TalkMobile customer service - How to escalate?

[Steedie]

Hey guys,

My girlfriend is having an issue at the moment with TalkMobile due to an issue that happened last year, which was basically:

- Girlfriend wants to move to EE to get more data
- Calls TalkMobile in September 2015 to inform them she is cancelling, is told there is 30 days notice and she'll receive her last bill in October 2015.
- Girlfriend receives final bill in October with confirmation that it is her final bill
- Girlfriend cancels direct debit (possibly stupid on her part)

Now recently we applied for a mortgage and when we were in the process of speaking to our advisor, we had to print out our credit reports. On hers there were 4 negative marks, one for each month after October due to a missed payment for her TalkMobile account.

She called them straight away to find out what is going on and was told that after October, they realised they had billed her the wrong amount, and needed to take a further £7. But obviously as she had cancelled the direct debit they couldn't do this. Apparently it's against their policy to send out letters chasing for money hence why she was none the wiser and didn't realise they were marking her credit report.

Now she's been on the phone to them nearly every day for the last 2 weeks trying to resolve this, the summary of the calls is as follows:

- Call 1 she was told exactly what was going on and the reasons behind the marker
- Call 2 we were told that after one customer service advisor talked to a manager, they realise their mistake for not communicating properly and will clear the account and write to Experian to have the markers removed
- Call 3 we were told that they have no record to say Call 2 happened, but they will investigate the case and we'd have to wait 48 hours to find out
- Call 4, we were told again that neither call 2 or 3 happened, and we'd have to email someone. Girlfriend got upset and was trying to ask to talk to a manager, was called an idiot for not listening to him saying about the email and the call was quickly ended
- Call 5, again tried to talk to a manager but they turned around and said there's nothing they can do, we need to clear the balance or they'll not do anything and continue to affect her credit report
- Call 6, final call today and my girlfriend was called stupid for getting upset because they have no record of any previous call and this was apparently the first they knew of the matter

They refuse to send out a letter so we have it in writing what's going on, and they refuse to let us talk to a manager. One guy was clearly laughing with his mate next to him because he found it hilarious that he kept saying no to us asking to speak to a manager.

I've tweeted them and got a response, but when I direct message them as they ask, they never reply which has happened twice.

I've searched online for a high up email address to send a complaint too, or some way of speaking to someone in charge but all I've found is people who are in a similar position to us and can't find anything.

Does anyone have any advice about what to do next? Normally I'd just tell my girlfriend to pay the balance and be done with it and learn her lesson for next time, but out of principle over how we've been treated, I refuse to let them get away with it without chasing it up

Thanks guys, and help is appreciated

 

[SilverTongue]

easy google for you

http://talkmobile.co.uk/complaints/

go via ombudsman, details on that page

assuming of course this has now been oging for 8 weeks

 

[Steedie]

I was about to say, we've tried their complaints procedure but not tried via ombudsman

 

[SilverTongue]

I was about to say, we've tried their complaints procedure but not tried via ombudsman

Ombudsman will only act as a mediator mind you, however ombudsman can put a hell of a lot of weight on them to resolve this.

Can't see how they can claim you owe the money though if they have never sent a revised final bill. Also correct debt procedure is that they HAVE to send letters to chase the debt, this is a legal requirement. They haven't followed FCA rules regarding this so basically they are screwed.

 

[Wizardskills]

Ombudsman will be the way to go here. From what you have said it looks like you haven't done anything wrong.

I too am going to be moving my phone contract from them in the next few months and given my past experiences with their customer services team I am expecting a fight or something to go wrong. Needless to say I will be recording all of the phone conversations myself for when they have "no record" of the call.

 

[tom_e]

Ombudsman will only act as a mediator mind you, however ombudsman can put a hell of a lot of weight on them to resolve this.

Can't see how they can claim you owe the money though if they have never sent a revised final bill. Also correct debt procedure is that they HAVE to send letters to chase the debt, this is a legal requirement. They haven't followed FCA rules regarding this so basically they are screwed.

Any case that goes to the ombudsman costs the company money though IIRC so it then is actually in their interest to remove finger from bum and sort it rather than letting the phone monkeys have a giggle.

 

[Pipe & Slippers]

If you really want to annoy them, and spend maybe £20 or so, go to the Companies House website and download their Annual Return and get the home addresses of all the Directors and the Company Secretary. Then send each of them the same letter outlining what this issues are...a virtual straight cut from your first post will do - just tidy it up into something more letter-like

Then send them all signed-for delivery

Guaranteed to annoy them. Some of the deliveries are bound to be early in the morning annoying them/their spouses with a nice doorbell alarm

They then have to go to the effort of taking it into work and passing it along to their Customer Services Director (or whatever)

A variation is to identify who the CS Director is, and mail them first. When you don't get a reply after say, 7 days, then email the other directors using a lack of reply as evidence of how not-fit-for-purpose their procedures/CS Director is/are

I got a very snotty letter back once from a British Gas Director complaining about my tactics to which my reply was, if they had adequate complaints systems and escalation procedures in place, none of it would have been necessary

 

[Steedie]

^ That actually sounds brilliant! And given how angry I am about it all, I'm almost tempted to do it!

 

[Skillmister]

Do they have to put home addresses down? I've just checked on a company tracker we have and most have the registered address as the TalkTalk Business Office address.

Not sure if the annual return has anything different but I can't access that without the business account getting charged 50p and me getting grilled for why I'm downloading TalkTalk docs

e: One seems to have a nice 2.3M house in Hertfordshire though!

 

[Pipe & Slippers]

Do they have to put home addresses down? I've just checked on a company tracker we have and most have the registered address as the TalkTalk Business Office address.

Not sure if the annual return has anything different but I can't access that without the business account getting charged 50p and me getting grilled for why I'm downloading TalkTalk docs

e: One seems to have a nice 2.3M house in Hertfordshire though!

They used to have to put their home addresses down unless they had some very good excuse not to, but I gather it's not so unusual to opt-out and put the work address down nowadays

Last time I downloaded an Annual Return it was ~£2.50 so may be worth a punt

What makes me seethe with all these utility-type companies that give a shockingly poor level of customer service is that the regulatory authorities do sweet FA to tackle it, and they have nothing but contempt for their customers...despite all their mealy mouthed platitudes to the contrary. Folks moan about the banks screwing us over but these guys are just a poorer version

 

[Swifty55]

If you want to make a complaint, you can call us free from your Talkmobile phone on 5888, from a non-Talkmobile phone on 0333 304 8064 (charges apply) or online via Webchat by clicking the orange 'chat now' icon to the right of your screen.

Webchat them, that way you can get a copy of what's been said?

Also maybe email the CEO? Had to do that when I had a dispute with Orange years ago, got sorted within a week.

 

[Caged]

It's because they are owned by Vodafone, who are incapable of doing anything with any level of competence.

 

[the-evaluator]

If you really want to annoy them, and spend maybe £20 or so, go to the Companies House website and download their Annual Return and get the home addresses of all the Directors and the Company Secretary.

Or go to the beta version of their website at https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk where you will find most documents are now free of charge.

There's no legal requirement to have home addresses listed though, we use the registered business address for all our directors correspondence addresses.