talktalk contract cooling off period

Would somebody confirm or otherwise that when you renew your contract by phone you are sent out a letter stating what you have agreed to. eg: contract length, number of months free rental and months at half price talk plan etc, and that you have 7 days from receipt of this letter under the distance selling regulations to phone back Retentions and change your mind and revert to a rolling contract.

This is what I was told when I renegotiated my contract, but I am dubious about the veracity of this due to the way I was deceived and lied to, so maybe they were lying about this as well!

In reply to a post by pappyon:

Would somebody confirm or otherwise that when you renew your contract by phone you are sent out a letter stating what you have agreed to. eg: contract length, number of months free rental and months at half price talk plan etc, and that you have 7 days from receipt of this letter under the distance selling regulations to phone back Retentions and change your mind and revert to a rolling contract.

This is what I was told when I renegotiated my contract, but I am dubious about the veracity of this due to the way I was deceived and lied to, so maybe they were lying about this as well!

In my experience they never put things in writing. My deal as agreed to was honoured though. The best way to deal with Retentions is to tell them that you are recording the conversation, whether you are or not. In any case they are supposed to keep recordings as well.

I thank your for your reply to my post etee. You have helped me on several occasions on the talktalk forums!

No letter yet, but since I made the above post I have received a router that they never told me I was getting, and definitely did not ask for.

If I don't get a letter is there any way I can find out?, because if they have put me on an 18 month contract they can stuff it. I definitely told them that I would not accept an 18 month contract under any circumstances!

I suggest you take careful note of the time and date of your call(s) and the details you agreed. You could then post them to TT's registered office, keeping a copy. Talking to TT is a waste of time. Their salesdroids will tell you anything if they think they can sign you up. TT has thousands of angry ex-customers who will vouch for this.

The only mail I had from them was following an Oftel complaint. Before you get to this stage you must go through the ISP complaints procedure which seems to take 8/10 weeks. My point is that it's no use trying to remember all this in a year's time. Accurate records are the only way to nail 'em.

Not 100% but for an existing service customer, how the distance selling regulations apply may be different, i.e. less stringent

I thank everybody who responded to my post.

I received an automated phone call from talktalk customer services 08704441820 last night at 7pm thanking me for renewing my contract and saying I will receive wiritten confirmation in two or three days. so presumably they are keeping to their word about the 7 day cooling off period, because when I accepted the contract initially I was told that I would be able to cancel when I received the letter if I wish to do so.

Maybe they are making things like arranging contracts more transparent and honest because of the recent adverse publicity they received when they were fined a large sum of money by the regulator!

I hope I don't have to eat those words!!

Edited by deleted (Thu 06-Oct-11 10:08:17)

If you post a request on the Talktalk forums Customer Service - someone will check your contratc details for you.