TalkTalk ad slapped for misleading on LLU TalkTalk's latest TV ad has fallen foul of advertising regulators, who received complaints from would-be customers who contacted the firm only to be told they had to pay extra because they lived outside its unbundled network. The ad punted "free" broadband with line rental for £10.50 per month. The cost of connectivity from BT …
Similar thing happened when I tried to change to skys broadband. I went to skys website and clicked on the £5 to add broadband to my sky package, and it added £17.99 without any message or warning. I called sky who said i was outside the area. It annoyed me because there was no warning at being charged over 3 times the amount i was expecting. Funnily enough, because of the attitude of the call center and the underhanded way they tried to get me to go with their broadband, I've stopped my subscription with sky altogther and gone back to freeview
I've never had a problem with TalkTalk, speeds of around 7Mb/s on my 'up to' 8Mb line. When the modem was first installed, I didn't use it for about a month due to still having Virgin. When I did finally use it, the modem had not gone through it's training procedure correctly and would keep dropping the connection. It took one 10 minutes call to TalkTalk and the problem was sorted.
It was annoying that after recomending them to my parents, they were told that the costs were much higher due to them living out in the sticks.
Anyway, since when did ISP's get in trouble for advertising something they can't provide! :-)
I've had a few problems since they put their own kit in the local exchange, but nothing prior to that - and nothing since they replaced my modem for free.
I recommended them to my parents, and they are happy too... saved a packet from their old rates with BT like I did when i switched. (Speaking of BT, they still keep calling me asking me to go back - I've given up telling the drones on the phone I won't go back until they dump Phorm but the poor drones don't have a fecking clue what the heck I'm talking about...)
Moved to a flat in the N2 area, got phone initially connected then transferred from BT to TalkTalk. However during the changeover we were cut off. It took endless calls to TT customer support to convince them we had no dial tone as their tests to the exchange indicated all was fine. An engineer finally found the connection was done incorrectly at the exchange. Found the minimum time on hold was 30 mins to customer support which was abysmal, being cut off several times on hold. So 6 weeks after signing up finally online & connection speed really good. However they also commenced billing from our go live date of which 3 weeks of that we had no connection so I vision been on hold for several hours to customer services sorting this last issue :)
Apparently Ofcom have a vacancy for a Chair.
The work involves "up to three days a week". Sounds nice so far, right? But wait, even in the era of the credit crunch, it gets better...
Wages ~£200K/year.
See e.g. http://appointments.egonzehnder.com/?page=Details&id=14
Flame, because Ofcon need to burn in Hell.
IANAL but under the "Consumer Protection from Unfair Business Practices Regulations" that came into force on 26th May 2008 it is a criminal offense (fines and/or up to 2 years in prison) to repeatedly call you for marketing/selling. You may need to tell them to stop, or to be on the TPS, to make it clear it is unwanted. Unlike previous marketing rules this even applies to companies that you have or had a business arrangement with.
It can apply both to the company AND an officer (of the company) who consented/contrived or negligently allowed the crime. It can also cover third parties if they are the one(s) who caused the breach (this would for instance apply to sellers of lists of email addresses who state that the people listed have consented to receive spam) even if this third party is not a business.
The specific wording from Schedule 1 "Commercial practices which are in all circumstances considered unfair" subsection 26 is "Making persistent and unwanted solicitations by telephone, fax, e-mail or other remote media except in circumstances and to the extent justified to enforce a contractual obligation."
See http://www.oft.gov.uk/advice_and_resources/small_businesses/competing/protection and/or http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2008/uksi_20081277_en_5#sch1 for more details.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
