action *might* be enough.

IF it goes to a debt collector, simply show them your correspondence and explain why you will not be paying them. Most debt collectors work on a collection fee as a % of the debt. for such a small amount, that is clearly uncollectable, they will not want to waste time or money trying to collect it.

One thing you should check though - log onto experians website and check to see if they have logged a default against your credit file. If TalkTalk have, then you can sue them in the small claims court for defamation of character by wrongly publishing incorrect information about you in your credit file. You can do this online vie money claim and it'll cost you £30-40. THAT will get their attention, but it'll also probably get you a couple of grand compensation.