Talk Talk charged me which was odd given
Pensioner Joseph Innes has no computer or home broadband and doesn’t use a mobile phone.
Therefore, the former shipyard worker was shocked when he discovered he had been paying Talktalk for home media services for 18 months.
“I only have a landline at my house and I have been with Virgin for many years,” said Joseph, 80, from Glasgow.
“I only found out by chance in
January that I had paid more than
£500 to Talktalk and I had ongoing monthly direct debits with them.
“I couldn’t get
my head around this because as far as I’m concerned I have never been a customer of Talktalk in my life.”
Joseph noticed Talktalk was taking the monthly instalments from his bank account and in January he managed to get these stopped.
But then he began receiving phone calls from the company to say he was behind with his payments.
“I also started getting letters from Talktalk that said I was in arrears and mentioned debt collection agencies, so I was very worried,” said the pensioner.
When he called Talktalk to complain, he said the company insisted he was one of its customers.
“They said I had opened an account with them over the phone two years ago,” said Joseph.
“I don’t understand where they got this from because I have never been with that company and I have no idea how they got my banking details.”
Joseph’s bank confirmed that he had been paying monthly direct debits of £27-£31 to Talktalk since June 2017.
“I wrote to Talktalk asking for my money back but was told that if I didn’t keep paying then I could be blacklisted for credit.
“I was also told I still owed them more than £200 because I had cancelled my direct debit.
“I kept insisting I am not and never have been a Talktalk customer but no one seemed to want to listen.”
At the end of his tether, Joseph wrote to Raw Deal. We contacted Talktalk on his behalf and asked the company to investigate.