TalkTalk as for SAR for Proof of Non-DD Admin Costs

[adridude]

TalkTalk: Advertising to thwart

 

 

As a happy talktalk customer (and I mean happy as I have nothing but good service), I noticed that there are a few discrepancies on their pages that are somewhat questionable... Most of them advertising, which in the end I never wound up with. Luckily I'm IT savvy and know better but here are the examples:

 

1) "TalkTalk Plus TV, broadband and phone only £15.50 a month". Looks good, looks snazzy. In the small print they do mention that you get a YouView box included, but in the MYRIADS of policies they link you to, they offer nothing of the like what they show you. No TV included like the picture, you do get the YouView box at a price, even though you can install it yourself, you HAVE to have an engineer and no phone handset? Image below:

 

Ad link removed

 

 

2) Next they don't tell you, that despite being 500 yards from the exchange (As is in my case) you NEED To have fibre as because you are in a town, your ADSL line is busy (it is? with such a low population?). What they forget to mention is how many exchanges are in your town. In the 'old days' they shared 'contention ratio's'. What that is, is how many people you share the line with. i.e. 1:2500 contention is 1 line: 2500 people. That mysteriously vanished in the ADSL maturity days.

 

3)Next is their actual fibre install, yet another £50. THey send an engineer around to help you install fibre. Despite me being IT savvy, they 'had to' to ensure they have the best technical advice. In light of that, look at the next picture:

 

Ad link removed

 

Nice, I think to myself, they show a Macbook Pro there, solo they must know what they are talking about. They arrive here, they see I have an iMac, Macbook Pro, Apple TV, iPad and iPhone. Not to mention the airplay stereo and bonvoyage printer I have… THey arrive, got the broadband working on the router (Huawei HG533) then move to my iMac to test it..

 

Quote: 'Um, what do you use to use the internet, I can't find firefox or internet explorer'

Reply: *sigh* SAFARI

 

Next I asked that he set the printers up as I couldn't be bothered, so he tried. Once again I had to explain how to set apple printers up.

 

Woah betide me, the HG522 is barely apple compliant! THe printing works, but the scanning is a no-go unless you set it to WiFi Channel 5 on 803.11N mode for the new ones.

 

The iPad and that I set up myself out of pure frustration..

 

 

In the end WATCH very carefully what you do here, they misadvertise a lot……

 

Any feedback?

Edited April 12, 2013 by ims21

[adridude]

I will add more to this but my typing was caught short as a phone call came in

[adridude]

I'm shocked there's no comments on this as... on the TalkTalk MEMBERS forum theres's a load of hell; thank to me LOL :DWith permission pf the Site Staff, can I post the link that:

 

 

1)TalkTalk

2)AOL

3) Tiscali(prior) to moving can look at>

[snowy101]

I was with Tiscali from the beginning, everything was fine until squawk squawk took over . Without doubt the worst company i have ever had the misfortune to come across. DON`T GO NEAR THEM , EVER. I wonder where the site PR guy for No Talk is , he with all the buzz words & PR claptrap. Funny, they never seem to be around when the do do hits the fan

 

It seems that they are being fined for harassing people. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2310991/TalkTalk-fined-750-000-making-9-000-silent-calls-potential-customers-months.html

[adridude]

I can do better than the PR person, you can get hold of the CEO here --> Dido Harding

 

Interestingly enough, she does reply to complaints and she does get her own CORPORATE team to deal with issues. I had an issue with their 'new router' which does the TV as it wasn't mac friendly. In the end, TT ended up buying me an Apple Airport Extreme thanks to her team

[snowy101]

I have no need for the CEO address, i have not been a customer of " no talk" for a long while now, i never will be again. Cowboy outfit .

 

Seems like the harassment of ordinary people is of no consequence, so i will bow out & leave you & "no talk" to rub each others backs.

[adridude]

I don't think they were silent calls, I just think nobody could understand Hindi LMAO!

[adridude]

Hi,

 

An interesting one. I contacted TalkTalk about the £180 odd charged in non-DD fees and asked them to send me a breakdown of the actual costs as proof that they are complying with OfCom's consultation about 'fairness' when these are to be charged.

 

I had a good laugh when I had someone call me up and say 'Hi, thanks for your complaint. I can help you with your billing charges...'

 

I asked them about the fee and asked for a breakdown of the particular charge so they can reflect their true cost to remain transparent in terms of 'fairness'. THis is what followed:

 

tt> I'm sorry we do not have that information, however I can assure you that it's the cost of sending a giro-slip in the post as well as non e-billing which is what costs us.

 

me> but a printed letter costs less than 3 pence a page to print when you print them in bulk and second class postage is less than 22 pence when using royal mails mass mail services based on 1/4 of your client base

 

tt> we don't send the letters out, our bank does

 

me> I find that very hard to believe but none the less can you please send me this in writing?

 

tt> No sorry if you require this informaton you need to send us a postal order or cheque for £10 requesting this information

 

me> That for an SAR not proof of your costs?

 

tt> That is how you get the information

 

me> Can you send me a letter confirming that I have to pay the £10 to get this 'information'?

 

tt> No sorry we are an inbound only call centre

 

 

So from what I gather, they just aren't interested in proving this. Either that, or they baffle you with bullish*t to the point where you give up.

 

DO you really need to send a SAR? I thought that was only for administration costs to collate the personal details you request about yourself or someone you have Power of Attorney for etc...?

 

If you don't need to send a SAR for this info, how do you recommend I approach this? I've got a funny feeling they slipped up bigtime here!!

[ericsbrother]

A SAR wont give you the info you want, which I read as being billed a fiver for a paper copy of your bill. If this is the case then I dont think that you will get very far in overturning the charges based on previous attempts at the same against banks and BT They just claim all sorts of rubbish reasons why it costs so much, even though most of these costs are there for online billing as well. The true cost should be about a quid, including the payment processing (which they have to do otherwise how do they bank the money?)

[adridude]

I know a SAR shouldn't be used for this information I thought I'd share an experience

 

Businesses (Banks too) don't make money out of all services. These are known as 'Value Added Services'. These are usually services or 'features' added to a specific product to make it look more attractive.

 

A good example is some of the Gold Current Accounts throw in quite a bit for a mere £5 a month. If you tally up the individual costs of each of the services offered, there's no way they'd work out to something anywhere near as low as £5.

 

Furthermore, I've tried to get TT to give me the contact details of their 'Card Processing Provider' which they use for online payments. As a company director, I was going to inquire myself about card processing fees. BT are slightly different, and aren't as bad as talktalk as they bill monthly, which basically equates to about £1.50 a month, which I wouldnt mind if this were the case with TalkTalk.

 

What I'm getting at is that TalkTalk are:

 

1) Asking for the wrong things to provide this information i.e. they asked for a SAR

2) Refusing to divulge these costs so they can be tested for fairness in accordance with OfCom's guidelines

3) Refusing to let me know who the third party is (the card processing company) is that they they are passing my personal and sensitive data to.

 

Another interesting fact is that if you have a DD in place, and pay your bill via the internet before hand i.e. put your account in credit by the usual amount of the bill, no DD gets drawn as the balance is zero and they DON'T charge you this 'non-DD admin fee'. How is this explained?