Being charged £65 for fraud on my account.

[#1]

My internet stopped working on Friday. Called Plusnet on Saturday to be told that TalkTalk had requested a take over of my line. I did not place an order with TalkTalk and told them it’s fraud and please contact TalkTalk regarding this.

After putting me on hold he told me that Plusnet can reconnect me it will take 10 days and will cost £65. If I agreed to 6 more months on my contract they will wave the fee, I replied with ‘you must be joking’? So let me get this straight someone has fraudulently places and order with TalkTalk to take over my phone line and now your gonna charge me for it. Can anyone advise me on how to sort it. This is a disgrace and with Plusnet not even willing to investigate I find this very strange.

I was previously with Sky and the service was perfect and I never had these problems and I now know I made a huge rotor moving to Plusnet.

[#2]

Hi there. I'm sorry to hear this.

From what I can see we sent you the relevant e-mail notifying you that another provider had placed an order on your line.

This notification can also be viewed online here.

Due to the way ISP's work, we can't contact each other directly I'm afraid.

Unfortunately to rectify this we simply need to retake over the line, and the lead time is at least 10 working days due to the type of order we'll have to place.

With regards to the costs I'd recommend discussing this further with our house moves* team on 0800 013 2632.

*We'd essentially need to sort this out just like a house move, but by re-providing the service at your same address.

Apologies for the inconvenience caused.

[#3]

I hope that Plusnet can see their way to sorting this out without charging the OP and without extending the contract duration.

The inflexible way that ISPs deal with each other and Openreach already put customers at a strong disadvantage, without customers also having to pay for ISP errors.

I'm sure there is nothing in the regulations that would prevent Plusnet reclaiming the £65 from Talk-talk if they really wanted to.

[#4]

The inflexible way that ISPs deal with each other and Openreach already put customers at a strong disadvantage

This seems to come across as blaming the mentioned parties.  It is Ofcom who decides how such parties can or cannot interact with each other.  The regulations are there to inhibit slamming and to ensure that there is no favouritism and to make switching between providers easier.

In days of old, a user needed to obtain a MAC code from their existing provider which needed to be passed to the new provider as a "key" to enable migration.  Whilst that left the user in complete control of things, all too often some providers were not cooperative in supplying MACs and they had a short life span.

These days Gaining Supplier Lead migrations negate the need for MAC codes, but I fear leave users more exposed to errors … or even just absence from their mail boxes.  The process should go something like this...

1. A supplier places an order to take over a line
2. The existing supplier receives a notice of line take over
3. The existing supplier sends a 10 day attempt to take over the service notice to their customer
4. If the customer responds in the negative, the take over order is cancelled
5. If the customer does nothing, the line is taken over after 10 days

If at (1) the 'new' supplier gets the line details wrong (we've seen more than a few of those around here) and the customer does not see (3) and act upon it (possibly on a two-week vacation) then (5) will be the result.

This is NO FAULT of the existing supplier - it is how the process was designed (?) by Ofcom to work.  It is evident that as a process it is deficient as it does not consider the practicality of a user being slammed in the manner described … and the whole purpose of this process is to inhibit slamming.

HOWEVER where slamming on not a factor, the in-built 10 day delay does cause some people irritation "why does it take so long?".  The bitter kick back is that in a situation where something has gone wrong as here, the process rules enforce a 10 day delay, because the processes put in place by Ofcom do not afford a "We fouled this up big time" prompt reversion procedure.

The real sting on the tail here is that BT Wholesale and BT Openreach pick up a fees for each of the changes … note in this case there will be charges for the switch to and from a LLU provider.

This is a shoddy mess … but (unsurprisingly) one created by Talk Talk.

[#5]

Once you have contacted your new provider to begin the switching process, both your new provider and the provider you're leaving must both send you a notification letter to inform you of the switch.

The letter from the provider you are leaving must include details of:

• the services which are affected,
• the services which are unaffected, and
• any applicable early termination charges that relate to the services you currently take.

The letters from the provider you are leaving and your new provider must also give details of the switch, including a reasonable estimate of the date it will happen.

Your new provider must also keep for a minimum of 12 months a record of your consent to switch services.

Above quote (my italics) is from OFCOM:

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/costs-and-billing/switchi...

Apart from what was apparently a 'simple' mistake on TT's part in requesting the take over in the first place, given than the OP only became aware of the transfer after it had taken place, it would appear they also failed to comply with the rules on obtaining the account holder's permission (if only by default) that the transfer should proceed.

I've not found anything yet in the OFCOM rules which covers ISP errors of this nature, but surely there is no way anyone other than TT is responsible both for the transfer fees and any other costs involved, including those relating to loss of service.

If Plusnet are unable to recover or waive the fees, I suggest the OP should take the matter up with TT, who, as the facts have been presented, don't have a leg to stand on, with or without the OFCOM rules. Small claims court (or the threat of it) if necessary

[#6]

Would it not be better if OFCOM had introduced a requirement for the customer to confirm with his/her existing ISP that the migration request had been made by them, rather than assuming it was made by them unless told otherwise?  A simple link in the e-mail saying "Click here to confirm your migration request", or perhaps even two buttons to click, one for "Yes, I've requested this migration" and one for "No, I did not make this request".  If they wanted to be extra adventurous, they could even use different colours, green for yes, and red for no.

By the way, I migrated my BB to another provider on 22nd May and I'm still waiting for PN to inform me that they've had a migration request.  I happened upon a ticket on my account showing that they knew the migration date, but there was nothing on the main account page (or anywhere else) directing me to this ticket, I just discovered it while snooping around.

[#7]

Sorry to hear you didn't receive that notification, I've flagged that up internally