On Thursday we wrote about TalkTalk’s rather shabby attempt to copy our Polish initiative.
We had a couple of interesting developments to this story late on Friday afternoon. Firstly a Carphone Warehouse employee had the guts to post a comment on the site. I was pleasantly surprised by that and have to commend Stephen from TalkTalk on his response.
However, Carphone’s lawyers were not quite so amused 
I happened to be looking at several competitor websites today and noticed something rather amusing on the TalkTalk website.
Have you spotted it it yet?
Now they do say that imitation is the highest form of flattery, so I guess we should be delighted that Mr Dunstone has finally recognised PlusNet as the broadband market leader
Since we posted “The case of the missing customers…”, the interest and response has been overwhelming. I thought that it would be a good idea to collate what we’ve seen so far, as we’re continuing to see many instances of this occurring on an almost daily basis. A summary of the news coverage can be found at the bottom of this post.
For those that are not aware of the situation, please read my previous post about TalkTalk poaching customers here.
The Sunday Times picked up on this practice on Sunday and featured it in print and online. You can read the online version here.
Whilst the news coverage has been extensive, the most significant responses are the messages of anger and upset from actual customers who have been affected by this activity. Not just on our forums or on the blog post itself, but as comments to the news stories published elsewhere. In addition, these comments demonstrate that it’s not just PlusNet customers either. Other ISPs’ customers have been unfairly transferred by TalkTalk without consent, as confirmed by the Times’ comment that :
“Other broadband firms, who did not want to be named, have confirmed similar problems.”
Even following all this coverage and a statement from TalkTalk, we’re still seeing this happening – and more than ever. TalkTalk could be acquiring thousands of customers in this way every single month.
The Customer Support Centre have made me aware, just in the last 2 days, of at least 4 individual customers who have found themselves unable to connect to their PlusNet Broadband service for this very reason. I got in touch with one of them and he had this to say :-
“I was cold called as an existing TalkTalk call plan customer & told I was wasting my money on BT line rental.
I specifically queried whether I could stay with PlusNet as I was very happy with the service & was assured that if I signed up to the all-in-one deal I could carry on with whichever ISP I wanted. I checked this twice, specifically said I was only interested in line rental, not in their broadband & repeated this to a second person from TalkTalk who came on the line as a quality-assurance check to make sure I hadn’t been mis-sold.
Imagine my surprise this morning on discovering that I’m now connected to TalkTalk broadband (via which you’re getting this email).”
A PlusNet Broadband Customer, from Surrey
This customer has since complained to TalkTalk and is also planning to contact Ofcom regarding the incident. Whilst many ‘poached’ customers have since returned to us, after paying high cancellation fees to get back to a BT landline, some customers simply can’t afford to pay the fees, or face the potential downtime of their internet service while migrating back.
We have raised this issue with Ofcom and if you have been a victim of TalkTalk ‘poaching’ your broadband connection, we would ask you to contact us.
Summary of News Coverage :
The Register #1
The Register #2
ThinkBroadband #1
ThinkBroadband #2
ISPReview #1
ISPReview #2
WebUser
UK Broadband UserGroup
Net4Now
TelecomPaper (Subscription)
The Times
Over the last few months, but especially within the last few weeks, we’ve seen an increase in calls from customers surprised to have found that their broadband has suddenly stopped working. Their modems appear to remain ‘in-synch’ with the exchange, but their username and password is rejected when they attempt to connect.
Following the normal procedures for ‘No Authentication’ faults, we quickly identified that all these customers’ assets were no longer owned by ourselves in BT’s systems. Hmm… Strange, we thought, since none of these customers had requested to migrate away or cease their service with us.
After delving deeper into each individual case we found a single common factor – that the customer had opted to move their line rental over to Carphone Warehouse (TalkTalk).
It would appear, you see, that in areas where TalkTalk have an unbundled exchange, they can move your home phone AND your broadband over to their equipment (fully unbundled) without a MAC key or any authorisation from the customer. So, even if you sign up to only move your home phone service to TalkTalk, they may just swindle you out of your trusty broadband connection – forcing you to take their option.
This doesn’t appear to be isolated to their ‘free broadband‘ option either. Several of our customers who have contacted us had not signed up to the more expensive TalkTalk plan that includes broadband.
Naturally, these customers were surprised to hear what has happened and were most upset at what TalkTalk had done. So we took a delve into their Ts and Cs. Indeed, they do claim (in their Ts and Cs) that switching your home phone service to TalkTalk does give them the right to nab your broadband too.
They say :
1.23.2 you will no longer be able to use Broadband or Line Rental Services from other providers. We will not be liable for any charges which may arise as a result of the termination of your contract with your existing providers for those services;
However, they also say :
“1.22 Unless you have agreed previously to take our Broadband Service, we will seek your express consent before transferring you to our LLU network if you take a broadband service from another provider on the same telephone line at the time of transfer.”
Strangely, none of our customers recalled ever opting to take the TalkTalk Broadband service. Nor did any of them remember being contacted for “express consent” to have their broadband service stolen away from them. If they had, why would they be calling us confused over why they cannot connect?
The numbers aren’t small either. This is something we’ve been tracking internally for quite some time and dozens of customers have been affected by this. And if it’s happening to our customers, other ISPs must surely be seeing the same thing.
Of course, we do lose some customers who do genuinely wish to leave and take up service with TalkTalk. For these customers, TalkTalk’s assumption that everyone in the world wants their ‘free broadband’ offer is less of an inconvenience. Good job, eh? But I can’t personally believe, in this day and age, that Ofcom are allowing this to happen without any consumer-driven processes (i.e. the MAC key process) to take place.
It’s no wonder their customer numbers are ‘soaring’ when they’re getting them this easily!
It doesn’t appear to stop there either. Over the last few days, we’ve received calls from customers who had been told they could signup to TalkTalk and have TalkTalk “take care of everything”. Surprised that we were still billing them, after TalkTalk had switched them (without a MAC key!) they were told by TalkTalk’s sales staff that they would arrange the cancellation with us.
To put this to the test and see if this customer’s unbelievable statement was true, I lifted to handset and called their sales team with a few genuine enquiries. I decided to call a few times, to see if the story changed. Indeed it did.
1st Call – Woman – The woman advised me that I could signup today, and TalkTalk would take care of everything. She said that they would move me over without requiring a MAC key, and that they would deal with the cancellation with my current provider on my behalf – so I’d have nothing to worry about. Sit back – relax!
2nd Call – Gentleman – I was told that I could signup to TalkTalk right now, and that I would not need a MAC key to do so. However, on the day my broadband is switched on, I might like to call my current provider “as a courtesy” just to let them know I’ve switched!
3rd Call – Gentleman – A particularly ‘pushy’ salesman on this occasion. I was told that my landline would switchover first (within a few days) then Broadband would follow in a few weeks (once I’m firmly in my 18month contract). At which point, he said I would need to get a MAC key from my current provider. When I was reluctant to signup there and then he was particularly rude and ended the call.
All of these whom I spoke to were particularly keen to bag a sale right now. The third one even began placing the order for me after I made it clear I was enquiring only. However, it would appear that potential customers are getting some very mixed messages from TalkTalk Sales. I just hope I don’t find myself a customer of theirs in a few days time!
Earlier this week we launched a Micro-Site on Free Online advising prospective customers of the “Farytale of Free Broadband” and how our offerings compare.
Below is the press release that we put out this morning :
Free-Online – and the fairytale of ‘free’ broadband
PlusNet the UK’s best value Internet service provider, operates a brand called Free-Online. Free-Online has recently seen an increase in visitors to its website, not surprising with all the talk of supposedly ‘free’ broadband. PlusNet and Free-Online believe a quality broadband service can never be truly free. That’s why today the Free-Online site has a new dedicated mini site that dispels the fairytale myth of ‘free’ broadband. Forever.
Why have a brand called Free-Online that doesn’t do ‘free’ broadband? Free-Online was launched back in 1999 at the height of the free dial up internet access boom, when internet access was subscription free. The irony now is Free-Online’s broadband is not free – it is however around the same real price as other ‘free’ offers. Confused? So are the majority of broadband users.
The Free-Online mini site sets out to help people see ‘free’ broadband deals for what they really are; a combined package of broadband, call plan and telephone line rental. It compares the deals of TalkTalk and Orange with Free-Online’s own package in a transparent, light hearted way.
Weary travellers searching for the non-existent pot of gold who find their way to Free-Online, will now find the fairytale of ‘free’ broadband has a happy ending.
Marco Potesta PlusNet’s Marketing Director, said:
‘We believe quality broadband is the most important component of any package deal, it’s therefore confusing to call it free. That’s why we steer away from saying something is ‘free’ when you have to buy other elements to get it. The new mini site is there to help people see the facts clearly and decide for themselves’.
This new Free-Online mini site is online now, take a look http://www.free-online.net/
There’s an interesting article over on ISP Review about Carphone Warehouse wanting customers over 70 having a relative with them at the point of sign up.
The Daily Mail newspaper reports that the Carphone Warehouse has introduced a rather bizarre new clause into its TalkTalk broadband package. People over the age of 70 must be accompanied by a child to explain the small print!:
Shirley Greening-Jackson thought signing up for a new internet service would be a doddle. But the young man behind the counter had other ideas. He said she was barred – because she was too old.
The 75-year-old would only be allowed to sign the forms for the Carphone Warehouse’s TalkTalk phone and broadband package if she was accompanied by a younger member of her family who could explain the small print to her.
Carphone Warehouse admitted it had adopted an over-70 rule. But the firm insisted it was not a blanket policy and claimed the guidance was to protect the elderly. A spokeswoman said: “It is not our policy to refuse business from adult customers of any age group. However, we do ask our agents to use their discretion when dealing with older customers.“
This is quite possibly one of the most ridiculous things we’ve ever read and no doubt deeply insulting to anybody over the age of 70, the majority of which are probably more intelligent than most.
Surely it wouldn’t be too difficult for Carphone to simply train their staff to handle such individuals, rather than effectively barring them. After all, kids have a tendency to grow into adults and then.. funnily enough, elderly people. Shocking I know!
Now, considering that there are a number of ISPs, ourselves included, offering low level PAYG offering, you would expect a number of these to be from the elder generation, as it is more suited to their needs, rather than teenage-mid 20’s who are more likely to want to use their internet connectivity for downloading, more than for checking the odd webpage and downloading email.
Alienating the elder generation would appear to be a PR nightmare…
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