Tranferred Phone to PN - Being Threatened by TalkTalk

[#1]

I have been a customer of PN for must be about 14 years, and seen them start off in a bad way and to get where they are now.  A few years ago I recommended my daughter to use PN, first as a dial up and then as a broadband customer. Until towards the end of last year she was with TT (TalkTalk) for her phone, but disatisfied with them and was going to transfer back to BT. (She had been with TT for 18 months.)  I persuaded her to talk to PN and she did transfer the phone to PN, which the actual change over ocurred in the first few days of December 2009.  PM had told her that they would handle all the change over and that she would not need to contact TT. (This is also exactly what is stated on Ofcoms website.) When TT received the notification they contacted my daughter by phone and in writing asking her to reconsider which she declined.
Following this she started receiving bills for non payment for the months following the transfer . (She cancelled her standing order/direct debit.)  Anyway she has contacted them on several occasions, and customer services agree that she owes nothing and will get it changed, but never do.  Proof of the transfer in the way of  copies of e-mails from PN and the first online payment bill have been provided  to TT, but they appear to ignore this.  I have been in contact with TT myself and they are most unhelpful, very beligerent, even though they habe not been able to prove that that my daughter is a customer of theres, or actually owes this money.  They have put two different collection agencies onto her and have become very threatening even though she has stated that she doesn't owe this and to take her to court. The first one got their solicitor to come after her but backed off when I wrote to them with details and stating that my daughter was willing to go to court and submit a counter claim.
Now here is the worrying part on PN's part..  She phoned PN asking them for as much information to be sent to her regarding when the transfer happened, the dates that it happened on, the documentation that was sent to BT to arrange this, etc. Though some data has been sent to her by PN she was also told that it was her responsibility to notify TT that the phone had been transferred to PN.  First of all this is totally incorrect, contradicts what she was told in her initial discussions with PN,  and secondly how can she notify TT as she doesn't know the date until PN advise her that it has been transferred.    As has been pointed out to TT when they took over the phone from PN they handled everything and she didn't need to talk to BT, and the same should have happened here.

[#2]

when my phone was taken over from BT by PN, I didnt have to do anything, I even got the rebate bill from BT within a month

[#3]

I'm sorry to hear of the problems you're having. We're seeing a number of instances of losing providers for both phone and broadband insisting on receiving documentation in greater detail to 'prove' that the transfer has taken place, when they should be able to check their own provisioning systems to confirm this (as we do).
Whilst we handle all aspects of the transfer of your service, it's up to the losing provider to close your accounts - we have no authority to do this on your behalf. If TalkTalk haven't bothered to check their provisioning systems or insist on some other form of account cancellation then I can only recommend that you take legal advice as TalkTalk appear to be willing to go down that route.

[#4]

On Thinkbroadband forums there are numerous instances of TalkTalk putting in the debt collectors to chase money supposedly owed to Tiscali, Pipex etc.
There's a good case for customer services to tell people moving to Plusnet that the one thing PN can't do is to cancel a persons contract with a previous provider. By all means say that PN will take care of everything else - unfortunately some people assume that using mac automatically closes their account.
Have to say that I agree with pierre_pierre and that BT handled phone move well right down to cancelling DD.

[#5]

I am not sure if this helps people
but I moved to plusnet myself this month , that is July from pipex internet
but  I did contact pipex (an independant company owned by talktalk) by telephone and cancelled the line rental and broadband
this was cancelled on the last day of May
I've recieved what looks like a final bill to be payed at the end of this month(July) from pipex(talktalk)
the bill asks for payment  for a line rental termination charge  of   £30 inc VAT dated on the day of my phone cancellation of services
I will pay this bill ( useful as evidence of final payment)then cancel my DD with my bank for this account as soon as the bank notifies me this payment is taken

[#6]

The interesting thing is that PN told her that she did not have to contact TT,  If you search the web you will find that this is the procedure.  I know that PN cannot cancel a contract between third parties, but if the contract is transferred away under the normal procedure then it is cancelled.  As TT contacted her and asked her not to transfer away then they are accepting that the contract is being cancelled.  They didn't say that she couldn't, but asked her not to.  If this was not the case they would have said that she needs to put it in writing, or a telephone call to a particular department to cancel it, but they didn't.  These questions were all subsequently  poised to TT, including asking them to refer this to the ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) scheme which they ignored.  They have been told continuously that the contract is terminated and phone provision was been transferred to PN, but have ignored that.  They could have said  sorry, it wasn't on our records, if you pay the one month over run then we will call it settled, but they just add to it on a monthly basis.
My daughter is a mother of three kids aged between 6 and 12, whose husband died five years ago so she is feels really under pressure, but is adamant, and I agree, that she will not pay for something she is not liable for .  I know a fair bit about English contract and commercial law, and really want it going to court so that she can put in a counter claim at TT's expense.
Incidentally I am heavily involved in IT for a large installations of computers, servers, and IPT (VoIP), and we often get called in to individual users for advise and also hear and for years TT/Carphone Wharehouse was the company that you heard nothing good about, (though the other one must be 3 for mobiles).  Unfortunately my daughter transferred to TT  several years ago before I had the chance to intervene. 

[#7]

I have now flagged this to our Sales and Support Teams.