In which case it’s definitely legal since the losing CP by law must tell the customer of the proposed switch.

Post deleted by RobertoS

In reply to a post by Airlane:

Through a money saving site's offer, I signed up with Shell Energy Broadband 38Mbps at £24.95/month less £120 credit after three months on a 12-month contract, meaning £15 a month for a year.

Just remember that there is no guarantee of that £120. While in most cases it does come through. Never bank on it.

That's good advice. I think I'll cancel my sign-up to Shell and revert to TalkTalk.

In reply to a post by JohnR:

Just remember that there is no guarantee of that £120. While in most cases it does come through. Never bank on it.

It should be okay, it's a bill credit of £120 from Shell Energy themselves, not third party cashback.

In reply to a post by Highland76:

In reply to a post by j0hn83:

24.18 Where the Losing Communications Provider communicates with the Customer in
order to comply with this General Condition, it must not make any marketing
statements or representations in the communication which may induce the Customer
to terminate their contract with the Gaining Communications Provider and/or remain
in a contract with the Losing Communications Provider.

That is probably referring to general marketng content (ie not a customer specific offer) and/or getting in touch with the customer outside the 14 days cooling off period. Also TalkTalk aren't unique in doing this: i remember Post Office and yay.com both offering me very tempting deals to stay with them almost immediately after starting a phone service switch. I'm pretty sure OFCOM would have clamped down on this if it was deemed as nefarious or illegal.

This came out a while back, to stop people getting phone calls from their old supplier, be it gas, electric or broadband. The government reason was to stop people being forced to stay with their old supplier.

i kind of understand why it was done, not sure if it was the best idea.

Brother is with shell, it is ok, he got it from carphone warehouse, one of their hard sales push. The router is not great, it is pretty large. When his 18 months is up if he wants to change I will stick him on plusnet,

but as people have said sometimes better the devil you know, this is why I stuck with plusnet, took ages to decide when my contract ran out.
If Talk Talk is doing the job for you, then stay with them.

Thanks for the advice. I've decided to stay with Talk Talk. One of the problems with our privatised market-based system of utilities is exemplified in the process we go through to get the supposedly best price, and I've done this twice now with TT:

- contract nears its end, provider contacts customer, offers higher-priced renewal
- customer obtains lower price from another provider, calls existing provider who refuses to reduce price
- customer calls other provider, signs up
- existing provider sees a customer about to leave, writes a letter - on paper! - to the customer, offers a lower price
- customer calls existing provider, accepts lower offer
- customer calls other provider, cancels sign-up

This absurd, time-wasting process is a prime example of how the market is less efficient and customer-friendly than socialism. The media mocked Jeremy Corbyn for offering a publicly-funded broadband system which would eliminate the need for us to go through the above rigmarole ever again. I voted Labour for the first and probably only time last December.

In reply to a post by Airlane:

Thanks for the advice. I've decided to stay with Talk Talk. One of the problems with our privatised market-based system of utilities is exemplified in the process we go through to get the supposedly best price, and I've done this twice now with TT:

- contract nears its end, provider contacts customer, offers higher-priced renewal
- customer obtains lower price from another provider, calls existing provider who refuses to reduce price
- customer calls other provider, signs up
- existing provider sees a customer about to leave, writes a letter - on paper! - to the customer, offers a lower price
- customer calls existing provider, accepts lower offer
- customer calls other provider, cancels sign-up

This absurd, time-wasting process is a prime example of how the market is less efficient and customer-friendly than socialism. The media mocked Jeremy Corbyn for offering a publicly-funded broadband system which would eliminate the need for us to go through the above rigmarole ever again. I voted Labour for the first and probably only time last December.

Why are you making this political? You talk about a rigarole, but that rigmarole as you put it has given you a cheaper price than you would have got, so it actually worked.

If you wanted a state run telecommunications company to be state run then you would be paying the first price +50%-100% more for the massive inefficency and drag brought in. I am sure some of the older people on here will be able to give you examples of how successfull the GPO where at being customer friendly and eficent. Months to install a phone, that you had to rent from them, you couldn't use your own.

In reply to a post by gary333:

I am sure some of the older people on here will be able to give you examples of how successfull the GPO where at being customer friendly and eficent. Months to install a phone, that you had to rent from them, you couldn't use your own.

Or you could live in America where there is only one choice in a town, the local cable company. There is no choice. (DSL services are much slower than the UK due to distance). The UK is quite good when you compare with other countries, because of the regulation of Openreach.

We are starting to end up like the US in areas where there is only one fibre provider, e.g. the Vodafone/Cityfibre partnership, as we have with VirginMedia cable, there is only one ISP to choose from the infrastructure.