Talk Talk And Tiscali Forced To Pay Customers £2.5m By Ofcom
Talk Talk and Tiscali telecoms companies have refunded customers around £2.5 million after they were charged for cancelled services.
Ofcom received a huge number of complaints from people saying they had been billed for services that had been cancelled. Consequently Talk Talk and Tiscali have been forced to refund customers £2.5 million.
Ofcom said that over 62,000 customers may have been affected. Customers complained they received aggressive requests to pay outstanding bills even though they did not owe anything.
Utility Exchange reported recently that Talk Talk lost 25,000 customers in the third quarter of last year as a result of this problem. The telecom company blamed this billing error on a new billing system which it brought in after buying Tiscali in 2009.
A spokeswoman for Talk Talk said “We are pleased that Ofcom has recognised the significant steps we have taken to fix the billing issues”.
On average the two telecoms companies have paid out on average £40 to affected customers either as a refund or as compensation.
Ofcom admitted that the two companies had moved to fix the problems but said that if anyone has paid a bill since 1 Jan 2010 which they should not have received, they should be refunded.
However, a problem which arises from this billing error is the fact that unpaid bills can lead to credit problems and credit rating agencies have been told they must sort out and repair credit histories damaged by this incident.
Ofcom says it won’t fine either of the companies at the moment but will continue to monitor the situation.