I am posting this here for visibility. I will also be sending a formal letter of complaint.
I had been a TalkTalk customer for over 5 years. I am an NHS clinical scientist and I work from home so my broadband service is essential. I decided to take the TalkTalk service with me when I moved house and I placed a home move order via the website well in advance of my move date. This is the timeline:
11/04/23 – I moved house
12/04/23 – an Openreach engineer came to my new house but unfortunately found there was no landline connection, only a Virgin Media connection. They would have to come and dig up the pavement to install a cable and I was initially told this would take 2-5 working days so I agreed.
25/04/23 – I had been without phone or internet for 2 weeks and there was no sign of Openreach installing the cable. I contacted TalkTalk via chat to ask for an update and a refund on the period I had been without a service. The agent said they had raised an escalation with the back office to cancel my home move order. I was horrified and asked then to reverse that but they said it was too late and I would have to start over again and place a new home move order on the website. I then said I would rather switch to another provider. The agent said I had no active service, was not in a contract, and the home move order had been cancelled so effectively my account was now closed. I was extremely upset and confused following this conversation.
26/04/23 – I phoned TalkTalk customer service. I was on the phone for ~30 mins and spoke to someone in the cancellation department and someone in the home move department but at the end of the call I was satisfied that my account was closed and the home move order was cancelled. I then took out a contract with Virgin Media.
03/05/23 – Openreach (I assume) had dug up the pavement while I was out. I logged on to my account and saw my account was still active and the home move order still in progress. I contacted TalkTalk via the chat and was told my request to cancel had been rejected by the back office. I was very angry and posted on Twitter to complain.
04/05/23 – following investigations overnight I was contacted via Twitter direct message and told in writing that my account was closed and my home move order was cancelled.
10/05/23 Katie from the TalkTalk customer services in Burnley called to apologise and said the account and home move order would be closed in 3-5 working days.
15/05/23 Katie from the TalkTalk customer services in Burnley called and said the order was not yet closed but it would be soon and I did not have to do anything else.
04/06/23 – I received 3 emails within 5 minutes from TalkTalk to say there will be a ‘small delay’ in getting my service set up so the home move order is clearly still active.
I just want TalkTalk to leave me alone.
