TalkTalk Tentel switch: Customer gets £78 and apology after bill mistake

Graham Sergeant, from Smethwick in the West Midlands, was one of 40,000 people affected by the collapse of Scottish broadband company Tentel.

Graham had signed up to a £25.49 a month Tentel home broadband and landline phone package in December last year, but was shocked to read on BroadbandDeals.co.uk in October 2017 that his ISP had gone into administration.

Graham contacted BroadbandDeals.co.uk after reading this article which told how TalkTalk had taken over all Tentel contracts.

At the time, TalkTalk promised that no customer would see their bills go up as a result of the takeover.

What went wrong?

Talking online on a livechat with a TalkTalk customer service rep, Graham was horrified to hear that his standard £25.49 a month with Tentel would be going up to £37.20 a month, plus a mystery £3.67 one-off “changeover” charge.

Tentel fell into administration in October 2017. The Scottish ISP sold all of its broadband customer’s contracts to TalkTalk.

If ex-Tentel customers were charged higher monthly bills with TalkTalk, it would mean TalkTalk were in breach of the agreement they made when they bought out all 40,000 contracts.

This does not appear to be the case. It’s understood that 98% of former Tentel customers didn’t see any changes to their bill or received a better package (in terms of speed) as a result of the move.

Still, like everyone else, Graham was assured that the price he was paying for broadband and home phone with Tentel would not change in the TalkTalk move.

How we helped

BroadbandDeals.co.uk got in touch with TalkTalk to outline Graham’s case and ask for a update.

TalkTalk responded quickly. Within 48 hours a case manager for the TalkTalk CEO contacted Graham to offer an apology and a gesture of two months’ money back, totalling £78.07.

In a statement to BroadbandDeals.co.uk TalkTalk said that Graham’s case was unique and not representative of the vast majority of happy customers who had moved across from Tentel without incident.

When customers moved from Tentel to TalkTalk, they were switched to the closest matching package available. Most moved to the 17Mbps ADSL service Simply Broadband, while others were switched to a Fixed Low Price Plan.

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When it came time to switch, Graham was moved over to TalkTalk’s ADSL broadband and calls service, Simply Broadband with Unlimited Calls Boost, at a fixed price of £24.33 a month for the first 12 months, then £31.83 after that. But Graham was charged at the higher rate.

TalkTalk have admitted that they made a mistake in this case and incorrect pricing had been applied to Graham’s account.

They have now refunded Graham for his current TalkTalk monthly bill of £37.20 and the same amount for his final bill, as well as the £3.67 one-off charge for a total refund of £78.07.

In the apology, TalkTalk offered that the customer service rep was mistaken and had made an error of judgement.

Graham told us that while he didn’t exactly believe the response he accepted it and was happy to close his complaint.

“I suspect it was your involvement that motivated the move, and it’s very telling that a simple matter has to be escalated to the highest level to be dealt with satisfactorily rather than by the front line customer services I contacted in the first place.

“I have now cancelled my contract and switched to Sky, so I was happy to accept the apology and the refund, and move on.

“Thank you to BroadbandDeals.co.uk for investigating.”

If you have an unresolved broadband problem we may be able to help

• Always talk to your provider first, and they should be happy to try and resolve any issues you have in a timely manner
• Try to keep a record of times and dates you called, emailed or spoke to your provider on livechat along with any copies of conversations you had, where possible
• Make a note of your complaint, what steps you have taken to resolve it yourself, and any next actions between your provider and you that were agreed, either verbally or in writing

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