TalkTalk (UK) customers go to court regarding lack of broadband

dumbyearbook

Cash: Why are we waiting? Victims of TalkTalk go to the courts: People who have waited almost a year for broadband are now getting payouts
The Observer, Sunday March 11th, 2007
© Copyright 2007. The Observer. All rights reserved.

ALMOST A YEAR on from the launch of its 'free broadband forever' deal, TalkTalk has started writing cheques to frustrated customers who are still without a service and have taken their complaint to the small claims court. Responding to our 'Why Are We Waiting?' campaign, dozens of customers have written to us in the past month telling us of their problems with TalkTalk, which launched its pounds 21 a month broadband and landline service to much fanfare last April. Problems include customers not receiving a broadband connection, or receiving and then losing a connection, but being billed continuously in either case.

Charles Dunstone, chief executive of TalkTalk's parent company, Carphone Warehouse, said in January that after almost stopping signing up anyone else to the deal in December, it was now making a fresh push for new customers. He said the company had made 'good progress in recent months' in improving customer service.

Yet some customers, such as David Wheatley, signed up when the offer launched 11 months ago and are still waiting for a connection. 'It's currently costing me GBP 21 for TalkTalk and GBP 15 for my current dial-up provider, so you can see I am out of pocket,' he says. 'Various phone calls to their customer services department hasn't achieved anything. You are either waiting ages or get cut off.'

Another Cash reader signed up to the TalkTalk package last May but has never had a connection. After writing to Dunstone five times without getting a reply he issued proceedings in Portsmouth County Court last month.

'I have been paying TalkTalk since May for a service I have never received. After starting up a case in the small claims court I had a telephone call from TalkTalk asking me not to proceed and offering me GBP 100 compensation and a resolution to my problem,' he says. He has declined TalkTalk's offer.

Writer Jon Henderson has also suffered at the hands of TalkTalk when he was left without an internet connection for three months. While his broadband was inactive, TalkTalk offered him GBP 25 in compensation but Mr Henderson asked for a revised offer and his account was credited with GBP 50.

'We recognise that we were not prepared last year but we now have over 3,000 fully trained customer service providers,' says a TalkTalk spokesperson. 'There are people who signed up last year who are still not connected but we can only really judge the reasons for those cases on an individual basis. If you sign up now you will be live in five weeks.'

But some customers who have given up waiting and have cancelled their direct debit have then received letters from either TalkTalk or directly from debt collection agencies pursuing them for payment of their outstanding balance. Worried readers have contacted us saying they feel threatened and are worried about damage to their credit rating.

This didn't put Andre Harvard off. Unable to receive TalkTalk's service at his address, he contacted the company by letter and email 15 times, repeatedly being told they had cancelled his service when they had not. He resorted to cancelling his direct debit with them.

'Once I cancelled my direct debit that's when I received a letter from a debt collection agency,' he says. 'I sent a letter in reply to the head of credit control at TalkTalk, but no answer. So I went to the online small claims court service and filed a claim.' TalkTalk then contacted Mr Harvard, offering him a cheque for GBP 140.

TalkTalk says it will involve a debt collection agency only after it has contacted a customer twice by letter and only after two months has passed from the first default payment. 'If a small claims court proceeding is brought to our attention we will look to resolve that problem,' says a TalkTalk spokesperson. 'We do have processes in place to compensate people where appropriate.'

Other customers have been successfully pursuing their case with Otelo, the telecoms ombudsman service, which TalkTalk subscribes to. Otelo says that in some cases it been ordering the company to compensate customers who have had problems with its service.

Comment, page 20

■ The Why Are We Waiting campaign aims to help readers get results from companies that have consistently kept them waiting for a service. We also want to hear from you if you have resolved any problems with firms who have been keeping you at arm's length. Write to us at why.are.we.waiting@observer.co.uk with the name of the company in the subject field.

dub45

The 'business model' sounds depressingly familiar:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Cabaal

Subject is misleading, talktalk's offerings in the UK are VERY different to those offered within Ireland.

Besides you quoting a article you have not actually added anything to this thread so I'm changing the subject from "Anybody ever sued a broadband co. in Ireland ?" to the current title.