TalkTalk keeps cutting off my elderly parents’ phone | Money

My 84-year-old parents, who have significant disabilities, had their conferenceLandline telephone calls were cut off without notice in August.

We ultimately had to sign a new contract to restore service and were assured that they would keep their phone number for 60 years.

A week before the installation, my father was informed that the new contract had been canceled and that he would have to enter into another, more expensive one.

TalkTalk then claimed that because that contract was canceled, they would lose their number for life.

MH, Birmingham

You wrote to me at the end of September, when your parents had been without a landline for a month. Your mother, you said, was upset because she couldn’t call her 91-year-old sister every day.

TalkTalk told me the problems started in August 2024, when your father requested an upgrade to a fiber-only data plan, which doesn’t include a landline. Your father, who has Parkinson’s disease, has no memory of asking for an upgrade, and TalkTalk admitted that the loss of a landline may not have been made clear enough.

Due to a “technical error”, landline telephone service was only interrupted in August, 12 months late. TalkTalk, energized by the media attention, managed to restore the landline with a new number three days after my contact. He promised to get the original number back and offered £100 as an apology. It was early October.

Instead, three weeks later, the line was cut again. A customer service agent said your parents should cancel the last contract – which includes both landline and internet – and sign up for another one. It turned out that this would destroy any chance of getting their old number back.

Returning, I went to TalkTalk, which discovered that it had, for unknown reasons, requested the newly restored line to be disconnected. Once again she reconnected the line and increased her goodwill offer to £150.

It was already early November. Within three days, the line was cut off and your parents were informed that they had exceeded their credit limit. They have no credit limit.

During this time you discovered they had been charged £75 for calls during the weeks they were without a landline. This time, TalkTalk blamed the error on their previous mistakes, the sum total of which had confused everyone and your parents once again interrupted their conversation.

TalkTalk restored the line and number again and increased their contrition to £200. And so far, it’s working. “We understand how crucial a landline telephone service can be and are disappointed that our usual processes were not followed,” a spokesperson said.

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