Earliest possible date to give cancellation notice

[Shell15]

The minimum term of my contract is due to end on 21 November. I am required to give 30 day notice to end the contract.

If I am calculating correctly, the latest date to give notice is 22 October.

Can I give notice before 22 October? Thanks.

[Gliwmaeden2]

@Shell15, Talktalk works in 30 day cycles. To avoid either out of contract rates or early termination fees, you did have to pay attention to the dates very precisely. 

Talktalk's systems are set up to charge you early termination fees if you give the notice too early and to charge pro rata full rates if you leave it too late.

Those who promised you otherwise have obviously not been able to override the system  - that is what we suggested would happen, and so the advice you received from both CSs and staff in the community forum was the correct guidance for the situation. 

[Shell15]

It is TalkTalk who is in breach of the contract by terminating service without notice on this occasion, and the so called “Community Star” starts blaming the customer who did nothing wrong on TalkTalk’s online community? What a joke!

I have raised a complaint in additional to the original one, and will make sure TalkTalk be held accountable for what they have and have not done.

[Shell15]

Why would a customer not follow the more updated advice from TalkTalk’s loyalty team on 26 September, when they actually successfully commenced the cancellation process?

[ferguson]

You were advised back on 19 September that the advice you had received was wrong. But you decided to proceed early anyway. 

[Shell15]

Why would I have to do it exactly 30 days before 21 November? I may be unavailable, or I may be abroad.

Nothing in the clause of the contract prevents me from giving more than 30 days of notice — I can give 360 days notice if I really wished to. Moreover, the loyalty team confirmed that it was possible to give notice from 30 days up to 60 days; they accepted my cancellation instruction and had the phone call recorded by both of us.

It would have worked fine had TalkTalk’s loyalty team handled my cancellation notice properly, and would not cause all these disproportionate problems.

I am not sure what you are trying to propose here.

[Gliwmaeden2]

@Shell15, what was to stop you just doing this 30 days before the end of the contract?

It would have worked fine using Talktalk's default system, whereas any deviations go against that grain and are causing disproportionate problems. 

[Shell15]

Thank you for your help.

I have been on live chat with nearly 10 agents from 5 different teams, and at the same time been on the phone for more than 2 hours.

Some suggested that the connection is running, some suggested that the connection is cut off but the account remains active.

One suggested to apply a bill credit, and sign me up for one month contract, but has been unsuccessful when I was transferred to the sales team, who then transferred me to the account management team which has no clue, and subsequently to the loyalty team who was supposed to cancel my account with 7 days notice (as instructed by the account management team) but wanted me to sign up for £36 for 24 months.

I insisted the account to be closed on 21 November to avoid any early termination fee, or out of minimum term inflated price. They submitted the cancellation again, but god knows if this would be rejected again?

And I am now left with no internet connection, no alternative service, and yet still paying for the nonexistent service.

Absolutely awful experience from TalkTalk.

[Gliwmaeden2]

I have re-escalated this for you, but I don't think that the reply will change.

Feedback has been sent previously concerning the information you were given, @Shell15.

[Shell15]

This is ridiculous (on TT side). The retention team expressly told me that cancellation notice can be given from 30 days up to 60 days. I lodged a complaint after the failed cancellation, and at no point did the complaint handler told me this was impossible, and they are still working on achieving a cancellation for 21 November.

[Gliwmaeden2]

This will be because you contacted them on 28th September and the 30 days are up, @Shell15.

Their system can't cope with other specific choices of dates (unless organised by another ISP using their switch agreements).

We did say in this thread that 30 days was the only possible notice period, and that the other advice was incorrect. 

They won't be able to reconnect you now, without setting up a whole new contract etc.

[Shell15]

So suddenly my connection is cut off today, rather than 21 November I requested. I tried to get in touch with Shell migration team, but was told the connection is fine (Openreach connection may be fine, but absolutely not to my premises!) So was transferred to technical team, but no agent is available. I tried to open a new chat, but no success. Can someone look into this for me please?

[Gliwmaeden2]

@Numan2, usually billing dates and contract end dates do not match.

Remember also that the bill is made up a couple of days before you receive the notification  - you mean October 26th (not September, as posted)?

That is NOT what Talktalk calls the "final bill". If there are any loose ends to charge for during the subsequent month, or refunds or credits, these will show up on the next bill.

You then have to get a further bill for £0.00, which Talktalk regards as the "final bill". After that it's safe to stop the direct debit. 

You need to keep the DD in place till it's all cleared up as anything they owe you is paid into My Account and these details are the simplest way to claim back funds to your bank account. 

Otherwise you might be looking out for a cheque going astray in the Christmas post.

[Numan2]

The point is a person should not incurr charges for giving more than 30 days notice. It's your system that's wrong. My contract ends 22 Nov 24 and my last payment goes out on the 26 of September. There is no reason I should not be able to phone up today and say after my last payment take no more because I want the contract to end. 

[ferguson]

You could do that in many cases before. It wouldn't save you from the possibility of early termination charges if the switch occurs before your existing contract end date. And be aware that the new Ofcom policy still only applies to a handful of providers, although TalkTalk are one of the signatories. 

[Numan2]

Yes standard cancelation period not law. It is perfectly acceptable for a customer to give 40 days notice if they so wish and not incurr charges. The only reason for making it exactly thirty days is to try and retain customers. And it is now ofcom policy that customers can migrate from one supplier to another without informing the company they are leaving because te new company now takes care of that. Good bye talk talk. 

[Karl-TalkTalk]

Hi Numan2

30 days notice to cancel the contract is standard across the industry.  I've worked for a couple of suppliers who also had a 30 day cancellation period.   This is fully governed by OFCOM regulations.

Thanks  

Karl. 

[Gliwmaeden2]

It's nothing to do with me, @Numan2 !

You can see I am just a customer. 

You can give your 30 days notice any time, it's just that giving it too soon incurs early termination fees, and leaving it too late incurs pro rata out of contract rates for the package. 

It's tricky getting it spot on, but worth trying to save a little money. 

[Numan2]

This is so wrong giving more than 30 days notice is actually a courtesy to the company. Making people wait to phone on an exact date is wrong and I think offcom would agree with me. Saying the system can not cope with a longer notice period is the fault of talk talk and not it's customers. 

[Numan2]

It's not clear at all. Giving exactly 30 days notice is designed to keep you in te contract. There is no reason whatsoever why a customer should not be allowed to give more than 30 days notice and borders on being malpractice. 

[Numan2]

It's all a joke designed to keep you in a contract. Why must a customer phone and give notice exactly 30 days before wend of contract? I think this is actually illegal?