Removal of services

Just a heads up to advise that TalkTalk are removing some account features.

Namely “Ringback”, Reminder Call” and Speed Dial.

I just renewed my contract for another 18 months on the 5th June, and no mention was made of this.

I use these services regularly and am now looking to move provider.
Talktalk are making this difficult despite me being in my 20 day cooling off period.
They told me because these services are provided free of charge, they are not part of my contract!!! Seriously???
They have told me if I cancel my contract, then all services will cease next month and I will lose my phone number. I told them I don’t want to cancel my service, just the renewal of my contract.
Any advice would be gratefully received.

In reference to community.talktalk.co.uk/t5/Changes/bd-p/selectservices:

We're upgrading the equipment that we use to connect your phone service. Unfortunately, this means that a small number of older call features will no longer be available. From 29th June 2020, we’ll be removing the following:

Reminder call (This is just like an alarm clock, simply set a time and your phone will ring. )
Ring Back (if a lines engaged press 5, When the number becomes available, your phone will ring)
Speed Dial (Assign a telephone number to a number on your phone)

when was your previous contract due to end if you hadn't renewed?

though you do bypass a lot of stuff responsibility-wise by giving stuff away for free, I think the situation is a bit different when you are renewing a contract, as you'd have an expectation of the previous services, irrelevant which proportion of your overall fee goes to each service.
It's like them saying you pay for the first 1mbit of your internet connection and the next 39mbit is free, therefore we don't need to provide 40mbit connection if you renew, we'll give you 1mbit for the same money.

My contract had been due to finish at the end of June.

Thinking out of the box for a solution you could line up another provider to take over your service. Do it quickly and there won't be any penalty charges from TalkTalk.

If the new provider does not have the voice services you desire then it is possible to port the number over to VoIP and have a new exchange line number on your broadband connection.

You will need to purchase a VoIP phone and in all probability something from the Gigaset range would suit your needs.

Suggested providers would be Cloudscape Connect and Voipfone.