Hi
I hope someone can help me.
I raised the above complaint on 06/12/24 and so far I have not received any response despite the promise of a response within 72 hours.
The complaint is as below:
My father died on 10/08/24. I notified you of his death on 12/08/24 and completed the form that you supplied that transferred ownership from my father to my mother (who is 91 and is unable to assist in this matter). Since then my mother has been paying by monthly direct debit.
I was expecting a final bill for the account held in my fathers name, which I did not receive.
My father's account was originally Shell Energy and only transferred to TalkTalk in July. His account was paid up until 26/07/24 with Shell. The first TalkTalk quarterly bill was issued on 10/08/24, which was coincidently the same date as my father's death. Payment was due on 21/08/24 but obviously wasn't taken and we assumed the final bill would be issued to replace it. Instead in mid November my mother received a debt collection agency letter from Phillips & Cohen requesting payment of the full £94.80 from my father's estate. She found this quite upsetting as my parents have never been in debt, and she has been paying the phone bill since taking over the account in August. She is now worrying about the phone being cut off.
My wife spoke to your Bereavement team on 18/11/24 and explained the situation - that the bill was not owed as my father had died but we would be happy to pay the outstanding amount from 26/7/24 until my mother took over the account, once a final bill was issued. She was told that the final bill hadn't been issued and it was believed that there was an error or some confusion because the quarterly bill date and date of death were the same. She was advised that a final bill would be requested and issued by 23/11/24.
As it's now December and as we hadn't received the final bill, my wife called for an update on what was happening and has just spent over an hour on the phone with one of your customer service operators trying to resolve this.
She was advised that the full quarterly bill dated 10/8/24 will need to be paid before a final bill can be issued, after which we can request a refund for the overpayment, Exact figures for what is owed and what would be refunded weren't able to be provided. We were uncomfortable making the payment, as the amount is clearly far higher than what is actually owed for around three weeks service and my mother has already been paying her own bills since August. Effectively we're being asked to pay twice for the same service and then wait to get money back from TalkTalk that isn't even owed. The lady was adamant that the 10/8/24 bill couldn't simply be cancelled and a final bill issued in it's place but she did offer that we could pay 50% of the outstanding balance (£47.40) and that TalkTalk would credit the other 50%. The final bill would then be generated, after which we could call to request a refund for the overpayment.
I should say that both members of staff that we spoke to were polite, professional, understanding, and have tried to help us progress this. However, they have been unable to provide figures and we've now been given different information about the process involved.
Several weeks have been wasted where we were expecting a final bill and nothing has apparently been happening. We're particularly concerned because a debt collector is involved in this.
We're happy to pay what is owed but we just need to be told how much. Surely that can be worked out and there is a simpler way to do this without making an overpayment, then having to request a refund and without the involvement of a debt collector?
