Cancelled but still receiving bills

[EpicDerek]

I was on fibre 65 for many years and recently wanted to upgrade to fibre 900. 

I upgraded over the phone and then found out later that day that the service wasn't available on my line as I was already a fibre 65 customer (makes no sense at all but I spoke to over 5 people at TalkTalk to confirm). I was told I had to wait until the fibre 65 service ended before I could use the new service. The sheer stupidity of this made me call up and cancel the new order two days later (within cooling off period) as I couldn't use the service, and was told it would end on 31st July and I wouldn't get charged a cancellation fee as I was within the first 14 days. I then receiced a bill for the whole of August on August 4th, which I thought was wrong. I've just logged in to My Account and can see the service is cancelled, but the billing still seems to be live. 

To be clear, the fibre 65 service ended on 26th July and the fibre 900 service (which I never received as the profile couldn't be applied to the CityFibre line) ended on 31st July. So really I should receive a refund for the 900 service for the whole of August and for the period between ordering and the end of July. I should only have paid the lower rate for the 65 service.

I now have FTTP (900Mb) through another provider that I'm very happy with.

I received 2 bags to send equipment back, which I have done and still have the proof of postage with tracking details.

I was told I'd get a final bill 10 days after service end but that was about 20 days ago and I'm still getting bills for the full service cost.

I've cancelled my direct debit because I'm not having TalkTalk steal money from me because of their incompetence. 

Please can someone make sure the billing is cancelled and send me a final bill showing £0.00?

Regards,

Alex

[Arne-TalkTalk]

Happy to help.

[EpicDerek]

That's great to hear. Thank you.

[Arne-TalkTalk]

Hi EpicDerek

Thanks for your post. 

The account was cancelled as requested but the last bill had already been produced showing fibre 900 data only.  Another bill will be produced this month that will show a credit that you can request a refund via My Account which will remain active. 

Regards

[EpicDerek]

I ordered Fibre 900 on 26 June 2023, the same day I cancelled fibre 65 (it was meant to be an upgrade, after all). I then cancelled it a few days later, around 30th June, having spent a long time on the phone every day trying to sort the issue out with various TalkTalk agents and technical staff, with no success.

I wonder if, when I cancelled the order, they put me back on fibre 65 despite me stating I wanted nothing more to do with TalkTalk and I was out of contract. My latest bill doesn't indicate that though as it was for the greater Fibre 900 amount.

Regards,

Alex 

[Gliwmaeden2]

Thanks - we definitely needed that level of detail! 

Also, exactly when did you order the Fibre900?

Normally the process would have been a seamless one, not entailing actually cancelling the Fibre65 first, as the cancellation runs the risk of leaving you with no service at all.

This is because engineers sometimes need to change the installation date:

"A new 18 or 24 month minimum period will apply to your Full Fibre service and Total Home Wi-Fi add-on from your upgrade date, as agreed with you and detailed in your order confirmation email.

We won’t charge you for the remaining duration of your current Full Fibre service or apply an upgrade fee, but you’ll have to pay the ongoing monthly charges for your Full Fibre service and Total Home Wi-Fi add-on for the new minimum period, as agreed with you and detailed in your order confirmation email."

The agents should have been aware of that cooling off period regardless:

 

There have been instances where people continue to get bills long after cancellation was supposed to have been processed. It's extraordinary, especially after they send you the bags for returning the equipment. 

Hang onto those tracking details!

Staff will get to the bottom of it. Good that you contacted us as soon as you did so it should not drag on too long.

[EpicDerek]

Hi Gliwmaeden2,

Thanks for your message.

I gave 30 days notice for the fibre 65 package on June 26th or thereabouts, hence the cessation date of July 26th. I was out of contract at this point. I was quite explicit on the phone that I wanted to cancel the old FTTC service when I tried to upgrade to FTTP.

I appreciate my situation might be a little confusing, but the problem was caused when TalkTalk couldn't perform the upgrade on the line after stating that they could. They tried to charge me an admin fee for cancelling, until I stated that it was my right to cancel within 14 days, especially as they couldn't provide the service.

Hopefully, as you say, someone from TalkTalk responds soon and it gets sorted in the next bill.

Many thanks,

Alex

[Gliwmaeden2]

@EpicDerek, you'd still need to give 30 days' notice to cancel Fibre 65.

This would be included in the current bill for August, and then any unused days after the expiry of the notice period (to late August?) will show in the September bill as a refund.

You then claim back the refund via My Account, but if you have cancelled the DD, you'll need to ask them for a cheque. 

Contracts don't just stop at the end of the minimum term, but roll over at full price month by month, so I suspect you may be seeing the full price tariff for Fibre 65 over this notice period.

When you cancelled the Fibre 900, the usual practice would be to revert you to the old package tariff, full price as you were out of contract. Something like that .....!

Staff will get onto it when they pick up your thread. It is in the queue for attention, and they respond during the day, Monday to Friday.