BEING BILLED MONTHLY AFTER LEAVING

[BlueSky99]

Could someone please help me. I left TalkTalk on the 3rd March as I was out of contract, moving to a new ISP. TalkTalk did not discontinue my account and continue billing me each month. 

The first month I was billed £57.04 and the second an additional £61.22 has been added. For 2 months service after I left!!! I'm getting threating letters and emails saying it's going to affect my credit rating if I don't pay for the service I haven't had since the 3rd March.

The WhatsApp chat is useless. Hundreds of messages later I'm told there's nothing they can do and I must pay for the bills I've accrued over the two months after my account should have been closed. They can only offer to cease my account now and generate a final bill for £118.66 which must be paid. 

I've spent so long trying to sort this out and I'm literally at the end of my tether! It's so frustrating that I could have debt collectors knocking on my door because of TalkTalk's system error.

Is there anyone who can help!?

[Philile-TT]

You are most welcome. Everything is indeed sorted. The final bill was the credit bill. 

[BlueSky99]

@Philile-TT  That's great, thank you! Should I expect a final bill or is everything now settled?

[Philile-TT]

@BlueSky99 an escalation for the returns bag has been raised, back-office team will look into this in 24 hours. If it can be resolved by back-office team they'll do so immediately, but sometimes a specialist team will need to investigate which can take up to 5 working days.

[Philile-TT]

Good morning @BlueSky99, I am pleased to inform you that the account has been closed, and you also have credit available, you can request a refund of this credit using MyAccount. Refunds may take up to 10 working days. see below article on requesting refunds

Requesting a refund. 

[ferguson]

I have re-escalated this for the support team to check for you. 

[BlueSky99]

@Philile-TT  I'm waiting to hear if the 7 day cease you put on my account on the 7th May worked. As of last Wednesday, is my account now closed? It's the 3rd 7 day cease that's been put on my account. Leaving TalkTalk for another ISP is so frustrating!

I've just been issued another invoice, I don't think it was a final bill and I've not got a returns bag for the Eero yet. 

[Philile-TT]

You are most welcome @BlueSky99 I will keep an eye on your account; I will update next week with regards to the cancellation. 

[BlueSky99]

Thank you @Philile-TT for your reply and private message. I don't have too much understanding of the backend systems and how things work but thank you for explaining. It's the first time it's been mentioned that I've somehow ended up with two active lines on one fibre after switching to a new ISP and hence being charged for both.

I've already had two seperate 7 day ceases on the account rejected by the system so hopefully the one you've done today will work! Please keep me informed. I look forward to the issue being closed.

[Philile-TT]

Hi there @BlueSky99 Kindly accept my sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused and the delay in response. I have had a chance to look into the account, and I can confirm that a credit of £118.66 was applied on your account on the 28/04/2025 to cover the outstanding balance. 

The reason as to why you are still being billed is because your new ISP did not take over the TalkTalk line however you were provided with a new line; the account still shows as active on the system hence the bills. 

I also had picked up that you had spoken to someone to process the cancellation however that cease was rejected due to the line take over still being active, we are now attempting to cease this account in the next 7 days estimated to complete on the 14/05/2025and I can assure you that should there be another bill generating whilst we are looking to cancel this we will waive it off and I have made a note on your account for that to be done. I have also sent you a private message with information about the cease please do check it out. 

Once again, I would like to express my sincere apologies for this inconvenience, I understand how stressing may be towards you as you had also mention that you are worried about your name having negative markers. I will keep an eye on the account to check and confirm if the cease has completed. 

[Gliwmaeden2]

You clarified the amount, but NOT what these are described as for, @BlueSky99.

In the details of the bill, there should be an itemised description. 

[BlueSky99]

I received two monthly bills after I changed ISP totalling £118.66. I clarified what the charges were for in post 1, two individual months charges as if my account was continuing.

I'm still waiting for the final bill but as I said my account shows I'm due the next monthly bill on the 18th so I fully expect a bill for another month then. They can see on their system I switched ISP on the 3rd March. I'm awaiting the envelope to return the router. I've been promised it each time I give notice.

Yes, I cancelled the direct debit after being sent the bill for the second month. I don't want them taking any more money out of my actual they're entitled to. The complaint was closed by the man who said he'd call me on Friday but never did. I gave notice again with him for the third time.  He told me told the system keeps rejecting the request to give notice after I end the call.

[Gliwmaeden2]

When you leave, the switch to the new company should end the service, but billing is always done the full month ahead, @BlueSky99.

Did you just stop the Direct Debit when you left?

If anything like that got in the way of sorting out your final bill, you will have started to clock up late payment charges.

Normally the overpayment on the final month would be sorted the next month as, until Talktalk knows exactly when the switch has happened, they don't know the exact number of days to refund you for.

You also need to watch out for charges if you don't return Talktalk's equipment. 

So there can be a lot to watch out for at the end of a service and it can take several months to sort out a final bill for £0.00.

We normally recommend that you keep the Direct Debit in place until you see that £0.00 bill, @BlueSky99.

You have not actually clarified whether you simply stopped the DD or what your normal out of contract price was.

It's very hard to make sense of the your original post without any of that information. 

I have however mentioned this thread to the forum manager, @Lorrainef. She will be able to see whether there's anything that the forum support team can do to help.

Any ongoing matters with a Complaints team, however, wouldn't receive support from staff on the community at the same time. 

[BlueSky99]

Looking at my account online now, my next bill is due 18th May. So the third time I gave verbal notice of 7 days to close the account hasn't worked and the account remains still open. How many times do I need to give notice before I'm allowed to leave and the bills stop? I've been with my new ISP for 2 months now! 

[Gliwmaeden2]

No idea why staff are not picking up your thread, @BlueSky99.

There's a new team on the forum  - I'll highlight to the manager that your situation hasn't been addressed.

[BlueSky99]

I'm still waiting for someone to contact me. I spoke to someone last Monday on the phone and they promised to call on Friday but they never did. I opened a complaint and it was closed by the person who promised to call me back. It's been a week now since you escalated it to staff Gliwmaeden2.

I'm starting to think no one can actually help and I fully expect TalkTalk will bill me every month until the end of time!

[BlueSky99]

I've given authorisation to cancel the account 3 times now and each time the system has rejected it. They really shouldn't need me to give notice a fourth time. It's quite ridiculous. 

[Gliwmaeden2]

Staff won't be back until after the Bank Holiday weekend. 

They have no authorisation to cancel your account. 

They can look into why there seems to be such a problem with closing it.

If you prefer to launch a complaint, follow the guidance in the Complaints link at the foot of the page, @BlueSky99.

Once in the hands of a complaints manager, however, staff on the forum cannot do anything to help your case at all.

[BlueSky99]

I'm still waiting for someone to contact me. I just want my account closing and TalkTalk to stop billing me each month as I've left. I really can't face another 1 1/2 hour phone call.

[Gliwmaeden2]

I'll re-escalate this thread for staff attention, @BlueSky99.

Please wait for their response, which may take a day or two to move through the queue to them.

[BlueSky99]

@Gliwmaeden2re It's just not right to suggest that guidance is not there should people choose to research it.

It's useful for other customers to be made aware of the pitfalls and use the forum search engine to read full cancellation instructions. 

I never suggested the TalkTalk guidance was not available. Where did you get that from? If you read what I've typed no where did I say instructions are not available.  You provided a screenshot and hyperlink yourself! Please stop trying to gaslight me into believing this whole sorry affair is my fault. The issue lies with TalkTalk, not me. If their systems worked properly I wouldn't be in this situation where my account won't close after I give notice multiple times. It's them, not me.

I just didn't go looking for instructions and why should I? OFCOM have put in place the one touch system that all should be subscribed to now and that should be how things work. If you can't close my account I'd appreciate you stop telling me what I should have done because it's too late now. The damage is done.

If I hadn't had to spend 1 1/2 hours on the phone on Saturday and another half hour today giving notice again, repeating what I did on Saturday and having sent hundreds of WhatsApp messages to people who don't know how to sort the problem out maybe I'd not be so frustrated. If TalkTalk hadn't sent me multiple threatening emails and letters demanding £118.66 maybe I'd not be so annoyed. No one can tell me exactly why I've had to give notice 3 times so far to close my account. TalkTalk literally won't let me leave! Their system simply keeps rejecting the request despite being out of contract.

I'm here to hopefully attract someone who works for the company so they can sort my issue out so my account can be closed. If not, who do I escalate it to? No one I've spoken to so far has given me any confidence the problem can be solved. The complaint I made CMP-870606 was closed.

If someone reads this who is employed by TalkTalk who can resolve my issue, please contact me. Thank you. That's all.