set up charges towards customers after acquring SHELL

[JZALSAGER]

Hi,

I just got an email today related to my July Bill where I was charged for one off set up charges due to SHELL being acquired by Talktalk, and Shell customer was charged for the set up which I am extremely unhappy with.

The acquisition between Talktalk and Shell is a business strategy, the accounts setup is a business administrative expense, why exsiting Shell customers are going to burden this expenses as it was charged by Shell before.

It was duplicated charge, without pre-information, it leaves the customers no choice such as leaving the current supply and deal.

I am posting to raise a complaint. 

Thank you.

[JZALSAGER]

Thank you again for the information.

I think I got what you meant now, there is time difference between coverage periods of the advanced payment paid to Shell and the Billing coverage period from Talktalk, proportioned to the month as 30 days, the second elements in the first bill was for the shortage of the coverage periods. There is still little difference which is not material at all.

Thank you for all the information. I got the reason and the bill behind of it now.

[JZALSAGER]

Sorry, I did not mean that you were disagreeing with me. And I know you are just trying to help.

They did bill the amount, they will not take the amount until 9/7/2024, so not sure how much they are going to exactly take right now.

Thank you again.

[Gliwmaeden2]

The charges from when you went live to the date of the bill are simply pro rata to the date of the bill.

You can't expect these days to be free.

The wording of your email appears to be the same as for the other customer. 

As I said, staff will confirm the specifics as they apply to your bill, already detailed in My Account. 

Have you actually looked in My Account?

A set up charge is an entirely different thing from the days up to the bill date, which simply need to be covered as you already have had the service active with Talktalk.

See this page for an actual description of set up fees / one off charges etc, @JZALSAGER:

http://community.talktalk.co.uk/pricing

[JZALSAGER]

Thank you Keith

[JZALSAGER]

Thank you for followingup:

the email I got today: 

'We hope you're enjoying your totally unlimited broadband. This first bill covers all your regular monthly charges, as well as any one off set up charges. You can see a full breakdown in My Account by selecting ‘View your bill’ below.'

Your monthly charges in advance:

These include any Boosts or calling features you have.

Charges since you joined:

These are the charges from when you went live to the date of this bill.

So basically they just billed me the one-off setup costs.

Thank you

[Gliwmaeden2]

@JZALSAGER, staff will clarify the matter during the day.

As you can see from the staff reply to the other customer: the set up charge is wording that would normally appear in an email to a NEW customer. Talktalk should sit up and take note that generic wording can cause distress when it's wrongly applied in situations to which it has no relevance. 

Nobody's disagreeing with you!

[JZALSAGER]

It is a one-off charge, however, my compliant is NOT about the amount, NOT about the frequency, It is about the FACT.  I did get an email related to the acquistion before, however, it did not mention about the charge, the customers should not bear the expenses as during the time we set up the accounts with Shell which had been acquired by them, we have paid this setup expense.

I had EE coming to my house for promoting their boardband, I would have chosen to swop the supply if I had informed about the charge by Talktalk. Again, Customers were not fully informed about the charge until directly being billed by them, like a surprise!        (' Surprise!! here you go, this is the charge, and you are going to pay for it!')

Just imagine that Talktalk is going to be acquired by one of its competitors, current customers of Talktalk are going to bear the setup costs, I doube it would be a happy situation.

[Gliwmaeden2]

@JZALSAGER, this is the other customers thread, showing the wording of the email:

https://community.talktalk.co.uk/t5/Billing/One-time-installation-fee-customer-from-Shellenergy/td-p...

Is yours similarly worded?

[Gliwmaeden2]

Another customer coming from Shell, posted similarly today, @JZALSAGER.

I'll see if I can find a link to the reply from staff, but they will respond to this post anyway during the day. 

The emails seem to mention a set up fee because Talktalk uses generic wording (does it say "any" set up fee, which is sort of "if"?) and so the place to look is in My Account at the detailed bill.

It may well show a charge for the days used so far, up to the billing cycle and also the month ahead. 

Thereafter it will always just be for the month ahead plus catching up on charges for phone calls made.

Hopefully that is the situation. 

[KeithFrench]

I have asked one of TalkTalk's support to pick your thread up and investigate it 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.
To save yourself time, please make sure that your community profile includes your first & last names, broadband phone number & if possible an alternative contact number. This can be done by clicking on your Avatar picture then click on "My Settings" followed by:-


Personal Profile > Personal Information

Otherwise, TalkTalk will not be able to tie up your forum username to your broadband account. Only you & TalkTalk have visibility of your details.