TALK TALK Accounts would not accept my payament on due date. Charged £12.50 for being 1 day late!

[RoyKR]

Billing.  Was unable to pay the September bill on due date because TALK TALK Accounts was faulty and would not accept payment .

I immediately sent TALK TALK this e-mail below:-
To:​concerns@talktalkplc.com​

Fri 20/09/2024 14:09

Had phone text to say my bill was due to be paid today, but after 10 minutes unable to pay via TALK TALK accounts.  Will try again tomorrow!

Frustrated customer

When will Credit Card recurring payment be available again? This Monthly payment is becoming a chore! 

The next day the TALK TALK accounts system had been resolved and I was able to pay the bill.

Today 17/10/24,  I look at my e-mails and the TALKTALK bill has an additional charge of £12.50 for being 1 day late in payment. Obviously sending my e-mail was a waste of time as no person at TALK TALK took the trouble to read it.

After ½ an hour finally got through to customer service where I was helpfully refunded the £12.50.

My account is still showing “RECURRING CARD PAYMENT” which is what I agreed too, BUT which was lost by TALK TALK around August time this year. WHEN IS TALK TALK GOING TO REINSTATE THIS METHOD OF PAYMENT!  I do not like Direct Debit option with a company that has so many difficulties with its digital accounts system; a decimal point in the wrong direction and the bill is in HUNDREDS of £'s.

RoyKR

Frustrated customer.

[RoyKR]

Hello, Thanks for everyones reply.

I cannot recall how long I’ve been with TALKTALK but it is well over a decade, and all billing has been duly paid by an agreed Recurring Card Payment method, meaning I do not have to remember such things. Unlike many people I do not access my e-mails every day, so things like payment notifications may be viewed days after being sent/received. This is what happened last bill; it was a text message to my mobile on 20/9/24 which alerted me to the payment DUE that same day! I did try, but because of Talk Talk Account problems I was unable to pay and gave up after multiple attempts. In this day and age how difficult can it be to re-instate Recurring Card Payment? One wonders, was the new Accounting system supplied by Fujitsu?

Conclusion, from my perspective, if Talk Talk had been more diligent when changing to new supplier and ensuring there was still a Recurring Card Payment option, we their customers would not have to endure the monthly chore of remembering to manually pay the bill every month.

RoyKR

[AllyM]

It wasn't your fault that you weren't able to make the payment on the due date @RoyKR , but the late payment charge will have simply been added automatically by the billing system, without taking into account the circumstances of why the payment was late.

It may have been better to contact customer service by phone or live chat in the first place rather then the "concerns" email address, but to be honest, I'm not sure if they could stop the charge or even see if there was a pending charge anyway  - They may still have said they would need to wait until a charge was added to your account before raising a credit to cancel it out, as they have now done for you.

I've been with TalkTalk many years now and I've never had any issues with my DD payments. My bill is produced on the first of every month and the correct payment is taken about 7 to 10 days later.

If TalkTalk did somehow manage to make an error and request the wrong amount by DD, I would have thought that they could accidentally request a wrong amount be card payment just as easily, so I'm not sure why you think a recurring card payment method is better/safer.

It may sound like stating the obvious, but since it looks like you're going to have to continue paying your bills manually during this transition period, you may want to think about paying a few days before the due date just in case there are issues with the billing system on that day as you encountered last month. I know that if it were me, I'd never have the nerve to hold out until the very last due day.

[Gliwmaeden2]

@RoyKR, the problems with recurring card payments will continue until you are told otherwise. 

They updated the ways to pay article (use the search engine) as follows:

 

Glad to hear that you got the "late payment" charge refunded.

You will receive an email to notify you when/if recurring card payments resume. 

[KeithFrench]

I have asked one of TalkTalk's support to pick your thread up and investigate this billing problem for you.

They aim to respond within 48 hours (Monday - Friday) excluding Bank Holidays, but if more urgent you can always try the Service Centre on 0345 172 0088. The posts are responded to in time/date order, oldest first.