Ignored again by TalkTalk

[Billx]

I give 2 pictures from my last 2 bills:

From bill of 01/08/2024

From bill of 01/09/2024

I am currently conducting an official complaint.

It has been going on for over 5 months

On the 09/07/2024, the Case Managers, then dealing with my complaint, thought it was a good idea to give me a bribe, so that I might stop annoying them. So, without my consent, they credited some account, I don't know which, but apparently it belonged to me, and credited me with £ 70, representing 2 months of free broadband service. I found out about it, protested, and told them I would never accept that. On the 02/08/2024, I rang 0345 172 0088, more than once, and impressed upon customer service, that this must not go ahead, or if it had gone ahead, customer service must reverse their accounting entry. Eventually customer service agreed that they would do so, and they assured me that they would do so. Obviously, looking at the above pictures, they have not done so. This compounds my original complaint.

(Also, there is at least one missing direct debit from my bank account.)

(Also, the way TalkTalk expresses itself on its bills, its very hard to tell whether it is debiting or crediting some internal TalkTalk account, or whether it is debiting or crediting one's bank account.)

Anyhow, I now ask customer service to immediately do so now. I.E. Reverse that £70 entry.

If your computer doesn't allow you to do that, then I would politely suggest, throw your computer away, and perhaps get another one.

Respectfully,

Bill

[Billx]

As I explained to @fr8ys above, @Arne-TalkTalk 

"If you read my original post above, it says on the 02/08/2024

customer service agreed that they would reverse the entry, and they assured me that they would do so.

Assumedly, they had authority from the complaints people, otherwise they would not have agreed to it."

There is no issue about me owing the amount still. Off course that would be so.

Bill

[Arne-TalkTalk]

Sorry Im confused , you had a credit applied by CEO for £70 which paid your last 2 months service , you would like us to reverse this and then you will owe that amount still.  

As you have an open complaint we cant interfere.

[Billx]

@ferguson 

How's that 'support team' which you flagged?

I am sure they received your message.

By the way, there seem to be quite a few support teams.

Which one in particular did you refer it to, so I can check on them?

Bill

[Billx]

Let me show to all, how it's done by an energy company that knows how to do their accounts:

What I call 'Brought forward', it calls 'Opening' and that's good

What I call 'Carried forward', it calls 'Closing' and that's good

What I call 'Debits', it calls 'Charges' and that's good

What I call 'Credits' it calls  'Payments' and that's good.

And all is beautiful

If the customer wants to see some details, one clicks at either of the 'see details' buttons.

Now that's nice and simple.

Thanks to all, for putting up with me

Bill

[Billx]

Yes, it probably will come to a head, soon.

But I am angry with the case managers. They were instructed not to put that £70 gift into my account from the beginning.

And yet, they ignored me. That is very unacceptable. This compounds the complaint.

Instead of doing what they had to do, they did something else, give me £70

Cheers

Bill

[Gliwmaeden2]

Yes, that's probably what pays for this month.

Have you been in touch with your case managers recently, @Billx?

They'll clear all of this up for you.

[Billx]

I said,

'But what is labelled as 'Brought forward' is in fact the 'Carry Forward'

And the 'Brought forward' itself, which was £70, is not mentioned'

The 'Brought forward' is £70 and should at the top, (yes that can be forgotten now. because it is  'Brought forward' and was owed to me at the beginning of the month)

The 'Carry Forward' is £35 and should be at the bottom, which is the current debt owed to me by TalkTalk

I.E. I am in credit now, right at the bottom, with £35 CR

(The Brought forward showing £70 CR at the top is required so that the customer can link the previous months bill and to know what the current bill starts with)

Bill

[ferguson]

I have already said that I have flagged this up again to the support team here, best to wait for a further comment from them.

[Billx]

Yes, I understand that @fr8ys 

If you read my original post above, it says on the 02/08/2024

customer service agreed that they would reverse the entry, and they assured me that they would do so.

Assumedly, they had authority from the complaints people, otherwise they would not have agreed to it.

Bill

[fr8ys]

But, and this has been mentioned before, as this is a complaint and the complaints team gave the credit, staff here normally cannot intervene.

This is therefore, probably between you and the complaints manager to resolve.

[Billx]

Off course, via the direct debit.

As I said, this an old request, not a new one.

Bill

[ferguson]

OK, I will alert the support team again to respond to this. Just to be clear, if they remove a previous credit, then you will have to make up that shortfall.

[Billx]

That's exactly what I'm asking for. But this is not a current request. It is an old request, which has not been carried out.

No, the bill will NOT be in £70 debit. Because there is a direct debit authority, for TalkTalk to take as much as they want, within reason.

Bill

[ferguson]

So you want the £70 credit previously given to be removed, is that right? Just to be clear, that means you will now have to pay that back i.e. your bill will be £70 in debit. 

[Billx]

Anyway, we have driven far, far away from the original purpose of this post.

Which was, to ask customer service to immediately reverse that £70 gift entry.

On the 02/08/2024, I did ask them to do that. And they assured me they would.

So, this post was to re-ask them, to do just that.

So, is there anyone there from Customer Service, that could oblige me?

Bill

[Gliwmaeden2]

The balance after the last bill was paid was £35.00 in credit, still in the tank.

That previous bill was £35.

No payment was made by you because it was covered by £35.00 from the £70.00.

Total due this time: £0.00 because covered by the remainder of the credit.

£70.00 can't be mentioned again because it's been whittled away. It was not in a "separate account" @Billx, just put towards the bills in My Account. 

So the current remainder due stands at £0.00.

Normal DD resumes next month.

[Billx]

I present a picture from my current bill.

So, there is in fact, a mention of 'Brought forward'. (I got that wrong, just above)

But what is labelled as 'Brought forward' is in fact the 'Carry Forward'

And the 'Brought forward' itself, which was £70, is not mentioned. Go figure

(And I got it wrong, because this is from the online MyAccount, whereas my previous statement was from my downloaded bill. So even the 2 forms of the bill do not agree with each other.)

Bill

[Billx]

@Gliwmaeden2 

Forgive me. I'm not being argumentative. Just expanding a bit.

Your second description of what has happened and what will happen within Myaccount is 101% spot on. Thank you.

What is clear from your description is that TalkTalk creates a special 3rd account to put any customers credits in, IE The £70 went to its own account.  So now there are 3 accounts involved. The main MyAccount, the special credits account and the customers Bank account.

That makes it mighty complex. When it's time to finalize at the end of the month, it somehow tries unsuccessfully to recombine its 2 internal accounts.

Anyway, the way things are dealt with in accounting, is to use the magic words 'Brought forward' and 'Carried forward'

One brings forward at the beginning of the month what was currently owed by the customer to the supplier, or what was currently owed by the supplier to the customer. Nowhere do these magic words appear in TalkTalk's bill.

The same applies at the end of the month, using 'Carried forward', so everyone knows, at the end, what is owed and to whom

I.E. There's no need to create a special credits account.

The other issue which came up before, the use of '-' and '+', can be avoided by using the other magic words, 'DR' and 'CR'

Thank you for your attention.

Bill

[Billx]

@Gliwmaeden2 

I understood you the first time you explained it to me. And yes, that made sense.

But what doesn't make sense is how it is presented by TalkTalk in the customers bill. No one can make any sense of it without somehow referring it to you. And to understand the somersaults TalkTalk goes through to arrive at the end result.

And I got a bit angry at @AllyM , because he was trying to teach me how things are in the world.

Thanks, You didn't have to reply again

Bill

[Gliwmaeden2]

@Billx, if you paid £35 on 9th July by DD, that presumably shows as deducted from your bank account?

It's the same day that the £70 was credited. 

So 1st August bill was definitely taken 9th August from the £70.00.

You can double check that if no £35.00 taken from your bank account. 

This month's bill: 1st September. Remaining £35.00 likely to be used up to cover the forthcoming month.

So October 1st: due around 9th, by DD.

Whichever dates the bill refers to, just crosschecking with your bank statement should surely confirm which dates were covered.