I Just Knew It - TalkTalk Email "Transition"

[Cluster-Lizard]

What did I say on other threads here about this matter. It is undoubtedly AI driven and once it gets it into 'its' head that you're not a TalkTalk customer unless someone tells it has made a mistake it will keep on spewing out emails to customers telling them they're not customers and that their email service will end in July.

Worse than that the service will be incrementally depleted in the next two weeks with the removal of the ability to send emails (see screenshots below).

I was assured that the earlier emails I received were mistakes and should not have been sent to me as a TalkTalk customer and that I did not need to do anything.

Well obviously I do need to do something and soon because if my email service gets stuffed by TalkTalk's unwise reliance on AI and their inadequate customer service in dealing with this matter I will be very unhappy.

I suggested that what was required was not some generalised apology published online explaining that TalkTalk customers received these warning emails in error. What was needed, at the very least, was an email from TalkTalk sent out to all those customers confirming this was an error and that their 'system' has now been updated and recognises them as customers.

Was that too much to ask? A simple assurance, in writing, that because of a TalkTalk mistake your email service is going to continue as normal. Is that too ,much to ask now?

If anyone has any suggestions about how customers like myself and others here who've been affected by this this inexplicable mess TalkTalk have made of this then please..........please help.

[Cluster-Lizard]

Not received any confirmation or form in my email yet. Just the usual automated response and online questionnaire from TalkTalk: "How Did We Do?".

I told them in no uncertain terms I was not happy and couldn't recommend them to friends/relatives as the existing important matter I'd contacted them about has still not been satisfactorily resolved.

Sometimes a bad review/complaint gets the sort of response you were looking for in the first place.

Worked for me with HMRC. 😀

I'm wondering if I misunderstood the customer service guy and what he meant was that I'd receive confirmation the mysterious TalkTalk form Gliwmaeden2 describes had been submitted/accepted rather than was actually going to be sent to me.

Because of that I'm going to wait until Friday and if nothing happens try contacting them again.

[Gliwmaeden2]

Even when staff were on here, you'd simply be told that it would be done, not given "proof", @Starfleet.

The usual thing now is for agents to do the form by phone or Chat, so I have my doubts about what @Cluster-Lizard was told.

[Starfleet]

@Cluster-Lizard it really is scary, I have no faith in it and yet like you am totally helpless and out of any control, what is this form and how do you get it?

What I did was to do another online chat after the 2nd email (which was already after the first online chat following the first assuring me it was an error - which of course they were talking rubbish now) and the 2nd agent said they would associate my email to my TT account...but I have had no confirmation or proof and so now worried about the upcoming 26/5 & other deadlines....

It's becoming clear TT are a husk of what they were now they are probably down to so few real staff who understand what to do

[Cluster-Lizard]

It just has to be AI, as I suggested earlier.

If I don't get the form or confirmation that my email service is safe by the end of of today (Wednesday) I try contacting them again by 'phone tomorrow and, hopefully, sort this matter out properly. 

[Gliwmaeden2]

Ever since last summer, when they started notifying customers about the need to use Everymail after leaving, and to continue the service that had previously been assigned to Mailplus for former customers, there's been a muddle with some current customers somehow getting swept up with the Everymail deadline notifications  - yours really is the only case I have seen where the customer is supposedly being sent the form to complete, rather than it being filled in by staff.

Very odd, and you may have just encountered an agent who did not understand the process - either that or the process has suddenly been changed, @Cluster-Lizard.

Either way I would ring back for a second opinion. 

It is indeed strange how Talktalk seems to have lost the plot with these old addresses, having run them itself or taken them over in the past. Chaos behind the scenes, and poor record keeping. 

[Cluster-Lizard]

I'm actually concerned about what the form they're emailing me will contain and why it is not being sent immediately. 

As said I've found this whole thing odd - do TalkTalk not know who their customers are? Why do I have to fill in a form to prove I am a TalkTalk customer using the email address concerned? That is particularly odd since they're emailing the form to that registered email address and it was even used during the customer service 'phone call conversation to help verify who I was.

So they know I'm an existing customer. They also know that's my email address is active and I want to continue using it. What more do they need to know?

Sending me a form just to repeat information it is proven they already have doesn't make any sense. Does it?

I have a feeling this matter is not over yet.

[Gliwmaeden2]

Thanks for reporting back, @Cluster-Lizard.

That's certainly a change of method, as, previously only staff / agents completed a form. 

Do keep us posted!

[Cluster-Lizard]

Just an update that may be of use to other customers here who had the same, worrying, second email about their email service being removed because they are ".....not customers.....".

Only method I found of contacting TalkTalk effectively and getting through to a real live person is by 'phone. The 'Chatbot' option just didn't work.

You still have to go through the usual telephone menu options with voice confirmation which is always dodgy. I was cut off whilst waiting in line (<2 minutes) but at the second attempt I got through to the customer service OK.

They already seem aware of the problem so I guess others here have reported it too. They have an odd way of dealing with this and that is they are sending me a form (email) sometime in the next few days which will, apparently, sort out whatever the problem is/was. I suppose it is just official confirmation that the email address is being used by a customer and not a non-customer.

I await the form with trepidation but, hopefully at this point, that will resolve the issue satisfactorily and I won't lose my email service because of a TalkTalk error.

[Gliwmaeden2]

@Cluster-Lizard, please use the Complaints process, linked at the foot of any Talktalk page, to make sure that your concerns reach Talktalk as that will be much more effective. 

I have highlighted the fact to the forum manager that there appears to have been a further crop of emails sent out to customers whose email service shouldn't qualify for the arrangements for Everymail service etc. 

But direct feedback is the only way for you to bring the issue to the attention of those in Talktalk who should be acting on this - they are not going to be following the forum as it has no staff support. 

[Cluster-Lizard]

Good luck but I doubt that email will get through because at the bottom of the damned thing it says:-

"Please do not reply to this email, emails are not monitored."

I've said this before that this whole matter is like some Kafkaesque nightmare where you can't communicate with, in fact it feels like you're deliberately being blocked, anyone real at TalkTalk in a position of authority who might be able to sort this absurd situation out very quickly.

We are paying customers who just want to maintain our existing email service but for whatever reason we have been wrongly identified as non-customers and threatened with with losing it.

This is TalkTalk's problem, their fault, likely their rubbish AI's mistake but it is us, the customers, who are expected to contact them to resolve the issue and yet they're making that as hard as possible.

It is doing my head in because I thought this had been resolved.

I don't want another AI apology published on the web site because that was clearly not worth the paper it wasn't written on. I want all those paying customers affected by this matter to receive a direct email apology from TalkTalk and 100% assurance that their email service is safe and, crucially, they are recognised as valuable customers who want to maintain that existing service.

This is not much to ask.   

[Starfleet]

Same, I had the initial email, then went to webchat and the agent confirmed it was an error and nothing needed to be done.

Today I got the 2nd email and now am totally worried at losing this...what a ridiculous situation!

I replied to that 2nd email asking them to associate with my TT account and hope someone does something...

[fr8ys]

There are no staff here anymore and you will need to contact them to resolve.

Re chat, disabling pop up blockers and ad blockers may help, but sometimes if staff are busy the button is supressed.

To avoid the chat bot, type in speak to a human or speak to an agent until you are connected.

[Cluster-Lizard]

Thanks for the quick reply.

The whole point of this post is that I am a TalkTalk customer. How do I convince the AI spewing out this email that I am? I've just logged into My Account (no problem - all paid up for this month) and even accessed my emails directly from there, after signing in with my email mail and password rather than through my email client. No problems anywhere but I still received this second email with dire warning about my email service being terminated because "I'm not a customer".

They made it quite clear when this first occurred that it was a mistake and customers like me shouldn't have received the email. You can still find that message if you search through TalkTalk's web site. All very nice, all very apologetic and designed to calm peoples' concerns. But, just as I predicted and was very worried about the matter has clearly not been fixed.

Likely because the AI has listed me as not a TalkTalk customer and other here too nobody has actually removed these wrongly identified names from that list. Result: another email because it is still 'thinks' I'm not a customer.

It needs human intervention by TalkTalk not apologies. If that mistake continues and TalkTalk's AI doesn't recognise my status I know I'll lose my email service. For me and many other people here that service is an essential part of the package and it is not us who can fix it.

BTW I've even tried using the Contact Live Chat but the necessary link button to access the services seems to be missing (maybe a browser issue) and the 'Help' pages just display as an empty 'window with no information. I suppose I'll have to contact them by 'phone but is there any chance the underpaid call centre personnel, assuming I can get a real person, will actually be able to sort this out?   

[fr8ys]

Some emails were sent inadvertently to customers.

Please see here for more details and the action you need to take depending on your circumstances.
https://community.talktalk.co.uk/t5/Email/Everymail-transition/td-p/3148465
Thank you