Hi, although this is my first post, I have followed Niddy et al from MSE to here and feel like I know so many of you already ;Hi
I apologise in advance for the length of this post but basically I'd like to know what my next move should be, I know what I'd like to do but I'm not sure if I should/could ;Sh All will become clearer, I promise ;Red
Here goes lol
We had an account with Talk Talk for appx 10 years and were happy in the main, paid our bill on time and were what we considered good customers. Our contract meant that we could make free calls to all landline numbers at any time of day, any day of the week, as long as we hung up after 60mins and redialed it worked well.
In April of this year, our 12yo daughter got a boyfriend,(bless), and was phoning him several times an evening, now we checked with her she was calling a landline number and made sure she hung up after 60 mins, trusting she was and keeping an eye on her time on the phone, we were happy.
Then the bill arrived ;EEK what was usually appx £25 had become £183.00 ;EEK and yes we could see our daughter had infact been calling her boyfriends mobile Don't worry, appropriate action was taken and daughter learnt her lesson, however the problem was we really couldn't afford to pay the whole amount. So we contacted Talk Talk, a nightmare in itself! We explained what had happened and asked if we could pay an increased monthly DD, I think we offered £10 on top of a normal monthly bill, this would then reduce the outstanding and pay for our normal service. Talk Talk refused the offer, stating that they do not offer payment plans! The the red bills starting arriving , threats of disconnection etc. Then we recieve a letter from BCW for the outstanding amount. We rang them and explained the whole story to them and asked if we could pay £30 per month to which they agreed if I could give them a payment there and then, so I said that was fine and proceeded to give them my card details, before the transaction was completed they advised me that there would be a £2 charge added for paying by card I know, not a lot but it was the principle that really peed me off! So I declined the transaction but sent them a chq and a covering letter which was duly cashed, so I thought we were getting somewhere, and had intended to make future payments on line as they had given me the details etc I needed. Low and behold within days of the payment being made, Talk Talk disconnected us So no internet and no landline, fortunately we had a seperate landline with BT, (long story and irrelevant to this), so I again contacted Talk Talk explained I had an arrangement with BCW so could they please reconnect me? No, not untill the outstanding bill was paid and to rub salt in the wound, my OH and I both work from home online and are paid weekly, stupid Talk Talk had effectively made us employed and could not grasp that no income meant no bills could be paid including this one! We managed to arrange BB through BT but it takes 10 days to set up, so still unable to work for all that time was frustrating and worrying. By now I was sooooo angry with Talk Talk that I felt they could damn well wait for their money now and I would be quite happy to go to CCJ if necessary, this was all back in July and we hadn't heard from them since, well it's not like they can hassle us by phone, they don't have the new number lol but it seems they have tried to contact us on the disconnected line and are at a loss to understand why we have not responded to any messages they have left ;D A week or so ago we did recieve an email asking us to get in touch, yeah ok lol, then yesterday we recieved a letter entitled VISIT BY INVESTIGATION OFFICER now we know about these empty threats, actually I would quite enjoy it if they did send someone lol. Anyway we already have the template letter to stop them in their tracks, however, and this is where OH and I differ in opinion. OH wants to offer £10 per month at this stage, however, I would rather not lol, I feel that BCW prob wouldn't bother getting a CCJ for this amount, but even if they did, the repayment would prob be less than £10 per month. Am I cutting of my nose to spite my face? It's not that we don't want to settle, I am just so frustrated and angry with the whole thing that if there's a way of sticking two fingers up at them then thats what I want to do. We would really appreciate anyones thoughts on this. Thanks for reading, I hope I haven't given you a headache lol
I apologise in advance for the length of this post but basically I'd like to know what my next move should be, I know what I'd like to do but I'm not sure if I should/could ;Sh All will become clearer, I promise ;Red
Here goes lol
We had an account with Talk Talk for appx 10 years and were happy in the main, paid our bill on time and were what we considered good customers. Our contract meant that we could make free calls to all landline numbers at any time of day, any day of the week, as long as we hung up after 60mins and redialed it worked well.
In April of this year, our 12yo daughter got a boyfriend,(bless), and was phoning him several times an evening, now we checked with her she was calling a landline number and made sure she hung up after 60 mins, trusting she was and keeping an eye on her time on the phone, we were happy.
Then the bill arrived ;EEK what was usually appx £25 had become £183.00 ;EEK and yes we could see our daughter had infact been calling her boyfriends mobile Don't worry, appropriate action was taken and daughter learnt her lesson, however the problem was we really couldn't afford to pay the whole amount. So we contacted Talk Talk, a nightmare in itself! We explained what had happened and asked if we could pay an increased monthly DD, I think we offered £10 on top of a normal monthly bill, this would then reduce the outstanding and pay for our normal service. Talk Talk refused the offer, stating that they do not offer payment plans! The the red bills starting arriving , threats of disconnection etc. Then we recieve a letter from BCW for the outstanding amount. We rang them and explained the whole story to them and asked if we could pay £30 per month to which they agreed if I could give them a payment there and then, so I said that was fine and proceeded to give them my card details, before the transaction was completed they advised me that there would be a £2 charge added for paying by card I know, not a lot but it was the principle that really peed me off! So I declined the transaction but sent them a chq and a covering letter which was duly cashed, so I thought we were getting somewhere, and had intended to make future payments on line as they had given me the details etc I needed. Low and behold within days of the payment being made, Talk Talk disconnected us So no internet and no landline, fortunately we had a seperate landline with BT, (long story and irrelevant to this), so I again contacted Talk Talk explained I had an arrangement with BCW so could they please reconnect me? No, not untill the outstanding bill was paid and to rub salt in the wound, my OH and I both work from home online and are paid weekly, stupid Talk Talk had effectively made us employed and could not grasp that no income meant no bills could be paid including this one! We managed to arrange BB through BT but it takes 10 days to set up, so still unable to work for all that time was frustrating and worrying. By now I was sooooo angry with Talk Talk that I felt they could damn well wait for their money now and I would be quite happy to go to CCJ if necessary, this was all back in July and we hadn't heard from them since, well it's not like they can hassle us by phone, they don't have the new number lol but it seems they have tried to contact us on the disconnected line and are at a loss to understand why we have not responded to any messages they have left ;D A week or so ago we did recieve an email asking us to get in touch, yeah ok lol, then yesterday we recieved a letter entitled VISIT BY INVESTIGATION OFFICER now we know about these empty threats, actually I would quite enjoy it if they did send someone lol. Anyway we already have the template letter to stop them in their tracks, however, and this is where OH and I differ in opinion. OH wants to offer £10 per month at this stage, however, I would rather not lol, I feel that BCW prob wouldn't bother getting a CCJ for this amount, but even if they did, the repayment would prob be less than £10 per month. Am I cutting of my nose to spite my face? It's not that we don't want to settle, I am just so frustrated and angry with the whole thing that if there's a way of sticking two fingers up at them then thats what I want to do. We would really appreciate anyones thoughts on this. Thanks for reading, I hope I haven't given you a headache lol
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