TalkTalk set debt collectors on non customers

This morning's Observer newspaper tells us that TalkTalk has been setting debt collectors on people that they have been unable to provide service for, but are still charging.

A year on from launching their 'free broadband forever' deal, there are people who are still yet to receive any broadband from them, and are talking them to the small claims court to get their money back.

Chief Executive Charles Dunstone, he of the seldom updated blog (almost 3 months now) hasd said that they are now making a fresh push for customers and that they have made "good progress in recent months" in sorting out some of their customer service problems.

Some of his paying punters would suggest otherwise:

"... David Wheatley signed up when the offer launched 11 months ago and are still waiting for a connection. 'It's currently costing me £21 for TalkTalk and £15 for my current dial-up provider, so you can see I am out of pocket,' he says. 'Various phone calls to their customer services department hasn't achieved anything. You are either waiting ages or get cut off.'"

Another, Andre Harvard, contacted them 15 times to try to stop payment when they were unable to provide him service. Not that he got much luck as they repeatedly told him they'd cancelled his service but had not - he had to cancel his direct debit to stop them taking payments:

"'Once I cancelled my direct debit that's when I received a letter from a debt collection agency,' he says. 'I sent a letter in reply to the head of credit control at TalkTalk, but no answer. So I went to the online small claims court service and filed a claim.' TalkTalk then contacted Mr Harvard, offering him a cheque for £140."

This could all yet be very costly for the Carphone Warehouse (TalkTalk's parent company):

"'If a small claims court proceeding is brought to our attention we will look to resolve that problem,' says a TalkTalk spokesperson. 'We do have processes in place to compensate people where appropriate.'"