TalkTalk Business adding 'paper bill fee'

So I've just had a TalkTalk Business 150/30 service installed. The product is fine for the price - I'm a little surprised that the latency is almost the same as the FTTC circuit it replaces (5.5ms to 1.1.1.1, 4.5ms to bbc.co.uk - Zone 3 London and Plusnet FTTC was around the same, perhaps 0.3ms slower), but I'm mostly concerned by their billing practices.

I have just received the first invoice which contained a £4 paper bill fee. I've checked all the fine print of the contract documents and there's no mention of this at all, and the invoice was sent to me by e-mail.

As someone else on these fora had the same experience I wonder if this is something they do in the hope that some customers won't question it? Are there any others with similar experiences?

It was me. Sorry welcome to the paper billing “tax”. It’s sorted then OK for months, then reappears from no where. It’s very annoying.

Disappointing, as otherwise I'd recommend the service.

I'm assured the £4 will be credited back and no further charges generated...

IIRC my first month (or two) the paper billing was FOC, I then had to ask for the paper bill to be cancelled to stop any charges, this was all in the t&c's I signed up for.

In reply to a post by ft247:

Disappointing, as otherwise I'd recommend the service.

I'm assured the £4 will be credited back and no further charges generated...

When it comes to recommendations, I would never recommend TalkTalk Business, Whilst the FTTP has been good, the copper phone line has played up and they have refused to admit any problems despite at one stage being hardly able to speak to them due to crackling on the line, now I am not getting a straight answer about how my price went up in June but have since got email telling me it will increase on 1st Aug. Also last year my phone was cut off with them saying I had no contract, this was after several months of payments, and then refusing compensation as it's not covered by consumer protection.

In reply to a post by ft247:

Disappointing, as otherwise I'd recommend the service.

I'm assured the £4 will be credited back and no further charges generated...

Yes - all credited in due course. it’s just needless faffing. Waste of my time and theirs. I’ve been assured it’s sorted on several occasions - then it reoccurs out of the blue several months later. Disappointing and frustrating.

The actual FTTP service / backhaul / performance etc. is totally fine.

There’s been two step change in price recently:

1. For broadband only +£2.50 + VAT pcm announced on 25 March, effective from 1 May 2022

2. For broadband only +£2.50 + VAT pcm announced on 27 June, effective from 1 August 2022

Both notified via email from Mark Sellers. Both give the opportunity to leave contract without penalty. Quote below from first announcement :

Should you wish to leave us, you can do so before 1st May 2022 without paying any early termination charges. If you wish to do so, please contact us on 03330 604 781 between 9am and 6pm Monday - Friday. If we don’t hear from you, the new monthly price as mentioned above will be applied as of 1st May 2022.

Same text with second announcement. So there’s still opportunity to exit stage left without penalty before 1 August.

Edit: for clarity the same rental uplift applies also to Broadband + Voice and also Voice only packages with TTB

Edited by Pheasant (Mon 11-Jul-22 14:44:51)

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

There’s been two step change in price recently:

1. For broadband only +£2.50 + VAT pcm announced on 25 March, effective from 1 May 2022

2. For broadband only +£2.50 + VAT pcm announced on 27 June, effective from 1 August 2022

Both notified via email from Mark Sellers. Both give the opportunity to leave contract without penalty. Quote below from first announcement :

Should you wish to leave us, you can do so before 1st May 2022 without paying any early termination charges. If you wish to do so, please contact us on 03330 604 781 between 9am and 6pm Monday - Friday. If we don’t hear from you, the new monthly price as mentioned above will be applied as of 1st May 2022.

Same text with second announcement. So there’s still opportunity to exit stage left without penalty before 1 August.

Edit: for clarity the same rental uplift applies also to Broadband + Voice and also Voice only packages with TTB

I couldn't get a date out of them for the first email, just checked and nothing from them around that date (including junk folder).
Does this mean both prices rises will be made? As today they told me that as I was already paying the first price rise then the second wouldn't be added, I wasn't convinced.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

The actual FTTP service / backhaul / performance etc. is totally fine.

I agree. It's only a 150/30 as a backup, but it is delivering as advertised.

There's a really odd sawtooth phenomenon on the baseline of the TBB BQM - it doesn't seem to create any issues, but I'm intrigued as to what causes it. It shows latency reducing over a period of 3 hours, then jumping back up to the original value. The difference is only a few milliseconds. Plot linked below.

BQM snapshot

In reply to a post by burble:

IIRC my first month (or two) the paper billing was FOC, I then had to ask for the paper bill to be cancelled to stop any charges, this was all in the t&c's I signed up for.

This was what the person on the phone thought should be the deal - i.e. free in the first month, then you have to ask for it to stop. When I pointed out I'd had the service four days when this bill arrived (by e-mail, no less!) he said he couldn't even see any bills on my account. A call to a colleague had him promising a credit note and no further charges.