Talktalk guilty of breaching regulations, says Ofcom

Ofcom has rapped Talktalk and Tiscali UK over the knuckles saying the internet service providers (ISPs) had breached the Communications Regulations 2003.

Ofcom received more than 1,000 complaints this year from customers of the ISPs, who said they had been billed for services they had cancelled or never received.

The telecommunications regulator said that after investigating the complaints, it had found that both Talktalk and Tiscali (now part of the Talktalk group) were guilty of this offence.

It said that this was a clear breach of the Communications Regulations and “unacceptable” behaviour.

Ofcom has sent the ISPs notification and they now have to take steps to remedy the harm they have caused to consumers.

This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring all customers billed for cancelled services since 1 January 2010 have full refunds. The ISPs must also call off the debt collection agencies they have hired.

Any legal proceedings already begun must be stopped. The two companies must also take all necessary steps to repair the credit ratings of customers if these have been damaged.

Talktalk must also establish a specialist team within the Group to which any complaints about bills for services not provided to end users are escalated, on receipt, for resolution.

Talktalk told Computeractive that it was complying with the notification and apologised to customers who had been affected by the problem.

"We identified an issue with the cancellation process for ex-Tiscali customers caused by an error on a legacy billing system.

“We are resolving this by migrating all ex-Tiscali customers onto one network and billing system; which will allow us to process cancellations much more effectively,” it said.

Talktalk has until 2 December to show Ofcom that it is complying with the notification. If Ofcom finds however that Talktalk is still in breach it can fine it up to 10 per cent of turnover.