Total home wifi commitment breakage fee

[AndyC42]

I've just moved into a new property and contacted TalkTalk who then confirmed that they were unable to supply fibre broadband to my new build property. I have now just received a bill and it states that I have been charged £116.37 for a total home wifi commitment breakage fee, is this correct when its them who cannot fulfil the contract.

[Arne-TalkTalk]

Hi AndyC42

I can see that the charge has been cleared since your post. 

Sorry for any confusion.

[ferguson]

Hey @Tunezy can you please leave this for the support team to respond now? 

[Tunezy]

Agree that would be nonsense, although since theres only mention of a Total Home Wi-Fi termination charge (which appears to usually be added alongside a minimum contract period extension), its a possibility worth being wise to, and to clarify.

Until there is clarification from the customer though, its not so clear cut and more info is required – there have been cases in the past (including on the forum) where Talk Talk has wrongly charged termination charges to people who should not have had to pay them, and they had to go through a rigmarole to get them reversed. In some of those cases, users have pointed out that even when Talk Talk knew about the issue, they continued to push forward with it (perhaps via some automated process) until users really questioned it.

[ferguson]

It seems clear to me that the OP had a pre-existing service at the old address. You cannot incur any charges from attempting to order a service as a new customer and subsequently being advised that it cannot be delivered, that would be a nonsense. 

[Tunezy]

Yes, will be good to see Talk Talk position on this, although one observation -

Unless Talk Talk later changed their T&C’s (26 July 2021, as linked before) to make the wording of para 17.2 less favourable to Talk Talk (this seems unlikely as the same wording is in the current terms), then as I pointed out, in September 2021 a user was informed by a Talk Talk staff member that where Talk Talk couldn’t provide any service to the customer’s new property (where the customer is currently under contract with Talk Talk but moving) there is no cancellation fee.

The relevant paragraph also says “may” charge. Key to identifying the right approach here is whether this is a new service being taken out, or a move of an existing service. And if a move of an existing service, was a £60 move fee paid (or a new contract period entered into)?

[ferguson]

@AndyC42 

If you would like the support team to check on this for you make sure that your personal details including TalkTalk phone number and/or account number are complete on your community profile (click here) so that they can link your forum identity with your account and then wait for them to respond. Bear in mind that they won't be back online until Monday.

@Tunezy 

You are still looking at examples from a couple of years back. Let's leave it to the support team to clarify the position. 

[Tunezy]

Interesting that Talk Talk staff here seem to have held contradicting positions on this -

In September 2021 stating that you wont be charged if Talk Talk cannot provide a service - https://community.talktalk.co.uk/t5/Billing/Moving-house-no-fibre-broadband/m-p/2813713#M309056

In June 2021 stating that a cancellation fee would be payable - https://community.talktalk.co.uk/t5/Billing/Moving-home-to-an-adress-not-covered-by-talk-talk/td-p/2... 

The terms in force as of July 2021 contained the above clause you highlighted - https://assets.ctfassets.net/0zd818fqktdq/51djEaxqqufBcnPw04WjZe/7933700a641750545230b14afd8fb6df/Ta... 

[ferguson]

Not exactly, but certainly some time ago and after that post you mentioned from three years ago. I suspect things have changed because of the variance of services and network providers available in different areas. Back in the day when Openreach had a monopoly on network provision it was generally easier to switch from one address to another with the same provider. 

[Tunezy]

Just to be clear, did you do a "home move" with Talk Talk here - i.e. were you a customer of Talk Talk at a different address previously?

Or are you a new Talk Talk customer whose order hit hurdles after it was placed?

@ferguson do you know when this change took place?

[ferguson]

@Tunezy 

That post you cite is out of date. The T&Cs now do allow TalkTalk to charge early termination fees in the event that a move of service cannot be arranged. 

.

https://assets.ctfassets.net/aycrbiawo3x3/6BLWHhfDvZLitx2uT7JhY7/54fb6ad3701252524fdda9cde632d2f1/Ta... 

[Tunezy]

Did you sign up for the “Total Home WiFi” service before? (Info at https://new.talktalk.co.uk/broadband/wifi-hub/eero) – this would mean you had additional Eero units to improve your WiFi coverage and that you were on Openreach fibre previously.

Theres a previous post by Talk Talk staff here (Arne) saying there should be no cancellation charges if Talk Talk cannot provide a service - https://community.talktalk.co.uk/t5/Fibre/Moving-home-in-contract-TT-can-t-supply-my-new-address/m-p... It seems absurd for Talk Talk to try to charge you for an extra service when they have said before on here that they dont do this – youd think that it would be easier to learn from these situations and improve processes to avoid this, rather than have everyone experience the same inconvenience when something goes wrong!

That cancellation fee suggests Talk Talk are basing it on an assumption you have just over 19 months left of Total Home Wi-Fi, as the Total Home WiFi commitment breakage fee is “£6 for each full month remaining in your minimum period” - might be worth checking that too.