Tesco broadband charges screwup, now they are contacting upto 10,000 customers.

[Dobbie]

Hi all !

Yes, Tesco is apparently trying to contact upto 10,000 of their broadband customers because a system they use to debit broadband service charges has slightly screwed up.

I'm not sure whether this affects people with diect debit accounts, but anybody who pays via a debit card or credit card maybe affected.

At some point you may get a call from someone following this up initially. I say initially because this person apparently is not part of their customer services department directly and so can't help you, but they will give you a number for that department.

The number given to you will be 0845 650 8000 which is the Tesco customer help line charged at 4p/minute unlike their tech line at 50p/min.

This person will explain that they have not received payment for the service for X amount of time. This can be upto two and a half years ago ! Yes, nearly 30 months that they haven't received payment from you !

Ok, I thought a scam at first until I decided to look into it and sure enough, Tesco has not taken a single payment from me for at least a year according to my bank records.

Now, apparently they haven't "collected" payment for this service since 8-11-2005 from me. I have also checked my emails and I can confirm that they were still sending me an email regarding "payment will be debited", up until 07-12-2005.

Before that time I received an email stating that the card was about to expire and that I should update my card details. This email was sent on 7-10-2005 which I did once my new card details arrived and became active.

During this time I decided to upgrade to the 1Mb link, this was confirmed on the 16-12-2005 as accepted and switched.

At this time I had had no email or snail mail to say that they were having a problem with payment.

I received a further email on the 19-04-2006 stating that they had changed their call centre hours but since then, very little other than confrmation of payments on line for purchaises made from Tesco generally.

Now they want payment for the broadband service which apparently they forgot to get for two and a half years ?

I have not recieved a single notification from Tesco form either email, or via Royal Mail regarding this or any other problem with the account until today. Nothing. (Guy on the phone today confirmed this that he couldn't see anything on his records to say different)

I've started this post so others can comment who are in a similar position and to ask if anybody knows whether Tesco has a legal cliam to these costs back after 2.5years since it is apparently their screwup. (This the Guy admitted over the phone. Tesco are apparently changing the system of payment and it is now they find the errors of the old one !)

I'm a person who always pays the bills even if I struggle, but I can't afford £500 right now so I am dreading ringing customer services only to find they want the whole lot back in one go.

Where do I stand on this ?

If I don't reply to any comments you'll know that Tesco have cut me off !

Every little helps !!!!!

Thanks in advance.

[everton66]

I'd have thought you will still be liable for the charges but would imagine they would work out a suitable payment arranangement with you so you don't have to pay it all in one go. I would also point out the potential bad press they will receive on this if it is as widespread as you say and insist on a reduction in the amount you owe due to the inconvenience and worry this has caused, not to mention the fact that they have a duty of care to inform you in a timely manner if there is a payment problem.

Seems strange. Somebody at Tesco must have realised they were not getting any money through the door. If this is widespread they would have noticed a shortfall of hundreds of thousands of pounds each month, and the affected accounts would go into arrears triggering a spike in their delinquent receivables and therefore kick starting the delinquent account process.

Also make sure they havent added any overdue charges to your account.

[Worldlife]

There is some good advice in Limitation Act and Unsecured Debts

As a customer I would contact Tesco and ask them what arrangement they have in mind for stage payments should you be in a position to agree the alleged debt. Seek confirmation that they will not engage debt collectors but follow proper legal procedures to establish the amount of debt and repayment times.

If you are satisfied with the Tesco service and wish the back payments to be added to your account I guess it will be important to get some undertakings here (e.g the price will not go up and the service will be maintained or improved)

As a Tesco shareholder I will keep an eye on this thread and feel confident that Tesco will endeavour to deal with this management failure so as to be fair to their customers.

If this does not prove to be the case I will be prepared to drop a line to Investor Relations.



Hope some goodwill offers will be on the table here to resolve things and ensure customer loyalty.


PS (Edit) have decided to send this reply to Investor Information to arrange for comment with the reservation I cannot trace article showing 10.000 affected

[Dobbie]

Wow, thanks to both of you for the replies so quickly !

Yes, it is a bit of a strange one isn't it.

I can only conclude at the moment that Tesco is so big that a few thousand customers that haven't had payment for broadband services deducted for maybe 30 months is a drop in the ocean to them, until now. My concern is that given this deduction, do they actually understand what 30 months of back payment might mean to someone who is not loaded !

I guess this will test the "every little helps" logo.

I have decided to contact Tesco Customer services and given your advise and support above, will indeed see what they intend to do regarding rectifing this problem and what terms they are willing to offer.

The information given at the top of this thread is exactly what I was told over the phone regarding around 10,000 customers involved, I have myself before starting this thread searched the tinternet for information on this and didn't find anything either hence the reason why I needed some advice on this.

I suspect if the information is correct as told to me, it won't look good for Tesco so they won't have anything about it posted generally.

Speaking to the guy who phoned me, I didn't get the impression that he was having much successs in contacting the list he had been given. I suspect he got lucky getting hold of me because he then can put on the old puter that he had made contact and given out the information required. Therefore meaning that I have now been informed so I have no excuse not to contact whoever to sort things out.

I suspect that the few, like me who are honest will get to pay this back, but the many who they can't contact, or who choose to not answer will get away with this since these guys do not leave a msg on the answer phone, they need to speak to the person directly, which of course will be recorded on this occasion just to prove legally so if it comes to court time, they have done their bit !

Anyway, thanks again for your inputs above, I will be following this up in the very near future along with your advice.

Worldlife, you won't right now find any artical on this, I couldn't either, hence why I posted the problem here. I think this is very recent, and that they haven't had much success so far in contacting people. I'll be intersted in what you find out as a share holder on this !

I'll update as I find out more.

Thanks.

Stu.

[silver]

Ofcom rules dictate that billing must be timely and they generally put limits on the time past which you can be charged,,

I can't now find the document on the ofcom site but I would try calling them, http://www.ofcom.org.uk/complain/internet/isp/other/

the phrase to search their site with is 'timely billing' but I couldn't find the exact doc..

PS, different company but same principles apply, http://www.the-scream.co.uk/forums/t13157.html?

[Worldlife]

Sorry for the delay here but I confirm that in response to my enquiry a Tesco Investor Relations Executive arranged for a full investigation of this situation through their Telecoms Customer Service Manager and I received a copy of that report this evening.

There are indeed a substantial number of customers affected by problems arising from failures to renew expired credit/debit cards and, fortunately, most of these are for smaller amounts of debt than that incurred by Dobbie.

As I anticipated there was a policy in force to try and resolve matters fairly and with understanding. I am also pleased to learn their will be changes in the system to prevent this happening again.

With regard to Dobbie's particular case I am advised:-

In the attached case there are two main points of failure:-
The first being, why the customer's new credit card details were not put onto the system? This we cannot review without the customer's name and account details.
The second, why our agent did not discuss payment plans etc. with the customer?

The agents have been issued with clear guidelines and escalation processes, and I'm concerned in this case we have failed to offer the customer an agreeable solution.
In light of this, we will reiterate the guidelines with our agents.

Dobbie - If you have not yet resolved things satisfactorily please IM me in confidence with your name and account details and I will forward them to my contact at Investor Relations

[Dobbie]

Hi all,

I am delighted to confirm that the situation above has now been resolved thanks in no small part to Vic, (Worldlife).

My own personal quest in trying to resolve this and actually being able to talk to someone to discuss a compromise and repayment plan fell well short of a resolve in anyway and actually had the effect of two letters from a person at Tesco Internet Access first basically stating you owe us money, pay up now or loose the service and a second letter a few days later in reply to my letter in response to their first letter stating that the service was now suspended and may incur a reconnection fee of £50.

How this was actually resolved was by other means !

They say it’s not what you know, but who you know. Too true !

Vic, as promised did get in contact with investor relations and as posted by him above they did investigate the situation. With further contact between myself and Vic, off air as it were, I ended up being contacted directly by someone at Tesco internet services who was not only very apologetic over the whole situation but was perfectly agreeable to a compromise over the initial amount of arrears, and a flexible re-payment plan to suit both parties.

This was all sorted out within a few days.

It’s obvious here which way was the most productive in a conclusion and given that most people do not have the access Vic has then the only route is through customer services for all which is frustrating to say the least, but I believe that Tesco has since addressed this and anybody contacting customer services for similar reasons should now find a much more streamlined and compassionate response.

It just leaves me to say how much I appreciate the time and effort put in by Vic on my behalf and that without his help, I don’t think I would have ended up with anything like the conclusion I now have.

Thank you for everything, you are a True Gentleman Sir !

[Worldlife]

Thanks Dobbie for posting the final outcome here and I am glad all has been resolved to your satisfaction.

Hopefully, as Tesco have reviewed their procedures, there will be no similar complaints on this thread.

Shareholders have a responsibility to ensure the companies in which they have invested are run fairly and properly.

There are procedures in place where shareholders can raise issues with Directors or as a last resort bring them up at a meeting of the Company.

Now Dobbie has upgraded me to a "gentleman" must I open the doors for ladies, stand up when greeting them, walk on the correct side of the pavement or give them my seat on the public transport. Will this be good for street cred or regarded as patronising?

[Dobbie]

Being named as a gentleman is one thing as described as someone with upstanding values for example, but opening doors for ladies, standing up for them when greeting and giving up your seat for them is a whole new debate these days, I agree.

I'm sorry if you feel that my reply has offended you. In my eyes, someone who has gone out of their way to help someone else is a true gentleman, not many around these days. I'm one, I still do open doors for just about anybody, I must admit I don't get up when ladies enter the room, but still do give up my seat to a lady when in that situation.

I don't understand why you are asking whether this is good street cred or patronising ?

I sent you the draft before I posted it ?

What do you want me to say?

Cool dude, nice move ?

Well, if you want a vote on this, I'd have to say regardless of street cred: just a simple thanks then, for all your help.

I retract my previous statement regarding being either a true gentleman or a sir.

But I still appreciate your help.

If you didn't like the "True Gentleman Sir" bit, you should have said.

Later Dude !

[silver]

I think vic just has a warped sense of humour that doesn't travel well in text

glad you got it sorted, sometimes you need to get past the phone jockeys to sort out issues,. timely billing is part of ofoms codes of practice and in similar situations (if Vic cannot help!) I would raise the matter with ofcom and seek resolution that way,. I had a 'timely billing' issue with tiscali and my 500 quid outstanding bill was reduced to 75 quid - speak to ofcom

[Dobbie]

Hi Silver,

Thanks for your reply, ok maybe I did go abit over board in my reply to Vics last paragraph above ! I'll put it down to a warped sense of humour !

I did get in touch with Ofcom and although they were interested generally about the problem, and noted it, they couldn't help me specificly, they refered me to the CAB which I also rang but again although they were interested in being notified, could also not help me other than to suggest write to Tesco and see if I could resolve the problem that way ?

Not sure why Ofcom could help you more in your case than mine, but neverthe less, has now been resolved thanks to Vic.

[Jassers]

Ditto!!
A difficult and threatenign woman rang me on Thursday and told me I had to repay £500!! Their fault but as I said I could not pay that much she immediately said as I was refusing to pay it would go straight to debt collection which would have serious consequences for me. What a threat!!
I had not received their supposed email in May 2006 - yes 2006_ about card renewal and yet when I emailed them in August they did not tell me about non payment.
It is 2.1/2 years I owe. I have no idea how I am supposed to check their figures without waiting for years of bank statements to be sent, and she told me they had no means of writing to me with an explanation of my debt.
I had a letter this morning without any explanation of debt and saying I would have to pay £50 for reconection if disconnected.
A nice male said on Friday I could pay over 12 months and would take a percentage off the bill.
What is happening to others?
Has the wonderful Martyn Lewis of the website moneysaver been told yet?!!

[silver]

ofcom should be able to help,. it's not a matter for the CAB,. ofcom codes of practice state billing must be timely.. did you call them?

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/complain/internet/isp/other/

my understanding (not a lawyer and I could be wrong) is that essentially they (ISP) should not / are not allowed to bill past 12 months of arrears if they have not notified you already.,.

you need to find the ofcom codes of practice that explicitly mentions 'timely billing' (phone ofcom they should know the rules and where they are) and then write a letter to your ISP + also raise a complaint with ISPA http://www.ispa.org.uk/cgi-bin/complaints.cgi quoting 'timely billing' issue

the codes of practice are there to stop companies from being lazy on notification of billing issues and then just slapping a large charge and expecting you to cough up.,. it is explicly not allowed