Complaint - Broadband Service

[#1]

By way of background, I received correspondence from PlusNet in June 2021 advising that my service would be cancelled following a request to change to TalkTalk. Simultaneously, I received correspondence from TalkTalk welcoming me to their service.

However, I had not approached TalkTalk to change service provider. I have never had any intention of cancelling my PlusNet service. After much investigation it transpired that a new neighbour had incorrectly provided our address to TalkTalk upon registering for their services. As a result of this, they requested to transfer the service at my home from PlusNet to TalkTalk.

Having spoken to my neighbour she confirmed that she had updated her address with TalkTalk to the correct one. Similarly, I contacted PlusNet on several occasions to confirm that no transfer of service should take place. I was assured numerous times that the request from TalkTalk had been cancelled and that my broadband services and line rental would remain with PlusNet.

Despite this, I have now been charged a cancellation fee for “leaving” PlusNet. After speaking with someone at PlusNet I was advised that this charge would be removed given that I had not cancelled the service and that the error had arisen through no fault of my own. This was frustrating however I was happy to have the matter resolved.

Through dealing with this issue however, I was made aware that my line rental was no longer with PlusNet. Although I had explicitly advised on several occasions that this service should not change, it appears that the transfer of my line rental to TalkTalk has taken place without my permission anyway.

Following further conversations with several individuals at PlusNet, I have required to set up a new account to regain both my line rental and broadband access. This has now been done. As a result of this, I have been left with two accounts. I was advised that given the issues, I would not be charged for this month as a gesture of goodwill.

You can therefore imagine my frustration when my broadband service was suspended tonight due to an unpaid bill. This has now been paid, despite the supposed gesture of goodwill I was supposed to have received.

I have been required to contact PlusNet on several occasions and been passed from pillar to post. I have been given contradictory advice and reassured on several occasions that issues were rectified when they were not. As a result of this, I am now extremely concerned that I will be subjected to a further charge this month in addition to a cancellation fee which has apparently been erased. I simply feel that I cannot trust any advice which has been provided to me by telephone to date.

As such, I would be grateful if someone could please confirm in writing the following:

1. Will any further charges be taken from my account this month?

2. Will a cancellation charge be taken from my account?

3. Will I receive any gesture of goodwill for the extreme inconvenience I have now been subjected to?

4. Will charges be made to both accounts or can the original account now be deleted without any further charges being made?

Additionally, it would be helpful to know how it is possible for a complete stranger to have attempted to change my service and caused this level of inconvenience with very little assistance having been provided from PlusNet to rectify this issue. It would be reassuring to know that going forward PlusNet have a more efficient and satisfactory procedure to deal with such matters going forward to prevent other customers from being put through the same stressful process I have been.

I look forward to a response as a matter of urgency, failing which a further formal complaint will be submitted and escalated.

[#2]

Moderator's note(s):

Thread moved from ADSL Broadband to My Account/Billing.

[#3]

Thanks for your post @mchardy1987 and welcome to our Community Forums.

I'm really sorry to see another provider took over your line despite our efforts to cancel the request. 

I've looked through this for you and I can see we've waived the cancellation charge and setup a new account with the first month free. I've just put a cancellation request on your old account now, so it'll be cancelled within the next 24 hours and no further charges will generate on that account. 

With regards to how this had happened in the first instance, unfortunately as you've said one of your neighbours appears to have given their provider your address instead of theirs, which meant that the provider tried to takeover your service we notified you about by email and then attempted to cancel.

For one reason or another, the cancellation request didn't go through the supplier systems to the other provider, so their order ultimately completed, switching your home phone off with us, and automatically triggered cancellation fees we waived as we'd then created a new account. 

I've added a reply onto the support ticket Here with what we've offered as a goodwill gesture.

Really sorry again for the inconvenience caused. Let me know by replying to that ticket I've linked above, if you're happy with this as a resolution to your complaint or if you have further thoughts.